Idan Cohen on Building a Company Where Employees Love to Work

In Chapter 5 of 13 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, technology entrepreneur Idan Cohen answers "How Has Your Entrepreneurial Experience Helped You Grow as a Person?" Cohen finds starting and growing his company Boxee has that him about people and what sacrifices he is willing to make for others. In the six years growing the company before it sold to Samsung in 2013, Cohen finds reward knowing he helped create a place to work and a company culture that made a lasting positive impact on his employees.

Idan Cohen is a technology entrepreneur and product management leader at Samsung Electronics. He co-founded Boxee, which was acquired by Samsung in early 2013. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How has your entrepreneurial experience helped you grow as a person?

Idan Cohen: I think you learn more about people. You learn more about your priorities. You learn more about how much you are willing to sacrifice for what you set out to do. You learn about strengths and abilities that you didn't think you had. I think that especially looking back now after the acquisition and looking back at six years of building Boxee, the most significant thing that we did was create an amazing family with an amazing culture. It’s just--People got connected in many different ways, and, you know, the culture is a little quirky and a little weird, obviously, like maybe in any place, but the connection between the people was fantastic.

And I've seen companies that spend more time after work going out drinking together, and they spend more time doing activities or-- so it seems like they are connected, but I think that we managed to foster some kind of weird, very straightforward Israeli culture mixed in with young, local, American, New York experience and people. And it worked really well. I was extremely touched when everything went down, and one of the guys from Israel that decided-- so the team is moving here, and he decided not to move. And he wrote an e-mail back, and he said, you know, "I really hope that one day, I'll be able to say, no, Boxee was not the best place I ever worked in."

And I heard that from several other people in many different ways, and it was very hard for people to do this because they understood that something might change in the process. And they got emotional, and they felt really-- that it's-- you know, this time was significant in their life, and I think for me, suddenly that struck me, how-- like, being able to affect people's life in that way. You know, way more than eventually what we built, that-- you know, products come and go, services come and go. But I hope that the experiences people had together are the one thing that actually stays, not what they built. And I think that that, for me, was extremely touching.

Idan Cohen on Searching for a Role Model Mentor

In Chapter 13 of 13 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, technology entrepreneur Idan Cohen answers "At This Moment in Your Life, Where Are You Seeking Advice and Coaching?" Cohen shares how he feels the need to find a coach or mentor to provide support that complements what he receives from his wife, friends and peers. He recognizes he has a need and desire to do this and then shares his approach to thinking about what type of role model mentor would be best for him.

Idan Cohen is a technology entrepreneur and product management leader at Samsung Electronics. He co-founded Boxee, which was acquired by Samsung in early 2013. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: At this moment in your life, where are you seeking advice and coaching?

Idan Cohen: That's a good question because I could use someone a little older, a little wiser. I mean, obviously I have a support group and just friends and peers and Christina, but I do feel like I would benefit from having someone that I see as some kind of a role model that I can talk to and formulate a little bit more what I want my path to be. I've been thinking about it. I'm not sure how to do it. I'm not sure who is the right person. I've never approached anyone. I assume that anyone I would approach would be happy to help. I think that it's more that I want to figure out, like, what domain that person is coming from. And also is somewhat aligned with where-- what domain I want to see myself in the next 5 or 10 years. If and when I embark on something, on a new adventure that-- where is that going to be? Same path that I've been taking now-- I've taken now, or something different? So I think that that's one of the main kind of thoughts when I think about it-- I mean, threads

Lauren Serota on Getting Parent Support Making Career Choices

In Chapter 1 of 21 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, creative director and educator Lauren Serota answers "Where Has Your Family Been Most Supportive in Your Career Development?" Serota shares how her parents creative a trusting yet objective home environment and why that helped her learn to make better decisions.

Lauren Serota works as an associate creative director at frog design. She is also a teacher at the Austin Center for Design (AC4D). Serota earned a bachelor's degree in industrial design from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).

Lauren Serota on Honing Career Skills Working in Australia

In Chapter 2 of 21 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, creative director and educator Lauren Serota answers "How Has International Work Experience Contributed to Your Professional Development?" Working on several projects for an Australian client gives Serota a firsthand look into the nuances of current issues in Australian culture and linguistics, in particular the tension between Westerners and indigenous people. She shares how her work and her teaching - via an alumni working at the Australian Centre for Social Innovation - play into what she learns working on international projects.

Lauren Serota works as an associate creative director at frog design. She is also a teacher at the Austin Center for Design (AC4D). Serota earned a bachelor's degree in industrial design from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).

Lauren Serota on How to Build Relationship Rapport and Trust

In Chapter 8 of 21 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, creative director and educator Lauren Serota answers "How Do You Establish Trust When Building Relationships?" Serota shares how she has learned to build rapport, as trust is called in research terms, with others through being honest and inquisitive. She shares how defining what trust means depends on the context of a relationship. She uses trust-building examples from her fiancee personal relationship and ones from work.

Lauren Serota works as an associate creative director at frog design. She is also a teacher at the Austin Center for Design (AC4D). Serota earned a bachelor's degree in industrial design from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). 

Lauren Serota on How to Be Confident Without Being Stubborn

In Chapter 12 of 21 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, creative director and educator Lauren Serota answers "What Role Does Confidence Play in the Work That You Do?" As a creative leader working in design, Serota learns the importance of having a defensible, researched point of view to give her confidence at work. She notes the difference between this kind of confidence and more emotional displays that can be read as arrogance or stubbornness.

Lauren Serota works as an associate creative director at frog design. She is also a teacher at the Austin Center for Design (AC4D). Serota earned a bachelor's degree in industrial design from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). 

Lauren Serota on Getting Organized at Work

In Chapter 14 of 21 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, creative director and educator Lauren Serota answers "What Do You Find are the Keys to Managing a Busy Schedule and Getting Things Done?" Serota shares how she uses an array of tools and approaches to organize her life and stay as productive as possible. She replaces voice memos with Evernote to record her thoughts and makes post-it do to lists and checklists to stay on top of tasks. She organizes email by separating read and unread and works through the unread emails first.

Lauren Serota works as an associate creative director at frog design. She is also a teacher at the Austin Center for Design (AC4D). Serota earned a bachelor's degree in industrial design from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).

Lauren Serota on Using Reflection to Understand How Others See You

In Chapter 18 of 21 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, creative director and educator Lauren Serota answers "What Role Has Reflection Played in Shaping Your Personal Growth?" Serota finds reflection helps her avoid getting caught in her own head and pushes her to examine her actions from the perspective of others. This underscores an important lesson she has learned: the value of regularly asking for and receiving feedback on her actions and work.

Lauren Serota works as an associate creative director at frog design. She is also a teacher at the Austin Center for Design (AC4D). Serota earned a bachelor's degree in industrial design from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).

Lauren Serota on Turning 30 and Letting Go of Expectations

In Chapter 19 of 21 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, creative director and educator Lauren Serota answers "What is on Your Mind as You Turn 30 This Year?" Serota looks at turning 30 as an opportunity for reflection and to assess where she has been, where she is, and where she wants to go. She looks at relationships, her work experience, and accomplishments and makes it a point to focus on what she has done versus what others have done.

Lauren Serota works as an associate creative director at frog design. She is also a teacher at the Austin Center for Design (AC4D). Serota earned a bachelor's degree in industrial design from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).

Lauren Serota on Thinking About Your Biological Clock At Age 30

In Chapter 20 of 21 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, creative director and educator Lauren Serota answers "How Are Your Personal Priorities Changing As You Get Older?" Now 30 years old, Serota shares how she thinks differently about her relationship and starting a family than she did when she was in her late twenties. The biological clock considerations for having a family now are more real in her own life. As her friends' kids grow into 6 and 7 year-old children, she starts to think more seriously about having kids. She also comes to appreciate the lifestyle she has built for herself in Austin that has allowed her to balance working at frog with teaching design.

Lauren Serota works as an associate creative director at frog design. She is also a teacher at the Austin Center for Design (AC4D). Serota earned a bachelor's degree in industrial design from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).

Lauren Serota on Blending Life Passions and Career Goals

In Chapter 21 of 21 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, creative director and educator Lauren Serota answers "How Are Your Personal Experiences Shaping Your Professional Aspirations?" Serota shares how work and life experiences integrate together into how she lives her life. She notes how life outside work - from exercise and cycling to personal relationships to traveling - inform life inside work and vice versa. As a creative leader, she looks to always learn and figure out the right homeostasis between her work and life that keeps her simultaneously happy and challenged.

Lauren Serota works as an associate creative director at frog design. She is also a teacher at the Austin Center for Design (AC4D). Serota earned a bachelor's degree in industrial design from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).

Nina Godiwalla on Building Family Bonds in an Immigrant Community

In Chapter 1 of 18 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, author and entrepreneur Nina Godiwalla answers "What Childhood Experiences Have Been Most Fundamental in Shaping Who You Are Today?" Godiwalla shares why she valued her experience being raised in a close knit Persian Indian immigrant community in Houston. She details how it informed her and her husband's decision to raise their two children in that same community. Nina Godiwalla is an expert on diversity, leadership and women in the business world. She is CEO of Mindworks, which provides leadership, stress management, and diversity training to companies all over the world. She is also a bestselling author and public speaker. Godiwalla earned an MBA from Wharton, a MA from Dartmouth and a BBA from the University of Texas.

Transcript

Erik Michielsen: What childhood experiences have been most fundamental in shaping who you are today?

Nina Godiwalla: I grew up in a Persian-Indian immigrant community. I really got this sense of community from being in that sort of environment, and, to me, now I have my own family. There are all these elements of community which I took for granted growing up, to me that was normal. My parents took us out for New Year’s, I was always with my family for our weekly events. It was much less just our family time, and everything revolved around our community, whether it was for a big event or for every single weekend, we were with our people in our community. So I think that sort of element has been incredibly impactful because I constantly feel like I have to create a sense of community for my family now when I think about what has had such an impact, and it’s interesting because my husband grew up in a completely different community but it was very much that way too, that they were part of a small community that they were always getting together, and so I think because we grew up in these communities, we both feel that, and it’s interesting because I don’t feel a lot of my other friends sincerely feel that way, and I think, partly, it may be because we’re both from different immigrant communities. I’m not sure if that is part of it, but it definitely—it informs so much of what I do now within my family life. It does inform my professional life as well.

Erik Michielsen: In what ways?

Nina Godiwalla: Well, I think, professionally, so much of what I determined what I would do when I was growing up, what I determined what I would major in, so much of what I was exposed to, from my entire growing up, like the first 18 years, was so much through that community, (chuckles) and so I think it informs all these choices you’re making at such critical times. What am I interested in? What are my interests? Who do I wanna be like? Who are my role models? All gets informed by this community, and you got your parents in this community, and so that was a lot of it, a lot of it was around that.

Nina Godiwalla on Why to Raise Your Children Near Their Grandparents

In Chapter 3 of 18 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, author and entrepreneur Nina Godiwalla answers "How Are Your Family Relationships Changing As You Get Older?" After having children, Godiwalla realizes the importance of raising her children around the support and influence of her parents. She learns from being around her parents, learns more about her family history and culture, and is able to give her children valuable time with their grandparents. Nina Godiwalla is an expert on diversity, leadership and women in the business world. She is CEO of Mindworks, which provides leadership, stress management, and diversity training to companies all over the world. She is also a bestselling author and public speaker. Godiwalla earned an MBA from Wharton, a MA from Dartmouth and a BBA from the University of Texas.

Transcript

Erik Michielsen: How are your family relationships changing as you get older?

Nina Godiwalla: My family relationships are changing significantly since I had children. I grew up in Texas, and then I left for a long time, and I kind of had the mindset where, “Why would I go back? I have all these incredible opportunities professionally, geographically,” and I didn’t necessarily really think about going back.

Now that I have children, I think everything changes because it goes back to that community of being raised by people that I value what they think. I see my parents with my children, with their other grand—my sister’s children, and I think there’s no way I can miss that. There is no way I could take my kids away from that, and I think part of it is just being older, our generation tends to have children older, so there’s not that much time my kids will have with my parents. It’s actually a limited time where my parents can go out and do things and be active. I don’t know what’s gonna happen in 15 years from now, so I—that has changed significantly because I wanna be as close as I can to them, because I want my kids close to them, and, from that, I’m learning so much from being back around my parents, because I’ve stepped away for a long time, so, suddenly, I’m learning so much just from being around them as well.

Erik Michielsen: Such as?

Nina Godiwalla: I don’t know much about of our religion. I’m not very informed. I grew up in this very tight-knit community but I don’t know basic things about our religion. I don’t know family stories because it was kind of we’re in this crazy, crazy, everyone’s busy. They’re taking us to dance class, they’re taking us to this class, but now I’m coming back when they’re not so crazy, crazy, they were tired, things aren’t so crazy, crazy, they were tired, and they have time to think about, “Oh, you know what? When I grew up and I didn’t hear all these stories when I grew up, we were too busy,” they were too busy doing too many things, so I’m starting to learn more about our family.

And my grandfather was brilliant, and, actually, he was very sentimental, and my mother had written all these letters, she was an immigrant to the U.S., and she moved here when she was 17, and she would write my grandparents, her parents, all these letters about what they would do day-to-day, and so, it’s basically when we were born, from so long ago, and my grandfather saved every letter, and he had it all documented with the date and the time, I mean it was just amazing, and that’s history. I mean it’s for years. We’re talking letters for about 30, maybe 40 years of letters, and so there’s a whole story that I’m so excited. My mom and I, we’ve talked about sitting down and she’s just gonna read them to me, and that I told her that Indians are very big on giving jewelry, and I said I don’t want your jewelry, I don’t care about your jewelry, I said I want the letters, give me the letters, ‘cause that’s history, those were the important things.

Nina Godiwalla on Parenting Shifts for the Infant to Toddler Transition

In Chapter 4 of 18 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, author and entrepreneur Nina Godiwalla answers "How Is Your Parenting Approach Changing as Your Children Grow From Infants Into Toddlers?" A mother of an infant and a toddler, Godiwalla shares how needs shift from physical to emotional as the child makes the infant to toddler transition. She learns negotiation - especially at bedtime - is not always rational and works through the mental challenges that come with it. Nina Godiwalla is an expert on diversity, leadership and women in the business world. She is CEO of Mindworks, which provides leadership, stress management, and diversity training to companies all over the world. She is also a bestselling author and public speaker. Godiwalla earned an MBA from Wharton, a MA from Dartmouth and a BBA from the University of Texas.

Transcript

Erik Michielsen: How is your parenting approach changing as your children grow from infants into toddlers?

Nina Godiwalla: Well, with infants, I feel like the challenges seemed to be less physical. You’re thinking with the newborn it’s the staying up all night, the physical exhaustion, the carrying them, the feeding them, meeting their basic physical needs is basically where I feel like it has been so much with the babies, and then with a toddler, I have a toddler now and I’m thinking a lot of it is these bizarre negotiations that make absolutely no sense to me.

So it’s just every time I say anything, there is a counter offer. So it’s like, “We’re going to read two books.” “No, three books.” “Okay, fine, we’re gonna read three books.” “No, one book.” “I don’t understand the negotiation here, you’ve lost me.” I mean and then I don’t even know how to approach it, it’s like this isn’t even rational, like how am I supposed to deal with this?

So I think it has been a lot more of a mental challenge and I joke about it. Sometimes, I said recently to my mother-in-law, I said, “Oh, I can’t wait sometimes until he’s 15,” and she said, “You think you have to stay up now, you think you have things you have to think about now, it will be much more complicated, negotiations you have when they’re 15,” and so I can’t even think beyond the toddler stage, but, for me, I just definitely see it will be a lot more trying emotionally. Right now there’s a lot of craziness and enjoyment. I mean I think of it as joy. People ask me with the second child, “What’s the adjustment?” A lot more crying and more laughing, but I think the crying outweighs the laughing, unfortunately. (laughs)

Nina Godiwalla on How Life Changes After Having a Second Child

In Chapter 5 of 18 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, author and entrepreneur Nina Godiwalla answers "What Challenges Have You Faced Raising Two Young Children While Working Full Time?" Godwalla shares how having a second baby has significantly changed her social life. With the added responsibility at home, working mom Godiwalla and her husband realize that the reality of having a second child is that your social life, from date nights to seeing friends, will get constrained. Nina Godiwalla is an expert on diversity, leadership and women in the business world. She is CEO of Mindworks, which provides leadership, stress management, and diversity training to companies all over the world. She is also a bestselling author and public speaker. Godiwalla earned an MBA from Wharton, a MA from Dartmouth and a BBA from the University of Texas.

Transcript

Erik Michielsen: What challenges have you faced raising two young children while working full time?

Nina Godiwalla: I have to say what happened for us, what fell off the bottom is, where we are challenged is, with the second kid, especially, it cut off our social life a lot, it cut our social life significantly. So we used to have it to where, “Okay, I’ll take it. You go out tonight. I can go out with my friends later,” so we weren’t doing a lot of things together, because it’s usually, when we travel, we’re gone for work, so it doesn’t really justify we’re not gonna take a vacation, and we don’t leave our kids and go on a vacation together, but our time together, after the second child, has been cut significantly, just spending any time together alone, or going out and socializing.

We’re actually both fairly disciplined people, so we just see this as a situation, whereas I know a lot of other friends will say to me like, “Oh, you have to still socialize and do all sorts of things,” and I just, I do—I enjoy being with my kids, and, to me, I see it as, for the next couple of years, it will be this way, and even with my husband, when we’ve had our first kid, we said, “Oh, we’re gonna do a weekly date night,” a month, weeks later, and I thought, “Maybe we’ll do monthly,” we don’t do either.

Maybe it has only been a couple of years now, but it doesn’t bother me that much, and he has more of a kind of a discipline, logical mindset too where we both kind of see it as this is just it is what it is right now, and we’re not gonna, probably not spend a lot of time alone, it’s gonna be the four of us together and just deal with it, and we’re not gonna spend a lot of time with our friends, and when we do spend time with friends, it’s when we have the whole family together, and it’s just this chaotic—it’s they have their two or three other children, we have our two children—our conversation is so broken. You just started to say something, and then someone’s kid is screaming over, so it’s these broken conversations that there was no real in-depth conversation, but at the same time, it is what it is right now.

Erik Michielsen: Is that something where you have to just kind of feel out other couples and their kids and figure out, “Are we all okay in this environment here?”

Nina Godiwalla: I think other parents get it because they can’t have the conversation either. They are really trying. Before I had kids I was one of those unforgiving people where I really felt like, “Can they—?” I still remember it, I have a friend that I could hear her baby crying in the background, and I was thinking, and I’d be in the middle of telling her something, and I thought, “Can she just not leave the kid for a minute or two and let me finish talking or telling my story?” And it’s just interesting, as a parent now, I mean I see things so differently, like if I hear someone’s kid crying, I’m like, “I will talk to you later.” I just I don’t want you to have to try and listen to me and listen to the kid screaming at the same time.

My mindset is so different. Before, I was very harsh on parents, so I had a long way to come, and now I’m just incredibly forgiving. If I see somebody with like a kid on a plane, I try and let them know like a million times that whatever their child does is perfectly fine because I won’t fly with my children. I don’t bring my children on a plane, and everyone always makes fun of me because I fly, I’m flying for business and they’ll say, especially on the East Coast, like, “Do you really have children?” Because I fly here fairly frequently, but none of—and I have a lot of friends here, and they said, “I’ve never seen your children, like this is mysterious that you really have children.” “Oh my God, I don’t fly with my kids.” I mean that’s my—and so it’s that sort of I know what a challenge it is and I don’t even wanna go there. (laughs)

Nina Godiwalla on Turning Your Passion into Your Mission

In Chapter 6 of 18 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, author and entrepreneur Nina Godiwalla answers "How Do You Define and Measure Success in What You Do?" Godiwalla shares how work success is less about results and more about staying immersed in mission-based work that allows her to use her passions to achieve a greater purpose. Over time she finds herself achieving dream goals as she builds her diversity and leader training business. Nina Godiwalla is an expert on diversity, leadership and women in the business world. She is CEO of Mindworks, which provides leadership, stress management, and diversity training to companies all over the world. She is also a bestselling author and public speaker. Godiwalla earned an MBA from Wharton, a MA from Dartmouth and a BBA from the University of Texas.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How do you define and measure success in what you do?

Nina Godiwalla: For me, I think less about success because my life has had this major shift from working to purpose. I’m very clear now that I have a purpose and I’d say I can actually articulate it a little bit better that way because I was in a meeting about 2 weeks ago, and I was talking about what I do, and as I get very worked up, I was very passionate about it, and the guy that I was speaking to said, “You sound like you’re really not working, you’re on a mission,” and that was interesting because I thought, “Yeah, I know, because I don’t feel like I work anymore,” and, you know what? Because I don’t feel that way, I am not measuring success. I’m not sitting around thinking, “Did I do these three checkmarks?” It’s almost like I’m growing—I can see that things are changing significantly around me. Every year of my life is wow, I said a year or 2 years ago that was a dream to me. That is something I would have loved to do but never thought. I hadn’t even thought about getting that far, and then I find myself 2 years later doing that, and so I think that is success to me, is being able to find that purpose, and then just going after it full force, and being able to adapt and be flexible as things are constantly changing around me.

Erik Michielsen: When someone asks you, “What is your mission?”, how do you respond?

Nina Godiwalla: I think one of the major messages I have is really focused on step up, speak up, when you’re in a place of power, really being able to take your power and help other people that might not be in power, and those have played to both my focuses, leadership and diversity, and that applies from a diversity standpoint, so such a small example is if you’re in a room and you hear an inappropriate joke about a certain minority group, if you’re not part of that minority group and it makes you feel a little bit uncomfortable, a lot of times we’d just gonna look the other way. The most important thing for you to do at that moment is be able to say something and be able to stand up for that group because that group has been criticized and it’s an opportunity for you as not being a part of that.

From a leadership standpoint what I’m focused on is being in a place of power, whether you—wherever you are. You don’t even have to be high in the hierarchy or whatever it is, but a great example was we were just talking in a meeting, we were at the State Department, we were having this talk about how people repeat, someone gives their credit to the wrong person, so a very senior person says, basically, he repeated what someone else said, and everyone kind of starts giving credit to the senior person who said it, 15 minutes before, two other people had already mentioned it, and we’re giving examples of what’s a way to actually remind people that that’s not the right person, that’s not the person that really said it, and it’s something along the lines of, “Oh, well, Joe, that’s a great point—that’s a great way that you’ve summarized Sandy’s comments earlier, that’s—that was really impressive the way you did it concisely,” or something like that, and, basically, giving back credit to the person that did it. And if you are the most senior person in that room, it’s even more important for you to do that because you’re acknowledging to the rest of the staff, I’m aware of where that came from, and even if you’re not the most senior person, you’re in that room, and so you have an opportunity to bring attention to that, so it’s those sort of things, always making an impact, whether you formally have a hierarchical place or not.

Nina Godiwalla on How Job Success Can Isolate and Overwhelm

In Chapter 8 of 18 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, author and entrepreneur Nina Godiwalla answers "How Have Awards and Accolades Validated Your Work and Your Mission?" Godiwalla finds receiving awards, such as being inducted into the Texas Women's Hall of Fame, validate her work and her mission. As a public speaker traveling extensively, she finds it progressively difficult to get to know people well during short trips. Travel-related time constraints limit her ability to connect with the amazing people she meets which leads her to feel frustrated and isolated. Nina Godiwalla is an expert on diversity, leadership and women in the business world. She is CEO of Mindworks, which provides leadership, stress management, and diversity training to companies all over the world. She is also a bestselling author and public speaker. Godiwalla earned an MBA from Wharton, a MA from Dartmouth and a BBA from the University of Texas.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How have awards and accolades validated your work and your mission?

Nina Godiwalla: At this point, I feel like it just helps me realize I’m going in the right direction but it doesn’t necessarily change anything major for me. Now that I’m so clear in what I’m doing, the awards and the accolades are like an extra bonus, like it’s nice, but before I felt like I was almost choosing what I would do based off of awards and accolades to some extent because that would be a great thing to do to get this award or get that, and now I feel I’m more along the lines of I’m so clear on my mission, I’m so clear on the purpose, and what I need to accomplish, fantastic, they’re just not nearly as important to me, I think, now that I’m so clear on my path.

Erik Michielsen: And you’re meeting some other people that are part of those communities, do you feel like you share similar views and there’s more work to do?

Nina Godiwalla: We come from completely different areas, one of that, I mean when I got inducted in the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame, Sandra Day O’Connor, as you know, she was one of the recipients, there are people that are colonels in the military. We all came out of so many different disciplines. Again, it’s like an amazing opportunity to meet fantastic, accomplished people, but definitely coming from very different backgrounds, and I feel like also, at this point, I’m so overwhelmed with—I feel like I’m constantly meeting such amazing people that I don’t even have time to get to know anybody anymore, and so the journey almost feels lonely at times because I’m overwhelmed with amazing people that I can’t follow up with. It’s absurd, it is absurd as it sounds, and I know that’s a choice, I mean don’t get me wrong, you create how busy you are, but there is always the next thing that I’m going to, the next thing I’m leaving for. And I mean I go to events all the time, I’m speaking. People give me their business cards, and I’d say I’ll follow up, and I have such good intentions, I really want to, I write it down, but by the time I get back, I’m already—there’s the next one where I meet 15 other people, and then I go back, the next one, so in a lot of ways, yes, I mean it’s fascinating, it’s amazing, but it’s also just completely overwhelming to be around, just meet all these amazing people all the time. (chuckles)

Erik Michielsen: Yeah, yeah, you wish for all that, sometimes, to come, and you get it, and you’re like I’m feeling more isolated and more lonely than ever.

Nina Godiwalla: Yeah, and I’ve heard that from several people, which I thought was interesting. I wouldn’t have—someone said it to me today, actually, she said— I was saying how, “Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to connect a little bit more with people geographically because several of us travel a lot?” And she said, “Yes. Sometimes it gets lonely,” and I hadn’t thought of it that way, and I was thinking, “That’s exactly what I mean.” I mean it feels lonely somewhere along the lines even though you’re constantly with such amazing people.

Nina Godiwalla on a Natural Way to Build Trusting Relationships

In Chapter 10 of 18 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, author and entrepreneur Nina Godiwalla answers "How Do You Establish Trust When Building Relationships?" With business and personal relationships, Godiwalla takes a natural path of simply trying to get to know a person through conversations and shared experiences. The personal connection builds a deeper relationship and allows you to naturally be more trusting in them. Nina Godiwalla is an expert on diversity, leadership and women in the business world. She is CEO of Mindworks, which provides leadership, stress management, and diversity training to companies all over the world. She is also a bestselling author and public speaker. Godiwalla earned an MBA from Wharton, a MA from Dartmouth and a BBA from the University of Texas.