218: How Vivek Viswanathan Worked His Way to the White House

Vivek Viswanathan is one of the brightest, kindest, most thoughtful individuals I have ever known. A son of immigrant parents, Vivek excelled in school attending Harvard, Cambridge, and Stanford. He then excelled in business, working for McKinsey (kind of) and Kleiner Perkins. Then Vivek excelled in politics working for Governor Brown, Governor Newsom, Hilary Clinton’s presidential campaign, and eventually serving as Special Assistant to the President of the United States. In this episode we walk through Vivek’s career progression as well as some of the lessons he learned along the way. We also discuss the following:

• While I was intrigued by so many things in this interview, starting with how high-school Vivek preferred policy camp to sports camp, I was especially intrigued by Vivek’s perspective on living an integrated life: combining our values and passions, and then spending time with people who reflect those values.
• Vivek is a master at building and maintaining relationships, and then constantly striving to learn all he can from others.
• While Vivek's professional achievements are remarkable, I’m most impressed by his commitment to doing good in the world.
• As Vivek reminded us, to achieve anything worthwhile in life, we have to work really hard, all the while accepting the uncontrollable.

 

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