How To Attract The Job YOU Want & Strive For Your Dream Life w/ Rohit Jethwani

Welcome to episode 52 of the Mindful & Driven podcast! It’s all about how to not lose sight of what really matters whilst chasing your dreams.

Episode 52’s guest is Rohit Jethu. He’s an actor, choreographer, and dancer. He’s currently in Mumbai working on a Bollywood film as an assistant director for Karin Johar. For the non-Indian people out there, that’s a really big deal. 

Rohit’s gone viral many times on Instagram for his dancing. If you watch it yourself, I’m sure you’ll fall in love with his infectious and joyful style. 

After studying in the United States, he moved back to Mumbai, India to chase his dreams of becoming a Bollywood superstar and I’m not going to bet against him.  

I hope you enjoy listening to our conversation! I’d love it if you could subscribe, leave me a review and follow me on social channels.

• You can find all my work and socials here: http://amardeep.co
• Download my free Anti-Burnout Toolkit here: http://antiburnout.mindfuldriven.com
• United for Global Mental Health:  https://unitedgmh.org/mental-health-support
• Follow him on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juniorjethu/?hl=en

Keynotes:

• Introduction (0:00)
• Share your ideas and inspire others (1:31)
• The decision to take the leap (8:35)
• The massive shift and taking risks (12:54)
• Talking about validation and confidence (16:57)
• The next steps  (20:17)
• Taking it step by step (22:57)
• Leveling up and connecting to people (26:19)
• The bigger picture and the human potential (29:25)

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Intro Music:
“Himalayas” by Mona Wonderlick — bit.ly/youtube-monawonderlick
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
Free download: bit.ly/himalayas-download

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Rohit: When you share your idea with people, you actually attract the right people towards you, telling the same story or readapting this concept in their own way. I think that to me is like success. If there’s no competition, people get lazy. People get complacent. You know, there’s a huge gap between what you learn in school versus what you learn in the real world. Once the second video went viral, that’s when I kind of built that confidence that you, you know, that this can be a full time career, and this is something that I could make money from. I believe that human potential is enormous. And sometimes we are limited to what we do by the profession that we choose.

[00:00:34] Amardeep: Welcome to the Mindful and Driven podcast, where we help you to not lose sight of what’s really important whilst chasing your dreams. Today’s guest is Rohit Jethwani, who’s an actor, choreographer, and dancer. He’s currently in Mumbai, working on a Bollywood film as an assistant director for Karan Johar. For the non-Indian people out there, that’s a really big deal. Rohit’s gone viral many times on Instagram for his dancing, and if you watch it yourself, I’m sure you’ll fall in love with his infectious joyful style. After studying in the United States, he moved back to India and moved to Mumbai, so he could chase this dream of becoming a Bollywood superstar. And I’m not going to bet again him. I hope you enjoy listening today.

[00:01:19] Welcome to Mindful and Driven, Rohit. It’s a pleasure to have you here. 

[00:01:21] Rohit: Thank you so much, man. I’m super excited for this podcast. I’m super excited why you started this podcast and I think why you started the podcast really drives me here, so I’m excited to take this forward. 

[00:01:31] Amardeep: Yeah, and you’ve got such an amazing story. I can’t wait to get into the details of it, but let’s start off with what’s some common advice you’ve got along the way to your success, that you really disagree with? 

[00:01:41] Rohit: Well, I think a lot of people have told me in the past that, oh, don’t share your idea, you know, it’s a secret and, you know, sure, you know, I do believe in intellectual property and I do believe in like patents, but what I’ve also noticed in the past is, when you share your idea with people, you actually attract the right people towards you. I remember this one incident when I just came back to India, it was during COVID. It was like one month before, like mass 2021 COVID just blew out of proportion, and that’s when the first lockdown happened in India. I was looking to build a studio, like a proper dance studio where we an create unreal content. And you can also have the best teachers from the community coming in and teaching you one. In one part, my head was, well, I don’t want to share this with anybody because if you, oh, you know, what we were trying to do was different [unintelligible] and no one had done it before. So I believe that it would do very well, but then I also, at the same time, I also struggled with the team, but I’m just like, okay, let me just take a step back. I’m just going to go bazooka and just share my idea with like tens of thousands of people from the community. I don’t care if people copy it. I don’t care if you know, people execute the same thing. For what it’s actually going to do for me is actually attract the right people to me. And in fact, I found like a co-founder I found the right teachers. I found like a studio manager, like within the first week and it wouldn’t have happened otherwise. You know, if I just kept this to myself, because these people are like, oh, you know, I dig the vision. I love what you want to do. Or, you know, I love the, you know, passion towards creating a studio in the city because nothing like what you’re doing exists over here. I’m on board. I want to be part of this vision and create it with you. And I’m like, you know, there you go. That’s my answer. So I do believe that everyone should, I feel like, you know, maybe half the world would be, would be saying, do not share your idea, but I guess I rely on the other half the world where I’m just like, you know, I took this idea idea, because the other people may not execute the way you execute it. Even if they kind of, you know, understand your vision behind it. So go ahead, go share the idea. And I think it will always attract the right people towards you to build your dream forward. 

[00:03:26] Amardeep: I remember I know somebody who’s like in the dance world as well, and they started an online class at the beginning of the pandemic. They thought they were the first person to do it. They got annoyed that other people are copying their idea. It’s like, it’s not your idea to have online classes, but people can get very protective and they think of something and it’s like, well, it’s the entire world, it’s like, if there’s an idea that’s helping people, then isn’t it a good thing if other people do it too? So yeah, let’s say we, with your dance studio, let’s say somebody else in another part of the country or another part of the world decided, let’s do the same thing. That’s good, right? Because then there’s more people who are getting involved in the community and sharing what they love. 

[00:04:07] Rohit: No, a hundred percent, I guess like there was this one more video that we had done and it was through the song, Tera Rang Balle Balle. And it was this bookshop video where it was boys versus girls. You know, typical Sangeet battles where you see like the groom family and the bride family kind of battling at Sangeet performance night. And we took that concept and we brought it to workshop dance, and we saw a lot of other people doing it. So initially a lot of my team members were like, well, they’re copying us, but I guess like that also rubbed off on me a little bit. Well, you know, someone’s copying the idea, but then later I was just like, well, I should be a lot more happy because someone a lot more established than us is actually inspired by our work and actually recreating in their own way, or like telling the same story or readapting this concept in their own way. I think that to me is like success. Or that to me, the sense of achievement and happiness as a, as someone who is just starting out in the dance world. So, no, I agree with you. I think more people do it, you’re just spreading the same love for everybody else, but at the end of the day, it’s a business, so you always want to get like a little higher than the other person, so. 

[00:05:02] Amardeep: I think it’s also about the competition side as well. So one part of my background is I used to do karate, so I used to be national squad for karate, and I’d be training with the same people who’d also be gunning for the same gold medals I was going for. Now, what we did is we made each other better in training. We purposely told each other what their weaknesses were, because then when, if eventually we won, it meant that we’re beating people at their very best. And I think it’s the same in any creative industry. It’s like, you don’t want to hold back your secrets because then you can be the best because if you make other people better too, then they make you better and everybody gets better. Especially in the creative industry, so if somebody else does a dance to the same song that you’ve done, and they do it better than you, that’s inspiration for you, it’s become even better. 

[00:05:47] Rohit: Yeah, a hundred percent agree. 

[00:05:49] Amardeep: And before we started talking on this podcast as well, you mentioned how you’ve moved to Bombay now, and part of that reason is because you’re surrounded by people who you think are better than you, more intelligent than you, and smarter in different ways. And that means that you can learn. And it’s exactly the same thing from what you’re sharing in terms of the secrets there. You’re getting better because there’s other people ahead of you, so when you’re ahead of other people, you can help raise them up to. 

[00:06:14] Rohit: No, I suppose, I think, I think there’s this one saying that the government always has, that is the government loves competition in any industry, because if there’s no competition, people get lazy, it’s, people get complacent, you know? And I think like they might, they may just be okay with producing average quality work while still enjoying like, you know, benefits of being a top player in the industry. So the government loves competition on any space because there’s just making, you know, people become much better what they do, I guess, like in some spaces, even in the art industry, while I believe that every, you know, like every individual is different because every artist is different. And I feel like there’s no comparison really between two people, because no one’s known for someone the other’s not for someone, but at the end of the day, you may just be fighting for a similar role or a similar opportunity. I think that’s where the competition really comes in and you know, it’s okay, man, you can either see competition as you know, like, I think jealousy may be a very common factor that you see through like, you know through, through your contemporaries in the same business, but I feel like, you know, you could either use that jealousy to convert that into inspiration, or you could just, you know, use that jealousy to convert that into insecurity. So I think it just like a, it’s just like a battle that you have to make a conscious decision to do it, because jealousy is a natural human phenomenon, but can you convert that to inspiration or do you want to still like, you know, let that make you feel insecure? I try to, you know, move towards like, okay, you know, I’ll be inspired by this person because what they’ve done is something phenomenal, and I think they will drive me forward to take the next step and become better. 

[00:07:36] Amardeep: I think one of the worst things is when people get annoyed at other people, and let’s say they get annoyed that somebody copied their idea, but the only person that affects negatively is themselves, because they’re the ones stressed out about it. They’re the ones who feel bad about it. The person who’s been inspired by them, they’re happy, they’re doing something that they love, so it only hurts you if you have with this angry with you, right? 

[00:07:58] Rohit: Yeah, a hundred percent. I think you just become your own victim and then you’ll just kill yourself. You know, I feel like there’s this popular saying either kill your victim or kill your growth, and I think, I just stick by that so much that you just have to use it as an inspiration and not as an insecurity. 

[00:08:12] Amardeep: You didn’t start off, like full-time creative, right? Like you started off with, so you went to university and you studied business, I believe. And then you went into like a corporate job in some way, and then you quit. So how has that decision to make the leap into, because now, it seems like incredible to me that you were doing anything that wasn’t creative, because you seem like such a natural in what you’re doing, and like you’ve gained so many fans and followers. But that wasn’t always the case. Right? You didn’t want to initially do that. You didn’t think you could make it as a full-time creator. 

[00:08:43] Rohit: Yes, a hundred percent, because I think, I come from a Sindhi family period. Sindhi means done that in other words means business, so, and I guess like if anyone’s from a Sindhi family, you need to know how to manage money well, or you need to know how to use your money well. So I guess like a huge part about me also was that, I love dancing. It’s been a passion for many years. I love acting. It’s been a passion for many years. I just love the state of performance. You know, and they love the, you know the process of actually getting there. We can actually put up a performance for an audience where they can get inspired from. And that sense of joy is beyond any monetary gain that I have had my life in the past. But when I was graduating from college, one thing always stuck to me was that can actually make money from my passion. I always thought my passion was just a hobby. I could like, you know, enjoy, experience you know, on good college, [unintelligible] and beyond that, I just had to get back to something that would actually be a financially stable career for me. So my first job was in education. I was still excited about the education industry because I believe that what you, you know, in fact learn in school, you know, there’s a huge gap between what you learned in school versus what you learn in the real world, and so I was passionate about bridging that gap and building a university in India that doesn’t have grades that doesn’t have, you know, assignments that’s like, real world projects with actual feedback that you’ll be given by people, et cetera. For example, if you’re doing like a course in web design, someone who’s an actual web designer will come and teach you web design, and you’re allowed to make projects like, and you’re supposed to make, you know, different, different webpages per week. I feel like I got super passionate in the education space and that was my first job. But while being on my first job, I didn’t want to stay disconnected to that because I think that also gave me a sense of joy and passion, and I didn’t want to stay disconnected. I wanted to keep on dancing. So once college got over, there was no platform really to dance, because in college your platform is like college competitions and stage and stuff. And around me, I saw a lot of people uploading dances on Instagram. This was around 2017, 2018, 2019 era where like content creators blew up. And when I saw people like uploading a lot of stuff on Instagram, I’m like, oh, wow, this is a platform. You know, Instagram has now become the platform, which is not just local, but it has become a global stage for you to perform. So I ended up uploading a couple of videos too, because I’m super inspired by the people around me. And the second video that I uploaded went viral. It went so viral that like TikTok page on TikTok posted it. It had like 50 plus million views on YouTube. I think there were like, in India, WhatsApp all the things. A lot of these aunties had WhatsApp always completely of this video, and it was so funny that my mom received a WhatsApp for [unintelligible] look who this person is. And my mom is like, that is my child. So like things did very well. I think like once the first, once the second video went viral, that’s when I can build the confidence that you know, that this can be a full-time career, and this is something that I could make money from. So I guess it was a sign you know, like I think the world keeps on giving you a signs. So I just, you know, took this as a big, big, big sign because at the same time, things were going downhill with my relationship between my, between my co-founder and me, which like the co-founder of the company I was working at and me. And so if things are going downhill over there and the things were like, going uphill with content and dance in the creative industry. I thought it the perfect sign. And like, I didn’t think twice about whether I was going to take off quitting my sustainable job and end up pursuing a career in the performing arts. 

[00:11:58] Amardeep: Have you regretted that at all since you made that decision?

[00:12:01] Rohit: Never in my life. I’m happy. It’s the happiest life I’m living right now, and I guess this is something I’ve always wanted to do. And I consider myself really, really, really fortunate to be able to pursue my passion professionally, because I don’t think a lot of people get a chance to do that. 

[00:12:16] Amardeep: Have you found it since becoming like a full time creator, so, well, you’re now working as an assistant director on a movie, right? So you said that was a bit of an adjustment too, because you’re going from, full-time being your own boss and doing things in your own terms to now working for somebody else. And it’s still in the creative industry and you’re going to be learning about, but it’s slightly different to what you were doing before, right? And you’ve moved out to Bombay to do that. 

[00:12:40] Rohit: Yeah. So essentially what happened was while COVID happened, obviously my plans to build the studio came to a complete stand still because it didn’t make any sense investing so much money to build a space when you could not really, you know, host offline events, like in this case, dance workshop, the teaching of content, right? Or content creation. Right. And from then onwards, I just focused on creating a lot of content on Instagram, and to my surprise, one of my videos was seen by current Karan Johar, who’s the owner of Dharma Productions and also a fantastic filmmaker. And he ended up following me on Instagram, and I didn’t know for the first 10 days that, until like one of my other friends from LA was just like, why didn’t you tell us that Karan Johar follows you on Instagram? And I’m just like, well, I didn’t know. Like I genuinely didn’t know because I was just so busy creating so much content that I had, that I didn’t check my notifications enough, and then finally, [unintelligible] those a follow back button and I’m just like, oh, damn, I need to follow him back. And then obviously drop him a message, and when I dropped him a message, he was like, we should catch up, and then when we caught up, do you know what do you want to do? So I said that I want to act and choreograph, but obviously not just an Instagram or for Instagram or creating content for the audience over here, but I wanted to act and choreograph in films and films have always been a childhood dream. You know, like this is the largest form, or the biggest form of media and entertainment in the world, and this is where I want to be. I think being on the big screen is always exciting or doing things with bigger budgets and bigger production houses has always been a super, super, super exciting journey to take. And I told him that’s what I want to do. And he said, well, you just need to be on a filmset. You need to learn camera. You need to be an assistant director for one film. Then you give examples, like, [unintelligible] examples like [unintelligible] and all these have been assistant directors before they actually went out to do what they wanted to do which is eventually act on screen. So here you just need one from experience, and then from there you can take it forward of like how you want to shape your current film. So while I knew it was going to be a massive shift from content to film, I knew it was going to, you know, maybe make me lose followers, I knew it was maybe going to have much less engagement on Instagram than I currently do. Also, like I knew it was going to be, [unintelligible], but I knew I was going to lose followers, I knew my engagement was going to drop significantly compared to what it was, what it used to be back in the day. I’m just like it’s okay. You know, like life is about taking risks. You just need to take a risk and you know, this very common thing, [unintelligible], you know? So I guess I just kept that in mind and I’m just like, you know, like eventually I want to work toward a bigger dream, which was like work in films and things may be at a standstill with Instagram, but I guess it’ll take me one step forward to where I want to be in the world of films and industry. It also kind of reminds me of this one saying that my friend told me. He’s like, you know, it’s okay to take a standstill because sometimes you may need to [unintelligible]. And I think that saying has always just, you know, driving me forward since I heard that. 

[00:15:24] Amardeep: Hi everyone. I hope you’re enjoying the episode so far. I want to take a quick break to ask you to check in with yourself. There’s many people struggling with balance and it’s nothing to be ashamed about. It’s tips that my guests might share can hopefully help you along the way, but if you already feel overwhelmed or burnt out, it’s probably best that you ask somebody for help too. For some, this might be a friend or family member, while others might feel like they have nobody they can talk to. If you’re one of these people, check out the link in the show notes, it’s for United for Global Mental Health. They’ve got health plans all across the world, with people willing to listen on the other side. It’s important to let somebody know how you’re feeling. Now, back to the show.

[00:16:00] For people who are listening, who aren’t aware of who Karan Johar is, so if you’re from the Western audience, I’m trying to think of a good way to explain how big he is. So let’s say, I would say the number one chat show in India, he’s the host, right? Would you say he’s number one show of Karan? 

[00:16:16] Rohit: Number one chat show in India, I think Coffee with Karan works is because he’s been one of the biggest filmmakers of you know, like ever in India. 

[00:16:24] Amardeep: It’s kind of like the equivalent, almost like Steven Spielberg or somebody like that. Like he’s absolutely massive for him to find you and reach out to you. And some of the people you mentioned as well about people who were assistant directors, who then became actors, the people, you mentioned are some of the biggest stars in Bollywood. So if you haven’t heard of them, you can check them out afterwards, you can drop links, but it’s a really big deal for you to be working on a Karan Johar film. And if you check out Rohit’s page after this, you will see why, because you can see like how infectious his energy is in his dancing, and it makes it understandable to me why such a big film director would reach out to you, but like that must’ve just been, when you were looking for signs of like, is this the right career for me? Like have I made the right choice? To get that kind of validation, must’ve just been massive for your confidence. 

[00:17:15] Rohit: 100%. Like, I think it’s like a cross-pollination of luck, fortune, destiny, hard work, talent. I think all meeting together in one place, I guess there is a, you know, like I do believe in stars do align, but I guess it’s just a start. So I definitely don’t want to jinx anything moving forward. It’s just a start. It’s a, I think, I guess like, I guess like my favorite thing to say is it’s just always the big thing, because there’s always so much to grow and so much to learn. And I don’t want to ever take any opportunity for granted or I don’t ever be in a space where I’m taking the network that I’ve built or the, or like the connection that I’ve built so far, you know like, I don’t want to be an opportunity when I’m, we cut this out, but anyway, so I don’t want to be in a space where I’m taking anything for granted where there are opportunities, with the people that I actually meet with. So I just want to find a way to keep growing, keep learning, keep working hard. Like, I guess so, you know, like the sky’s the limit. 

[00:18:01] Amardeep: So at the moment, are you still working on the film at the moment or is that finished now? Is that wrapped up? 

[00:18:05] Rohit: We’re still working on the film. So I joined about a year ago. I joined July 2021, somewhere on my birthday, so when I was 25. I am, I think the film is going to end somewhere in August, 2022. So I think slightly over a year, you know, to be completely finished, but I think we’re going to end in a couple of months. 

[00:18:20] Amardeep: That’s a long time for a film recording. Right? 

[00:18:23] Rohit: It’s insane. Like I can’t even explain. Like the scale of this film is insane because I think the reason why so much, it’s taking so long, cause we’re not shooting like some Avengers, heavy action oriented, heavy VFX oriented film, we’re just shooting like a living room drama. It’s normally not hectic. But it’s a rom-com which a romantic comedy. But I guess the reason why the film becomes so long because we have so many locations. So [unintelligible] we switch a location, it becomes a new shooting day cause we can’t travel and shoot on the same day. And so I guess for that reason, there are just so many locations. I think they have over like a hundred locations, if I’m not mistaken. So we always just like shooting and moving, shooting and moving, so I guess that’s the reason why it’s taking so long. And also the scale of the film is huge. Like if you’re shooting a song, it’s not like 30 dancers in a song. It’s like 600 dancers in a song, you know, so. 

[00:19:11] Amardeep: Are you appearing as a dancer in the film? 

[00:19:13] Rohit: No, I’m just an assistant director.

[00:19:15] Amardeep: Okay. So once this film is wrapped up, what’s the kind of next steps for you? What are you planning to do? 

[00:19:20] Rohit: So while the film is still happening I’m currently training as an actor. I’m currently trying to audition in as many spaces as I can. The idea is to choreograph for movies. And the idea is to act and be on the big screen one day. So I’ll do whatever it takes to get there. I don’t know what’s going to happen because I think the creative industry is filled with opportunities and you don’t know what or call that comes in tomorrow is going to change your life. And how a call is going to be made to you tomorrow is going to change your life. So considering the fact that opportunities are always coming and it’s always, you know, going, nothing’s ever certain. So I feel, I don’t want to plan too ahead, but I know the vision that I’m kind of going towards, which is acting in movies and the [unintelligible], 

[00:19:59] Amardeep: Obviously acting that can be quite a difficult career as well, because like you said, like you’re moving around a lot, there can be long times on sets. What’s the kind of ideal balance you want in the future? Would you want to be doing lots of films, lots of different things? Like you said about your dance studio, do you still want to do that as well? Build a dance studio space where you can have different people coming in. What’s kind of the dream going forwards?

[00:20:22] Rohit: To be honest, before I entered the creative industry as a content creator slash dancer slash actor slash choreographer, I was heavily involved in entrepreneurship and I that’s a huge reason also to go, you know, kind of build my own university was, you know, I want to go build a space that actually where we will, you know, where we can bridge the gap between school and the real world. And I was heavily inspired by Shark Tank. And I guess that’s what also got me hooked to the idea of entrepreneurship. So my ideal, or like, not like not ideal career path, but a career path that I do resonate with is someone like Ashton Kutcher where, you know, he was an actor before, but then eventually ended up being, you know, like moving on towards being an entrepreneur slash venture capitalist. And I feel like that’s the kind of combination I want to have. So right now, I’m just focused on acting and photographing because I do think being an actor has a shelf life, just like any of the athletes. So I want to focus on that, and then the idea is once that is established then the artist will probably like go out, build studio. You know, become a judge on a TV show. Maybe you produce your own show. I don’t know. They’re like endless opportunity. Maybe build a business, maybe like relive my education dream. And you know, maybe build a university around it that also has a creative industry as like a, you know, [unintelligible]. So I guess, like there’s so many things that I do want to do eventually, but as of now, my focus is is to be an actor and a choreographer. That’s like the short-term focus. 

[00:21:34] Amardeep: I can’t imagine you being a venture capitalist and stopping dancing. [unintelligible] venture capitalist, doing business or whatever, but you’re not going to stop dancing, right?

[00:21:43] Rohit: I will never stop dancing. I guess it’s the idea of you know, like doing, like there are I think about, seven to eight things that I really want to do in my life, but step-by-step. I guess like the best advice someone has always given me, or I guess most people always give me, it’s like, you can do everything you want, but you have to do it step by step. You have to master one. Once one is mastered, then you go and move on to the next. And then once the next one master, then you have two things stable at the same time, then you can move on with the next. So I guess I want to take it step by step and let’s see where it goes. I don’t know what’s going to happen next week. I don’t think what was going to happen 10 years from now, but there’s a lot of things I want to do in life. Yeah. 

[00:22:14] Amardeep: Because you’ve been dancing your entire life, right. So it’s going to be is a hobby on the side, and you did competitions at university, now it was in content creation, now it’s going to be in movies, and then it’s almost poetic in a way that you’re going to go back to making it a hobby potentially in the future where you’ve got your business, the other things on the side, but like the one constant throughout your entire life is going to be dancing. It’s kind of different meanings to you at different times, but you’re always going to have that joy going through your life. 

[00:22:40] Rohit: A hundred percent. I guess, it’s beautiful to experience that in different spaces and times, because I guess when it was a hobby, it meant something to me, when it wasn’t competition, it did mean something to me and I think now, when I want to really be a choreographer in films, or even be a performer as an actor slash dancer on the big screen, [unintelligible], it means something else to me. So I guess like, it’s just so funny because whatever you said, you know, just like released, this just hit something really hard about, you know, like hard on the head of the nail, because I never thought about this before, but now when I think about this, the idea of dance actually means a lot to me. And I think like, it’s changed you know, throughout like different, different times. But one thing that has always stayed common is that it’s given me a sense of joy that maybe some other activity might have not be. You know, like might have not given me.

[00:23:21] Amardeep: How have you found this transition from when it was just a hobby to being a job, part of your job, whether it’s acting or content creation, did you find there was more pressure? Because, and it’s happened to me, for example, in writing. Once it became my full-time job, then I felt more pressure to be good at writing. Do you feel that at all or is it just the love for what you do just overwhelms it or have you dealt with the pressure that you’ve had? 

[00:23:46] Rohit: Good question. Never really thought about it before. Because I guess the sense of pressure hasn’t really kicked in yet. Maybe when I was creating a lot of content at one point of time, people always looking forward to the next video, so I guess the only thing in my head was how can I make this one better than the previous one? And that’s the only thing I really cared about or thought about, I didn’t care about anything else. I didn’t care about whether it was good, whether it was bad. I just wanted to level up. And I guess maybe, you know, maybe always thinking about growing and maybe like going one up from the previous video, kind of you know, help me take the pressure off me, but also helped me like come back to the pressure a little better than otherwise. [unintelligible] because I think in this space, I was very focused on what I wanted to do, but I guess like, if I didn’t have a sense of direction, I think the sense of, you know, anxiousness and the pressure would really get to me and maybe, you know, maybe not let me create the best, the best work possible. But I think just this thinking about the one thing that I only have to grow and I only have to do better and I only have to get it better than the previous one. You know, got me driving forward and made me come back better. 

[00:24:42] Amardeep: What do you think is the best thing about like the choice you made in life now? Because for me, the biggest thing I’ve done is, by becoming a full-time creative, I’ve met so many amazing people, and I imagine it’s probably quite similar for you. Because I’ve just seen the amount of people you’ve collaborated with, and it just seems so like amazing, you’re kind of living out your dream in a way. 

[00:25:02] Rohit: Very true. I guess like a huge part about you know, like doing this professionally is also that, the people that once you looked up to are also now your friends, and you also get a chance to connect with them, and you also kind of learn from them, and also kind of, you know, just understand how they work, how their mind works, what kind of lifestyle do they live? And you’re also dealing with some of the people in the industry that have literally defined entertainment in India, or literally have a reason for, you know, why people enjoy movies so much, you know? And I guess like just being around them and being able to connect with them, chat with them and really like, you know, you know, dive into their mind is the biggest benefit from this option. Just like you, like, I’m sure you’ve had the same feeling of, you know, when you were kind of going through this transition of making your passion your profession as a full-time content writer slash content creator. You’ve you also have the option to connect with people, I guess, like mine will be the same, because I believe that one big reason for humans to be happy is actually connecting with people and actually building quality relationships. I mean, I guess we are social animals for for a reason, right? So I think building quality relationships is something that really leads, really makes me happy. It’s something I’m a sucker for. So being able to be you know, build these relationships with top level dogs in the industry is definitely a huge benefit.

[00:26:13] Amardeep: Yeah. For like the people listening today, what’s one mindset shift do you think they could make that would make a positive difference to their lives? 

[00:26:21] Rohit: Well, you know, I guess like this is something that always, you should tell me that, always think about the bigger picture because you know, every time I’m going through you know, down phase in life, or every time I’m irritated about something that really I want to give a bashing to somebody in the face, you know when I really want to like say my 2 cents to someone and give it back to him or her? My brother’s always calmed me down and being like, Think about five years from now, is this going to make a difference to your life. And if it doesn’t make a difference to your life, just leave it. If it makes a difference for your life, work towards it. And I guess that one question just keeps on, you don’t make me, you know, like keeps on, keeps on making me think that it’s just about the bigger picture sometimes. You know, your downfalls, your challenges, your, you know, like your failures, your battles, they’re all part of, you know, like this big puzzle that you’re solving, which is life. And I guess they’re all like small pieces of the puzzle. But if you do not, you know, live those moments, maybe a puzzle is never over, you know, there might be always some empty piece in your life and like, I guess, wait. Actually, I’m going to [unintelligible]. You know, guys, like all these, all your battles, your struggles and your failures, they’re all like small pieces of the puzzle. We have this big puzzle called life. And I guess like, if you do not relive those moments, you may just not be living life entirely. Yeah. So one thing that’s always allowed me to focus on the right things, or the focus on like, the more positive things of life is to think about the bigger picture, because once you think about the bigger picture, you think about what’s going to make a difference five years from now, the things that irritate you in the short-term or like, you know, make you feel low in the short-term actually, you know just adding up to your long-term future. 

[00:27:49] Amardeep: I think it’s life’s like a story, right? So there’s no story you’ve ever read where everything goes perfectly. It’s, you have these little things that go wrong and then you change your mind and then things don’t turn out how you expect, but that’s what makes life interesting, right? Like if everything always went perfectly, you’d run out of things to do. You get bored. But you have the different challenges and then you find your way, and then that’s what makes it interesting, and like with your story right now, right? It’s interesting to hear your story where you didn’t know exactly what you were going to do at the beginning. You went into different things and you realized, actually I like this more, whereas if it was just like, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I did that. Stories over. There’s no story. 

[00:28:28] Rohit: Exactly. And it’s so funny because I guess like my parents come from a generation where they picked one job, did that job for 50 years of their life, retired after that, and built enough savings to run a family. And again, they came from that generation, but I guess we come from the generation where you know, we have that flexibility to innovate or like we have that flexibility, you know, to kind of, you know, go out, live fashions because I guess like the generation that leaves my parents came from other generation of surviving, where you would choose you know, building a lifestyle to survive. I guess now, we’ve reached the space where, you know, where we’ve, you know, what technology has, boomed so quickly that it has allowed a lot of people to innovate and think about what the world could actually be, and I think we’ve entered that phase of innovation and like, global technological expansion. And I get there are a lot of people to be entrepreneurs versus like employees, as well as content creators versus like, you know, just like attending a normal nine to five job as well. So I guess like, you know, that shift has really like, kind of driven me to, you know, be like, it’s okay if you’re jumping jobs, it’s okay, if you’re jumping, you know, between careers. It’s okay, if you like doing things, I’m figuring it out. Like I’m 24, 25 right now. I was 22 when I graduated college. It’s okay. There’s no 22 year old, actually, there are many, but not many 22 year olds are finally sustainable. Not many 22 year olds have like, you know, figured it out in life. It’s okay. You know, I’m figuring it out, and I guess we’ll know in a couple of years, it’s just, you know, the whole story just came down to, you know, this is what I wanted to do as a child. You know, like [unintelligible] full 360, my life has made a full 360 and I’ve come back to the actually doing what I wanted to do with the child. So yeah. Now I guess like, it may change 10 years from now, but I guess for the next couple years, this is it. 

[00:30:09] Amardeep: I think that’s a really good point because we keep changing, so even if you think you’ve got life worked out right now, in a few years time, you might, like you said, decide actually I really want to do the business side rather than the acting side. So it’s kind of you’ve always got to check in with yourself and work out what actually matters to me right now, and act on that because it’s quite dangerous thing for people to think about, I’m going to stay exactly the same in 10 years time, because it could be completely different. Like I have no idea if in 10 years time, I’m still going to be writing, or still doing podcasting, or anything. What I know is right now, I’m enjoying this, and I get to meet people like you. And as long as I’m enjoying it, then we’ll keep doing it. 

[00:30:48] Rohit: Who knows? You could probably be a yacht owner for the matter of fact, you could probably like, you know, run like an international business online, and you could probably make the next Amazon. Who knows, right? I guess there’s one popular saying that’s always, you know, like makes me think that it’s okay not to be stuck to what you’re always doing right now which is, the only constant is change, and we are living in a world where everything’s changing consistently. So yeah, that’d be like, I guess, like, you know, be present, and be in the moment, and it will lead you to the next opportunity. 

[00:31:14] Amardeep: And I think as well, too, like if it says to me it’s been about 10 years since I left university. And I think that how different the paths that people have taken are. Like you’d never expect it, right? Most people I went to university with would never expect me to be doing a podcast or to be an online writer or to have the views I have. So it’s quite easy to think about, we can put people in boxes sometimes. We can put ourselves in boxes. We think this is who we are. In reality, like we’re much more than that, and this so much we’re able to change and to be flexible, and to find new things that make us happy. 

[00:31:51] Rohit: I love what you said, because I believe that human potential is enormous, and sometimes we are limited to what we do by the profession that we choose. But who says that this is what you have to do for the rest of your life? You know, like where is it written, which person has said that if you only do this for the rest of your life, you will be living a sustainable career? Who cares? Five years from now, you can switch roles. Like 10 years from now, you can switch roles. It doesn’t really matter. Tomorrow, you can switch roles. It really doesn’t matter. As long as you’re able to, you know, survive in life, make enough money for you to be able to like, you know, fulfill your basic necessities, or your luxuries, if you have any, and you’re able to live a happy, sustainable life, that’s all that matters.

[00:32:26] Amardeep: It’s been amazing to talk to you Rohit. Where can the people listening find out more about you and what you’re up to? 

[00:32:32] Rohit: Well, so I guess I’m very, very, very active on Instagram. It’s called juniorjethu. I would absolutely love to connect with people. Please do drop a DM. If you do like a word, please do follow me up there. It would be great to connect with some people, if you’ve heard this podcast, please do mention it. But yes, would love to connect with as many people out there listening to this podcast. And I definitely want to give a huge shout out to my man, Amardeep who’s sitting like in London right now, and I’m sitting in Bombay right now, and we’re connecting over this call. But a huge shoutout to him. Absolutely love the purpose of this podcast. I think more than just [unintelligible] connecting us together. The purpose of this podcast really drew me, you know, to like, you know, like [unintelligible] wanting to do this, so thanks for taking the initiative and thanks for having me.

[00:33:09] Amardeep: Yeah, it’s been a pleasure to talk to you honestly. But the thing I finish off with is what’s one small thing that’s brought you joy recently? 

[00:33:17] Rohit: Yeah, well I guess like, the most recent thing that actually happened was I’d gone back to Puni for a couple of days. The day I was leaving, there were a couple guests that came over, and my mom invited them. They were actually coming over for the first time. So we had never met them in our life. They had never met us in their life. They were coming over for the first time. We just knew each other. Me and their daughter were connected, you know, like through some way or the other. And so they’re just coming over for a quick breakfast and they’re having a chat, and I guess like when I met her for the first and they’re like, oh, I’ve seen this guy somewhere, you know, I’ve seen him on one of these dance videos, like I’m a huge fan of this guy. And I guess like that sense of you know, that small interaction just bought me a lot of joy because when you’re creating so much content and you’re always in the studio, you’re always in front of the camera, you don’t really see, you know, if you don’t like, this is making a real impact or not. The only impact that you get to see is through comments. And that does give you that sense of instant gratification and that instant success or that instant joy for like, maybe like the day or two, but then you don’t really see if this is actually making an impact on someone for long. Do they actually remember you? Do they actually, you know, remember your content? Or do they actually remember who you are, or your profile, or do they recommend your profile to a couple of other people? When instances like this happens in real life, it’s just everything, because I guess like, after working on the film, which being an assistant director to Karan, I’ve not had the opportunity to create as much content. Within the past eight months, I’ve only created like three or four videos which is very low. I should create about six to eight videos a month. I think that was like the pace I was going at before. So I guess like, you know, just, you know, just knowing that when you’re like still so inactive on Instagram and focusing on like the film career, you still have people that are actually remember your work that happened in 2019. And I guess like, you know, just knowing that, made me feel happy and made me, you know, like have that sense of joy, and I was just happy to know that someone actually still remembered you and your work.

[00:35:09] Amardeep: If you’re listening on Apple Podcasts, I’d love it If you could leave me a five star review, it really helps get the message out further. Wherever you’re listening, it would be awesome If you could subscribe and share in your social media channels. If you want to see more of my work and advice, you can find all of the links in the show notes. 

Thank you again for listening and I hope you have a lovely day.