aa[00:00:02 – 00:00:11] Nitin Bajaj

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the TheIndustryShow. I’m your host, Nitin Bajaj. And joining me today is Nish Acharya. Nish, welcome on the show.

[00:00:11 – 00:00:14] Nish Acharya

Thank you for having me, Nitin. Looking forward to it.

[00:00:14 – 00:00:17] Nitin Bajaj

Likewise. Let’s start with who is Nish.

[00:00:19 – 00:00:43] Nish Acharya

So I, I’m Indian American, born and raised in The United States and Wisconsin, grew up in the Boston area where I currently reside. I’m a husband and a father of 2 boys, big fan of all sports, related to Boston, and, I’ve spent my career in a variety of areas from, politics to philanthropy to government and really enjoy new challenges and and learning more about the world.

[00:00:43 – 00:01:01] Nitin Bajaj

And, you know, I found that really fascinating about you. You’ve been all around the place. And so to me, the first question, as an extension of who Nish is, is what gets you out of bed? What excites you? What motivates you? What inspires you?

[00:01:02 – 00:02:15] Nish Acharya

Well, it’s probably, I’m forced out of bed, by my children. That’s the first thing. But I I think it’s really always been 2 things that have excited me. 1 is the scope of things that the world still needs to get done to be a better place. And whether that’s, you know, a policy issue like climate change or whether it’s, you know, being a good neighbor, and and being in your community or being a good, you know, family person. There’s a lot that the world still needs, and and getting up and working on those things is is really exciting. And then I think the second thing that’s always driven me is the the love of learning and the love of exploration, and the idea that even though I’ve been able to travel a lot, there’s still a whole world out there to see and to visit, to learn about, a whole lot of topics to learn about. And I think that constantly keeps me engaged. It keeps me excited. And I’ve tried to to build my life around those, opportunities to the best that I can. And I think to the best obviously, we all have responsibilities. And so, to the best that I can, I try to keep those 2 things very centered to everything I do, you know, sort of learn new learning, and what are the big challenges that I can be helpful on?

[00:02:16 – 00:02:22] Nitin Bajaj

Well, I love that. With so much to do, you’re still being forced out of bed. That’s the best part. Yeah.

[00:02:23 – 00:02:24] Nish Acharya

Exactly.

[00:02:24 – 00:02:44] Nitin Bajaj

I love to understand things through the lens of impact, and I would love to hear from you the impact you and your teams as you have, moved across careers and, goals. What is that big number? What is that, impact that you’ve been able to create?

[00:02:45 – 00:05:02] Nish Acharya

So that’s a great question. I think, in the roles I’ve been in, I’ve been able to mostly facilitate the impact, that others have been involved with. So, I feel like the activities I’ve been involved with over the course of my career, have affected millions of people in a positive way. So I’m comfortable saying that. I’m also very com comfortable in, you know, that they there are other people doing most of the work to achieve that change. But I think that’s a role we play in our lives. Some of us are you know, have different roles, and we leverage what we what we can do. I don’t live in a village in India, and so I can’t necessarily do the work directly there, but I can raise money and things like that in The United States to support their work. So I would say definitely millions. And I think, you know, I define impact, as, you know, improving the situation, even just a little bit better than it was. And and and so in that way, there’s a lot of ways we can have impact. We can have impact in our community, you know, coaching, soccer and basketball. We can have impact politically by, you know, volunteering for campaigns. I think for me, it’s been you know, a little bit of what we talked about earlier, I think it’s been looking at what are the big impact opportunities in the world. So I’ve been blessed, to have a career where I’ve gotten to know a lot of of of important people, successful people. And so I think, for me, it’s not just about, you know, can I volunteer on a campaign? It’s about, you know, what are how are we gonna influence the candidates? How are we gonna influence policymakers on the important issues of the day? And how are we gonna find the right answers to do that? So that’s something, I view as impact. I also think putting in the time to build new programs and try things that people haven’t, tried before, whether that’s you know, we talked a little bit about Akshaya Patra and bringing it to The United States, or when I was in the Obama administration launching new programs for startups and entrepreneurs. These were all things where I think the impact came in much later after I had had had stopped being involved, to a certain extent. But, sowing the seeds for some new big ideas that could be really relevant and important down the line, I think, is the other way that I I think of impact as as being an important thing to work on.

[00:05:03 – 00:05:09] Nitin Bajaj

And I agree with your definition. And, you know, this might sound naive, but I love to ask the question anyways

[00:05:10 – 00:05:10] Nish Acharya

Mhmm.

[00:05:10 – 00:05:32] Nitin Bajaj

Is why do this? I mean, you could take your time, your effort, your passion. To do so many other things that are considered by many as maybe more impactful for self, make money, for example.. Why do these things? Why is community? Why is making other people’s lives better important for you?

[00:05:32 – 00:07:46] Nish Acharya

Yeah. There’s certainly a lot of people along the way who’ve said, why haven’t you taken a more, wealth building path, if you will? I think 1 of the things we’re fortunate about, particularly in The United States, is that you can have a very successful career, you know, professionally, financially, and live well. Not wealthy, but live well in nice communities and and, nice living, in the nonprofit university and government sectors. And so I think that’s made it a lot easier. I don’t think that’s the case in many countries where it’s still very old fashioned and the idea is that you have to take a vow of poverty or seva or these sorts of things. I think The United States is very professional, and that’s been a big part of my being able to do that. I think the other thing is just almost DNA. I don’t know if there’s a choice. I think I’ve always felt like, you know, there’s a problem to work on or there’s a challenge. I think I need I feel the need to work on it. You know, 1 of the things early on I realized was, my father went to the, you know, IIT, Kharagpur and came over here. And we I grew up in a nice suburb here in the Boston area where I where I still live. Same suburb, actually. And, you know, I had a very, you know, a very nice upbringing. And I compare that to my cousins in India who are also, you know, middle class. They they were perfectly fine. But during visits, you see the stark contrast in opportunity. Right? And not in intelligence. There Nish no contrast in intelligence. There’s contrast in opportunity. That really drove me, from an early age to think about, you know, how do we create those opportunities for others, who have the intelligence or have the the energy and the ideas. You know, what what are we gonna do to make this more of a level playing field as a planet? And I think that’s always driven me more than, anything else. Also, I got involved in politics early on, and that’s a very competitive, sport, if you will. And people don’t think of it that way, but it’s very much like a start up. You’re competing fiercely until the day you run out of money, and that’s the election day. And then you’re trying to win. Right? And so I think the combination of, you know, how do we make the world a better place, plus this intense competitiveness of politics really sort of put me on the path I I’m on and and and how I measure these things.

[00:07:47 – 00:07:56] Nitin Bajaj

Love that. Now as you go across and have this mindset of abundance, I’m curious to know what’s the 1 big challenge you’re facing?

[00:07:58 – 00:08:56] Nish Acharya

I think the biggest challenge is knowing that we have finite resources and time on this planet, And there’s some things that you must take care of, like your family and responsibilities, and then there’s time to, you know, make the world a better place. And I think the limiting time, and and the issues that go with that, like figuring out what you’re gonna focus that time on and what’s the right, use of your skills and time and energy, I think that’s the biggest issue I always struggle with and think about is okay. And I’m I’m 50 years old now. Let’s say I have thirty years to be productive, hopefully more, but, let’s say at least thirty years. You know, what is that what can what can I do in that time frame? Even make it smaller. Even make it five years. Make it a year. You know, what should I be spending my time on, and and will that be effective? Will it be impactful? That’s really the always the big question that I I sort of think about.

[00:08:56 – 00:09:12] Nitin Bajaj

And as you think about that, you know, on the flip side of challenges come opportunities, what’s the 1 that’s most exciting? And, you know, you’re kinda looking at it and saying, you know, this is this is really something I wanna drive.

[00:09:13 – 00:10:14] Nish Acharya

Yeah. I think the, the last several years, you know, particularly last decade or so, my my professional focus has very much been around innovation, for the to broader global good. And so I run an organization called Equal Innovation, and that’s our mission Nish to help entrepreneurs in areas like climate change, global health, education. And that actually excites me. That really gets me up in the morning because when you think about climate change, you know, recycling is important. Building a seawall in LA or Boston or Mumbai is gonna be important. But it’s really going to be, scientific technological innovation, matched with really good public policy that’s gonna help us figure out how to address rising sea levels or, you know, drought in India and extreme heat. And so that really excites me to see what people are working on, and motivates me to say, well, they have to do this now. Right? And and I think, I I may have been telling you this story earlier, but, you know, during COVID, the way the

[00:10:14 – 00:10:14] Nitin Bajaj

Mhmm.

[00:10:15 – 00:11:07] Nish Acharya

A lot of the world mobilized around the vaccine and said, we need an innovative vaccine that works, and we need it quickly, and we need to scale it and make it available. I think it showed the potential for the world to take new ideas, new technology, and make them ubiquitous and make it fast. And so when we want to as a planet, we can. And I think that’s what really excites me right now. You see the same thing in health care, you know, with, you know, with, the innovations in genetics and things. You see it in climate with batteries. So I think just seeing the scale and scope of interesting, scientific breakthroughs people are coming up with and saying, you know what? We have really good, not solutions always, but certainly, we have really good ways to address all of the problems we talk about. You know, how do we start to focus and do that? And I think that’s that that’s how I think about it right now.

[00:11:08 – 00:11:20] Nitin Bajaj

And I agree with that. And it’s it’s almost like when we need to, we figure out a way. But how do we do that on things where we want to, but we just can’t get together because of many other things that come in the way?

[00:11:21 – 00:13:04] Nish Acharya

So Yeah. And that’s where I’ve learned with age that, you know, change comes very slowly. You know, when I was starting out in my career, I remember, you know, a fleeting moment when I I thought, oh, we can solve all these problems. We have plenty of time, certainly, over the next forty years, and, I’ve sadly come to realize that that’s not the case no matter what. No matter who you are and how much money and resources you have, you know, that’s not the case. You know, just ask Bill Gates. He’s been working on the same problems for for thirty years now. Excuse me. I think, the the the fact that, you know, we now I’ve learned that these things take time. I think, you know, on an issue like climate change, we’ve seen, you know, it go now where most people believe it’s a real thing but aren’t quite sure how to deal with it. And most people still don’t necessarily, even if they believe in it, don’t see the connection directly with their own lives unless they happen to live in a place where there’s an issue. And so I think these things take time. And and the question is how do you slowly, quickly more quickly than than you know, I push people along. It’s gonna happen slowly, but how do you increase the pace a little bit? And how do you, you know, get to a place where, you know, you’re you’re making that impact that you wanna be. I’ll share 1 example where it’s gone somewhat slowly, but then speeded up was US India relations, which is something I’ve worked on for a long time. Nitin the when I started, it was really just a few people in a room. And now it’s, you know, viewed as 1 of the most important relationships, in the world. And so there took a long time, slow, slow, slow, and then when it picked up, you know, it’s become very important. So I think figuring out that for everything is is really gonna be critical.

[00:13:04 – 00:13:51] Nitin Bajaj

True. I agree. In terms of, you know, the startup world, we talk about the ten year overnight success. So So some of these might be more like twenty, twenty five year overnight successes. But, I’m glad that, you’re working on those and we have the right minds and right people that are driving these changes that are gonna be definitive for generations to come. Now as we look forward, I am curious to pause and reflect and ask you to share 2 moments in your life and career. 1, where things did not work out as you’d expected, and there was failure, there were lessons, and another where things exceeded your expectations and became a success beyond your imagination?

[00:13:53 – 00:17:55] Nish Acharya

Those are great questions. So I think the the failure I always point to was my first job as CEO was for a, a state funded nonprofit here in Massachusetts in the Boston area that, developed an entrepreneurship and tech curriculum for high schools. And it was a perfect storm as they say. I was a first time CEO. I wasn’t even 30 yet. The as as soon as I joined, we were zeroed out of the state budget. So we went from our we lost about 80% of our funding. Happy day 1 for me. And we had a board of directors that was, dysfunctional. And, you know, I spent the year trying to fix things and get the group back in place. And, it was, it was, we did our best, and and we did stabilize things, but not enough for it for it to Nitin to to continue. And, and I think that was a huge it was a failure. At at the time, I thought, oh my god. This is a failure. You know, we’ve let the children down. We’ve let, you know, the organization and donors down. We’ve let the states down. And personally, I thought maybe I don’t have the have what it takes, to do this. And in my next opportunities, I really took the lessons to heart of that failure. You know, why did we lose our funding? Why was the board dysfunctional? How do you manage people? And I I don’t I don’t think all of a sudden I became perfect at it, but I think I constantly looked at that failure experience and said, you know, what does a successful organization need to be, and how do we build on that? So I’ve I’ve carried those lessons of that failure with me for for twenty years now and and always thought, you know, that’s that situation was the opposite of how we wanna support, you know, organizations or Nish in our life, and, and what can I do to make sure that that situation doesn’t occur for other people if I’m involved with the group, you know, from a board or weather perspective? So that’s the lesson learned failure that I learned a lot from. The success, while you know, successful beyond my imagination would definitely be, the Akshaya Patra, and bringing it to The United States. And so, you know, for your listeners who don’t know, Akshaya Patra is a school lunch program, in India based out of Bangalore, that now feeds well over 2000000 kids a day. And so that’s over, you know, billion meals a year that they’re cooking and distributing. And, when we in 09/00 I think it was 02/6 or 07/00 decided to bring and said, hey. Let’s open a US office. I was with the Deshpande Foundation at the time, and we said, let’s fund their US office. There’s NRIs. There’s Indian Americans who have deep ties who will wanna support who doesn’t wanna support school feeding. Right? So it would be people who wanna support that, and then American companies all have Bangalore offices. You know, we can reach them. I did not know, that it would be it was the first time other than Pratham that anybody had a US office. The first time 1 had been set up this way, Pratham was more organic. And in the first year, we raised $2,000,000, from Indian Americans and also from, Fidelity Investments, which is about as, you know, a sort of blue chip, you know, American old fashioned company. And here they were giving for a, you know, a school lunch program for government schools in India. And I think that was, stunningly successful. We also, you know, were featured at the Clinton Global Nish, and president Clinton later visited Akshaya Patra. And so, you know, I think that was when you see the program, as I know you have, it’s not surprising that they’re successful. But when it’s never been done before and you the moment where you say, wow, everybody else sees the same thing that I do or we do in the case of the Deshpande’s, that’s a really powerful moment where you just are amazed that, you know, you you made the right choice to invest in this even though it was the first time. And then Akshaya Patra has gone on to grow, both as an organization in India as well as their US operations. And so that’s been far more successful than I ever imagined.

[00:17:56 – 00:18:07] Nitin Bajaj

And, again, what a beautiful way to be able to impact so many lives at that stage. So you’re really not just impacting a life, but a generation. So

[00:18:07 – 00:18:32] Nish Acharya

Exactly. Exactly. And to be a small part of that, simply because we were here, in between the Deshpande’s and my political background had some connections we could, leverage, it really you know, it it it I I think more than anything, it put it on the map as a legitimate good program. And for many people, that was all they needed, to to unlock their support. And so just incredibly successful beyond our wildest expectations.

[00:18:32 – 00:19:00] Nitin Bajaj

Well, congratulations to you and, of course, to Nish and the rest of the family that has been supporting this and continues to. Yes. Now just to kind of switch gears, I would love to hear amongst the many things that you do that bring pleasure and joy, not to the people involved but also to you, what do you do to kick back, relax, de stress, and, just kind of, you know, wind down if you will?

[00:19:02 – 00:20:20] Nish Acharya

Well, you know, it’s interesting. I really love my work, so I I never feel like I have to disconnect and kick back. But, when I do, I my favorite activity is definitely, spending time with my family, particularly my 2 boys, 17 and 13. And so whatever Nish the activity with them, I’ve coached them in soccer. I’ve coached them in other sports. There’s activities we do together. So that’s definitely, my favorite activity. It’s distressing most of the time. Sometimes it’s more stressful, but, as all kids are. But I think spending family time is something that’s quite important to me. I also I’m I’m active runner, so I’ve done some half marathons. It’s my way of destressing. It’s my way of going out and and thinking through, you know, different problems and things like that. So I really enjoy, the running part of my, career. And then I’ve you know, I had different activities over the years, you know, whether it’s travel in addition to my work travel, you know, adding on some time to, sort of cultural and historic significance, places around the world. I took up scuba diving a few years ago Nice. And skiing just again as a way as as part of my, you know, how do I explore the world? What do I see? And and so that’s been really joyous to be able to do that as well. So I try to do different things, but I also do enjoy my work. So

[00:20:20 – 00:20:26] Nitin Bajaj

That’s amazing. Now any book or a podcast that you would like to recommend and share?

[00:20:28 – 00:22:03] Nish Acharya

So, on the book side, I actually really enjoyed, the rock star, Bono, his book Surrender, because I’ve been a YouTube fan my whole life and, and listened to their music. And, you know, I’m again, I’m 50 years old, so their career as a rock band has mapped mine. And, you know, you see that a lot at their concerts. Everybody’s certain age group is I’m sure it was the same with the Rolling Stones and others. Mhmm. And so reading his story and the meaning for the songs and the experience, I think personally was really, really, you know, important, for me. And it’s it’s been a it’s been a great read too to know what they were doing while I was rocking out to their songs or standing, you know, in the stadium where they were playing. So I that book has really been great. In terms of podcast, I’ll share 2 that I don’t miss. 1 is, Bill Simmons, who is a sports columnist originally from Boston who does, several sports cast sports podcasts. But, his I really enjoy because they’re a little bit irreverent, but good insights. And then the other, which is more sort of thoughtful, is the Adam Grant podcast. Oh, actually, for this audience, I would say not Adam Grant. He’s great. But, Milan Vaishnav’s, Carnegie Endowment podcast, Grand Tamasha. I think he just has great, set of speakers and authors and political leaders, talking about Indian politics and Indian society. And so I never miss an episode of Milan’s, a podcast as well.

[00:22:04 – 00:22:14] Nitin Bajaj

Amazing. Thank you for sharing those. Now onto my favorite part of the show, we call it the 1 line life lessons. Nish, would love for you to share your life lessons with us.

[00:22:15 – 00:25:24] Nish Acharya

Okay. So I would start with, relationships matter the most. And I found in my life that showing up, is the biggest thing you can do, whether it’s family, friends, work. So relationships matter the most, and they stay with you for a long, long time. That’s been my biggest life lesson, I think, as I’ve as I’ve gotten older to invest in those. So relationships matter most. I would say the second one, is is to be humble. That’s something interestingly enough, as I’ve gotten older, I think I’ve become more humble. I think as you’re younger, you think you either know it all or the answer is obvious. And I think as you get older, you learn things, and you learn how hard it is to make the kind of change we’ve been talking about here. And so I think being humble, is, is an important trait to have and not assuming you know what’ll happen. I think the third thing is that the you know, our integrity, is all that we really have. The the money, the homes, the, you know, the, media appear all that stuff is, is, only with us, you know, in fleeting time and place. But our integrity, particularly when you match it up with the relationships and other things, Nish really all that we have. And so maintaining our, integrity and our word and all that is is critical. That would be the third one I think I’ve found most important. The other 2 are more, I think, you know, I found, it’s important to try different things in life. You know, someone said to me that, you know, the values created at the intersection of different disciplines. I don’t know if that’s a real quote or just somebody said it to me. But, and I found that to be certainly true that trying different things, whether it’s scuba diving or skiing alongside, you know, media and politics and philanthropy. I think you just spend, your life that way learning a lot of different things. And for people who can’t switch as radically as I have, certainly within their organizations, do doing different things Nish, I think, keeps you fresh, keeps you engaged. It keeps you looking. You know, it opens up doors that you didn’t know existed and hadn’t thought about. So I think trying new things would be the fourth one. And then for me, the the fifth is, to take calculated risks. And I think, all 3 words in that are important. So take the risks. I think calculated is important because you can’t risk everything. I think, you know, making sure your family and health and all is taken care of is, is very important for the long term. And then risks, you know, things where, maybe there there is some potential loss if it doesn’t work out. But the the opportunity, if it does, is, you know, 5 x what you’re currently doing. I think those calculated risks are are really worth taking. So my career, I think, you know, it it almost feels like it’s somewhat rooted in, like, be a good person, you know, be who you are, and then a little bit of the within that context, take the risk you can.

[00:25:25 – 00:25:48] Nitin Bajaj

Love it, Nish. Thank you so much for sharing your journey, your story, and your life lessons, but most importantly, for being who you are and being a positive change in our community. Please continue to do what you do and, bring more impact, more positivity to everyone around you. We wish you all the best, and congratulations again on all of your successes.

[00:25:49 – 00:25:52] Nish Acharya

Thank you very much, Nitin, and thank you for having me on the show.

[00:25:52 – 00:25:53] Nitin Bajaj

Thank you.