We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mike Kumar a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Mike, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
I think I get my resilience from my parents. My parents are both immigrants from 2 different countries that they had to flee from due to social strife, like a genocide & a civil war. Their journeys to America both happened to them when they were young so I am completely grateful when I think of them having to survive what they went through and getting to America to pursue “The American Dream.” I would very much not be here if either of them didn’t have the resilience to get through their ordeals in making their way to America and I always remind myself to be grateful for the life I have because of them and to work as hard as I can in my passions to give back to their sacrifices in making it here and providing for their families and children.
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?
Professionally, I am a TV production assistant, videographer & video editor, all to say in a fun way that I am a professional “story teller.” Video editing is basically a craft that has so many approaches in how you want to tell a story and there’s no right or wrong way in how to do it, as long as you can convey what you want to say through video and it is felt and understood by the viewer when they see your final cut.
Aside from that realm though, more recently I have dove into content creation for my own personal niches and hobbies and making content online through a phone has been an interesting way to still tell a story how you want depending on how you want to convey it! Nerd culture has become such a mainstream staple in online spaces so I’m just glad I get to share my passion for things like anime and gaming with other people around world online on social media platforms through the content I make about those niches.
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?
I think 3 qualities that impacted my journey is being open to any opportunity that came my way, being “coachable” and accepting new ways to do something or go about something a certain way, and just “just being myself” not matter where I’m at or who I’m with. My advice in how to maybe develop on these qualities is no matter how big or small it might seem, if you feel like you could benefit from an opportunity given to you in some way, then always put yourself out there like that. You never know what you might learn or who you might meet if you’re given a chance to be in the right places.
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
I think the most impactful thing my parents did for me was letting me figure my own way out. They never tried to “box me in” to be a certain way or put me on a specific path that they thought was most successful for me. They let me try a lot of things as a child and young adolescent and that helped shape me and who I’ve become today because I don’t ever say no to an opportunity if I think it looks at the very least fun to do or learn from.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/kumar_sutra
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/kumar_sutra
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-udayakumar-63540376?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/kumar_sutra
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/c/kumar_sutra?sub_confirmation=1
- Other: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMexEbpud/
Image Credits
Photo Credits: @A_Pows @nycosplayer @shelleraiphotos
