Nina Godiwalla on How Meditation Training Improves Employee Wellbeing

In Chapter 19 of 22 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, author Nina Godiwalla answers "How Does Meditation Training Impact Employee Wellbeing".  Godiwalla shares how the training teaches employees to accept they have the right to choose their decisions.  This allows individuals to take control, which provides perspective that decreases panic and stress while raising the impact they create.  She is also a public speaker on workplace diversity and founder and CEO of Mindworks, where she teaches mind-based stress reduction techniques to help organizations improve employee wellbeing.  Godiwalla holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, an MA in Creative Writing from Dartmouth University and her BBA from the University of Texas at Austin. 

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  How does meditation training impact employee well-being?

Nina Godiwalla:  When I speak to professionals, I hear, “I have so much stress that I don’t know what to do,” you know, “Help me lower the stress,” and I think the perspective which is -- it’s hard for people to understand initially but that you choose that stress.  I mean no one wants to hear that because the minute you say you choose how much you’re allowing your stress to be, I mean I’ll get a laundry list from some people like no I don’t because I have this project due and I have this project due and then I have to do this and I have to do that and the reality is, is you get to choose some of that.

One, you get to chose how you treat yourself so even if some people will have a list of 10 things to do and they can be the calmest people around and some people will have that list of 10 things that, you know, doesn’t necessarily look realistic that it could happen this week and they kind of just, you know, break down about it and so the reality is, is it’s building in for employees it’s helping them understand that we have control over how we treat ourselves and the stress that we create for ourselves and we also – when you get to a calmer place, you’re able to manage that a little bit better and it doesn’t mean -- part of it’s understanding what really needs to get done, asking the right questions but when you’re in that state of mind of panic or of fear, you’re not able to really realistically manage this, you’re not in control and it’s helping people feel comfortable bringing themselves from the panic to the “Okay, maybe I can do this and maybe there are certain things I need to change about the situation so that I can manage this better” and it – so much of it, this first step, is about perspective and the reality is it just changes peoples lives and their productivity permanently because having different perspectives allow you to actually get things done and it allows you to be a better manager, a better leader, a better person colleague for other people so it has definitely a complete ripple effect and when you have – especially when you have leadership and senior managers who don’t know how to handle their stress.  All of that has a ripple effect on the employees.

Nina Godiwalla on How Meditation Helps High Performers Achieve

In Chapter 20 of 22 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, author Nina Godiwalla answers "How Do You Reconcile Meditation and the Inherent Slowing Down It Encompasses When You Are Dealing With High Performing Individuals That Thrive on Intensity?"  Working with high performing individuals, often Type A personalities, Godiwalla teaches students mind-based stress reduction (MBSR) techniques to help them be less fearful and more hopeful and positive.  Even for the most high performing individuals, she finds this helps them to unlock restrained potential and achieve more.  Godiwalla is the author of "Suits: A Woman on Wall Street".  She is also a public speaker on workplace diversity and founder and CEO of Mindworks, where she teaches mind-based stress reduction (MBSR) techniques to help organizations improve employee wellbeing.  Godiwalla holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, an MA in Creative Writing from Dartmouth University and her BBA from the University of Texas at Austin. 

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  How do you reconcile meditation and the inherent slowing down that encompasses when you’re dealing with high-performing individuals that thrive on intensity?

Nina Godiwalla:  So I think one of the things I found -- so in the environment where you say high, there is that mindset of you know either you’re a high performer or you’re someone as if meditation might slow you down but the reality is, is with these high performers, it’s fascinating and research has actually has actually shown this and I’ve been in this environments, the MBA you know the MBA environment, the Wall Street environment, so much of it is run off of fear. 

The culture is run off of fear; it’s like they're so terrified of failing and I put myself in that category too especially when I’m in that environment I mean anything that goes wrong, it’s this environment of perfection and you have to do things right and perfect and you really look down on people that don’t do things necessarily well and I’ve been in those environments and, you know, what is a fantastic example is, you know, somebody that I was just recently talking to, she was rejected from Stanford she had this like complete sense of failure and got into several other MBA programs, fantastic, you know, top programs and she was just like “I don’t get rejected from schools,” and it was just that sense and so she was so focused on this failure, you know in her mindset and it’s that kind of attitude that’s ludicrous I mean so people look at that and they’re like “Oh, please I can’t feel sorry for you.”  But that’s how they operate like in general it’s – they, you know, 10 wonderful things happen to you and that one little thing and you’re so focused on that failure. 

So, my attitude towards that is you will – you can still be above average and these are, you know, type A people so they will do well and they will perform well but they will never be exceptional with that kind of mindset.  They will be – they will stand above other people but they’re not going to blow away the world because the reality is, is they’re still operating under that extreme fear and when things get really difficult and really challenging and something takes out their confidence, they will fall.  So you need people that have a mindset of that they actually can accomplish huge things and if every – if the motivation is all around fear and fear of failure, you’re not going to get very far and I talk about that because they have done so much research on the top MBA programs and they find that, you know, one of the 10 things that bring down some of the best people is their fear of failure.

Nina Godiwalla on Why Mutual Respect Matters in a Marriage

In Chapter 21 of 22 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, author Nina Godiwalla answers "Why is Mutual Respect Important in a Marriage?"  Godiwalla, who had a child amidst the process of publishing her first book, finds mutual respect for things she and her partner both want in life fundamental to their wellbeing.  She shares how this mutual respect is key to achieving a manageable and meaningful work-life balance.  Godiwalla is the author of "Suits: A Woman on Wall Street".  She is also a public speaker on workplace diversity and founder and CEO of Mindworks, where she teaches mind-based stress reduction (MBSR) techniques to help organizations improve employee wellbeing.  Godiwalla holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, an MA in Creative Writing from Dartmouth University and her BBA from the University of Texas at Austin. 

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  Why is mutual respect important in a marriage?

Nina Godiwalla:  Well, I think it depends what you want to accomplish and what you want out of your marriage but you know one of the things that I’ve gotten so much from for a lot of people have said to me is, I had a baby while – right when I had – in the middle of having a book and I’ve had so many people say to me “Oh, I don’t understand how you did it all.  Like how are you able to do both?”  And I remember growing up, I used to go to these women’s conferences and I’ve never – never been very excited about marriage or having kids because to me I was always – I was so career oriented but I had this fear that once that would come like a husband and a child it would take away from my career life and I remember being in these conferences and you know women’s conferences and having women say it’s true like they just you know once you have the kids, it all falls on you, so much of it falls on you and I’ve always had this fear that it would – having a kid would take you know kind of the excitement of my life away. 

And what I’ve realized is, one, I married a person that in the end I wasn’t going to get married unless I had somebody who completely was inline with what I wanted and there is that and it’s not just mutual respect it’s mutual respect for the things that you both want out of life and I find that a lot of people that say that they have it all, that they never worked that out with their partner to some extent or their partner doesn’t have that mindset of you know I see that these are the three critical things for you let’s see how we can work on them together and my husband is an exceptional person in general but he makes everything – he makes everything possible.  I mean we both have difficult travel schedules and he never says “Well, you know you’re supposed to be here this week and I’m supposed to be here this week this just isn’t going to work.”  He’s always like “Okay, let’s sit down.  Let’s sit down and talk about how we make this work.”  I mean I fell in love with him and then he just happened to be this person that wanted to work everything out and he works out things you know even better than I can even think of. 

I think sometimes “Well, yeah, like one of us can’t go or you know we can’t figure this out.”  But we always seem to make things work and we have this respect in understanding that you know first things first, is our child is going to be in good hands.  Whether it’s with him or the child is with me or we have incredible grandparents that are always around so we – we make it work and there is this understanding that what’s important to you is important to me because if I don’t keep you happy you know I’m not going to be happy either and I find that people that say that they don’t have it all or that there’s no way to do it all, part of it is maybe you know maybe the goals aren’t realistic, I don’t know what their goals are but also I don’t know that there is a mutual respect on both sides for, you know what when I married you, you didn’t want – you only wanted two things and now you want three things.  Well, we just move with the flow.  It’s like okay, well you changed what you wanted but how do I still do things to keep you happy. And I don’t know that everyone really goes of their way to do that for the other person.

How to Set Expectations in a Marriage - Nina Godiwalla

In Chapter 22 of 22 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, author Nina Godiwalla answers "What Has Your Marriage Taught You About Sacrifice and Teamwork?"  She shares how she and her husband blend fiercely independent attitudes with a deep support for one another.  Godiwalla is the author of "Suits: A Woman on Wall Street".  She is also a public speaker on workplace diversity and founder and CEO of Mindworks, where she teaches mind-based stress reduction (MBSR) techniques to help organizations improve employee wellbeing.  Godiwalla holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, an MA in Creative Writing from Dartmouth University and her BBA from the University of Texas at Austin. 

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen:  What has your marriage taught you about sacrifice and teamwork?

Nina Godiwalla:  Teamwork is important.  I definitely think teamwork is important. My marriage is very independent.  My husband and I, we pretty much do whatever we want whenever we want and I – we're both like incredibly stubborn people, we’re very like fiercely independent at the end of the day there’s nothing he could die without me for, there’s nothing I could die without having him for.  We just love being with each other and doing things together. 

People talk a lot about compromise and things you have to do and I feel like the compromises for us have not been huge at all.  We go out of our way for each other to make things work. The teamwork is, is wanting that other person to succeed in what they want in life at all times.  So we don’t have – one of the things is lifestyle.  We talk about all the time about lifestyle and part of it is, “Hey do we want this—do we want a big house or do we want that apartment down the street,” because right now maybe we both want to start up our own companies or we both want to do this and we’re so flexible.  There’s not – there’s no expectation, there’s no big expectations in our marriage other than I’m looking out for you and you look out for me.  There’s no expectation of you were supposed to bring in this much money this year.  There’s no expectation of you know I spent six hours with our son today so now you need to spend six hours.  It’s hey, what’s going on with you? Can we make this work? And when you have that other person always looking out for you there’s not a lot of threat of you know this is unfair or this didn’t happen and it does happen sometimes with us but we’ll just you know we’ll you know say to the other person like “Hey, I actually don’t think this is working out this way.” 

And when I hear people talk about like the difficulties of marriage or things like that it’s like, “Well, you know I have to cook every night, I have to do this every night.”  And we don’t even have that. Like nobody – if nobody cooks, nobody cooks.  If there’s no food I mean there’s – a lot of times there is no food.  It’s like you get your own food if you want to eat, you want to eat.  If we want to eat together then somebody might make something but there’s just – those expectations are so limited in my marriage that it just works for us.

What Motivates an Author to Write - Nina Godiwalla

In Chapter 1 of 14, "Suits: A Woman on Wall Street" author Nina Godiwalla shares why she writes. Daily interactions with inspiring individuals motivates Godiwalla to reflect, learn, and embrace the creative medium. Godiwalla embraces shared experiences and the associated inspiration Godiwalla and, it is hoped, her readers encounter.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: Why do you write?

Nina Godiwall: I want to constantly be growing as a person and for writing I think it’s an opportunity to actually stop and reflect on what goes on because I think we can just live our life and never reflect and never learn from it and for me writing is that opportunity to stop and think and learn.

What I hope and I do this, this is what I like to do through writing, is I’m constantly interacting with people, I definitely have a world that I create where I am with people that I find inspiring and I hope to inspire other people, through writing I think of it as sharing an experience and letting people create that experience, take in that experience and create for themselves what they need to and for me that is my way of sharing and kind of reciprocating. And with writing I think it’s interesting because you have that opportunity not just to see the people that you meet in person in your life but you have that opportunity to affect people that you may never know, you may never see them.

How Sharing and Reciprocation Improve Learning - Nina Godiwalla

In Chapter 2 of 14 of her 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, author Nina Godiwalla answers "Why are sharing and reciprocation essential to how you learn?" Godiwalla highlights human nature to compare and contrast oneself with others.  Sharing and reciprocation highlight how there is so much to learn from others.  Using this approach enables improved personal growth.  Godiwalla notes how sharing and reciprocation have allowed her to be progressively more open-minded as an adult.

Nina Godiwalla is the author of "Suits: A Woman on Wall Street" and the founder and CEO of Mindworks, a provider of leadership, stress management, and diversity training programs. Before starting her business and writing her book, Godiwalla worked at Johnson & Johnson and Oxygen Media and investment banking at Morgan Stanley. Godiwalla earned an MBA from Wharton, a MA from Dartmouth and a BBA from the University of Texas.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: Why are sharing and reciprocation so essential to how you learn?

Nina Godiwalla: I definitely look to other people to learn about myself, I think we define ourselves through other people, we’re constantly… when we’re with people we decide how we’re going to be like that person and how we’re not going to be like that person, it’s just our nature of comparing and contrasting and I think that sharing and reciprocating is just critical in doing that because you’re taking things to a different level, you’re not just saying ‘this is the way it is’, you’re saying ‘ how can I, how can we learn from each other’ and for me I think that’s just a critical way of, again, going back to growth, growing as a person.

Erik Michielsen: And how as that approach kinda changed as you’ve gotten older?

Nina Godiwalla: I think when I was younger I thought I knew everything and there’s moments where I still think I know everything but really I definitely see it as… I definitely think I’ve transformed quite a bit in that I realize there’s so much I can learn from other people and I was definitely one of those kids that didn’t always see the world that way.

How Prison Entrepreneurship Program Inspires Volunteer - Nina Godiwalla

In Chapter 3 of 14, "Suits: A Woman on Wall Street" author Nina Godiwalla volunteers at the Prison Entrepreneurship Program to teach convicted felons business and life skills necessary to successfully re-enter society. Through the process, Godiwalla unexpectedly learns from the prisoners, who share stories of mental transformation.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: What did you learn teaching character building and relationship skills to inmates as part of the Prison Entrepreneur Program?

Nina Godiwalla: I actually wrote an article about that for the Houston Chronicle because I was really moved by the experience. We were brought in with the idea that we were business leaders and we were going to be teaching these inmates about how to run a business and I was really excited about that, I thought these people are going to be coming out very soon and regardless of what they’ve done, it’s not a conversation about what did you do in past, it’s ‘hey you’re going to be out and you’ll be out soon and what can we come in and teach you and how can we help you be successful when you come out?’

That was my impression going in and that was a lot of business people’s impression, I think there was about thirty of us at the time when I went and I was a little bit floored by the experience because it ended up the prisoners taught us, at least me, something much more significant and it was largely about building their own character and… what was amazing is… these people were just so happy, they had really gone through like a significant mind-shift and mental transformation through this program that they were experiencing and they came in and honestly, I’ll be honest they really inspired a bunch of business people and the business people were completely humbled walking in and thinking ‘what can I teach you’ was our attitude and I walked out that day and I thought these were people full of passion full of energy. I never expected to walk into a prison and have people that passionate and that was a transformational experience for me. And you could see that these people, the way they shared their stories and were very open, they had personally, several of the ones that spoke had gone through some very difficult times and really used those difficult experiences to transform in a very positive way.

Erik Michielsen: Can you remember like one of the stories that sticks with you most?

Nina Godiwalla: There’s one story because it’s so close to heart for a lot of business people is that, there was just a guy that, he was a sales guy and he’d gone out drinking and the way he explained it is ‘That’s what we did, I was in sales and we used go out, we were with clients we would drink, came home, I had a couple drinks that night, I was on the freeway and I probably didn’t see it fast enough but there was a parked car on the freeway on the side’ and he ran into the car and killed somebody. And he said ‘You know, I’ve been in sales for forty years’ and… I think for business people we expected… expect someone to just be murdering people just randomly all these, you know, ridiculous thoughts and fears that were going through our head and it was just, a lot of the stories were, you know, some guy put software on his wife’s computer or girlfriend’s computer and was in jail so. What was insightful is that a lot of people were in situations that it wouldn’t be crazy for someone that you, someone in our world to know somebody that might be in that situation and just to give people that opportunity, that second chance.

Why to Challenge Yourself to Experience New Things - Nina Godiwalla

In Chapter 4 of 14, author Nina Godiwalla answers "How has experimentation helped you live more fully in how you live each day?" Godiwalla shares why she constantly seeks new experiences to broaden her perspective on life and the decisions she makes.  Godiwalla prioritizes pushing beyond the socioeconomic and professional environments she sees daily.  She finds value seeing how other people operate and do things differently.

Nina Godiwalla is the author of "Suits: A Woman on Wall Street" and the founder and CEO of Mindworks, a provider of leadership, stress management, and diversity training programs. Before starting her business and writing her book, Godiwalla worked at Johnson & Johnson and Oxygen Media and investment banking at Morgan Stanley. Godiwalla earned an MBA from Wharton, a MA from Dartmouth and a BBA from the University of Texas. 

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How has experimentation helped you live more fully in what you do each day?

Nina Godiwalla: I just think it’s critical to my world. I constantly want to see new things, I want to see how people are operating, I want to have a better understanding of other people and people’s perspectives and, you know, we live in our world and a lot of times as much as I do like to experiment and see different things, day to day I’m with people not that different from me, I’m with people that are just similar, professionally, socioeconomic class and I love to get out and do and see different things. And really what it is, is it challenges me, it challenges me to realize I’m operating on assumptions everyday and that is what I think is critical in life. To me that’s growing, that’s growing as a person, trying to understand other people’s perspective, trying to move forward and come up with something that’s bigger than just ‘This is my – this is my little life in my little world’.

How Female Investment Banker Confronts Stereotyping - Nina Godiwalla

In Chapter 5 of 14 of her 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, author Nina Godiwalla answers "How have you embraced being a fish out of water in your education, career and travels and what have you enjoyed most about the challenges they present?" Godiwalla shares how she finds herself a fish out of water in New York City upon graduating college.  Coming from Texas, public schools, and Parsi education into Wall Street as a female investment banker teaches Godiwalla about outsider status firsthand.  Godiwalla makes the most from an oft uncomfortable experience by turning lessons learned into education opportunities for other women considering an investment banking career.

Nina Godiwalla is the author of "Suits: A Woman on Wall Street" and the founder and CEO of Mindworks, a provider of leadership, stress management, and diversity training programs. Before starting her business and writing her book, Godiwalla worked at Johnson & Johnson and Oxygen Media and investment banking at Morgan Stanley. Godiwalla earned an MBA from Wharton, a MA from Dartmouth and a BBA from the University of Texas.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How have you embraced being a fish out of water in your education, career and travels and what have you enjoyed most about the challenges it presents?

Nina Godiwalla: When I went to New York I felt like I went to a different country and in a lot of ways I did, I mean I was going into a completely, the people I was with were a completely different socioeconomic class, not all of them but a lot of them, a lot of, they were all Ivy League, I was a kid, I was a public school kid coming from UT and there were other public school kids, it was just coming from Texas, it just the everything put together. I didn’t know people perceived Texas as so different in the US, that was probably one of the most startling things for me is that I didn’t know I was supposed to be living on a ranch.

There’s always been a sense of an outsider because I was an immigrant so I know I can be like other people but at the same, I mean I can be like the average American if I need to be, but I know that when I walk into my parents’ house, there’s a completely different environment that I walk into. And so that… going into that investment banking I think it was just startling for me, I didn’t know how different I was, I mean it made my childhood experience of growing up in a suburb as an immigrant look like nothing and then again, like I said, being a woman I didn’t even know that was going to be such a big deal, it’s just all of a sudden all these different aspects of my life that were everyday to me became suddenly they were outsider status and… that was very, to have all those different things happen all at once was, was challenging for me. That’s what I try and do for my book is look back at it and say ‘What can I learn from this?’ and that’s all I can do and I can help share the experience for other people that might be going through the same thing and after that, there it is.

How Parsi Immigrant Community Builds Support Network - Nina Godiwalla

In Chapter 6 of 14 in her 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, author Nina Godiwalla answers "What does it mean to be Persian-Indian-American living in the United States today?" Godiwalla connects her ancient Persian-Indian, or Parsi, culture to modern times through experiencing the benefits of immigrant community support across the United States.  Descended from 10th century Iranian Zoroastrians who immigrated to India and, the United States based Parsi culture is small and extremely close-knit. The culture values achievement and organizes a network to promote successful community members.  Godiwalla experiences this first hand as she relocates to Philadelphia to enter MBA studies at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business.  Unexpected support provides Godiwalla firm footing to successfully transition into a new home and school.

Nina Godiwalla is the author of "Suits: A Woman on Wall Street" and the founder and CEO of Mindworks, a provider of leadership, stress management, and diversity training programs. Before starting her business and writing her book, Godiwalla worked at Johnson & Johnson and Oxygen Media and investment banking at Morgan Stanley. Godiwalla earned an MBA from Wharton, a MA from Dartmouth and a BBA from the University of Texas.

Transcript:

Erik: What does it mean to be a Persian-Indian-American living in the United States today?

Nina: Persian-Indian is kind of an easier way of explaining it to people what it is; it’s actually called, it’s called Parsi is the name of the community and it’s really based off of a religious background, it’s Zoroastrianism, which is, what I -- the way I describe it is some people remember the word cause you remember you learned it in your seventh grade history class, it was literally a vocabulary word as I remember it and it’s a very, very ancient religion that was based out of ancient Persia and it was a very prominent religion thousands of years ago. There’s a group of people, some of them stayed but some of them fled and moved to India and those people are called Parsis, they’re originally Persians and they fled to India but this was a very long time ago, like maybe a thousand years ago or so.

So that group has a mixed culture, because their ancestry is Persian, their culture is Indian and my parents, they grew up in India and then we were born and raised -- their kids were born and raised in America so I was born here and it’s a very small community, there’s only about a hundred -- the numbers are all crazy but about two hundred thousand in the world today. When they moved to the US, you tend to move to the cities where the other ones live because everybody helps each other out and so they’re in the largest cities, Houston, my parents came to Houston because it’s one of the places where there is this very tight Parsi community. And one of the things I’ve found from my experience is that they’re very focused on achievement and people being successful and just as immigrants, I think the combination of my parents being immigrants and going through such difficult times, and growing up in a community where, it’s also a community that is very tight and wants, I’ve found, people to be successful, their community members to be very successful.

The combination has been this incredible support system for me and every moment, like when I got an internship in New York City and we’d never -- I’d never been to New York City, we didn’t know anything about it, it was scary when you’re coming out of this tiny little suburb in Houston. I had a whole ‘nother community over there that was going to support me, somebody gave a place, one of our what we call “aunties” gave me a place to live and for free, she was just like ‘Absolutely we want you, you got a job here, this is fantastic come live with me for free, I want you to succeed, I want things to go well for you’. People would throw me birthday parties, I mean I’d never met these people. It’s just, you know, it’s just that kind of environment of, and my husband is in Mauritius right and he, somebody learned that he, he met a Parsi person and he mentioned ‘Oh my wife is Parsi’ and she was like ‘Well come on over! Come to our house!’ and it’s that kind of environment wherever you are in the world somebody’s going to invite you to their house if they know what you are and I actually, I was very insistent about keeping my last name because it actually, people find you, like the Parsis find you.

When I went to business school and I was Wharton I got an email within my first two weeks of being there and there’s so few Parsi but like one woman from some side of the Penn side emailed me and said ‘I found the two or three Parsis that were, like, enrolled this year’ and it was just this fascinating thing and then of course she had like little events for us and she kind of hosted us and it’s just this really fascinating, like, very unusual for modern day to grow up in that kind of a community.

How Second Generation Immigrant Opens Dialogue with Parents - Nina Godiwalla

In Chapter 7 of 14 of her 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, "Suits: A Woman on Wall Street" author Nina Godiwalla shares the difficulty expressing her experiences as a second-generation Parsi immigrant to her parents. Godiwalla turns to writing, where she is able to share her side of the story and, specifically, go into detail on the challenges of being both an American girl and an outsider from an immigrant family. The difficult process teaches Godiwalla about her parents own experiences and difficulties, ultimately creating an openness allowing both sides to understand the other.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: What have your experiences as a second-generation immigrant taught your parents about what it means to be American?

Nina Godiwalla: Wow, what have I taught my parents? It’s funny, we just, my, I feel like every day can be a culture clash in our household, I was just with my family this weekend and it was funny, my mom was like ‘I’m not going to do it that way! That way’s American! You’re trying to force me to do it that way!’ and I was like ‘I don’t want to do it that way! This is the way we do it!’ And after I’ve written my book, which is, I have to say a lot of things have aired out because largely the book is -- what the book covers, part of what it covers, is how I kind of grew up in this American Culture, my parents grew up in a different country and had no idea what we were going through, I mean they just couldn’t have even, I still remember my mom like saw something on TV, she was like ‘There aren’t drugs in your school are there?’

I mean we never had anything like that, it was just always this constant, you know we’re operating on two different planes and for them, it’s been a learning experience on both sides, it’s been such an extreme learning experience and my book allows me to tell my side of ‘Hey dad, when you were telling me to do this the whole time this is what I was going through’ and it hasn’t allowed my parents to ever say their side, it’s very much my perspective and that’s all I know and what just dumbfounds me about my parents is I’d always expected like a guilt trip like ‘Do you understand I did this and this and this? And do you understand…’ and you get it a little bit from them but it’s just so rare, to know how different their experience was and what I’m getting after writing my book and having -- I had to have my parents read it and say ‘Look this is what’s going out, you can be mad at me, we can talk about it, whatever’ I’ve had them read it and you know they’ve had to, it’s not their perspective, it’s my perspective and what is beautiful for me though is it’s opened up this conversation and I wanted the book to open up a dialogue for a broader audience, I never expected it would open up a dialogue for my family.

And what’s great to me is my dad just doesn’t complain about life, it’s just this is what it is, everyday is this is what it is, it’s just, its very rare that he complains and he, just to hear his perspective on some stuff for the first time in my life to hear him say -- and I’m not even necessarily getting it from him, his brother was actually helping me understand, he said ‘Do you understand that we did this and this and this?’ and just thought ‘No, my dad’s never said that to me, he’s never said how difficult it was for them when they came from America, I don’t understand’.

And I don’t know their perspective and it’s been, it’s -- and I think that’s why it can be very difficult when you’re having completely experiences and I honestly, they can’t understand and we want to understand each other but, wow, I just have to say it’s so completely different. And I’m excited that my family’s moving towards that, we’re trying. It’s not easy and I think it’ll take a very long time but we’re trying to open up that dialogue and I hope to learn their perspective and all we can do right now is just learn from each other as much as we can.

How Austin Leadership Group Creates Community Purpose - Nina Godiwalla

In Chapter 8 of 14 of her 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, "Suits: A Woman on Wall Street" author Nina Godiwalla joins Leadership Austin to apply her corporate experience in helping the local community. The experience exposes Godiwalla to new groups, which broadens her thinking. As a result, Godiwalla finds new ways to apply her passion to be responsible and accountable in her actions.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: What has your involvement in Leadership Austin done to shape your sense of community responsibility and citizenship?

Nina Godiwalla: So the Leadership Austin brings together people that are passionate about seeing our community as bigger and passionate about making a difference in the community, so we have business -- people in the business world, people in the nonprofit world, artists, people in the political world and how do we all come together and learn from each other. For me specifically, for me it’s been a really interesting experience because one, I was not exposed to these people, I have very much been in corporate America for the majority of my professional life and those are the people I learned from, so for me, I feel like it’s allowed me to think much broader about completely different perspectives really.

I didn’t know what is was like to, what a lobbyist, what their life was like and for me I’m finding passion within all these different groups and I feel this complete responsibility of how do we come together and actually do something. And one great example is we had an education day and we had students actually come in from the high schools and tell us ‘this is what it’s like, this is what’s working for me in high school and this is what’s not’ and in central Texas there’s a lot of issues around education, in terms of they need to be brought up to different standards and so we got to hear from people that have these great experiences and people that are not. And Austin is described as somewhat segregated so if you live in certain parts of town you may never see other people from different socioeconomic classes and that kind of a thing. So you can chose to live in that world but Leadership Austin has taught me that’s not ok, it’s not ok to live in that world and it’s not ok just to be with your own kind of people.

And what I think is amazing what they’re doing is saying that there is some sort of accountability because one of the things I thought was great that they did in education class is say ‘Ok you can send your kids to that fantastic school, you can have your kids around all those other kids that way, but when your kid gets out there might not be a job for your kid and let us explain to you the business reason, the whole reason why that if you don’t pay attention to what’s happening in this other neighborhood it’s going to affect your life’. And on one hand I thought how unfortunate that we have to say that to people, that you have to be concerned because it’s going to affect your kid’s life, but if that’s what it is, that’s what it is. You know, if that’s what’s going to convince people that we’re all one and we need to figure out a way to work together and it’s amazing because people really do start to listen, it was like suddenly like ‘Oh really, my kid’s not going to have a job?’

How Dartmouth Program Enables Creative Career in Business - Nina Godiwalla

In Chapter 9 of 14 of her 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, "Suits: A Woman on Wall Street" author Nina Godiwalla answers "Why did you decide to leave business temporarily to study liberal arts and pursue a master’s degree at Dartmouth?"  After spending two years working in investment banking, Godiwalla decides to attend a Masters of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS) at Dartmouth University to explore her creative side. Godiwalla makes this decision after taking a Myers-Briggs personality test to identify undeveloped interests. There she learns about relationships, people and understanding before deciding to move on to her MBA at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: Why did you decide to leave business temporarily to study liberal arts and pursue a master’s degree at Dartmouth?

Nina Godiwalla: As an undergrad I studied finance, I went straight into investment banking, I worked in finance after that for a while and there was something about the business world that wasn’t completely fulfilling me and I couldn’t put my finger on it and, this is so hokey, but I actually, I did a personality test and I love the Myers-Briggs and I did a personality test and I was trying to figure out -- all my friends were going to business school a few years out of you work in -- you do investment banking especially and it’s like a two year program, it’s a feeder into business school.  And I was, you know I could’ve just filled out the application and I could’ve just gone but I felt like something was missing.

And so I was doing all these personality tests and trying to figure what is it that’s missing and oddly enough the personality tests were – I found what really resonated for me and a lot of the people their careers were completely different, they were psychologists, they were writers, they were -- there was something creative about what they were doing or it was something based off of people and a lot of the finance I was doing didn’t have that whole element of people and relationships and understanding and I knew that had to be integrated into my business world. I had a sense that I was going to business school afterwards but I wanted the option to say ‘Let me explore what I’m doing, let me explore this liberal arts that I looked into and if it ends up that I go to business school afterwards, great. If it ends up I have this completely different career and I find this dream, you know that’s great too.’

What to Consider Before Investing in an MBA Education - Nina Godiwalla

In Chapter 10 of 14 of her 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, "Suits: A Woman on Wall Street" author and Wharton MBA graduate Nina Godiwalla answers "What questions should early career professionals ask themselves before applying for an MBA program?" Godiwalla reflects on her experience researching and then attending the Wharton MBA program at the University of Pennsylvania. There, she learns the importance of preparation and research going into school. While in school, Godiwalla encourages students be open to possibilities while also maintaining a clear purpose on larger picture investment returns. These may be building a network or developing expertise in a particular business field. Godiwalla cautions against planning the future too far and overlooking the often randomly occurring opportunities that pop up. For her, it was creating a meditation program for MBAs, which then helped her start a business years after graduation.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: What questions should early career professionals ask themselves before applying for an MBA program?

Nina Godiwalla: I think the whole business school experience is pretty – it can be transformational if you allow it to be so I don’t think they have to know exactly what they’re doing but think they should have a sense of what they’re going there, what they’re going there for. I don’t think it has to be laid out the way we do lay out our business school applications and I think a lot of people say ‘I just laid it out because that’s what I was supposed to do.’ But I think you should have a sense of what you’re going in there for and I also think a lot of people when I was in business school, especially entrepreneurs, felt this was a very stifling environment and there were a lot of people that were a little bitter that they were there. There was a group of people that thought ‘This wasn’t the right experience for me’ and a lot of them had wished that they had researched it a little bit more.

Business school is an animal of its own and just going in to go to business school to get the letters, I just don’t think it makes sense and especially when you’re putting – you’re investing in it in that kind of a way. So you have to, I think you should have to have a clear picture of what it is, if it’s ‘These two things I’m trying to get, I’m trying to really create that network for myself and I’m trying to find something that really resonates for me in the business world and I want this broad exposure’. I think that makes more sense than saying ‘I know for sure I’m going to be a management consultant specifically in the health care industry’ because if you completely define what you’re doing after that you can put blinders on.

And one of the things that was a little surprising to me, I never thought I would ever use this in the business world, is when I -- I did something I was really passionate about while I was in business school, I was involved with a lot of different things, but I started the meditation program there and who would have ever thought like later on I would’ve actually used that in the business world, I did it because I wanted to, I wanted to expose business school students to something that I felt was very valuable and then later in my life I’ve actually used it to create my own business. There’s no way me or anyone else that was sitting there would’ve thought that that’s something I would’ve used in the future in terms of business and I think that was a good example of taking that opportunity to do things that you’re really – you’re excited about because you’re going to learn something about yourself through that experience.

How Meditation Program Helps MBAs Overcome Fear Culture - Nina Godiwalla

In Chapter 11 of 14 of her 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, Wharton MBA graduate and "Suits: A Woman on Wall Street" author Nina Godiwalla answers "What prompted you to create Leadership at Lunch and expose MBA students to the benefits of meditation?" Godiwalla shares how she overcame the business school fear culture and peer pressure by using meditation. Godiwalla goes on to create a six-week "Leadership at Lunch" meditation program to help classmates find clarity in their ambitions and actions while earning their respective MBA degrees.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: What prompted you to create Leadership at Lunch and expose MBA students to the benefits of meditation?

Nina Godiwalla: So before I went to business school, I had been exposed to meditation probably maybe it was about five years before I went to business school and my exposure to meditation was really crazy. I was visiting my parents and I always like to try new things and they were going away for the weekend and I had my sister drop me off at a meditation retreat not realizing it was a very, very intensive retreat for advanced people which means you couldn’t talk to anyone, you couldn’t do anything for the entire weekend, you couldn’t look at a word, you couldn’t make eye contact, I literally took my contacts off and just walked around in like this blur. And I found it very frustrating because I’m a go, go, go person, let’s get something done.

My first few days was just quite miserable to be honest and by the third day I just found -- I didn’t find like peace and happiness in the whole world but there was something I just felt like there’s something to this. I found a sense, a little bit more sense of clarity, a sense of clarity and then from that experience when I went into business school I felt like it was the exact, there was a bit of craziness to it, there was like I said people put on their resume ‘this is what I’m going to do’, not on their resume their application, it’s almost like the first day we got there people were moving towards that goal, I mean it was a very, very fast pace and I felt I was losing my sense of clarity while I was in business school.

I wanted to just step back and just say ‘Are we clear about this? Are we clear about what we’re all so anxiously trying to go towards?’ and what amazed me is and it’s not just me, research has shown that there’s a lot of fear culture in that world, in business school, at times. And a lot of it is, you know, that person coming up to you is like ‘did you go to that meeting? Did you catch? Did you see that company that was here? Cause if you missed that meeting they’re not going to invite you to the next interview.’ And I feel like there was just a lot of that going on constantly, you know, ‘Did you get this on the exam, did you see the previews?’ and that mentality started to -- I got sucked into it and I was coming from a place where, I was coming from a liberal arts masters degree where it wasn’t necessarily that way.

And for me, I just thought ‘Can I expose people to something that I’ve found valuable’ and I created a program, it was a six week program where we lead a meditation and we brought in some experts from the area as well and a lot of people had never tried it, they didn’t know what it was but people, some people had that curiosity of ‘Huh, I wonder what it is’ and that’s exactly how I started when I got exposed to it and if someone got something out of it, beautiful, that’s all I could ask for.

Why MBA Students Should Consider Meditation - Nina Godiwalla

In Chapter 12 of 14, Wharton MBA graduate and "Suits: A Woman on Wall Street" author Nina Godiwalla highlights how MBA students can benefit from meditation. Godiwalla notes how external factors, including family and job, motivate our career ambitions. She shares how external factors, including television, movies, and sports, also relieve us of stress from our external ambitions. By teaching meditation, Godiwalla has found the internal awareness to be especially comforting to MBA students who are in high peer pressure environments where unnecessary urgency is often associated with decison making. The internal focus alleviates stress and provides a calming awareness and clarity to longer term focused decisions.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: Why should an MBA student consider meditation?

Nina Godiwalla: I think there’s just this universal feature within us that we have a way within ourselves to ground ourselves. I think often we look to external sources to find happiness, our spouse, children, our family, jobs, careers what ever it is, we look, that’s what we look through too often and then we find things that constantly distract us when we’re not – when those things aren’t working for us, TV, movies just, you know, what ever it is we find our own little distractions and instead of doing that there’s something inside that you can actually change the way you feel, the way you think and even understand, it’s just that initial awareness of what it is. So for me for MBA students there were people there who were very grounded and knew exactly what they wanted to do and I don’t know if they necessarily, if they probably had a way that they were doing that themselves, I think MBA students should consider it because it gives them a sense to feel comfortable with what they’re doing and step back and maybe operate in a way that in the long term is really going to pay them off and not necessarily just right now this looks like the right thing to be doing because everyone else is doing it.

How Meditation Improves Memoir Writing - Nina Godiwalla

In Chapter 13 of 14 in her 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, author Nina Godiwalla answers "How has meditating helped you be more self-aware and introspective in your writing?" Godiwalla notes how meditation has helped her be more present in every moment, choose where to put her attention, and apply this process in her memoir writing.  Her book "Suits: a Woman on Wall Street" covers some buried and even dark experiences.  The meditation helps Godiwalla get depth in understanding what happened and putting it down on paper.  As a result, she is able to take the reader to a different level in the storytelling experience. Nina Godiwalla is the author of "Suits: A Woman on Wall Street" and the founder and CEO of Mindworks, a provider of leadership, stress management, and diversity training programs. Before starting her business and writing her book, Godiwalla worked in corporate development at Johnson & Johnson and Oxygen Media and investment banking at Morgan Stanley. Godiwalla earned an MBA from Wharton, a MA from Dartmouth and a BBA from the University of Texas.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How has meditating helped you be more self aware and introspective in your writing?

Nina Godiwalla: For me meditation is a general term and it is for a lot of people as well, of being present in every moment so while we’re speaking actually really listening to what you’re saying and not having my mind think about ‘Oh wow, I’m really nervous, does this make sense? It’s a lifestyle in that I can choose where I’m putting my attention, meditation is choosing where you put your attention at every single moment of your life.

So in terms of being able to take that self awareness and understand and quietly be with myself and be comfortable, it’s completely affected my writing specifically the book I’ve written because it’s a memoir and it’s about my life. One of the things is I think we go through experiences and if they don’t work the way we want them to work we kind of can bury them someplace else. And to be honest some of the stuff I wrote about were definitely things that I buried, I didn’t want to go back, I didn’t want to think about them and meditation allows me -- gives me the safety and comfort with myself to go back and visit those experiences and not just visit them but try and understand why I put myself in that situation, why that happened and get that depth and in all honesty when you’re writing you want to take people to that different level, you don’t want to – it doesn’t need to just be ‘Hey this is what happened’ its kind of like, ‘I’m trying to understand what happened’ and when you’re meditating you’re actually getting comfortable enough with yourself to where you’re not denying things, you’re not -- you’re saying ‘I accept the way I acted, I accept what happened and let me take it to a different level’ and I think that way you’re able to take the reader to a different level.

Why Morgan Stanley Banker Seeks Female Role Models - Nina Godiwalla

In Chapter 14 of 14 in her 2010 Capture Your Flag interview, ex-Morgan Stanley investment banker and author Nina Godiwalla answers "How have female role models and mentors given you strength and support on your journey to date?" Godiwalla shares why female role models are so critical in building a corporate finance career.  Godiwalla faces challenges and seeks counsel in mid-to-senior level female bankers who make themselves available to support more junior peers.  Godiwalla goes on to found a Morgan Stanley Women's Committee to help those needing guidance and support.

Nina Godiwalla is the author of "Suits: A Woman on Wall Street" and the founder and CEO of Mindworks, a provider of leadership, stress management, and diversity training programs. Before starting her business and writing her book, Godiwalla worked at Johnson & Johnson and Oxygen Media and investment banking at Morgan Stanley. Godiwalla earned an MBA from Wharton, a MA from Dartmouth and a BBA from the University of Texas.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How have female role models and mentors given you strength and support on your journey to date?

Nina Godiwalla: I’ve lived in different cities, I’ve been in different countries… there are moments in my life where I am very, very aware that I am a woman and one of the most striking examples is when I was in investment banking and I didn’t have this awareness of being, usually it’s like, there’s different things that stand out depending on what environment you’re in and for me I was in a group, I was the only woman in my group for a while while I was in investment banking and it’s just a completely different culture that I wasn’t very familiar with. That was one of the times in life I realized I really need -- I need somebody that’s done this, I need a woman around me to help me kind of navigate the system. And I would say before that in life I hadn’t necessarily, I was not seeking out woman mentors and when I was at college getting a finance degree at UT, I wasn’t -- there wasn’t an attitude of ‘Here, let me find other women’.

But being thrown into that environment that was so different suddenly I really desperately, quite desperately sought, really sought other women and what was interesting to me about the investment banking world is there were definitely -- the women that had been there, there were so few that had been there for a very, very long time but I found that there was very different perspectives with women, some people were ‘Yes, let me help you, let me… let me help you, how can we do this, what is it that you -- how can we work, how can I be your mentor’ and then there were other people of ‘You’ve got to rough it out, this is what it is and we don’t need to talk about the things that are happening and if this isn’t working for you just keep pushing through, put your head down, keep pushing through’ and I obviously I gravitated towards people that is actually something that I want to discuss and talk about different things and I couldn’t have made it through in a lot of ways without those mentors.

The experience I had was in corporate finance which was a kind of experience where it’s a little notorious for keeping you working all the time and you don’t really necessarily have that time to reflect and think about things. I started a Morgan Stanley women’s committee because I found people were looking for some guidance and they just had no idea where to go. Because they would look to the people about a year ahead of them and those people, there was an analyst program and those people were so busy and then the senior women were just, they were so senior that and there were so few of them that you just wouldn’t go call one of them up and say ‘Hey I had a bad day today can I talk to you?’ So it was really kind of bringing a group of women together is what I started because I found that was the way people were going to help get through, cause a lot of women would start coming to me with their issues and this was happening and this kind of stuff was happening and so I thought why don’t we bring this group together.