In my younger days, I found inspiration only in a very limited number of things – seeing great technology in action, reading a great book and ofcourse in Founders at Work. I had a hard time appreciating great work in industries or domains that I was not familiar with. What’s more, I really felt no need to look deeper elsewhere. That changed in the last few years as I traveled more and talked to more people from different walks of life. Conversations with people outside technology or startup world helped me see new perspectives on things I had always interacted with before, but never paid much attention to. Things like well cooked meals, an attention to the lights in a restaurant or a bar or just better run airlines and more well designed real life systems. It was amazing to me how much difference attention to details in these things mattered and changed your experience as a consumer. Just like it’s always amazing to watch great programmers code and talk about code, I was amazed watching a great hairdresser in action or an office manager at work.

I still look up to Jack Dorsey or Elon Musk for inspiration but now I also find it around me in people and things that I did not observe closely before. They inspire me to do great work and serve my customers better as much as the role models I have in the startup world.