Srikumar Rao

Srikumar Rao – Life, Philosophy, and Timeless Wisdom

Explore the life, teachings, and memorable quotes of Srikumar S. Rao — Indian educator and thought leader behind Creativity & Personal Mastery. Discover how he blends ancient wisdom with modern leadership theory to help people live more fulfilled lives.

Introduction

Srikumar S. Rao (born April 11, 1951) is an Indian-born educator, consultant, and speaker best known for pioneering courses and frameworks in personal mastery, creativity, and leadership. His teachings draw from Eastern philosophy, psychology, and business insights, offering unconventional strategies for success, resilience, and inner transformation. He is the founder of The Rao Institute and the author of books such as Are You Ready to Succeed? and Happiness at Work.

Rao’s impact lies not just in helping professionals optimize performance, but in cultivating deeper meaning, emotional resilience, and freedom from limiting beliefs. His life and work invite us to reconsider how we define success.

Early Life and Education

Srikumar Rao was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), India, on April 11, 1951.

He earned his undergraduate education at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University, majoring in physics. Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Later, Rao moved to the United States for doctoral work. He completed his Ph.D. in Marketing at Columbia Business School in 1980.

This combination of scientific, business, and cross-cultural training would later inform his integrative approach to teaching and coaching.

Career and Achievements

Business & Early Professional Work

Before entering academia, Rao worked in the corporate sector. He held roles at Warner Communications in the early 1970s, worked in advertising strategy (including for The Exorcist), and later held marketing and mergers & acquisition positions at Continental Group and Data Resources, Inc., which was later acquired by McGraw-Hill.

These practical roles provided him exposure to systems, organizational dynamics, and the pressures of performance in corporate environments.

Academia & The Birth of CPM

In 1983, Rao moved into academia, teaching marketing at Baruch College (CUNY), then at Long Island University. Creativity & Personal Mastery (CPM) — not a typical business class, but one intended to transform how people think, act, and lead.

In 1999, Rao brought CPM to Columbia Business School, where he taught it until 2005. London Business School, Kellogg School of Management, Haas (UC Berkeley), and other institutions.

He now offers CPM privately and to executives, spiritually inclined professionals, and corporate groups via The Rao Institute.

Publications & Influence

Rao has written several influential books:

• Are You Ready to Succeed? Unconventional Strategies for Achieving Personal Mastery in Business and Life

• Happiness at Work: Be Resilient, Motivated and Successful — No Matter What

• Modern Wisdom, Ancient Roots: The Movers and Shakers’ Guide to Unstoppable Success

• The Seventh Jar: Your Path to Personal Mastery and Success (2025)

His work has reached executives and organizations globally, including engagements with Google, Microsoft, and Fortune 500 companies.

He has also appeared as a TED speaker and contributes articles to business media.

Historical Milestones & Context

• Rao’s emergence came at a time when business education emphasized finance, strategy, and metrics. He introduced a counterpoint: the inner dimensions of leadership, thinking, and meaning.

• His integration of Eastern spiritual traditions (nonduality, accepting imperfection, detachment from outcomes) into Western leadership paradigms resonated with a growing appetite in corporate culture for mindfulness, well-being, and purpose.

• The rise of the “human side of business” (emotional intelligence, well-being, purpose-driven organizations) labels much of Rao’s influence as prescient.

• His course (CPM) itself became a movement: alumni often report deep shifts in how they see work, stress, and identity, not just incremental productivity gains.

Legacy and Influence

Rao’s legacy lies less in sheer scale than in the quality of transformation he catalyzes. He is often cited by professionals who say CPM “changed their lives”—rebooting how they relate to goals, pressure, self-worth, and contribution.

He stands as a bridge between corporate leadership and spiritual clarity, showing that success need not cost inner peace. Many coaches, trainers, and business thinkers today echo his insistence that sustainable performance arises from dealing with beliefs, not just behaviors.

His books, especially Are You Ready to Succeed?, are often recommended in leadership circles for those who feel stuck despite outward success.

His influence also continues through The Rao Institute, which trains new practitioners, and through the propagation of his frameworks into executive coaching ecosystems.

Personality and Approach

Rao is known to be thoughtful, introspective, and deeply patient. He emphasizes inquiry over prescription, inviting participants to examine their own assumptions rather than feeding them a formula.

While he engages with high-performing professionals, he resists the common narrative that success is just about hustle. Instead, he encourages humility, acceptance, curiosity, and a deeper alignment with inner purpose.

He often underlines paradox: to change, paradoxically, one must accept what is; to control less is to gain more.

Famous Quotes of Srikumar Rao

Here are several quotes that exemplify his philosophy:

“When the flower blossoms, the bee will come.” “The knowledge that we are responsible for living the life we have is our most powerful tool.” “We have the ability to craft a life where we are completely fulfilled. We think it is dependent on outsiders … but it is much more dependent on the attitude we bring to life.” “There’s no destination. The journey is all that there is, and it can be very, very joyful.” “Once you accept, truly accept, that stuff will happen to you and there is nothing you can do about it, stress miraculously leaves your life.” “Positive thinking is so firmly enshrined in our culture that knocking it is a little like attacking motherhood or apple pie.” “I am not a big fan of positive thinking. … That is an artificial duality.” “If something comes that it is so extreme that you have difficulty thinking of it as a good thing, don’t think of it as a good thing … Refusing to label something a bad thing opens you up to possibilities you would not have even considered otherwise.” “If you want to experience joy in your life, you have to be able to step outside yourself and become part of a cause that is much larger than you.”

These quotes capture themes of acceptance, surrender of labeling, responsibility, and aligning one’s attitude with life rather than external validation.

Lessons We Can Learn

1. Don’t chase outcomes at the expense of inner alignment. Rao teaches that obsession over results often undermines the deeper conditions that produce meaningful outcomes.

2. Accept what you cannot control. Recognizing that “stuff” happens—and that labeling it as “good/bad” is optional—reduces stress and opens clarity.

3. You are the architect of your attitude. External circumstances influence us, but the attitude we bring to life shapes our experience more.

4. We are not separate from contribution. Joy grows when one aligns with causes larger than self, rather than seeing life as purely self-directed.

5. Transformation is inner first. Changing beliefs, loosened identities, and reframed assumptions are more potent than pushing harder.

Conclusion

Srikumar Rao is an exemplar of integrating wisdom traditions with modern leadership and human performance. His journey from physics student to business strategist to “mastery educator” reflects a lifelong quest to embody what he teaches. The depth of his influence resides not in mass popularity but in how deeply he moves those who encounter his courses and ideas.