My earliest birthday memories are of me celebrating my 6th, surrounded by my entire family and friends, music, multiple - cakes and lots of presents and this continued till I was at least 11. The older I got, the cakes got smaller and the number of people I celebrated with became even smaller. By the time I got to my thirties, I would prefer chilling with a hand full of friends and treating it like any other day. These are the friends I can count on my finger tips and call my best friends. The transition from grand theme based birthday parties to a small inner circle hanging-out was bound to happen, since I do not seek the attention. It’s not always easy growing up as in introvert in an extroverted society, is what most people think. There’s another side to this.

Contrary to popular belief I wasn’t an outcast, I was an insider. While my closest friends liked socializing, I would usually go along and do my own thing. As they went around meeting lots of people, I did what I felt most comfortable with – observing and listening. I would enjoy having one on one conversation, but in large groups would give way to the extroverts and only spoke when I’d have something interesting to say. I also realized that I did a good job with letting others ideas flourish. I was good at connecting the dots and advancing ideas. Being a thinker and planner became a constant and I became viewed as having a quiet, reserved personality. With all of these was the constant pressure to move towards being an extrovert. With time and a better understanding of who I am and what my strengths and weakness are, my personality had gradually become that of a happy introvert. Listening, flexibility, creativity, and analytical observation were my forte.

As I embarked on my journey, I chose education streams as diverse as snow and sand. I am a qualified pharmacist and succeeded as a pharmacist because I enjoyed the one on one interaction with my patients and actually listened to them. To challenge myself, I opted for a post-graduate course that offered me an experience in cultural diversity as I pursued my MBA at the Thunderbird. I honed my people skills (whoever said introverts haven’t any?). I observed and however silently, I interacted. I analyzed and I questioned. I was curious and intrigued. I asked questions and I learnt non-stop. Having been born at Zambia (Africa) and raised and studied at the US, I decided to explore my opportunities globally. After doing an internship for an innovation accelerator in Netherlands and one for Yahoo in Korea, I decide to move to India. I had no clue of what I wanted to do here. I got involved in Supply-Chain Operations with a food-distribution company. I learnt again – this time about India - Indian food industry, Indian operations, Indian consumer, Indian diversity, the Indian work culture and the Indian me.

I’d like to mention that I am someone who actually gets bored and it wouldn’t be advisable to mention how quickly at that. I was done with the food industry. I wanted to expand across industries. I realized if I had to do something else I would need to align my skills and passions. Brainstorming with myself (now that’s a typical innovation guy thing I tell you), I shortlisted a few points about myself. I’d like to share that same list with you as this propelled my journey as an innovation consultant.

• I like to constantly learn
• I enjoy interacting with a diverse group of people and companies
• I get bored fast
• I always find myself asking more questions than the person sitting next to me
• I always want to know why things are the way they are
• I like to solve problems (thinking, sorting out, analysis come to me naturally)
• I am creative and I want to DO something about it
• I am a keen observer of my surroundings – both people and phenomenon
• I enjoy collaborating with a diverse group of people
• Ambiguity and uncertainty do not deter me
• I am passionate about making a positive change
• I do not like to be confined to a particular stream of work

For once I’d like to announce that developing a check-list that helps you understand yourself will indeed prove to be immensely useful to each one of you (introverts or extroverts). I used it and it strengthened my belief in the fact that I could well utilize my skills in enabling various individuals / companies to see things from a different perspective. Today my partner and I have our own start-up (Bombay Innovation Consulting) and we help clients come up with new ideas, brainstorm for creative yet doable solutions and create a culture of innovation within companies and each one of their employees.

Coming back to where I started from I do want you all to know that one of the main pre requisites for coming up with new ideas is a diverse set of people. It isn’t just extroverts who come up with ideas or succeed all the time. I earnestly believe that every successful extrovert needs an introvert and vise versa. For every person who comes up with an idea one needs another person to assess the risk associated with the idea or the fashion in which it could be executed. Another thing I learn everyday as I come across interesting people is that just because you start off with one thing (in my case pharmacy) does not mean that’s what you end up with too. It’s really about your core personality and your passion, the rest you can learn. The core skills I have help me being an Innovation Consultant and I apply them from one industry to the other. Well there’s one thing I missed, being a good story-teller helps. But then why do you think we’re a team of 2!

--Biren Mehta (Innovation Strategist and Co-founder, Bombay Innovation Group)