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I recently had a conversation with Niren Chaudhary, the CEO of Panera Bread and Panera Brands. He is responsible for over 130,000 employees. It’s a tough but rewarding job. Niren has also had to overcome seemingly impossible challenges, the greatest of which was the loss of two of his daughters.
We had a long conversation about business and life and one of the things I asked him was how we can balance feeling fulfilled and happy with the reality of life that we need a paycheck. He shared a crucial life and leadership lesson with me that I want to share with you. It all comes down to viewing who you are and what you are, not uni-dimensionally, but multi-dimensionally.
It’s similar to the famous Tyler Durden quote from the movie Fight Club where he says:
“You are not your job, you’re not how much money you have in the bank. You are not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet.”
Niren has a much more structured and practical way that he likes to look at this and I can say that it has changed my life.
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