Gautami Nadkarni

I attribute my success to my sheer rigor to do better in life. I came from a very humble background when I was in India. I grew up with obviously very great, loving parents, but money was always - I mean, it was an issue. I came from a middle-class background where you had to always budget everything, and I feel like as I grew in my career and with my education, the zeal to do better, and to be financially independent, and just inspire people to do the same, kind of keeps me going. All of this that I've achieved is purely because of all the core values that I grew up with, which is doing good for obviously you, your family, and people around you. So I would attribute it to obviously my upbringing, but also my education, and having great mentors along the way, and someone who looks like me doing what I'm doing, and just having to have that for others.

The best career advice I've received is to keep learning. I think that's the essence of who you are, always. You'll always be a student. Always spend time in learning. Another piece of advice that I think I have received in my career is knowing the right people always helps. So it's important - networking and growing your circle. Because you alone, obviously, can do a lot of things, but you always need people to back you up when you're not in the room.

I think building a personal brand is non-negotiable at this point. When I say personal brand, I mean having an opinion about something. What makes you you is something that I started doing recently, or a few years ago, not in the beginning of my career, because I was in that herd mentality. And then the moment I started differentiating myself, I think that's when things started to turn for me.

Being the minority and a person of color, specifically in tech, has been a challenge from an inclusivity standpoint, where I guess you have to work harder or at least be a certain way to be taken seriously. From a tech standpoint, AI, or even cloud for that matter, is constantly changing. Every new thing has become relevant for that period. You have to constantly be on top of things, so that's a big challenge where I have to read a lot, just being updated with what's happening in the world, relate that back to the customer, and just being good at that. I feel like that's a challenge.

From a value standpoint, I think just being a good person in the end matters in whatever you do, because that reflects in the conversations you have with your customers and also with your friends and family. Believing in yourself, I think, has definitely been a differentiator, because being a woman in tech, I'm always in the minority, and to have that word of power, or being in a room where you might be taken for granted - I think in those situations, if you start doubting yourself, others would do the same. So I feel like I channeled that energy of believing in myself and being confident on what I bring to the table. Also, it's okay to fail, and accepting failure as a way to succeed, because unless and until you haven't failed, you won't improve on things, and being okay with that. Because I think when we fall, we spend too much time dwelling on it, but pick yourself back up and go on. I think that's the most important thing.