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Why Great Leaders Don’t Start From Zero
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What is the most valuable currency for a professional navigating a world that reinvents itself every few months?
Most would say knowledge. And it’s true — but I’ve learned that knowledge alone isn’t what moves you forward.
It’s how you carry it. How you apply it. How you build on it in your next role, your next challenge, your next chapter.
Every role teaches you something. If you treat each role as a classroom, your career becomes a continuous evolution.
Aman Jaggi
Marketing Leader, Cognizant
That mindset has shaped my own journey — from business development to strategy, and now leading marketing across markets. On paper, these roles seem worlds apart. In practice, each one quietly prepared me for the next. I never began from zero.
I began from experience.
Every role teaches you something — about people, decision making, influence, communication, problem solving, and resilience. If you treat each role as a classroom, much like a two-year program with its own curriculum, you realise your career isn’t a series of disconnected steps.
It’s a continuous evolution.
And to me, that is the real essence of leadership.
The Hidden Cost of Not Carrying Your Learning Forward
People often talk about “reinventing yourself.” But I’ve realised reinvention doesn’t mean wiping the slate clean.
It means bringing the right parts of your past forward.
Early in my career, I moved from business development (BD) into strategy for a $2 billion practice. It felt challenging — a new language, a new rhythm, a different measure of success. But soon I realised that my BD instincts for identifying opportunities, spotting patterns, and building relationships gave me a strong head start.
Later, transitioning into marketing wasn’t a fresh start either. Strategy had trained me to ask sharper questions, understand the bigger picture, and connect dots others might miss. Those instincts became my advantage.
We lose momentum when we don’t pause to recognise what we already know.
We struggle unnecessarily when we treat each new role as a blank slate.
Learning happens — but growth doesn’t accumulate.
Some of the world’s most effective leaders — from Satya Nadella moving from engineering to product to CEO, to Howard Schultz applying his sales instincts to build a global brand — show that the best careers are built forward, not restarted.
The magic begins when you make your past your strength and apply it in a new context.
We Don’t Begin Again — We Build Forward
One of the biggest misconceptions about career transitions is the belief that you have to “start over.”
In reality:
1. Every conversation has taught me something about influence.
2. Every project taught me to build structure and clarity.
3. Every setback taught me resilience.
4. Every team taught me empathy.
These become the quiet skills I carry — the ones that help me thrive in unfamiliar spaces.
When I look back at my journey, I realise the pivotal moments were never the job titles.
They were the learnings I carried forward:
1. The business development mindset of curiosity and client centricity
2. The strategic discipline of connecting insights to outcomes
3. The marketing instinct to translate ideas into experiences
Every role layered something on top of the one before it.
That’s why change doesn’t feel like disruption — it feels like evolution.
Learning as a Leadership Advantage
When people ask how I transitioned across such different domains, my answer is always the same: I didn’t start again. I built forward.
Aman Jaggi
Marketing Leader, Cognizant
We talk a lot about AI — and yes, it will shape the world we work in.
But your true competitive advantage is something far simpler:
The ability to take what you’ve learned and make it valuable in a completely new context.
That’s what makes leaders adaptable.
That’s what makes careers resilient.
That’s what allows you to pivot with confidence.
When people ask how I transitioned across such different domains, my answer is always the same:
I didn’t start again. I built forward.
And as I grow as a leader, one question continues to guide me:
What learning will someone else be able to carry forward because I was here?
Because if your growth helps someone else begin a little higher than you did —
then your journey has already become meaningful.
