YouSaid · the spoken record

Nick Mehta

lines on the record: 40
first: 2021-07-15
most recent: 2021-07-15
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I would love to take Gainesight public because, and I have no idea if it will happen or not, but because, I mean, certainly there's an ego part of it. There's part that I really believe in our business and I want to do it. Part about pleasing my parents. So that's certainly one thing. A second thing is coping with my kids growing up. That's going to be very hard. Way in the distant future for you, Harry. But nothing at all at work is at all anywhere comparable to the fear I have of the kids growing up and like, you know, them moving out of the house. And we still have a number of years, but that's one that I'll be soaking in a lot. And then I think leaning even more from a work perspective into what these things I'm really passionate about, you know, I'm passionate about companies being authentic and being themselves and people trying to be what we call it human first business, trying to be more of your real human self. And I would love to just like see that materialize even more. We've leaned into it a lot, but I just like to take that to the next level. We've even toyed with the idea of writing a book on some of these topics. So who knows?”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The Brain A. Brown is the one who started this, so I'm just like a fan. It's that like talking about this is not a sign of weakness. It's a sign of strength.”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's a really good one. I would say you made it all happen, that you yourself are the one that made it all happen versus lots of other things that contributed to that.”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh yeah, okay. We are extremely passionate about our values at Gainsight. The number one thing I say and try to do, but it's so hard, is hiring people based on values and really assessing that.”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Close at something different. And people were so incredibly moved, but more importantly, right after that we had breakout sessions. And there's a product marketing person on our team named Julia, who's still to this day, she's not with us anymore in Gainesight, but still so dear alumni for us. She got in front of everyone in front of everyone and she was doing her session about something, sales, something. And she basically all of a sudden stopped and she basically talked about her anxieties about being on stage and presenting and so on. And everyone in the audience started saying, we love you, Julia, we're here to support you. And that moment was created because I was able to be vulnerable and I created that vulnerability and then Julia was vulnerable. Then the people in the audience were vulnerable vulnerability is infectious. If we all do it, everyone will do it. And then we'll be more real and we'll feel less lonely.”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Is just everything about who I am. And I think other people have those same feelings. And going back to that conference where I spoke for the first time about this, the 97% of people that came up to me and said, oh my God, that was amazing. And just thank you for being so brave. And by the way, I'm dealing with that too. And by the way, like you said, Harry, like other people were lonely growing up too. Or other people feel like they're not enough or other people feel like they're not sure whether they want to fix themselves or be themselves or what. It's so amazing to have those conversations. I'll close with a story, which is like when I did that talk about vulnerability the first time, I actually tested it in front of our company in our all-hands meeting. And it was this incredibly transformative moment. That literally is the thing that pushed me over the edge. It was a whim. We were doing our all hands kind of company. It was like an annual big thing. We're in a nice place, all the employees. And I was going to do my speech, talk about how the business is doing, how we're crushing it and killing it. And at the end, I talked about vulnerability. I was like, you know, I just want to.”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, yeah. I mean, that's why I'm so glad you're doing this, and I'm very honored to be part of it, is I just hate it. I hate the lack of openness and vulnerability. I think it holds everyone back because everyone feels like they have to pretend and always just be acting all the time about how successful and awesome they are. And especially right now, Harry, where it's like every single day, it's like, oh, wow, this company went public. This one raises huge round, et cetera. And all these huge valuations, which is awesome. I'm so happy for people. But I know those people are wondering the same things that I were, which was, do we really deserve that? Are we really going to ever be worth anything? Is this going to be successful? My parents going to be happy with me. Do my employees like me? All the same questions that you and I have. I think a lot of people have them. But because we don't talk about it, we all feel lonely, right? That's the problem because we don't talk about, we see everyone else crushing and killing again. And so one thing I try to do is just throw it all out there. This complete like word vomit of everything I've said in this.”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And then our middle one's actually on the autistic spectrum. And so it's been amazing to watch our middle one's thought process and just like how they think really differently. Like they actually just have a totally different mindset. And our youngest is a total people pleaser and wants to be pleased. So I see these things in them. And I'm like, do I fix it? Can I fix it? Do I want to fix it? Can anyone be fixed? There's all of that. On the actual work ethic itself, I do think that, you know, what I don't want is our kids to just kind of fix.”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Totally. Yeah, it's extremely, you know, they're extremely privileged. Yeah. And it's interesting because we haven't talked to them about money and they don't know details, but obviously they know that we've been really fortunate. And I wonder sometimes about how my parents raised me and how much of that I want them to have, right? That's striving, that not feeling like enough. Like this is an interesting question, Harry. I know you don't have kids yet. But like, if you have a lot of things that are you, do you want those things to be in your kids? And there are two arguments. One is like if you like yourself in your life, then yeah. But on the other hand, are those things demons? Can you give your kids all the good without the bad, right? The positives without the baggage. Can you do it? What I've learned is I have less control than I think. I don't, I think a lot of parents learn this. Especially if multiple kids, because you're getting this little experiment where you're like, well, you do kind of the same things with three kids and they turn out pretty different. And like our oldest definitely has a lot of those same things I have of the striving and wanting to be successful and not feeling like enough.”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it's interesting because I think that I know there's obviously discussions on both extremes here. Like one extreme is it doesn't matter at all. Another extreme is it matters infinitely and the more you get, the more happier you'll be. I personally come down somewhere in between where I think there's a lot of the things that I like in life that are completely free. And just like you said, hanging out with her kids or spending time with my parents or exercising not free but relatively inexpensive, listening to music and so on. But I also know the privilege that like, you know, we've very privileged and we have money and all that stuff. And so I'm not worried about the next paycheck or somebody getting sick and not being able to afford it. And so I think there's definitely like a level of comfort that money brings. And I think that's a big privilege for people to have it. And I have so much empathy for people who don't have that. So it's hard for those people to talk about personal development and vulnerability and loneliness because they're literally just trying to figure out how they're going to get their kids fed or get them in to pay for their school or whatever, you know. And so I think there's a”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I love myself. That's the thing that's the bottom line of this as much as all these things sound sad, the development has been for myself. I'm the best version of myself I can be. And that's what I want. I don't want anyone else.”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, totally. But I guess I have felt that and I still feel some of that. And I've kind of come to a conclusion, which is I am a person that is unique on my own, just like everyone else is, right? They all are unique. And this identity of all of these things about loneliness and wanting to be liked and not feeling like enough and pleasing my parents and everything else is who I am. There is no other alternate reality. And I have one choice, which is I can either know who I am and love who I am, or I can hate who I am and try to be something different. And the only thing I've done personally, I haven't changed any of it. I'm just as egotistical and wanting to strive and not feeling enough as I've ever been, maybe more. But I know it and I can see it and I can manage it when it's getting like unhealthy. Like I can disconnect from the internet stuff and I can check myself out and I can hang out with the kids. But I know that I'm not going to change it and I don't really want to.”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Kid, so my brother, who's I'm super close to, who's three years younger than me, has always been way more wise and ahead of the times than me. And I remember him telling me that the goal of life is not always just happiness. Like a lot of the people that actually made an impact on the world were incredibly tortured. And there's a high correlation probably, maybe causation. And I'm not saying we should try to be tortured, but I also have given up trying to fix myself. I'm not trying to change who I am. What I really want to do is know who I am. That's it. Be able to observe it. And then Harry, like at various times, be able to read the thing about this CEO who just took their company public. And why haven't I done that? And I'm not enough. And they'd be able to step out of that and watch myself and kind of laugh lovingly, right? Like I'm my friend. I love myself. That's what I want.”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It feels good. So it's actually not like I always feel bad. It's more like I'm always reminded of like there's always more, right? And I actually believe that there's something, some part of this that's healthy. I'm sure many people seeing Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton, and like the play and the musical is all about him never being satisfied, never being enough. It's like, I mean, his whole strive is about wanting to do more. And so what I feel Harry is like when those things happen, like when we announced our big financial transaction with Vista equity partners, that felt awesome for like a day. And then it still feels like subpride, but it was like, okay, now I need to do more. Because now it's like, well, yeah, billion dollars, but that's our company evaluation was a billion, but that's just a billion dollars. What about the companies that are 10 billion or 100 billion, right? And so it's like you feel those kind of highs, but then you're reminded back to reality. I don't necessarily think it's all bad because it also makes people like you and me strive, right? And actually, when I was a”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Something and say, Oh, that person's not doing enough, or they're telling me to do something, or it's my parents. It's no, it's me judging myself. I judge myself about not being enough every single day. And I have to manage that. And so actually, there's a story that I think was so uplifting. I have to tell it, which is we have a pre-pandemic. We created this dinner party where the only rule of the party was you're not allowed to talk about the trivial stuff. No vacation plans, no, what are you watching for TV? Every time we start with a question like what we're talking about here, Harry, like a question like that. My wife and I come up with the questions. So about a year and a half ago, we came up with a question, it was my wife's idea, which was, what if you accomplished it would make you feel completely satisfied when you're 90 years old and nearing the end of your life? And everyone went around the table and somebody said, you know, something related to their”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It hurts, but it's not, you know, I think all these things are about what you're saying to yourself. It's not about my parents. They're wonderful people. They're just trying to, you know, they are who they are, right? It's actually about what am I judging myself? It's about last night, Harry. The worst thing you can do is pull out Twitter before you go to bed. Like, there's very few things that are worse in your life. And like Twitter is just like an advertisement of all the people that have done things that you haven't done. So yesterday, it's like, by the way, like these people are, I've never met her, the CEO of Vimeo that Vimeo just went public and she's 37 years old. That's younger than me. And she's like the youngest Indian American woman to ever go take up company public, right? Every single day there's those reinforcements of not being enough. No matter who you are, no matter how successful you are, unless you're Jeff Bezos, even then Jeff Bezos, I saw the CEO of LVMH just passed him in wealth. So there you go, right? And so it's me, it's my problem. I always feel like in general, whenever I external.”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And she's like, who's number two? And I was like, I don't know, Cinder Pinche, Google. Who's number three? And she's like, Adobe. And she's like, maybe you can be one of those people one day. And so literally going all the way to today, there's that feeling of like being enough. And I'll tell you, you probably have some questions. I'll tell you a story that uplifted me from a friend about this. But the short answer to your question is I never feel like I'm enough.”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To science. And I think she always really wished I had been a scientist or a doctor or something like that. And I'm driving to my mom to this restaurant and my dad. And my mom says, it's so great that you're still into science. You know, you read all these books, you're so into physics, it's so great. It's too bad you didn't go into science because you really could have done something with your life. And my dad says, trying to help, he's like, no, Mina, no, no, no. He's only 40. He still has time to do something with his life. And my mom's like, no, he's too old, but maybe the kids can do something with their lives. And she wasn't trying to be harsh. She's actually just my mom's super direct. I love my mom. But all the time, like this past weekend, I saw them. I'm very fortunate they're still around and I go see them every weekend. And my mom, like every time she brings something up that's about comparisons, like she's like, who do you think the most important Indian American CEO is in America? I was like, I don't know. That's not a topic I think about every day. And she's like, no, no, who do you think it is? Is it the CEO of Pepsi Indor and Nuri? I was like, I think it's probably Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft.”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That was when the bar was set infinitely high. I still remember that moment so well. And then through all of my childhood, it's like, oh yeah, did you see what this other kid is doing? He got into college at 15. This kid took all these AP tests. This kid did X, Y, and Z. And so I became that hyper competitive about success kid who's just about, okay, what college can I get into? My parents wanted me to go to Ivy League College. Can I be the value victorian in my school tracking like literally, what's my GPA versus everyone else's in school, right? All of that stuff because I felt like I need to prove my parents and probably really prove to myself about who I am. And so then all that happened and ended up being fortunate going to good school and things like that. But then I went into the workforce. I've done some things and some have been good and some haven't worked out and it's all been good. I'm pretty happy. But then fast forward to three years ago, I take my mom out to dinner and my mom and dad and we are driving to a restaurant. And my mom knows that outside of work, I'm really”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh my god, this is such a deep rabbit hole. So I'll give you the quick, quick version. Do I feel like I'm enough? Absolutely not. Not at all. Not at all. Now, do I realize that I need to manage that emotion 100%? I'll tell you my journey there. So it starts as a kid, like everything. So going back to my parents, amazing parents from India. You know, the psychology of immigrants, and particularly from some countries, there's sort of this desire to strive and to be great and successful and some element of like comparing yourself to others. And my parents definitely had that. And so I kind of grew up around all of that, like them comparing themselves to their friends, you know, how they're successful they all are, but then also the number one thing, which is comparing your kids to each other. And I remember when I was a kid, I was like eight or nine years old in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. My dad shows me a time magazine and has Bill Gates on the cover, founder of Microsoft at the time. He's the youngest billionaire in the world or youngest self-made billionaire. And my dad said, maybe you could do something like this someday. And I was like,”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it's interesting, Harry. So this post talks about me basically talking about vulnerability. It was the first time I stepped out into our customer kind of stage. We have a conference every year. And so in front of 3,000 people, I talked about loneliness and high school and all these things. And here's another problem. In this post, I talk about the like three people that said, oh, you know, I really wish our CEO just like be like tough and strong and just talk about winning and stuff like that. And then I didn't talk about the 97% of people or whatever. They were like, that's amazing. And you're so brave for doing it. Because I always remember those 3% of people are the 1% of people. Now, I think over time, Harry, that post was like six years ago. Over time, I think some of those people have actually changed their mind. And that's one thing that gives me so much happiness and gratitude is watching people over time embrace this vulnerability concept, even if they were skeptical early on.”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it's interesting. So that's an interesting one too. So like I mentioned, she is super deep in this because she runs this community called the Normalizers all about mental health for kids and identity and, you know, especially for LGBTQ kids. So the short answer, it's interesting. The short answer is yes, I do. And by the way, like obviously she understands all this in depth and knows me in depth. And what I figured out, though, and this is that conversation we just had this past weekend, is like I can't just throw it all on her, right? So it's a little bit too much for somebody else to take. And so that's where the idea of like therapy or having other mechanisms for coping is very helpful. In fact, one of the outputs of this past weekend was like, you know, I really should see a therapist because it's not like I can just share all that with her. She has her own stuff she's doing with too. And so a therapist, the benefit is like their job is to like let you just unload everything going on. So short answer is yes, but I've learned that I can't do it all because I don't think any partner, it's not like their job to take.”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's interesting because it's like basically evenings when all of you're going back to your hole being on stage, when the lights have turned down, the stage is gone, the band's gone away. And especially like if the kids are doing something, my wife's doing something. Yeah, that's like lonely. That feels very lonely. But hearing what's interesting is if I'm exercising or reading a great book or just doing something that brings me in zone, I don't feel it. You know, like actually the other day I went to dinner, which was awesome having a real dinner again with one of our one of my people that works with me. And it went to dinner in my town. I biked home. Like I was a little bit buzzed. I had like one glass of scotch or something. And I was biking home and I felt bliss because it's that feeling of like the endorphins and the energy, even though I was like alone again. I felt this bliss listening to music. And so when I'm able to use the time alone to feel that be in the zone, I feel great. If I'm alone with my thoughts, that's when I feel lonely.”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh my God, when Broadway opens up again in London, you've got to go see it. I'm sure it's in the West End. And it's basically about, it's a story that's actually the plot sounds sad. And it's actually funny and in some ways uplifting. But it's basically about this kid who he is super lonely in high school. So I very much identified with him. And he was pretending to be friends with this other kid. And this other kid actually ended up committing suicide. It's a very sad story. This other kid committed suicide. But this friend who's the protagonist pretends like he was the other kid's best friend to make his parents feel better. And so this whole thing where the entire show is about this kid pretending he had this friend that actually wasn't real. But the end of the show is all about the idea that everyone feels lonely, like everyone has that loneliness in them. And that loneliness is strangely what connects us together. Like we all feel some loneliness. So basically I want people to just be more open about that. I would feel more less lonely if people were more open about being”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Everyone seems to emote that. And actually, what I figured out is actually those people under the covers do care about it, but they don't always feel open to talking about it. So basically what ends up happening is a lot of conversations that don't feel very real, right? That are about people crushing it and killing it. And frankly, that makes me feel more lonely, right? That's like there's a musical, which I just love. I don't know if you've ever seen it called Dear Evan Hansen. Have you seen it?”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it's interesting. It's a great question. I really, if you observed my life, you'd say there's no way that guy is lonely because he runs a business where he has, you know, hundred and something meetings a week with different people all around the world and he's connected to all these people. And on the weekends, I hang out with my kids and my wife and I see some friends. So why do I feel lonely? I'm not sure like I think part of there's two emotions probably that are there. One is there's still this emotion of, hey, do those people really like me or not? So like, am I really in the club or not? Am I really their friends? In business, you probably get this area where it's like, well, maybe not. A lot of people have an incentive to want to like me because I can do stuff, right? And then the second kind of feeling is, do I feel like I fit in? In other words, do they care about what I care about? And especially when I talk about like this conversation, honestly, it's making me feel a little less lonely because I care about all this stuff, but not.”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, yeah, all the time. I definitely feel it. It's interesting because, as you mentioned, did a financial transaction where new investors and because of that, all of our employees were able to get very well deserved liquidity and some of our early investors as well. So that made me feel a little bit more like, okay, this isn't going to be a total failure. Because I'll be honest, even when we're like 100 something million of AR now. And even when we were like 80 million of ARR, I was like, is this going to be a total failure? Is it going to go nowhere? And I think a lot of CEOs feel that much more fear of failure than aspiration for success. And so now I have a little, just a little bit less fear of failure, just a tiny bit, which actually is allowing me to feel a little more strive for the success, like go big, like how to make this huge, you know, but it feels like it's on my shoulders. It totally does, you know, and that's not true. We have so many people here, but sometimes it feels like that.”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'd certainly love to do this as long as I can, but I'm also not naive that things don't go on forever, right? Like they don't. Do you know Ozzy Mandaez? Have you heard of Ozzy Mandaeas? Oh my gosh, you got it. Okay, so another I'm giving dropping a lot of knowledge here. Ozzy Madais is a poem by Shelley, and it's basically about a traveler going through a desert, and he basically discovers this statue that's in the desert, but all the sand is kind of blown away most of the statue. And the inscription on the statue says basically, I am Ozimandias, King of Kings look upon me and weep at my mightiness. So basically this king who's saying he's such a badass. But the statue itself, the head has fallen off because of the time that's passed.”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't feel like I'm on stage. That is what all of this is for, and it's why you do what you do. My identity Oh, 100%. Yeah. First of all, it's funny. We all have aversion to words. And there's a word that I hate. And everyone says it as a compliment, and I hate the word, which is exit. I always tell people, look, we didn't exit gainsight. We had a new investor. I'm just as all in as I've ever been. It's totally true. And I want to see this too as long as I can. And part of it's because I really believe in the business and why we do it in the mission. But part of it, Harry, is exactly what you said. It's my identity. I couldn't imagine not doing gainsight. Like it is so tied to me and I think the more you lean into some of the external stuff, the more that that happens, right? Like it feels like, oh, gainside's me. I'm gainsight, right? That's not totally true. We have 800 people gainsight and they work so hard and we have tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of customer people, our customers. And so it's not just me, but sometimes it does feel like, okay, it's on my shoulders, it's my identity, and I have a hard time imagining myself without gainsight. Now, I don't hope I ever have to.”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I do. And I think that there's a part of my day or my week where I feel like I have no external self-judgment or wondering what people think or thinking about whether I'm successful or not. And I know it's going to sound cheesy, but it's when I'm with my kids. When I'm with my kids, I don't actually have any internal monologue going on. I'm not trying to self-correct to see whether you're smiling or not at my jokes or whether you like me. Right. My kids aren't going to laugh my jokes everywhere what. Actually, they do still laugh, which is kind of funny because they're really not that good jokes. But when I'm with my kids, there's this weird suspension of disbelief. And I feel like I'm in some extremely blissful reality. That is, it's not like that's more real than everything else, but it feels very genuine. So that is the thing that I have a few things like that. Like another one, Harry, that for me feels very real is like when I read or when I exercise. Those are like three times of my day when I'm just like so present.”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“People are into is like I have this part of me that's deeply inquisitive about existentialism. I know it sounds funny to talk about a podcast, but I actually think a lot about consciousness and reality, and I'm big into physics too, so like what the universe is and what time is. And by the way, that's kind of not the best. It's kind of a buzzkill at a party. When you start talking about, hey, what do you think about the meaning of quantum physics? It's like, okay, clear the room really quickly, right? And so there's some element where I want to find outlets where I can be all the versions of myself. So in other words, it's not about there's one real nick and there's one fake nick. It's more like how do I have my life structure in a way where I can have outlets for all the different versions of me? you”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Performing. And honestly, it's a kind of a cycle. It's not going to say a bad cycle, but it's a cycle, right? Because I'm a three, I want to be seen. I want to be liked. So I lean into things like social media and making funny videos and doing podcasts and speaking. And so then I'm constantly on stage, like all the time, like literally two, three times a day in these types of things, right? As you know, and you read, I really lean into trying to be real and vulnerable. I really try to. I try to talk about things like what we're talking about now. And then every now and then, I'm like, wait, is that real Nick or is that stage Nick? And I'm not sure. Now, one of the things I've kind of come to conclusion on is it's all real Nick because there's no such thing as like the real Nick versus the fake Nick. It's not, I think that's actually an overly simplified dichotomy. But how do I make sure I can show all my sides, not just the ones that maybe please the audience? So an example of a side that doesn't please the audience, not in a bad way, but it's just not something that”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it's interesting because, Harry, have you ever done an Enneagram test? I haven't. No, so that's great. I highly recommend anyone listening to it, and you should check it out. It takes like five minutes. It's one of those personality tests probably conceptually similar to like a Myers-Briggs, E-N-N-N-E-A-G-R-A-M. And it's very popular actually amongst CEOs. And this YPO group kind of espouses it. So I've done it. You get a number from one to nine. And the number basically is about what kind of brings you energy and like where you feel like seen and successful in what type of part of your life. And a three is all about achievement, performance, and people liking them. And it's all about like being whoever you want people to be. It's about being on the stage. It's about like putting on whatever costume makes them laugh, right? That exact thing. And so I'm a three. Like I'm the most hardcore three you could possibly imagine. Maybe you are too. It's just you want people to like you and think you're successful, right? That's what they want. And so therefore, a lot of your life feels like you're.”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“100%. By the way, the only difference that's the benefit of being the UK, the cubicles in the UK to go to the restroom, go all the way to the floor. In America, some reason they leave this little opening at the bottom so they can tell that you're in there. So that's why I never went to the bathroom.”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Want to spend any money at all? They were very, very thrifty. But I told my mom, the kids at school are wearing these shirts that have a little horse with a stick on it, the polo short, Ralph Lorette. And they're wearing it. The popular kids have that shirt. And I've dragged my mom on my birthday to the polo store in Pittsburgh where I grew up to buy like an $80 shirt, which was unthinkable amount of money for Indian Americans living in Pittsburgh in the 1990s. And so I tried to fit in. I watched what the popular kids did, what music they listened to, everything. I never figured it out in high school. And later on, college, I figured out my kind of my thing and all that. And I think one thing that's kind of cool is nerdiness and kind of geekiness went from kind of uncool when I was a kid to actually becoming the social norm now. So that's changed a lot.”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“With people and probably much more extrovert than the average person. But I think there's probably a few reasons. One of them I think was probably just like feeling like it didn't fit in because I was the like the only like Indian kid and probably only like maybe one of three, four percent of the kids in our school that weren't Caucasian. And obviously that wasn't anything people are doing to me. I mean, it was nothing, everyone was very nice, but you just felt like you just didn't fit in. And maybe every now and then a kid makes a comment and you just take it the wrong way. And so I had this sort of cycle of just feeling like, okay, nobody likes me, nobody wants to be my friend. I was obsessed with trying to become popular. It was comically hilarious. I wasn't the kid who was just like lovably like a loser on the side but didn't care and was happy to be a loser. I was the kid that wanted to break in and I remember like being in like middle school and realizing like we were in actually like an affluent suburb and but we weren't like super affluent. We were just middle class and my parents are Indian immigrants and even though when they made money they knew”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it's interesting because people that know me only now are usually pretty surprised that I was a total introvert growing up. And I don't know exactly why it happened, but I have some hypotheses. The facts are this, which are kind of sad. I grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for whatever reason. I never felt like it fit in. So I ate alone at lunch, which kind of at lunch is like the litmus test, especially in American school, probably all around the world. It's the litmus test. Like, are you with like all the friends around you laughing? Are you on your own? And I was ate alone every day kindergarten through 12th grade, like the entire time all the way before college and never felt like a fit. And frankly, I felt so embarrassed that I was eating alone that I would go hide in places to eat. Like I go to the computer lab and like pretend to be programming and just eat my lunch. And there was no iPhone or music back then to listen to. So you were just kind of like really like living in your own loneliness. Now why was that? I'm not sure. Obviously today I'm very comfortable.”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Thing which we can talk more about too is this is an area my wife is super passionate about. She actually went back to school to get a master's in educational psychology and she started an online community for kids to talk about mental health, their identities, and especially for kids who are in the LGBTQ group where often they don't feel like they fit in. So anyways, mental health is the number one topic of discussion in our house.”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it's interesting. I think if you had asked me in my 20s all the way to maybe 30 is like mental health is something you think about, I'd say no, not at all. I know people struggle with it. It's not something I think about at all. I generally consider myself, and I still do, an optimistic, positive person. So no, I never thought that it was something that I was thinking about. And then I actually got into a lot of self-development. I joined a CEO peer group, international group called YPO Young Presence Organization, and some folks listening probably heard of it. And you might think it's some business networking, talked to other CEOs about your business, but it turns out to be at least the group I'm in, extremely, extremely about personal development. And we bring in professional facilitators and try to be very vulnerable and candid about our lives. And so I just kind of unearth a lot of stuff. And we'll talk about it later. It's not stuff that I judge or that needs to be fixed, but stuff that just is who I am and helped me understand the different emotions and feelings that I have. So that's one thing that happened.”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Harry, it's just so exciting to be back. And to talk about a topic that I really deeply care about. So thanks for inviting me.”
2021-07-15 · The Twenty Minute VC · 20VC's Therapist Thursday: We Are Not All Crushing It All The Time So Let's Stop Pretending, Working Through Challenges of Self-Worth and Self-Doubt & How To Find Joy in the Striving with Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source