Sandeep lives his life to the fullest. His unsatisfied appetite for appreciating life exudes a desire to make every day a pleasurable experience, for himself and for people around him. His every adventure is a step closer to his high aspirations. His energy was infectious when we caught up with him on his flight to Cameroon, to talk about his passions and the little things he likes…

Defining growth strategies for a leading technology solutions firm, running a development project in Cameroon and training for a marathon…

A BIOGRAPHY in 3 pages

Sandeep Prasad

Learn how Sandeep Prasad is transforming himself

and the world around him

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Learning from TRAVEL is ongoing.

MIT: How did you catch the travel bug? Sandeep: I grew up traveling. My father was in the Indian army, and for his work, we had to move to a different place every couple of years. MIT: Was it tough losing friends every few years, and adjusting to new places? Sandeep: It was definitely sad and difficult to leave friends behind, but I learnt how to make new friends and quickly adapt to new environments. MIT: What was your trick to making friends and adjusting to new places? Sandeep: I participated in a lot of extracurricular activities such as sports, debating and music and met new people through these activities. My favorite was dramatics. I also acted on a TV show and the entire school knew me as “ Lalchi Kisaan” (Lalchi Kisaan means greedy farmer) - my character on the show. MIT: A consultant and an actor, that’s unique! Sandeep: Yes (smiles), I became an actor out of necessity. It was a long journey of transformation from a shy kid who dreaded public speaking to facing the TV camera. I figured out that through acting I could connect to hundreds of students. These experiences transformed me into a socially dynamic and outgoing person. Last year, I was the social committee head for Booz&Co’s Chicago office.

MIT: How do you manage a good work life balance with so much travel? Sandeep: My dad instilled in me a sense of responsibility and discipline that has served me well as I take on more and more challenges. I try to manage my time really well and I plan how I want to spend every hour of my day. MIT: Have you learnt a lot from travel ? Sandeep: Of course! Every time I travel I learn something new. It never ends, the learning just goes on. I have learnt so much about myself, about other people and the world that I can only imagine how much more remains to be learnt. MIT: What next? Sandeep: There are still so many places to see and so many things to learn. Of the 195 or so countries in the world, I have visited 21, and my goal is to visit at least 100 in my lifetime.

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MIT: How did you get into sports? Sandeep: It all started at a horse-riding class in high school, where all kids had traditional riding horses and I had to ride the halflinger (it’s a small and sturdy horse, compared to a regular horse) because I was overweight. I was hurt to see the other kids who were my age and were fit enough to ride traditional riding horses. That day I made up my mind to work on my fitness.

MIT: So what did you do to improve your fitness? Sandeep: I started with sports. I began swimming, running, playing tennis, badminton, squash, basketball, cricket, table-tennis, soccer and golf and participated in athletics (javelin throw, long jump). I always wanted to push my boundaries and was really disciplined with my training. My parents couldn’t afford coaches, but I was so determined that I read training books at the library. I went on to represent my high school in 5 sports.

MIT: Can fitness and sports change the world? Sandeep: That’s my belief. I translated my personal passion for fitness to improving people’s lives through my non-profit CFDP (Cameroon Football Development Program). At CFDP we leverage free soccer training as a platform to attract young Cameroonian kids to come together. Then we impart to them life skills such as AIDS awareness, business education, etc.

MIT: What’s next? Sandeep: Every few months, I learn new ways to improve my fitness and I push myself to new limits. I remember a year back, I was recovering from an ankle injury and I could barely run for 15 minutes. Now I am training for a marathon.

You are never too HEALTHY.

First triathlon in 2011

Ran a 10K in 2012

MIT: What’s your favorite restaurant? Sandeep: There are many, but no one can beat my mother’s cooking! She cooks everything from scratch, and I am always fascinated to watch her cook the tastiest meals.

MANGOSTEIN!

Wine tasting!

MIT: Do you consider yourself a foodie? Sandeep: I love everything about food. I love eating it, cooking it and growing it. I love trying out different cuisines and tasting unique food that most people wouldn’t touch. I did a shot of snake blood in Thailand, I am definitely a risk taker! I like to cook all my meals if I can. I make the healthiest and tastiest smoothies. I also make my own peanut butter, hummus, ketchup, etc. A few months back I also decided to have my own kitchen garden. MIT: Kitchen garden! You go deep into pursuing your interests, can you talk more about it? Sandeep: Yes, I do pursue my interests with commitment. Now I always have fresh ingredients. Since I travel so much, I bought this new contraption (my friends laugh at all the wires around my plants) that automatically waters my plants. This device doesn’t have a messaging feature to message me on Facebook when its out of water…always room for innovation you see!

MIT: What’s this new food startup we hear about? Sandeep: Its called PymWym (Put Your Money Where Your Mouth is) and my team and I are working hard to launch a MVP (minimum viable product). The idea came to me out of necessity. Every time I went shopping for food and groceries, I had to look up online blogs and reviews to see what brands I should buy, what food has chemicals, what’s locally grown etc. PymWym is a one stop online and mobile platform that provides quick and relevant information about food and groceries. MIT: What’s next?

Sandeep: I am very concerned about food related issues in developing countries, and I want to help alleviate these problems through my consulting work and my non-profit. In fact we are increasing the scope of our CFDP training curriculum to include topics related to growing food, storing food and teaching kids the basics of a healthy diet.

MIT: We hear you love wine.. Sandeep: I love the history of wine, the hard work that goes into growing and fermenting grapes, the research and innovation that goes into making it and understanding the nuances of the complex flavors. I was hooked when I did a wine 101 class in my Booz&Co onboarding training. Then I took it to the next level. I went to Italy, France and the West Coast of USA and visited a lot of vineyards. One day I hope to make my own wine.

DURIAN!!

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And finally, some FOOD for thought.