For the rest of the year, I would like to take a moment and thank the people who have had a significant impact on me as an individual.

The way they have lived their lives and their body of work has had an outsized impact on how I think about life in general and and work, in particular.

Some of these are contemporary thinkers and some of them are just a memory. Some of them are famous in their own rights and some of them are yet to be found by others. Some of them are young and some of them are old. Some of them are business leaders, some thought leaders, some sportsmen and some coaches. Some of them are artists and some spiritual leaders.

However, if we look deeply, all of them are like you and me, ordinary people who’ve had an extra-ordinary impact on me and potentially a lot of others. And once you get to know them, may be they will have a similar impact on you as well or maybe not, only time will tell.

The reason I am putting together this list and share what I have learnt from them, to thank them publicly for being a teacher and teaching me important lessons in life and in the hope that some of you might be inspired by their company and they can impact you and your life as they have impacted mine.

So, let’s get started.

7. Dan Ariely

One of the things that I am deeply interested in is how we, as a species, behave in a given set of circumstances. Growing up, I was never interested in the topic as I was totally focused on how to set up and run a business of my own.

Then I stumbled on a book called “Predictably Irrational” written by Dan and my outlook to life completely changed. I was suddenly interested in human behaviour and rationality or the lack there of. I was hooked to this subject. This led me to explore and read everything that Dan wrote and published online that I could get hold of and read, watch or listen.

This then led me to discovering amazing people like Dilip Soman, Tim Harford, Dr. Howard Moskowitz, Daniel Kahneman, Richard Thaler, Katy Milkman (who was recently included in the list of Thinkers50 top management thinkers of the year), Dan and Chip Heath and many more.

Each one of these thought leaders has had a significant impact on my understanding of how we think, decide and take actions in our lives. I’ve also had the privilege of hosting some of these amazing people on my podcast as well.

This led to my interest in exploring how our brain works. This, in some form had a significant impact and influence in my book Thrive – Mindsets and Skillsets needed to succeed in a world dominated by smart machines & intelligent algorithms.

I think what makes Dan special is his openness to explore different things. Apart from being a teacher, researcher, author, he has also been a TV producer and produced shows based on his research and therefore bringing to mainstream, what would otherwise languish in small academic circles.

He himself was burnt really early in his life and the way he not only owns it but has used what happened to him to drive him to understand human behaviour better. His understanding has brought to light all our irrationality to the fore and this awareness has been instrumental for all of us to learn and benefit from his work.

You can watch Dan’s latest TED Talk here.

Here is a TED Talk that he delivered on the Importance of Trust.

And here is his talk based on his book Predictably Irrational, which kindled my interest in this topic.

Conclusion:

Sometimes it so happens that people do not directly influence you and your thinking but open your eyes to something that was invisible to us. This ability to see things then has a significant impact on our perception and thinking. The impact Dan has had on me is quite similar to this.

He opened my eyes to irrationality and kindled in me a life long passion to understand how our brain works and how we function and respond to our environment. This in turn made me interested in culture and the impact it has on our behaviour. This is something that I am exploring and learning about.

If we really want to be successful leaders, it is super critical to understand how people behave in specific situations. The ability to correctly predict how people respond to certain situations can have an outsized impact on our ability to lead. So, every leader and aspiring leader, should be a lifelong student of human behaviour.

And there is probably no better person to induct us in this journey than Dan Ariely. He reaches and connects with us where we are and then through interesting stories and anecdotes takes us on a journey where we are both entertained and taught. I sincerely hope that you check out his work.

Insanely Interesting People who Influenced me: #1 Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt.

Insanely Interesting People who Influenced me: #2 Paulo Coelho.

Insanely Interesting People who Influenced me: #3 Swami Vivekananda.

Insanely Interesting People who Influenced me: #4 Seth Godin.

Insanely Interesting People who Influenced me: #5 Porus Munshi.

Insanely Interesting People who Influenced me: #6 Srinivasa Chakravarthy.