Satya Nadella says studies were boring, instead he liked cricket when he was in India

In Short

• Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella opened up about his life when he was in India.
• Nadella revealed that he was mostly focused on playing cricket, instead of studies.
• Nadella credited his parents for his success in his professional journey.

By Ankita Garg: Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella, who was born in Hyderabad, opened up about his life when he was in India and recalled how he became the business executive of a big tech company. In an interview with LinkedIn CEO, Ryan Roslansky, Nadella revealed that he was not great at studies and it was the malleability of computer software that hooked him to the tech world initially. He was mostly focused on playing cricket, instead of studies.

Nadella credited his parents for his success in his professional journey. He says his parents gave him a lot of confidence and space to build a career on his terms and follow passion. “My parents played a massive role in who I am today. My father was a civil servant, an economist, and my mother was a Sanskrit professor. They were exact opposites of each other in some sense, they could not agree on anything, except giving me lots of room and a lot of confidence to become my own person, pursue my own passions,” Nadella said in the video.

Microsoft’s CEO also asserted in the interview that living a middle-class life in India is pretty challenging, but his love for computers and software never stopped him from doing anything.

“Growing up middle class in India, that sort of sometimes is challenging. One of the interesting things I distinctly remember is American technology. I remember the first I started using a computer. It was the malleability of software that got me hooked. I won’t say that I was like those people who took it and said ‘That’s my future’ but it was there, it was latent,” the Microsoft CEO added.

Nadella also suggested that if people follow their passion, keep learning new things, and are curious about things, then all these will lead them to a great career path and they will never get bored. He further asserted that he remained inquisitive and modest while working in different job roles at Microsoft. The Indian-origin CEO has worked at Microsoft for 30 years.

When asked about what is required to be a good leader or reach that position, Nadella said “Don’t wait for your next job to do your best work. Whenever you’re leading someone, don’t think of it as an entitlement, you should think of it as a privilege. Leaders have this innate capability to come into a situation that is ambiguous, uncertain, confusing, and brings clarity. Leaders create energy. It’s about bringing all constituents- inside your organization, outside your organization. Don’t be confined.”