Tonya J. Long: 0:05

We are broadcasting live here on KPCR 92.9 FM for Reset with Tonya. It's another beautiful day. I know you're tired of hearing me talk about how beautiful it is in Los Gatos, but it is an amazingly gorgeous day in the Bay Area. Summer is finally here, it's getting warm and it's wonderful to be in community with you guys. Speaking of community is on my mind because I'm speaking today.

Tonya J. Long: 0:34

I'm bringing to you Piyush Malik. Piyush and I were introduced by a Pomeranian dog and we might talk about that at some point, but Piyush is a major community player here in the Bay Area and his history is so varied, so broad. He's the founder of Piyush Ventures. He also leads a podcast and a media I'll call it a media empire called the Digital Agenda. He's a LinkedIn top voice. He's at so many events offering his wisdom and guidance and that led him to be the president of the American Society of Engineers for Indian Origin and he puts on events to optimize the community and the performance and work of those important communities of people here in the Bay Area and actually beyond. Piyush, it is such a pleasure to talk with you today, Such a pleasure to have you here. Welcome to Reset with Tonya.

Piyush Malik: 1:37

Thank you, Tonya. This is an amazing setup. This is my first time in a radio station like this, but I'm really enjoying it. And, of course, I've enjoyed our friendship over the last year, plus that we met through that cute little puppy called Sushi.

Tonya J. Long: 1:53

Sushi, a dog named after protein treats A vegetarian Myself. She was quite delightful. She makes the rounds at some of our events.

Tonya J. Long: 2:05

So I if frankie is listening big shout out to frankie for being a super connector in this world, because through sushi he connected us and and now we get to share with others, build community and bring family to the bay area. Good, good, good. So tell me, as lead Piyush Ventures and you have your digital empire what have those things brought to you in the last few years? We're going to talk about your history, but what you're currently working on, how do those things impact what you bring to others?

Piyush Malik: 2:39

First of all, Tonya, it's not an empire. It's something that came out of my desire to capture the wisdom of my mentors over these years. That was the first idea I had that many of my mentors from my previous jobs or the industry. I've been fairly active in the industry bodies when I was a lot younger. I would go to conferences and volunteer to be on the standards committee, and I used to be an engineer at one point, and we will talk about resets and how that has gone through. But as I was volunteering, I was coming across a lot of accomplished individuals and working with them in industry bodies gave me an opportunity to understand how things work beyond somebody's job and how things are made to happen. And connected, and connected, yeah, and one thing leads to another, and that's exactly what I never intended the digital agenda to go beyond a podcast and then it became like a Substack and so forth. Again, nothing major. All about being able to communicate, capture and communicate the wisdom that I have generated, I've captured over these years through my mentors, to the next generation.

Piyush Malik: 3:59

Next generation happens to be very important to me because this is a calling I had long, long time back, that we need to leave a legacy for the next generation, who may or may not have guidance. At home, and especially coming to the US from India, I found that both mom and dad work and the kids are typically left alone, and how stressful the American life can be. Kids don't get quality time with adults. Teachers, yes, they spend some time, but these kids need some guidance for their career, some guidance, some adult to talk to. And so I started doing that back encouraged by IBM's corporate social responsibility projects many years back, I think at least two decades ago, and I loved it. And since then I've been going to schools, I've been going to universities and giving talks From one talk a year that I used to give to now, I'm at least doing one talk a week.

Tonya J. Long: 5:04

Not counting your walk-in talks.

Piyush Malik: 5:06

Walk-in talks are separate.

Tonya J. Long: 5:07

That's on the weekends. That's on the weekends so those are for the entrepreneurs.

Piyush Malik: 5:11

Yes, this, I'm talking about students.

Tonya J. Long: 5:13

Yeah, yeah, and I would add to what you just said because this was my situation. My parents desperately wanted to help, but they didn't know what I was doing. They hadn't done that, so they really couldn't offer help. It's, yes, parents are busy, but I think also parents aren't familiar. Like for my situation, my parents didn't go to college, so they couldn't be any help to me in navigating what college to choose, how to choose what my focus areas were. That just wasn't something they knew about, and so I sought out mentors in those environments to help fill that gap. So I don't think it's just that they're busy. I think that the world is moving so fast it's very different from lots of us, from what our parents experienced.

Piyush Malik: 6:03

Yeah, and as young folks. Not every young person is as ambitious as Steve Jobs. Who wouldn't call it Packard and say I need this component and land an internship? Most of the youngsters, including myself, were so afraid to talk to adults and so afraid even to talk to parents they were. You wouldn't believe. There's a sense of fear in kids to raise their voice, even look at their parents. Again, it's a generational thing and cultural thing that we are taught to always keep our eyes down when talking to adults. But those things are changing and they have evolved over these last 50 years of my existence. So at that time I found it very tough to be able to find somebody outside my immediate circle to call them as a mentor and seek out mentorship. So it was always there in my mind to be able to create a platform, create an environment and create an ecosystem where students and the next generation of leaders and technologists could be benefited.

Tonya J. Long: 7:07

But at one point you were one of those young people and you mentioned a minute ago IBM and that was part of what I think really connected us, at least on a professional level. You and I are connected beyond that now as friends and spiritual travelers and all kinds of good things as friends and spiritual travelers and all kinds of good things. But IBM was one of the things that locked us in because I'd just written my book.

Piyush Malik: 7:31

AI and the New.

Tonya J. Long: 7:32

Oz, and that was fresh and new. And you, as it turns out, you were and you don't like me saying this, but you were one of the original pioneers for AI, because you worked on IBM's Watson teams.

Piyush Malik: 7:47

Absolutely, and I'll clarify there. I was not a researcher per se. I've always been an applied practitioner and I always count myself as somebody who's trying to do things for the industry. One of my jobs at IBM was to look at the research portfolio patent portfolio that we had, believe it or not, for 39 plus years, ibm used to rank the company with the highest number of patents granted every year, so that was the DNA of the company. Yes, Innovators.

Piyush Malik: 8:19

Innovators, absolutely. And if it wasn't for this kind of innovation that they did, they wouldn't have survived these 114 years, right they? From a slicer bread slicing company to time clock punching company, to a computer mainframe company, to now they're into quantum and AI, of course. Let's move back to the. My introduction to IBM was twofold One where which, and one which you do not know as well.

Tonya J. Long: 8:46

Oh, something new, yes, exciting, tell me.

Piyush Malik: 8:49

So the one which you know about let's talk about is when I was working for PwC Consulting Management Consulting Division and we got acquired by IBM for a good amount, and so once you get in, to navigate the big blue, you need a lot of skills beyond your professional technical skills. So all of that, soft skills, managing up those are the kind of things that I talk to students about as well these days. So all of that came to play and one thing led to another. I never intended to stick around, but the job was so interesting. Every year I was being given new, more expanded responsibilities and new clients and new challenges Transformational problems for big banks, global banks, brazilian bank, pharmaceutical companies here, cbg companies in the US, a tire manufacturing company out in Europe, and so on and so forth.

Piyush Malik: 9:47

These are interesting problems and the underlying layer was they were all trying to do something with transforming their business results and, as I say, I always look at the problem from a business perspective and then bring the technology problem in. It's an intrafactor of people, technology processes to be balanced in such a manner you are getting to an optimized output. So, with that said, opportunity came along to lead IBM's big data analytics practice worldwide. And doing all of that. And then IBM had a research division which was working on something that had defeated humans in chess in the year 1999. And we were acquired in the year 2002. And very soon I was also involved in a couple of other acquisitions in the data and analytics space. That said, one thing led to another, and IBM Watson was something that IBM Research did.

Piyush Malik: 10:53

This big show in the game of Jeopardy, where they won against humans, that's pretty famous in tech circles, yeah, but youngsters still don't know about it, because youngsters today think that they invented tech. So I have to remind them that the first commercialized version was IBM Watson. That led us to understanding what our clients want, and that natural language understanding and NLP professionals that I was given these science scientists and how to get them to work, how to optimize revenue or whether we are trying to get to the right segment of customer. So there's so many problems that this technology could have solved, but IBM took a moonshot on health.

Tonya J. Long: 11:38

Was moonshot a word back then? It wasn't.

Piyush Malik: 11:41

I say back then.

Tonya J. Long: 11:42

I think I was running India during those years Asia for a company, so it's not like I wasn't in the work process. I guess I'm thinking like younger people because they think that Google owns the term moonshot.

Piyush Malik: 11:56

Yeah right, but I remember seeing the headlines on the newspapers right after the Jeopardy game. And then the Watson division was officially launched and I was talking to venture capitalists here at Silicon Valley and on the panels and one thing which said IBM takes a moonshot at cancer and through.

Tonya J. Long: 12:17

Watson division.

Piyush Malik: 12:19

So that was the first kind of thing, but yeah, that's history.

Tonya J. Long: 12:23

All that history and it feels so similar to mine. I'm a little younger than you, but it feels. We were involved in big transformations. We got to do things that taught us to see around corners. Now a lot of your time is with entrepreneurs, founders, even college age ambitious young people. So what is it that is most important that you bring from those days in Pricewaterhouse, ibm, watson, some of the other big projects you did? What's the thing you bring forward most consistently when you're mentoring?

Piyush Malik: 12:57

I having been in situations which I could not have predicted when I took on any assignment, and being able to navigate the environment of the client, environment of my own company, balancing with the teams that I was working with and getting to the outcome that is optimum for the client as well as for the company that has given certain muscle memory.

Piyush Malik: 13:24

I got trained in that by doing and that's something which I talk about all the time being flexible, being adaptable and being ready for any kind of challenge that comes, not to look at that as a problem but as an opportunity. The worst come if you say you failed at a project. No, that's a learning opportunity, and with that you would go much further. I'll give you an example. We all use smartphones. Right, I'm an Android guy, you are an iPhone person. But long before that there was a company which made a device called Newton. Do you know which company that was? It was Apple, apple, and they called it. Do you know which company that was?

Tonya J. Long: 14:06

It was Apple, apple and they called it. We haven't thought about that in years.

Piyush Malik: 14:09

Yeah, yeah and I. It comes up in many of my discussions because this is something people forget. You learn from all these situations and see jobs. Family said it taught them certain things. The hardware was not ready. The hardware was not ready. The environment was not ready. Then came the 2007-2008 timeframe, when he announced iPhone, and they learned something from that. Similarly, Jeff Bezos talked about the Fire Phone, which many people would not have known about, and he still that device didn't flourish in the market.

Tonya J. Long: 14:48

But it didn't tank Jeff Bezos or Amazon, it didn't tank. It didn't tank them. It didn't tank them. It was a calculated risk.

Piyush Malik: 14:56

Right. It brought certain skills which they are learning from. Having learned from that Love it. Next problem. All I'm saying is treat failures as a stepping stone to the next big thing.

Tonya J. Long: 15:10

Oh, that's huge. Treat failures as a stepping stone to the next big success. That's perfect. I'm going to take just a minute and do a quick station break. The Signal Society that we've been talking about on this show for maybe a month now and it's our way to join and be part of community radio. We want to thank KPCR, wants to thank the San Jose Earthquakes for supporting the Signal Society. Members of the Signal Society receive limited time match offers so you can join up on kpcrorg slash. Join and learn more about what the San Jose earthquakes and many other local businesses are doing to support community radio and to give you opportunities to be part of what's happening here in the Bay Area.

Tonya J. Long: 15:58

So back to you, pu Schmalek, I'm just enamored that you were part of the early what's and days. But when did you realize that your purpose was shifting? Because you're still very technical and you lead lots of data for good. That's a programmatic approach to looking at what we're putting out into the world technologically. But I see you as more of a person out there putting good into humanity by all the mentorship that you do and the advising you do, and I think I've referred to you on one of my posts as my chief encourager, but it's true. So when did you first realize your purpose was shifting from building systems to building people?

Piyush Malik: 16:41

Interestingly Tonya. The first time I was asked to manage people that was before I came to the US.

Tonya J. Long: 16:51

I failed miserably and I realized and it was a stepping stone to future success and we're calling back what you said two minutes ago. Good, and I'm good, that's Jory.

Piyush Malik: 17:02

Yes, and it was an opportunity, an eye-opener for me, because I assumed I love my work. You've seen my work ethic, what I do for community at my professional jobs or endeavors. I have put in whatever 100%. I have. And so once I'm immersed, I don't leave that. Failure comes, Blockage comes. I have to overcome that, whether it is the weekend or whether it is Saturday or Sunday, and I assumed that I am so much engrossed in the work in the project my team members would automatically follow me.

Tonya J. Long: 17:45

Oh, that's interesting. I did not factor in and I understand that People have families.

Piyush Malik: 17:49

People have personal life. Young folks have other fun things to do. I was young too I was hardly 27 when I preferred people to manage, and I didn't realize that it was my blind spot, not until it was pointed out by somebody senior to me in the company that people are complaining that you make them work hard too much. So that was my failure, and so from then onwards I became conscious, asked for feedback, asked for and look out for signals if I'm making somebody uncomfortable. Ask for and look out for signals if I'm making somebody uncomfortable. I know even today a lot of people are very uncomfortable with certain things that I say or do, and I can't make everybody happy. I know that.

Tonya J. Long: 18:37

I don't accept that. You said this to me before and I don't see it. And we have partnered on some things. We think alike, yeah.

Piyush Malik: 18:46

But there are people who don't match up with our mindset and they would want to do things different. So they will do things different, Right? It's always good to have some kind of opposition, so that different kind of mindset is there. Diversity of opinions enriches the overall solution.

Tonya J. Long: 19:04

That's Google's model. Google's decision-making model is to put, I would say, adversaries into the conversation so that they can build the best decisions, because it hasn't just been groupthink, it hasn't been all people who are aligned the same way putting something into market that only serves a fraction of the market. So they intentionally bring dissenters into the conversations. So I think you and I aren't intimidated by that. You want people to Absolutely.

Piyush Malik: 19:36

You've seen me use the term encouraging. This is the first time ever when I read that somebody has used that, but I appreciate you observing that. Why I do that is because I've grown up in environments both personal and professional environments, where diversity was not encouraged Again. Going back to the American Society of Engineers of Indian origin, when I got on board of the national organization, I found zero person diversity all men except one person who was you know, and she would also think that anything that a man says she's got to again professionally execute without pushing back. I encourage anybody on my team to give me opposing views because I feel I can't be right all the time. The overall solution for the company or the client will get better. So when that happened at ASCI, I made it a mandate that we've got to go from this situation to at least 30% and then 50% and, proud to say, in some chapters we have more than 50% women on the board.

Piyush Malik: 20:46

That's it Took me 10 plus years.

Tonya J. Long: 20:49

Took you 10 years to get there. I love it.

Piyush Malik: 20:51

But I didn't stop. I got pushed back. There were folks who would say, no, they're not qualified. No, give them a chance and they'll prove you wrong. Young people, give them a chance.

Tonya J. Long: 21:02

I've met some of your board members that are women and they are very impressive. They are doing big things in really enormous companies.

Piyush Malik: 21:12

Many of them are written like you, and hey, they still talk to me.

Tonya J. Long: 21:16

Multiple books, multiple master's degrees. It would be easy to be intimidated, but they're not intimidating people, not at all. They love it, they have PhDs and, in fact, the, but they're not intimidating people, not at all.

Piyush Malik: 21:25

I love it and, in fact, the very first time I was asked to manage a team of PhDs and recruit PhDs, what, if I? How will I lead? There's always something inside you. There's always doubt Almost.

Tonya J. Long: 21:41

for most of us, there's always doubt, but that just forces us for for me, to evaluate what needs to be done so that I can step up to do it.

Piyush Malik: 21:47

that's reset comes in. You got to reset your mind to think differently, do differently. You would have seen from my career I started off as an engineer, then into product management and stuff engineering. So I have shifted industries and reset myself a number of times Telecom industry to software industry, one location to another location one country to another country. You're not an immigrant, but all the immigrants listening on this show. It's the immigrants' resilience that has made United States of America that it is, and I say it very proudly.

Tonya J. Long: 22:27

This is the only country where you can come freely that word doesn't feel quite right today but where we have a country that's been built on the backs of people wanting to be here from elsewhere.

Piyush Malik: 22:42

And wanting to work hard. Yes.

Tonya J. Long: 22:43

Oh, absolutely.

Piyush Malik: 22:45

Immigrants are not freeloaded as much as some media segments would want us to believe may make us believe the immigrant resilience I have seen from all, whether it is Chinese, whether it is Mexican, whether it is Indians. You look around, things have shifted and how the society responds to it, how the community responds to it as well. I'm proud to be an Indian from the Indian community and I work towards the Indo-US relations through my nonprofits. The reason heart still beats for the motherland, but loyalty stays with what we say. This is our karmabhoomi.

Tonya J. Long: 23:26

Say that word again.

Piyush Malik: 23:27

So jarmabhoomi is motherland.

Tonya J. Long: 23:30

Okay.

Piyush Malik: 23:31

Karmabhoomi is where you work, where you put your efforts toward.

Tonya J. Long: 23:37

I love it. That's a new word for me. Yes, two new words.

Piyush Malik: 23:41

And to bridge the gap between those. That's how I got into volunteering for Indo-US organization like TAI or ASCI or some of the others.

Tonya J. Long: 23:54

Yeah, I'm going to put some of my influence under this thread. I'm not an immigrant, but I grew up on a farm in Tennessee a tobacco farm, no less and I think we all have a story. We all have a story that led to our resilience, that led to our tenacity, our never saying no, and I think it's important. I've got to find a way to say this better and to say this more, but I'm ready for us to move away from othering ourselves. I'm an immigrant, I'm a single mom, I'm and instead look at everybody as everybody's got a story and the more curious we are about finding that story, we will find commonality.

Tonya J. Long: 24:52

But I've been to India 20 times. But sometimes when I'll ask, I'll meet people, like at yesterday's conference, at the Gen AI Summit, and I didn't have this happen yesterday but I'll ask people where are you from? They'll say India and of course this is a trick question I do with people because they just say India and I'm like where? And many times, if it's Bangalore, I can get down to the like what neighborhood, how close are you to Leelamal, how you know? But people sometimes get defensive because they expect that I'm trying to judge them. They expect this happens.

Tonya J. Long: 25:28

I'll just say that sometimes people they think that it was enough to tell you I'm from India or I'm from whatever other place, and they don't expect that you're trying to find the common thread, that you're trying to find the conversation point. I'm trying to get to the point to tell them my favorite shops on MG Road and I think we all need to realize we all have a story and we should be interested in other people's stories, regardless of where they're from or how they live. Everybody has things you don't know.

Piyush Malik: 26:01

And it's the genuine curiosity and listening to the other person that your mind expands. Serendipity happens Serendipity.

Tonya J. Long: 26:10

Love. Go to the example how we met A dog laid on my nicest coat. She did. She was quite comfortable. And then we found out I share a name with your daughter. I share a birth date with someone else Very influential in your life. We both have early ties into AI, so serendipity is all around you. Sometimes I ask myself what I've missed. Yeah, moving too fast and not paying enough attention.

Piyush Malik: 26:42

That's why being out there in the community, saying yes to opportunities that may or may not have commercial influence, but there is a bigger force in the universe that's wanting you to be out there. That being open openness to newer things, newer experiences, of course, within the legal limits that creates pathways that are hidden, opens doors that you can't imagine. There's a higher power up there. I don't know if you believe in it or not. I am very spiritual, as you have found out of the listeners. Many of the listeners may or may not agree with my views, but that's okay.

Tonya J. Long: 27:22

Let's talk about that in just a minute. Right now it's the bottom of the hour and I'm going to do a quick station ID. There you go. You are listening to PU Schmalick and Tonya Long having a lovely conversation about resets on KPCR 92.9 FM in beautiful sunny Los Gatos. We're also broadcasting out from K215GA 90.9 FM and KMRT 101.9 FM in Santa Cruz, and I wonder what the beach is like today, because it is beautiful out here. So back to Piyushu opened up the spiritual Pandora's box for us. That night that I met you at the event at the JPMorgan Chase Center, you shared a story with me about Deepak Chopra.

Tonya J. Long: 28:07

You had seen him at a conference and he had dumped all Deepak Chopra. How would you describe who Deepak Chopra is for anyone who's listening that?

Piyush Malik: 28:15

might not. My first introduction to Deepak Chopra was watching the movie Three Wise Men, and one of them featured was my spiritual guru, sri Sri Ravi Shankar, and the other one was Dalai Lama, who also I have a story to tell about. But anyways, deepak Chopra was the other person, and then I said, let me Google. And I found out that he's fairly influential in the US. He was the spiritual slash medical doctor. I don't know what of Michael Jackson Danielle.

Tonya J. Long: 28:47

Pletka, I didn't know that. I didn't know what of Michael Jackson.

Piyush Malik: 28:49

I didn't know that I didn't know that history, you didn't know. Yeah, when the Coronas report came after Michael Jackson passed, deepak Chopra and his family were named there. But Michael Jackson used to be that black guy and idol for teens like me when I was a child. Grammy nominations and his victories. I would stay up all night watching that on TV.

Tonya J. Long: 29:16

Mesmerized by his talent.

Piyush Malik: 29:18

His talent and the adversities that he had to face as a black person in the US and we all know how much atrocities have been committed and he rose to famedom, to richness and and also doing things for the community. So, anyways. So that was when I heard Lalit Baro and Deepak Chopra. But, coming to the forward point, during COVID, one conference hosted by Wall Street Journal, deepak Chopra was keynoting and he was talking about the digital avatar he was making of himself so that his grandkids could interact.

Piyush Malik: 30:03

And this was before OpenAI came up with Java, gpt, before all of that, a couple of years before that, and at that time I used to be working with the AI, ml in the Google ecosystem and I because, when the reporter probed deeper and it was related to certain technologies, neural networks and whatnot he talked in a very layman's term, but I knew what technologies he was leveraging. It became a used case Digital avatar and it takes us back to certain things that we may have seen on shows like Silicon Valley, shows like Star Trek, all of that. What used to be science fiction is now becoming real, and with the robotics and AI, I've always been enamored by these things. My inner child comes out when I hear about these things so I was very excited. Immediately I convened a meeting in my company, told all the youngsters my CEO as well that this is what's happening with the technology and let's watch this space closely and if we can do something commercially with it, it'll be great.

Tonya J. Long: 31:13

That was my so he was a prolific author absolutely prolific, I should know, but I don't know how many books he's written. He was a thought leader before it was a coined term, and he was able to put all that rich content into technology in order to preserve his legacy for his grandchildren. As you said, and as I recall, there was also a hologram being developed, and as I recall there was also a hologram being developed so that it wouldn't just be text-based responses to his words, but it would be an image in his likeness and, of course, interactive.

Tonya J. Long: 31:55

I think that and that was happening six, seven years ago.

Piyush Malik: 31:59

Yeah, I believe it was the early versions of GPT they may have been using, because it's right around the time of 2017 when that famous paper attention is all you need google came. Then experiments were happening. We hadn't leveraged that. We were using something called bird again google technology for our clients and, as I saw, that technology evolved as our solutions got here, always used to make me how can we make things like what Deepak Chopra is using? And now everything is common. So many applications are there, so many common people can leverage the technology. It's amazing. What used to be science fiction is now reality.

Tonya J. Long: 32:39

I still have people in my life who are afraid of the way the world is trending with AI. They well yeah, it's fair they only see the potential for bad. They only see the loss of human connection. So their concerns are genuine. I don't agree that their concerns are going to be a negative thing for society. I think we will use these tools, but looking at what he did six or seven years ago and I'm sure has greatly refined I see that as one of the best use cases for humanity to preserve knowledge and wisdom and make wisdom interactive. You and I can spin up a digital twin pretty easily now. A year ago it was harder, but now it's lots of tools where we don't even have to code to build a digital twin because you and I both have a lot of content. We can do something very similar to what Deepak Chopra spent, I'm sure, a lot of resources building, but the important thing is the preservation of that legacy wisdom and giving people a chance to interact with it. That would not have that.

Tonya J. Long: 33:47

You espouse a lot of wisdom when you are on panels and when you talk with people, but imagine if a young college student in India was able to plug into that and pick your brain digitally. And that's where I think we're going to have so much good that comes of AI. That doesn't get talked about because these aren't the big moneymakers. These aren't the big resetting entire companies' views. These are a mama leaving a legacy for her kids so that they will always have her in some form.

Piyush Malik: 34:22

Doesn't that say that the human connection is tightened with this technology?

Tonya J. Long: 34:28

I believe that's what I see.

Piyush Malik: 34:30

So as much as they could be negative on the technology, you could always put a bad actor anywhere and they'll figure out a way to do harm.

Tonya J. Long: 34:41

You can do harm with a case knife. A case knife for me is like the little cheap, little non-sharp knife that's in your drawer that you basically cut butter with. But you can do harm with a case knife. Yeah, so yeah, but swinging back. I do want to swing back to spirituality for just a minute, in a way that's not too deep or too much. That's not too deep or too much, but as I think about it, you're probably one of the first people that I noticed mindfulness around, and then I noticed the words you were choosing to use. Promoting is not the right word, but we're very positive about the effect of mindfulness and consciousness on who you are. Now I've learned and you've posted about it publicly. That's been a 15-year journey for you.

Piyush Malik: 35:33

With this guru. With the fair. It's a lifetime. Even before that, as I saw my grandparents and my parents get involved in spiritual practices of meditation and I wouldn't know what my grandmom is doing, sitting in a corner close to her eyes, sitting in a lotus position yeah and I would, as a three-year-old, ask my parents what happened to her. Leave her, she's meditating yeah okay, yeah, and so.

Tonya J. Long: 36:01

I, that was an influence?

Piyush Malik: 36:03

definitely yeah, the environment you grew up in always impacts the child. We need to create those positive vibes for our next generation. And so visiting religious places, visiting spiritual places, and not only one. I'm not espousing any particular religion. I go to many different religious places. I'm a seeker. I'm a seeker of knowledge from my childhood.

Tonya J. Long: 36:30

Yes and curious. I will never be complete.

Piyush Malik: 36:33

I will never be complete. I'll never have enough knowledge. I'll always be a seeker, so I'm on a spiritual path. When I meet somebody, I see the goodness in their soul. Yes, their words can hurt me. Sometimes people are harsh, whether it is commercially.

Tonya J. Long: 36:51

Sometimes we are more delicate than people realize. Yeah.

Piyush Malik: 36:54

So you've got to harden your skin in commercial life to know that the other person may be doing first for the monetary gain or for their positions. But then, if you are a little bit able to connect with them at the spiritual level, without mentioning religion, you will realize that the souls talk to each other the way you and I when first connected. It was the soul connection.

Tonya J. Long: 37:22

There were lots of signs for us.

Piyush Malik: 37:24

Yes, In the last conference that we were together in San Francisco. I heard a term for the first time Soul Tech and I was enamored. Enamored is a good word.

Tonya J. Long: 37:35

Yeah, that was an interesting conference.

Piyush Malik: 37:37

My goodness, it's a whole new thing. And then I found out there were other friends of mine who were really investing in this space. So I'm still at a very early stage, in only two or three weeks that I've come across this term. But yes, it is something. People are building products in this space.

Tonya J. Long: 37:55

So, if I go up to a 200,000-foot level, people who build products whatever if it's digital or if it's construction, they build products the market needs and I, or wants the market is seeking and I think more of the market is coming into maturity around spirituality. So soul tech is a result of so many of us being on this journey, recognizing that we're on a journey that is parallel path but a little different from what we've been doing, and it influences so much the quote work path and, of course, it makes sense that creators and builders want to find a way to aid that journey.

Piyush Malik: 38:46

Now that the way you put it, now it lights up a.

Tonya J. Long: 38:50

Okay, you did look lit up, I didn't know why.

Piyush Malik: 38:53

Yes, because back when I got reintroduced to mindfulness practices, the Sudarshan Kriya in the US 15 years back, it was easy for me to go back to my childhood because I tried to imitate my parents closing eyes and grandparents and doing things. No idols, no any kind of thing except that being within yourself, being present with yourself.

Piyush Malik: 39:20

look inwards, call that as a manifestation of inner engineering, because unless you put your mind to focus, you can't get things done, and your mind needs rest during sleep time. And, believe it or not, a lot of bright individuals, a lot of great inventions have come to people in their sleep.

Piyush Malik: 39:45

Oh yes inventions have come to people in their sleep? Oh, yes, because their mind gets to that state. It is focused and not impacted by the distractions outside. So the mindfulness practice that I learned 15 years back was no matter how much commotion is going on, you just stay, still focus on your breath, and you will realize that your mind is a very powerful source of making things happen for you. And you come out of that 10 minute rest phase as if you have slept for six to seven hours. I'm not saying that you should forego your sleep, but, yes, that has something. And then fast forward 10 years. I found some friends of mine building products in the mindfulness space. Headspace is one app. People have talked about Calm is another one.

Piyush Malik: 40:36

I'm not a regular user but I've tried all of these. Those are external aids to help you get to meditation.

Tonya J. Long: 40:43

Tools to help you on your journey.

Piyush Malik: 40:45

The experience we had at the last conference. They put eye mask and some certain frequencies passed through your ear and stereo phone. I literally got into that meditation within five minutes or less and then the person tapped. You were supposed to do it for eight minutes and you've been doing it for more than 20 minutes now. Didn't realize it was in such a deep state of relaxation. All I was doing was going back to something that I believe everybody needs. Yes, there's so much disturbances happening around us, so much tensions people have. People have life, work, family, but you need to find time for yourself, and this mindfulness practice is now being packaged as soul tech Totally new.

Tonya J. Long: 41:36

As I said, I don't know anything about it Right, right, you don't need to Very recent. Yeah, yeah.

Piyush Malik: 41:40

So I will be very curious to learn more as we go forward and see what my friends will be building.

Tonya J. Long: 41:45

But I think what's happening we are. Many people are very science oriented and the interesting thing that, the way I see things, I think that science and spirituality are blending right and these tools employ the best of both. Where you are going, I would say, leans on the spirituality side, but how you get there uses science to do things that we didn't know or didn't commercially have available 10 or 15 years ago. A good example is hearing frequencies. I couldn't focus on Tuesday. I was just my mind was everywhere and I put my headphones on at my home office and put on some binaural beats out of YouTube and it's amazing how and to me that's science, that's new science.

Tonya J. Long: 42:38

That is new science taking all the chaos out of my monkey mind and allowing me to just be present with what I was doing. I wasn't even meditating or trying to be restful. I was trying to focus to get something done, and I couldn't because I had too many other things interrupting my thoughts. And so that's science influencing our journey.

Piyush Malik: 43:03

Absolutely. You may have heard of Neuralink, of course yes, and they employ a lot of neuroscientists and they study brain. These are real doctors who are now implanting chips in the human brain. They've been testing with a pig and monkeys and other animals and they have had positive results.

Tonya J. Long: 43:21

Now I wrote about this on LinkedIn about eight months ago. I'm going to say there's a woman who hasn't spoken in 15 years and she's been a quadriplegic and hasn't been able to speak, and her first words with her husband in the room were I love you. And her first words with her husband in the room were I love you. And it was, her body couldn't physically produce the words, but they had. It was a neural link chip into a computer avatar of her. And her first words were I love you. And he hadn't heard her speak in 15, 16 years, isn't it?

Piyush Malik: 43:53

beautiful how science can lead to better outcomes for a relationship. Absolutely. Absolutely and that's a contribution to humanity. It is it is. I hate Elon and the kind of things that he does distractingly. I have to give a hat to the entrepreneur in him and the first principle thinker that he is in disrupting so many industries. First principle thinker that he is in disrupting so many industries enabling the space industry, automotive industry, energy industry and this Neuralink thing is mind-boggling.

Tonya J. Long: 44:26

People have their opinions. I appreciate the courage that he had to do what he knew technology could do because of course, there's going to be it's disruptive and it's concerning about the bad actor element. So it takes courage to create these things that technology can do, because you're willing to draw a line in the sand about the good things it can do, outweigh the bad that could happen and will manage the other side.

Piyush Malik: 44:54

Yes, and since I got to know about Neuralink, I met two such neuroscientists, one at Neuralink and one at another company, a very small startup, reid Hoffman. I just invested in these guys. Young folks are inventing such beautiful technologies. I'm amazed and I'm looking forward to what other things that these guys will do. The faith in humanity is restored by science and technology.

Tonya J. Long: 45:21

Love it.

Piyush Malik: 45:22

Yes, you can tell I'm a STEM geek and I always promote that.

Tonya J. Long: 45:26

But you're wrapping your affinity for technology around doing good for the world on a path to deepening spirituality, however you define that. So to me, your enthusiasm is because you are seeing a culmination of the things that matter most to you all coming together. You should be excited and think about it.

Piyush Malik: 45:50

You and I are of a generation maybe I'm more there. There used to be a certain degree of longevity expectations on life. Those are changing because of science and technology. We are going to be a certain degree of longevity expectations on life. Those are changing because of science and technology. We are going to be living longer, but society hasn't, the job market hasn't taken that into account. They still think that people will retire at a certain age, but I feel 50s is the new 20s, because you are going to be living beyond 20. And so you have a lot more to give. Yeah, and I consider people of our age now to be the Gen W, the wisdom generation. Yeah, and that is what I've been speaking on stages about the wisdom economy.

Tonya J. Long: 46:34

You were actually. You were at one of those talks.

Piyush Malik: 46:36

Yes, and your next book will be on that too.

Tonya J. Long: 46:39

Yes, I got to get some traction on that, but yes, yeah, I think people are leaning into wisdom. I'll do a quick station identifier for KPCR 92.9 FM and KMRT 101.9 FM. And we have a giveaway. Paul Thorne will be performing on July 23rd, just around the corner. He's a folk pop storyteller. So if you join the Signal Society at kpcrorg slash join, you'll havea chance to win tickets, and we will announce winners on July 21st. So go sign up at the Signal Society site, kpcrorg slash join and have a chance to win tickets to see Paul Thorne on July 23rd. Ooh, so what? I want to move to storytelling. We could talk about that for hours, but I want to move to a segment of the show that I've started, ending with a lightning round of questions. Lightning rounds are just very brief answers, just first thing, top of mind. So complete this sentence for me, the biggest misconception about AI is that it will end humanity.

Tonya J. Long: 47:45

Oh good, Okay, next. I want to talk about all of these, but I can't Perfect. So what's one spiritual practice that has most transformed your leadership style? Focusing meditation and focusing on my mind. Love it Okay.

Piyush Malik: 48:04

Okay, it's focusing on the mind breath. That's a distinction. It is a systematic way of calculated breaths that you take and what makes your practice deeper.

Tonya J. Long: 48:17

Yes.

Piyush Malik: 48:17

More on that some other time. Yeah, yeah, good Name one person who isn't famous but should be on everyone's radar Interesting. I haven't thought about that. There are some unnamed artisans I have seen work their traditional handicrafts back in Rajasthan. When, again, it takes me back 30 plus years ago, before I came here, crafting such integrate, detailed designs.

Piyush Malik: 48:54

I believe they should be recognized and their art form should reach the world. And, believe it or not, certain folks recently have been in India. No named people have been getting these Padma awards, which are like civilian awards that the prime minister gives out, president gives out. That practice is changing. But that artisan when you just made me think about them when they were they don't earn much. They maybe earn less than a dollar a day, yeah, and they are so good at their craft. They keep working on it for ages, for generations, and they love it and I think we should be promoting those kind of books.

Tonya J. Long: 49:34

I hope that AI elevates our ability to see beauty in art and have more art in our lives.

Piyush Malik: 49:41

That's a hope for me.

Tonya J. Long: 49:42

I would love that, yes, mentoring what's the most important quality you look for when you're mentoring someone?

Piyush Malik: 49:51

Somebody who's receptive to it, somebody who will take action and somebody who is not there just to make a connection and lever, and you can make out. There have been some folks who have just wanted to connect so that I could connect them with somebody else for immediate benefit. Mentoring somebody for their long-term sustainability in the industry is what I believe is my mantra.

Tonya J. Long: 50:19

All right, fill in the blank. The future of work will be more what.

Piyush Malik: 50:26

Human-centric.

Tonya J. Long: 50:27

Than people expect.

Piyush Malik: 50:29

It will be more human-centric. Why I say that is you can automate a lot of things, you can make a lot of things, you can make a lot of technology, but the human intuition, the human ingenuity, if that's not amplified, we will all lose our purpose ahead of delivering tasks.

Tonya J. Long: 50:57

We've all gotten so embedded in the grind and, with the help of AI and the technologies we're deploying, I hope that the grind goes away and true humanity comes back, because performance is not about the grind. Performance is about the uniquely human qualities you mentioned intuition.

Piyush Malik: 51:16

Absolutely, and I really hope there's peace in the world and these conflicts go away.

Tonya J. Long: 51:22

Yeah, yeah, and let's all work toward that too. What's one technology trend that excites you and one that worries you?

Piyush Malik: 51:33

Whatever I'm seeing with AI and is definitely exciting, but cybersecurity, and on the other spectrum is the advancements in quantum which can break the existing cybersecurity protocols. So that definitely is worrying, worrisome. Not sure I can personally do anything about it except being curious, learning more and find an opportunity to take the benefit to other people.

Tonya J. Long: 52:03

I like that Complete this thought. The world would be better if more people understood that.

Piyush Malik: 52:12

If more people understood each other. Yeah, any conflict, whether it is geopolitical, whether it is the negotiations that you do in commercial, all of that is because you don't see the intentions of the other person. And yeah, Good.

Tonya J. Long: 52:30

So, piyush, if you weren't in tech, what would you do?

Piyush Malik: 52:35

I would be an artist, I would be painting.

Tonya J. Long: 52:39

Oh, that came so easily for you, that answer. So what kind of medium?

Piyush Malik: 52:46

You mentioned painting. All these are things that I have experimented from childhood whether it is playing a musical instrument and being bad at it. Leaving that and trying another thing?

Piyush Malik: 52:57

Yes, I've done that, being bad at it, leaving that and trying another thing yes, I've done that. I believe drawing and painting or doodling is something which I have been doing since I don't draw and paint anymore, but as a child, my parents and teachers used to think that I'm gifted that and I should use to participate in a lot of contests as a child. Childhood innocence gives way to the needs of career and college education and whatnot, when you don't have time for any of that. So that's been on my mind as I retire as I do, things find more time for my hobbies. Believe it or not, I joined a drum circle last year.

Tonya J. Long: 53:41

Oh, very cool. I didn't know you had done that.

Piyush Malik: 53:44

And saw the healing power, because there were people of all skill level in that drum circle and the beats were tempering, and people beginners as well as pros. So who knows what I'll end up doing but you need to find at least one hour a month to do things of that nature that takes you away from, and if you do that on the side of a river, a beach even- better, and I'm splitting hairs here, but it's not fine.

Tonya J. Long: 54:19

The time to prioritize it, it has to be done. It has to be done for the journey, whatever journey of growth you are on, and I want to believe that the majority of the people that we know, the people who listen to this show, they are on that journey, but it has to be a priority for feeding your soul, yes, and we don't talk about these things in commercial settings or in professional settings, but when we are building a community, when we are talking to youngsters, I think we should prioritize to talk about these things, because a complete human being is much beyond worth.

Piyush Malik: 54:55

Human being is much beyond worth, the multiple dimensions of an individual. That, and I would say, if at all a message needs to be sent out to the next generation, it's about embrace your wholeness, bring your whole self to work and make sure people know that you are unique and take pride in your uniqueness. I don't speak English properly. I don't know it. That's not my mother tongue. Uniqueness I don't speak English properly. I don't know the tongue. Does that make me any less than the other person? It comes after a lot of realization that somebody whose accent is not perfect, gentlemanly or English-like accent can still have great ideas, can be respected. Many of the Nobel Prize winners couldn't speak English properly and yet they were recognized.

Tonya J. Long: 55:41

I've always been an admirer of the gestalt theory. Gestalt is the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. And when I look at your parts Pricewaterhouse, ibm, nonprofits and boards Cadence is on here. I didn't remember you had a stint in Cadence. You've been engineering product management and now wrap the spiritual wrapper around that and the leadership and mentorship wrapper and the doing good for society wrapper Any of your parts are remarkable, but the whole is so much more interesting and impactful, moving from enterprise into impact. And so the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and I love the piece of art that you have built for what makes your life matter.

Piyush Malik: 56:32

Thank you so much, stoney. I really feel grateful for the friendships in my life, for all the people that we meet in the community, and I feel we have a duty to leave an impact on others.

Tonya J. Long: 56:46

Yes, we do.

Piyush Malik: 56:48

And we should not take anything for granted. We should not take time for granted. We should not take people for granted Agreed, take people for granted Agreed, and that's why I cherish every interaction I've had with you and some of the other community members that, even though we may have met only a year or two ago, feel like family.

Tonya J. Long: 57:09

I'm honored, blessed and look forward to growing in our journeys together as we wrap up. No doubt people have heard this or will watch the podcast that we put out in a couple of days and they'll think he's very interesting and I want to see or be part of witnessing his journey. How can people see what you're working on?

Piyush Malik: 57:34

I'm fairly transparent on what I'm working on both in the community as well as professionally, linkedin, Whatever. I'm not as active on X anymore, but LinkedIn for sure.

Tonya J. Long: 57:45

Good.

Piyush Malik: 57:46

Yeah, follow me around, send me a DM.

Tonya J. Long: 57:49

And via LinkedIn they'll see your digital agenda announcements when you do those podcasts.

Tonya J. Long: 57:53

That's right, Excellent, Wonderful. It has been an absolute joy today to have Piyush Malik on Reset with Tonya, so we'll give a little love to our audience. So Reset with Tonya here on KPCR 92.9 FM, K215GA 909.9 FM and KMRT 101.9 FM in Santa Cruz. Everyone have a beautiful day and we hope that some of today's conversation it has been a conversation between two friends and I believe that there are cues for each of you in this conversation to step into your highest and best use. So have a Haboo day, the highest and best use day everyone.

Piyush Malik: 58:40

Awesome, thank you.

Tonya J. Long: 58:40

Thank you so much. Everyone take care. Thank you, goodbye.