Meet Leena Duwadi

We recently connected with Leena Duwadi and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Leena, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

At a young age, I had thought to myself that I would want to live an extraordinary life. Over the years, as I evolved, I pursued the career I was passionate about, did most of the things I wanted to do in life. Meanwhile, I understood that we all live a regular life, no matter what profession, path we are in or how much money do we make… however, what makes our story worth telling is – the values or the principles we live by and how our way of living is influencing others in a better way.

I guess I was born with a purpose – to make my life a message.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

There are days in a row when I am sitting in front of my laptop and working on my writing assignments for hours and hours. I write feature stories for several magazines so a lot of time is spent every month in researching, planning, communicating and drafting articles. Writing is bliss, as a writer, I get to see a character’s life so close and when I bring a valuable aspect of that life out in the community, it’s a great feeling.

There are days when I am not writing and being involved in my side jobs. As a social media marketer, I am always thinking of content. Just a random piece of content is also of a big value if presented wisely. I run a few social media platforms other than my own. I help solopreneurs, small businesses and non profits with social media strategy and execution. I run my side hustle via www.leenachitwan.com.

Every once in a while, I am just occupied with long calls and Zoom meetings with individuals I know less about. Many young ones (or even elder ones) seek insights about things they’re concerned about. It’s not a part of my regular jobs, but I enjoy interacting with others and sharing my learnings/experiences. It’s pretty interesting to hear from people I never met or knew and talk about things without any judgement and expectation.

I spent some hours every week working as a customer service associate for a company. On most weekends, I am outdoors, actively participating in community activities.

With all of this, managing time and priority to work on personal writing projects seems a bit challenging… but life is interesting.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Within the media career, I happened to switch myself from radio to television to digital to print. Every phase came with a set of challenges. Those challenges were actually opportunities to grow and make a mark in the network I was into.

The three things that helped me excel in what I put my mind to, were:

1. Taking ownership: I never took any of my jobs as ‘jobs for a living’. I owned the responsibilities I was given and never hesitated to work off the clock whenever required. When I was building my career, I worked seven days a week. When you’re in beginning phase, you keep all the terms and conditions aside and just work. Learn everything that falls within your work responsibility. Choose the job you’re most passionate about and just surrender yourself. Or, if you happen to get into a job you never expected, create a passion for it. Own what you do and you’ll come out stronger.

2. Building emotional strength: You can learn and achieve anything if your emotional immunity is strong. People and workplaces are full of uninvited situations, so working on self to build emotional strength is must. Every day I spend some time in silence that helps me strengthen the relationship with myself. More I am close to myself, more I feel unaffected by the situations, that further helps me focus on things that matter.

3. Realizing the importance of diet and body: We are nothing without our body. Taking care of the body is the first step to building a great life. Skipping meals or leaning into junk food while staying occupied with work is not really a good idea.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

I had read a book in 2018, The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz, which helped me a lot. We all go through difficult times. It’s easy to talk about challenges and the learnings out of that once we cross that phase… however, it’s equally difficult to navigate through the tough times esp. when we are shaping our career. There’s no substitute for hard work. One of the quotes in the book says, hard things are hard coz there are no easy answers. The book makes us accept the reality and face it.

Powerful stories emerge from difficult situations.

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