Follow your passion, not just the money: Harini Gopalakrishnan

Gopalakrishnan believes seamless blending of Indian culture with western values is the success mantra of Indians abroad

By Arun Kumar

Don’t go after just money, but follow your passion. That’s the advice Harini Gopalakrishnan, global CTO for Life Sciences at Snowflake, an American cloud-based data storage company, would give to young people looking to be successful like her.

“I think it’s impossible to say you want to be like somebody. I think the important point is to see who you resonate with,” she told Indian American entrepreneur Sanjay Puri on his Indianness podcast sharing stories of success from leaders and change makers of Indian origin.

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“It’s not just the money, it’s not your title, it’s not your job. It’s not because if Steve Jobs found Apple, you want to be Steve Jobs,”  said Gopalakrishnan. “Steve Jobs had a passion to build something. So find what your passion is, right?” And if that turns out to be successful enterprise, good luck, great. But if not, it’s still OK.”

“So I think the only advice is look at what interests you because if you follow the money, at some point you will get bored. And in this generation, I feel it’s more important because it’s easy to fall into the trap.

“Everybody could be millionaires by 40. Sometimes you, you know the right place, right time, right start up, you get the money, but then what keeps you going after?” Gopalakrishnan asked.

“It’s very difficult to identify. So follow your passion is my advice. If you can afford to. Some people need need money for sure,” said Gopalakrishnan who herself has carved an impressive part in healthcare technology.

From her early days in India to working across Sweden, Canada and the US, she has consistently pushed the boundaries of what’s possible at the intersection of healthcare and technology

Asked how she defined Indianness, Gopalakrishnan said, “I think being able to stay rooted to your culture, your grounding, your history, but look at Western values and work with it, right?”

“That blending, seamless blending. I think that is Indianness. Not letting go of your roots to grab the future,” said the daughter of a Tamilian father and a Malayali mother describing it as a “hybrid culture.”

Being of Indian origin has influenced her leadership style in myriad ways, said Gopalakrishnan. “I think my upbringing, my environment, as I said, my childhood, the questions you asked, I think that has influenced maybe that’s the Indian origin, right?”

“Being accommodative. You always as one growing up in the environment, when you have guests, whether it’s a good time or a bad time, you always are putting the best face forward,” she said. “You don’t show your discomfort to the person who comes in as a guest.”

“The same thing at customer environment,” Gopalakrishnan said. “You might have a personal struggle going on, but when you’re in a meeting, you know its integrity. You are putting the best face forward. You’re answering for them. The best possible smile in consulting right days.

“So that’s why a lot of customers like working with Indians, with services company because we never let our frustrations normally show at work,” she said.

The other part I would say once you’re in corporate America, you have to play some games, play by the rules of the book that the organization has set up,” Gopalakrishnan said. “But for me, the biggest thing is the foundation of being able to say no, by having the integrity and then having the ability to smile or be putting the work first or putting the taking care of the customer first has probably been the things that have influenced me from an Indian origin.”

She credited her paternal grandmother as the most influential person in her journey. “For things that I think.Yeah, for not sometimes it’s just not money, as I said. So it’s all the values that I think today I have, which wasn’t planned, but I owe it to her.”

“My upbringing was always what we would typically term the middle class South Indian atmosphere. The focus was always academics and education,” Gopalakrishnan said laying stress on educational foundation. “There was no difference between being born a girl or a boy, You always had academics as your priority.”