A passenger on a recent commercial flight from Mumbai to Bengaluru was surprised to find Narayana Murthy, co-founder of Infosys, seated beside him in the economy class. The Bengaluru man later posted about this unexpected encounter on LinkedIn. Despite his staggering net worth, Mr Murthy is known for travelling in economy class.
Naren Krishna, an entrepreneur who happened to be seated next to Mr Murthy on the flight to Bengaluru, shared that their conversation during the journey covered a range of topics, including AI and the current state of the Indian economy.
"The sheer disbelief of sharing an economy seat with a visionary of his stature lingered throughout the journey," he wrote in his LinkedIn post.
Mr Krishna shared that he was blown away by "how down-to-earth and approachable he was. He further shared, "In the few hours we shared, I delved into a myriad of topics with him, from the future landscape with AI, the pivotal role the youth plays in the Indian economy on a global scale, surpassing even China in the future & managing expectations, dealing with stress, and navigating through failures while building a company."
Mr Krishna revealed that Mr Murthy spoke about the importance of detachment in life. Mr Murthy also shared anecdotes with Mr Murthy.
"One gem he shared was the importance of detachment from results, he recounted instances from Infosys journey when, despite putting in relentless efforts, big contracts didn't materialise, while unexpected deals surprisingly fell into place."
He added, "The key takeaway for me in this discussion was the quote mentioned from Louis Pasteur, "Chance favours the prepared mind."
Mr Murthy also spoke about the rise of artificial intelligence. The billionaire said AI will exponentially boost human productivity by 10-100x in various sectors. He added that the pace of innovation in the coming years will outstrip the last decade.
Mr Krishna concluded the post by saying that he would carry the memory of this unexpected meeting with him for a long time.