Life Transforming: The Journey of Writing “Being Your Best” By Bollapragada Sairam | Exclusive Interview

Ladies and gentlemen welcome to today’s online interview. We have the pleasure of hosting Bollapragada Sairam, the brilliant mind behind the inspiring book “Being Your Best.” In this interview, we will delve into the author’s motivations, the impact of their coaching, and the profound message they hope to convey to readers.

Get ready to be inspired and motivated as we explore the transformative power of Bollapragada Sairam’s book and his unwavering commitment to helping individuals become their best selves.

1. What inspired you to write “Being Your Best” and what message do you hope to convey to your readers?

Answer: Unlike yesteryears, today’s generation has so many career choices to make at hand, but many still feel pressured to pursue traditional careers due to their family/society’s expectations. This can lead to people losing time trying to build careers they may not enjoy or can’t excel in.

This book is aimed at helping those who are at the beginning or middle of their careers or life and want to re-evaluate their life journey. It is particularly useful for youngsters who are planning their career graphs and milestones. It emphasizes the importance of bridging passion, happiness, and livelihood in one’s career and life.

2. What was your initial feeling when you started writing? How much time did you take to complete this book?

Answer: When some asked me to write a book (since they were reading my blogs regularly), I laughed it off saying “Writing a blog is different, and writing a book needs a lot of patience and I may not have the same to write a book”. It also definitely requires a lot of discipline. That is how the journey started.

Well, to be frank, at the same time, I was not keen to pen an ‘also in the pack’ book. So when I started pulling together exercises as value-adds to each of the chapters, I started feeling the urge to complete it. I started seeing progress as I religiously grilled myself with self-discipline with a daily writing slot. I could finish the first draft in 40 days. The final version took me another 20-25 days.

3. What inspired you to become a coach/mentor to young IT professionals, and how has your coaching helped others achieve success in their careers?

Answer: There is great satisfaction in helping youngsters succeed. I have been doing this for years and realized that many of us with 25+ years of experience often fail to pass on our life’s learnings to the next generation. Mentorship and coaching can be a lifeline for the new gen, who need guidance in their fast-paced personal and professional lives. While treating these two areas separately is important, factors like happiness and work-life balance can impact both, if not dealt with smartly.

One of my coachees told me he is lost in a spaghetti between his professional and personal life. After we went through some self-realization retro sessions, he could reorganize his set of priorities and he could see things falling into place. That helped him sort out things quickly. Most of the chaos in life is due to a lack of direction and in the dynamic lives today, it is natural to keep losing track every now and then very easily due to the stress it brings in.

4. Do you think the exercises in the book can help readers discover their true purpose in life?

Answer: This is a serious attempt to help somebody discover their passion, their purpose and firm up on their life goals. So mere preaching does not help since it would be one more discourse.

When people are able to decide on the “what” of life, by doing the exercise, they are actually addressing the ‘How‘ part. Allowing life to happen without a clear understanding of one’s passion can lead to a loss of ‘entitlement’ to complain in life. The exercises in this book compel individuals to think and reflect on the life they want to live.

Some readers have found the exercises useful in sorting out their aspirations, while others have found them to help balance their ambitions, desires, skills, and market opportunities.

The idea is for the readers to discover themselves and their passion, documenting through journaling the factors that can bring about the desired change. Completing the BoLT (Book of Life Transformation) has been a compelling as well as satisfying experience for the readers as they keep telling me.

5. How important is it to align one’s passion with their life’s purpose and how does your book help readers achieve this?

Answer: Aligning your passion with your life’s purpose is crucial for leading a fulfilled life and achieving long-term success. My book attempts to provide readers with different perspectives and thought-provoking exercises to help them reflect on their aspirations and discover their true calling. It encourages readers to pursue their true passions, especially if they can lead to a successful livelihood.

For instance, one of the individuals who initially pursued engineering and accomplished huge success academically, eventually found greater satisfaction and success in fashion design. The book emphasizes that pursuing one’s passion can lead to a sense of pride and personal achievement thereby increasing your self-esteem. Ultimately, the book serves as a guide to help readers discover their own paths and pursue their passions with conviction. You don’t need a nudge from anybody.

6. What advice do you have for readers who may feel overwhelmed or discouraged in their journey to become their best selves

Answer: Simple straight way to look at it: It is YOUR life! You don’t have a choice to give up but to prepare to win. It is not about Wins or Losses, it is about how you prepare to handle them.

However, getting ‘overwhelmed’ or ‘discouraged’ are temporary phenomena in life. If you were to be given a guarantee of no failure, what would you do? Some questions like this are aimed at compelling thought engineering for self that plays on your mind. Fear is the enemy of every winning opportunity, every time, in everyone’s lives….and when you get over it, your dreams will grow wings automatically.

7. As someone who has created many world-class Global IT Teams in your career, what are some key strategies or best practices you believe are essential for building effective and high-performing teams?

Answer: Team building is an art. You need to put a few things in perspective starting from clearly defining the team’s goals and objectives, to getting the right-spirited team members and fostering a culture of innovation, trust, and collaboration with open communication. These ingredients need to be spiced up with regular but honest feedback to the team members. Since everybody wants to succeed, the teams will succeed if you can build the right leadership around it. My next book is about this itself.

8. Curious now. So what is your next book about? When will that come out?

Answer: That is in the thought workshop now. But some requests have come in asking me to write on corporate topics. I know there are so many books on this genre out there.. so I have to think cautiously and differently. I will surely let you know when I start penning down the same.