Leadership Journeys [93] - Akhil Sivanandan - "I just couldn't sit by and do nothing"

This is the Leadership Journey series on the Choosing Leadership Podcast.I believe we all have a lot to learn from each other's stories - of where we started, where we are now, and our successes and struggles on the way. With this series of interviews, my attempt is to give leaders an opportunity to share their stories and for all of us to learn from their generous sharing. If you know a leader whom you would like to see celebrated on the show, please send me a message on LinkedIn with their name.In the interview, Akhil shares how he traveled as a child to protected rainforests, and how that has shaped his vision and what he does today. He also talks about the importance of having mentors for any entrepreneur, and how he loves to go on long walks without any direction. You can find Akhil at the below linkshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/akhilsivanandan/In the interview, Akhil sharesGreen Story. So what we do at Green Story is we work with fashion brands to calculate the footprint of their products in a very credible manner through a scientific methodology, and allow them to make improvements in their supply chain, offset their footprint, and most importantly, show it to consumers at point of sale.  I never thought I'd want to wind up being an entrepreneur. I grew up in India and very typically I did engineering in India in computer science. I didn't have want anything to do with it in my career so I ran away screaming and ended up working In a space that I was very interested in since I was a child, and that was in the environmental space.  Then I moved to Canada in 2011. The intent was to build out a career in the renewable energy and sustainability space in Canada That's also where I met my co-founder, Nav. He and I were one of five people in the entire batch who were into sustainability.I do want to point to my father as one key component of that. I was very fortunate in the sense that he had a job in the government of India, which involved a lot of work in rural communities. And a lot of his work was in charge sometimes of the development of these regions in India. gradually I grew a love for nature and my parents also instilled that in me by purchasing a lot of books about it. For me I was a voracious reader, so I read a lot of books on natural history and used to watch a lot of documentaries    what I learned to do was learn to identify. Whom I could go to for what, . So if I needed different levels of support, if I needed different levels of push sometimes to get to that next level, I used to find different mentors who could help me for those specific things and just or just generic like mental health in a way. I'm myself very bad at taking breaks. , which is a weakness that I have, but I do think that's important though. What I like doing in my downtime is really what people call rambling. So it's probably the most boring. What I find the most rewarding hobby in the world is like really going in a long walk with no direction. , and that's how my wife and I Spend quality time together There's so many beautiful parks and forests where you can get lost inMy wife's a professional artist. I'm very much part-time, so . I do like drawing and sketching and painting as a way to relax and also express myself.I used to actually do a lot of Tai Chi as a relaxation mechanism. I don't practice as much anymore, unfortunately. And I do want to get back into it. It's something I learned from my master in India.Be mindful of your body, and recharge your batteries cuz that's when you can present the best version of yourself.