Skip to main content

Want to look for something?

Are You Left-Brained or Right-Brained?





I was convinced I was a left-brained person until I started gaining notice of my visual, creative, and intuitive side too

At the age of 8, I discovered my love for writing, and it has been a passion that I have pursued throughout my life. From writing poems and opinion pieces for university magazines to authoring market intelligence and consulting/data reports for Gartner and Mordor Intelligence, my writing skills have always gained notice and has been a valuable asset in my career.

In my late teens, I realized that I also had a knack for Mathematics and Statistics, when I was consistently scoring straight A's in all the disciplines most of my peers would dread. Little did I know back then, that this would help me when I would later go on in my job presenting complex data findings to stakeholders, building models from scratch, or cracking otherwise nerve-racking guesstimate interviews.

In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis hitting the stock markets, I also got fascinated by the business world in general (and the economic factors that shaped them), and by the functionality of the share market in particular. Imagine a young teenager wondering about all this lol. However, this curiosity led me to pursue a bachelor's in Economics and a master's in Business Economics and Finance as well. When I was studying at the University of Delhi, I gained a deeper understanding of personal finance and later started investing in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, options/futures, and ETFs that would yield me long-term returns. Moreover, I earned a certification that would allow me to be an expert in the field and help my friends build strong diversified portfolios. 

With the data bend of mind, I was convinced I was a left-brained person until I started noticing my visual, creative, and intuitive side, when at work, my client presentations were repeatedly appreciated for exceeding expectations on analysis of course, but also on visual appeal and clarity. Of course, I would work on making them as intuitively as possible - even sometimes after my work hours - not to please anyone - but because I identified it as an opportunity to channel my inner creativity. I realized that I was perhaps good at designing when I started winning hundreds of dollars in prizes and gigs for taking out just 30 minutes for designing logos, ads, or website banners for companies. I was always working with data so this is when I started furthering data visualization skills through projects on essential BI dashboarding tools such as Tableau, Excel, and Power BI.

One thing led to another, and with data visualization, the next thing that I learnt to work well with was some technology and coding to learn how to fetch and analyze the data. Of course, a plunge into the world of technology tools and methods ignited another interest - technology, business processes, product, and project management.

After circling back to my constant love for business, one thing that I realized is:
  • Change is the only constant
  • In only 5 years into my career and so far, I've been lucky to get the opportunity to work within the Finance function, the Marketing function, the HR function, and even the IT & Data Function of companies, which itself is a rare occurrence. Wearing several hats so far has given me a unique perspective.
  • In the early stages of career (0-5 years at least), cross-functional understanding of business can help realize a person's strength areas.
  • I don't think I will stop learning cross-functionally until I learn all aspects of businesses in-depth, so much so that I feel comfortable even starting a business of my own if I'd want.
Learn, connect, and evolve. 
And as Steve Jobs said, "Stay hungry, stay foolish". 

#business #passion #finance #writing #mathematics #statistics #dataanalysis #consulting #datavisualization #personalfinance #leftbrain #rightbrain #investing #technology #coding #design
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why I Decided To Move Halfway Across The World To Canada

"Can you go halfway around the world, and live in a cold city with freezing winters? Can you leave your friends and family? Wouldn't you be lonely?" -Jumpa Lahiri, The Namesake This is the exact question I asked myself, as I saw my invitation letter from the Government of Canada with the following words: "We are pleased to invite you to apply for permanent residence under the Federal Skilled Workers". This is a highly competitive score-based  immigration system for experienced professionals valued internationally for Canada's  social benefits, healthcare, education, and a high quality of life. I usually never second-guess, but in that moment, the prospect of quitting a well-paying reseach & consulting job in India and the proximity to my people to start life from square one barely held any appeal.  More so, because I love India.  The love, the education, the principles, the family values, the work diligence, the peace-loving outlook, the  experiences, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - In the Context of Workforce Management and Marriages

Abraham Maslow, a psychologist, created the theory of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs to assist business owners in maintaining elevated levels of employee engagement. The theory proposes that there are five essential needs that drive human motivation, arranged in a hierarchical order. Maslow's theory states that people first attend to their basic needs, then progress to higher level needs only once the lower level of needs are met, leading to a sense of fulfillment.  In marketing, the hierarchy is used to market to specific groups of people based on similar needs. However, it can also be applied to other areas - to ascertain employees engagement and arguably, even in marriages! Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs in the Workplace : Many companies use this hierarchy in the workplace to determine how to motivate employees and meet their needs.  1. Physiological needs Survival needs such as coffee, clean water, comfortable working environment, breaks to eat, access to a restro...
Post a Comment
Read more

War and Peace

(Wrote this a long time ago in 2012. Still relevant)  Once in a distant land, two brothers were seen, Like twin nations, but with a boundary of ego in between. When asked to come to peace, they'd say ''He's not my brother'' With fiery swords, one wanted to behead the other. For peace to be, the only choice was to let them stay apart Soon, they demarcated land and constructed huge walls between their hearts. As years rolled by, onlookers waited for love to creep across the walls, Instead, the brothers kept on throwing stones at each other's houses, unaware that their houses were made of glass. Both followed different religions and raised their own flags above sanity, Unaware, that one thing is far above religion - and that's humanity. When onlookers would ask, where the problem in unison lies, They would be dismissed as if they were too innocent to realise. One night, a rampant fire spread            Destroying both their cattle, it brou...
Read more

Contact Form

Name

Email *

Message *