When IIT Queues Taught Mr. Deepak Jayaraman to Play Beyond the Pitch
Imagine a Saturday morning at IIT Madras, pre-smartphone era. A civics professor nicknamed "Unit Vector" is signing COT (Consent of Teacher) forms at 9 am the next day and rumour has it that he is generous with his S grades. The word spreads like wildfire across the hostels. People start queueing up outside his office from the previous night. Students from Alak hostel show up with cricket bat and tennis ball to kill time in the corridors of HSB as they wait for the professor to arrive.
By dawn, what began as a quiet queue has become a cricket stadium outside his office. When the professor finally appears, bewildered by the mob, he blurts: "Am I distributing gold biscuits?"
Mr. Deepak Jayaraman was there, laughing in the chaos. That was the 1990s at IIT Madras: unpredictable and alive. Little did the guy in the crowd from Alak know that life itself would soon become a similar scramble, one that would take him far beyond campus, through consulting towers and personal crises, to a place of quiet wisdom.
Playing to Potential: The Many Lives of Mr. Deepak Jayaraman
Mr. Deepak's early arc was textbook: IIT Madras (Mechanical), IIM Ahmedabad, McKinsey, KPMG. But in 2008, his father's cancer diagnosis in Chennai shattered the script. "I came back to care for him," he recalls. "Then the Lehman crisis hit. Life doesn't follow your PowerPoint slides.” His calm presence, measured pauses, and gentle humor fill the frame, the kind that puts you immediately at ease. As a typical conversation with him unfolds, what strikes isn’t just the milestones in his journey but the quiet clarity with which he has come to play to potential, navigating life’s bends with self-awareness and curiosity.
“I don’t think the twenty-year-old Mr. Deepak would have imagined what the fifty-year-old Mr. Deepak would be doing,” he says with a laugh. “And that’s the beauty of it. Life keeps unfolding in ways you can never plan.”
Remembering Alak and the Early Days
Mr. Deepak’s years at IIT Madras, in the Alakananda Hostel, were filled with the simple joys of student life: sports, friendships, and the delight of discovery.
“I had a BSA SLR cycle,” he recalls. “I learnt table tennis and swimming from my friends. And, of course, I played a lot of cricket. In fact, we won the Inter-Hostel Cricket when I was in my fourth year.”
Conversations with him veer into nostalgia and laughter as he describes late-night screenings of Super Hit Muqabla, the thrill of quiz nights, and Saarang, which was then just evolving from Mardi Gras. “The Usha Uthup concert at the OAT was unforgettable. We didn’t always understand what was happening, but we loved being there.”
These small vignettes, mischievous, tender, really capture the essence of campus life in the pre-digital 1990s: wonder, camaraderie, and a sense that the world was just what people saw around them, away from the distractions of digital control.
From Engineering to Empathy
After IIT, Mr. Deepak’s path took him to IIM Ahmedabad, and later into management consulting with McKinsey and KPMG. Yet, life’s current soon nudged him in a different direction.
“There’s a lovely line by John Lennon,” he recalls. “‘Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.’ That’s exactly how it’s been for me.”
A turning point came when his father was diagnosed with cancer in 2008, bringing him back to Chennai. “That phase made me introspect deeply. Eventually, a mentor suggested I consider Executive Search, and that’s when I discovered how much I enjoyed understanding people, not judging them.”
It was the beginning of a transformation. What started as curiosity became a calling. Coaching leaders, helping them navigate transitions, and asking deeper questions about purpose and direction became a part of his identity.
“I wanted to spend less time evaluating people, more time helping them,” he explains. “That’s how the idea of coaching and later, the Play to Potential Podcast, took shape.”
Over the past decade, Mr. Deepak’s podcast has featured thinkers, business leaders, and artists: from Vishwanathan Anand to Bombay Jayashri, Nandan Nilekani, and Vijay Amritraj. Each conversation explores what it means to live meaningfully and grow consciously.
The Philosophy of Playing to Potential
At the heart of Mr. Deepak’s work lies a simple but profound idea: potential is multi-dimensional.
“Doing well in your career,” he says, “is like scoring a hundred in math. Playing to potential means doing well in the exam of life - across all subjects.”
This thought forms the foundation of his book, Play to Potential, and his signature concept, the FLAVOR-ful Life, where each letter stands for an element of fulfillment: F-Family, L-Love, A-Aspiration, V-Being of Value, O-Seeking/Doscovering opportunity, R- Relationships.
“When people are able to see themselves in balance, across health, relationships, curiosity, and contribution, that’s when life feels whole,” he says. “The real joy is giving people a language to process complexity.”
He calls it a “toolkit for midlife”, that reflective phase between ambition and balance, where career, family, and selfhood intersect. “It’s messy,” he laughs, “but beautiful.”
Conversations That Shape a Calling
Mr. Deepak’s journey has also been guided by mentors who gave him new lenses to see himself. He fondly names Mr Ramesh Mangaleswaran, Mr Govind Iyer, Mr Neeraj Sagar, and Mr Ravi Venkatesan; individuals who modeled curiosity, reinvention, and perspective.
“These are people who didn’t just give advice; they shared ways of thinking,” he says. “That’s been my biggest learning: to stay curious about where to go and how to grow.”
His style, both in coaching and in conversation, is grounded, thoughtful, and unhurried, more like a reflective walk than a lecture.
“You can’t push people to change,” he says. “When the student is ready, the teacher appears.”
Wisdom for the Young (and the Restless)
When asked for advice to current students, Mr. Deepak’s answer comes from lived experience.
“Don’t sweat over finding the perfect path. Just make directional choices that align with your curiosity and aptitude. Life will correct the course.”
He remembers enjoying his humanities electives, especially microeconomics. “That one subject gave me a glimpse into the world beyond equations, and shaped my move toward management later on.”
For a generation anxious about certainty, his perspective feels like a breath of fresh air. “Careers today aren’t like highways; they’re mazes. The engine matters less than the steering wheel, and that steering wheel is self-awareness.”
Staying Connected, Staying Curious
“Nothing replaces walking through the campus again. You meet people, see your old blocks, and ideas emerge. My JEE application photo is in the Heritage Centre,” he smiles, “so whenever I’m there, I feel like I’ve come full circle.”
His final note to alumni is simple but heartfelt: “Make time to return, to reconnect. You’ll be surprised what new beginnings nostalgia can awaken.”
Even across the digital space of a Zoom call, Mr. Deepak’s calm conviction leaves a quiet afterglow that perhaps, playing to potential isn’t a goal at all, but a lifelong practice.
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Mr. Deepak Jayaraman (B.Tech Mechanical Engineering, IIT Madras 1997, PGDM IIM Ahmedabad 1999 and MBA, London Business School, 2006) is a leading executive coach, author, and host of the Play to Potential podcast.
Post-McKinsey and KPMG, he pivoted from consulting to leadership coaching. His national bestselling book, "Play to Potential", distills years of wisdom into the FLAVOUR-ful framework. It guides mid-career professionals through life's messiness toward true fulfillment and not just professional success, but playing to our full potential across all the identities we carry, from work to personal life and beyond.
