1056. Paths to Progress and Success

“Writing a book was never on my list of things to do–ever! It was always a very foreign thing that other, very literary types do. In early 2020 I found myself without a conventional job and I could tell this was not the time to jump into a job just for the sake of it–except I don’t like long periods of time when I don’t have a lot to do. I consider myself to be action-oriented. I’ll take risks and I’ll make decisions, but sitting back and waiting is hard. I was reflecting on my career in this downtime in 2020, and I started wondering why my story until then was always creating a correlation between the actions I took and the successes I had. Even in my telling you the story today, I kept pointing out the decision to come to the U.S., the decision to take the job, as if that was what lead to success. What I didn’t notice until I was doing this thinking is that before every period of big, bold action, there was a period where I was very deep in reflection. I might have even called it an unproductive stage, a thoughtful stage when I wasn’t doing anything. My book started as a question: What really drives major progress? Not the incremental, everyday progress, but big jumps forward. Is it the big action or is it the reflection that came before a big, bold move?”

Jinny Uppal is no stranger to driving contrary and innovative thinking. Her 20+ years of experience driving transformational growth by challenging existing norms in business is key to her success working with Fortune 500 telecom, ecommerce and retail companies. As a business and tech growth strategist, board advisor and thought leader, she continues to pave innovative paths to progress and success. Most recently, she was Vice President of Strategy at a $12B North American retailer. Jinny grew up in Mumbai and is a graduate of Florida International University and Harvard Business School. She has been a practitioner of Vedic and Buddhist meditation and breath work since 2008. Her other interests include hiking and horseback riding.