If you ask Nandan Nilekani, the key to being successful in today's ever-changing job landscape is simpler than you think.

Nilekani co-founded Infosys, an information technology (IT) and consulting firm, in 1981, serving as CEO from 2002 to 2007 before creating Aadhaar, the world's largest biometric identification system, in 2009. His contributions to the tech landscape helped him reach billionaire status, with a current net worth of $3.6 billion, according to Forbes.

As tech and AI changes workflows, and anxiety around the future of work looms, Nilekani says people should focus on building the soft skills that artificial intelligence can't replicate.

"Be curious, connected and relevant," he told LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky in a recent episode of "The Path" newsletter. "I get up every morning wanting to learn new things, and I keep my mind open."

It's a mantra that's propelled Nilekani throughout his career. The 69-year-old grew up in India in the '60s and early '70s, where parents had strict rules for their kids' careers, he said: either be a doctor or an engineer.

Nilekani chose engineering, but went to a college his father didn't approve of, and chose electrical over chemical engineering, again, to his father's dismay. He graduated from IIT Bombay in 1978 and became obsessed with a new technology, mini computers, shortly after.

He got a job at Putney Computer Systems, the company developing the new tech, under N.R. Narayana Murthy, who would later call on him to co-found Infosys, where Nilekani currently serves as a non-executive chairman.

Nilekani credits most of his success to his hunger for information and the excitement that learning new things brought him, insisting that curiosity made him successful, not a love for business. 

"I'm an accidental entrepreneur," he told Roslansky. "It's not that I set out my life to be an entrepreneur, but once I got into it, I realized this was my calling."

Be inquisitive or be 'stagnant'

Being eager to learn is an invaluable soft skill, according to successful executives like fellow billionaire Mark Cuban and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.

"I can pretend that I'm gonna be able to predict where AI's going and the exact impact on the job market, but I'd be lying, I have no idea," Cuban said in October. "But I do know that I am gonna pay attention, and be agile, and be curious, and be able to adapt."

For Jassy, staying connected and relevant about new skills and the world around you is essential for a prosperous career — those who choose not to are bound to be "stagnant," he said in a July 2024 video posted by Amazon. 

In 2022, 19% of American professionals were in jobs that are the most exposed to AI, in which the most important tasks may be assisted or replaced by AI, according to Pew Research Center. As that number potentially rises with tech innovation, Nilekani believes soft skills will keep people on a fast-track to success.

"The future is about what only humans can do," he said. "Empathy, compassion, connecting the dots … Remain curious, connected and relevant."

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