Social entrepreneur Miki Agrawal has never been shy about grabbing life by the horns. A prolific public speaker, Agrawal is the CEO and co-founder of her own company and has nearly two decades of entrepreneurial adventures under her belt, including several prestigious awards. She’s the founder of Wild, a gluten-free farm-to-table pizza concept; Thinx, an enterprise creating period panties on a mission; and Tushy, which makes a bidet attachment that fits every toilet.
The author of two bestsellers with another about to drop, Agrawal is chock-full of pearls of wisdom she’s more than happy to share in her relentless efforts to improve life on planet Earth by empowering others.
In her book Disrupt-Her, Agrawal disrupts 13 common beliefs that are “accepted by society.” At the end of each chapter, there are questions that give readers the opportunity to apply what they’ve read and compare it to circumstances in their own lives.
Miki Agrawal’s other bestseller, Do Cool S–t: Quit Your Day Job, Start Your Own Business, and Live Happily Ever After, leaves readers with several valuable takeaways. Her advice allows the reader to relate to Agrawal in a more reverent way.
In Agrawal’s upcoming book, Heart Philosophy: Principles For Inner Wisdom, she uses affirmations from several years of insight accumulated from the world, books she’s read, or simply the knowledge bestowed upon her from teachers in her past, to channel from her own heart. These aspects from her life are assembled in Heart Philosophy to include her readers on this “continuous journey back home to our hearts.”
At the core of her business and worldview is a belief in equal opportunity for women. It’s no wonder that in her 15-plus years of leadership and entrepreneurial adventures, Agrawal has received accolades and awards for her entrepreneurial accomplishments, including being named among Fast Company’s Most Creative People, a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, and one of Inc. magazine’s Most Impressive Women Entrepreneurs.
The multifaceted mogul continues to grow and evolve and share her knowledge. Read on for some of the ubiquitous multihyphenate’s most inspirational words.
Contents
- 1) ‘Get rid of the depleters.”
- 2) ‘Disrupting isn’t about fear. It’s really about courage and eliminating shame.’
- 3) ‘Follow your own lit path.’
- 4) ‘Rather than complain, come up with solutions.’
- 5) ‘We are who we practice to be.’
- 6) ‘Judgment creates defensiveness. Teaching from the heart creates lasting change.’
- 7) ‘Create a supportive, fun, caring community that stands by you no matter what.’
- 8) ‘Quip back.’
- 9) ‘To serve others and the world the best, we need to stop and truly listen to ourselves first.’
- 10) ‘Don’t get serious as you grow up.’
1) ‘Get rid of the depleters.”
Agrawal calls friends who aren’t pushing you to challenge yourself, work hard, and try new things “depleters.” By eliminating depleters, we open up a space in our lives for inspiring people. “Improving my tribe has exponentially improved my life,” Agrawal admitted in an interview as she described her community of companions who share mutual admiration, encouragement, and inspiration with one another.
To go hand in hand with getting rid of depleters, Agrawal mentions “hate-hers” in her unabashed manifesto Disrupt-Her. In the page-turner, readers will discover how to “not let hate-hers derail you from your mission, and instead show them the way back to being love-hers.”
2) ‘Disrupting isn’t about fear. It’s really about courage and eliminating shame.’
In this empowering conversation, the fearless millennial leader refers to Disrupt-Her. Agrawal says she wants to show everyone that we can be disrupters of our own lives and help improve the future.
Agrawal is known for talking openly about unpopular topics. She agrees that going against social barriers is hard, scary, and risky, but she attests: “Shame plays a big role in what type of person we should be like, what we should look like, what kind of car we should drive, and how we should act in front of people.” Agrawal asks the question: “Whose standards are we thinking about?” She continues, “Once you question everything, you can really start to see the opportunities and where you can really make a difference.”
Agrawal says her book will teach you how to spot disruption within “even some of the most common beliefs,” and adds, “So many areas of our lives need disruption and it all starts with how we question and view the world.”
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3) ‘Follow your own lit path.’
Follow your own lit path, a path of things that excite and light you up; a lit path is one that’s fulfilling and dotted with exciting things you’re passionate about. Because life is too short for us to live on a path dictated to us by society, Agrawal says we should be living a path we’ve created for ourselves. As a result, Agrawal says when you follow your lit path, you should be closer to making the impact you hope to have on this world.
In Disrupt-Her, Miki Agrawal digs into more than a dozen areas of our lives that need disruption, including money, career, purpose, the culture of complaining versus doing, activism, feminism, patriarchy, and more. Your lit path comes from questioning your personal beliefs, perhaps asking, “Why should you stay in this safe job?” or “Do you know why you are following this career path?” Agrawal mentions we should try to leave the world a better place than we entered, and we can do this by being a disrupter of our own lives and helping make the future better.
4) ‘Rather than complain, come up with solutions.’
Agrawal says stop grousing. “Rather than getting together and complaining, why don’t we bring people together to come up with solutions and ideas, positive uplifting, shifting culture, and not just complain about other people or situations?” When you feel that you’ve exhausted all options or are unsatisfied with something in your life, use a more productive angle to think up a solution, then do it, Agrawal says in Disrupt-Her.
Agrawal says she gets excited when problems or issues come up because it gives her an opportunity to “solve those things and make our collective human experiences better.” For example, if you have a complaint about something at work, before going into your boss’s office to grumble, you should first think about solutions and then present the issue along with the solutions, Agrawal says. This adds value to your company and “people will want you around more.”
5) ‘We are who we practice to be.’
Agrawal mentions this in her book but digs a bit deeper on her Facebook page. “We can talk and talk or complain or make excuses or not take any action, or we can work our butts off with all of us and truly make magic happen,” Agrawal says that when we’re trying to improve ourselves, it’s a daily, moment-by-moment practice. She adds that we don’t “change just like that, it takes effort and awareness and messing up and trying again and again until a new neuronal pathway is formed and we improve.”
Miki Agrawal doesn’t claim to be an expert. She draws on her past experiences, both positive and negative, to share information with others. Agrawal adds, “To become a true expert takes years of dedication and practice,” making the point that “we are who we practice to be.”
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6) ‘Judgment creates defensiveness. Teaching from the heart creates lasting change.’
Miki Agrawal explains this statement from Do Cool S–t on her Facebook page. She describes how she feels when she’s judged by others: “I get defensive.” She explains that sometimes when she feels hurt, “rather than share my feelings from my heart, I can go into judgment mode to protect myself.” But where does this leave us? “The thing is, making people feel judged has never worked for me.” Agrawal explains that it only creates more separation, not closeness.
Agrawal suggests slowing down, taking a deep breath, and apologizing. “It’s OK to say sorry for judging others, even if you feel hurt by them first.”
When do you teach from the heart? Miki Agrawal uses herself as an example: “My judgments usually come from a place of feeling a lack of safety. When I feel unsafe with someone or something, my natural tendency is to protect myself, and sometimes that comes out as a judgment. I do my best to slow down and sit with the person and explain from my heart what I am feeling, and usually, the response is really positive, which only makes me want to keep going with that method.”
While this method isn’t foolproof and everyone makes mistakes, eventually the “knee-jerk protective judgment response will be replaced with a slower, more thoughtful, heartfelt teaching moment where both parties can learn from.”
As stated in her fifth quote, Agrawal ends it by saying, “We are who we practice to be, so I’ll just keep practicing.”
7) ‘Create a supportive, fun, caring community that stands by you no matter what.’
Don’t let hate-hers derail you from your mission. The company you keep, both in business and in life, Agrawal says, can make you or break you. Also in Disrupt-Her, Agrawal says who we choose to spend our time with is crucial and explains, “Evaluating friendships is important. Who holds you back? Who encourages you to stay safe or rest on your accomplishments?” Agrawal uses her experiences to show how she’s followed and continues to follow her lit path. Through these events, she’s realized how important it is to “trust your gut, eliminate toxic situations, and surround yourself with positive, hardworking, inspiring people, which will inevitably make you want to elevate yourself as well.”
8) ‘Quip back.’
What is “quip back”? It’s basically just meeting people where they are. Agrawal explains it in detail in Disrupt-Her, and talks about it on a podcast and her Facebook page. “Quip back, question, quit” is the best way to defuse someone with a hot temper, and she shares that the technique works. Agrawal says, “Quipping back means meeting people where they are first with a funny comment. If that doesn’t work, question them with love. And if that doesn’t work, quit the moment with love if it’s not serving either of you.”
It’s easy to get triggered by others and when you’re met with aggression, responding with aggression isn’t helpful. “Whenever I focus on this technique, it really works and leaves a good taste in everyone’s mouths.”
9) ‘To serve others and the world the best, we need to stop and truly listen to ourselves first.’
Miki Agrawal gets her momentum from positive energy and enthusiastic productivity because they’re infectious. “Find a support system to foster both,” she says, adding that knowing she’s working for a larger cause keeps her motivated. She explains, “Even when you face energy-draining events in your work day, it’s the mission that will move you forward.”
On Miki Agrawal’s website, a page is dedicated to Sit & Listen to Yourself and Your Body. In this particular post, Agrawal admits that it’s fascinating to dive into what we’re thinking, truly slow down, and lean into our thoughts quietly. “Our inner knowing begins to emerge, our inner artist gets her voice back, and our desires become clearer. We can go years and years pushing past our inner knowing and doing things that are not in service to our highest selves.” Miki Agrawal says we sometimes listen to everyone around us instead of ourselves. She admits that she’s learned that to serve others and the world the best, we need to stop and truly listen to ourselves first.
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10) ‘Don’t get serious as you grow up.’
As stated in Disrupt-Her, you can live in a childlike state of curiosity, playfulness, and awe, and still be a responsible adult at the same time. “It’s OK to leave space [for] magic, and playfulness in our lives as we grow up,” Agrawal advises.
To look with fresh eyes at what it means to be wholeheartedly alive and to live up to our potential at work, home, and in the world, regardless of the challenges and naysayers along the way.
“We have ultimate agency over our lives, even though we forget that sometimes, and we get to choose what enters our minds and how we respond to things and the meaning we place on things,” she wrote on her blog.
“We can choose suffering or we can choose joy.”
