TRUST ME I KNOW WHAT I'm DOING

It’s certainly a gift to understand yourself well enough to know what governs your short term attention and what drives long term success. And speaking of success, thank you so much for listening to this and sharing it with your friends and family, for sharing a kind review or rating, and for following us on social media @drabhaydandekar. In professional sports, self-awareness to manage the task in front of you while having an eye on strategy to realize the goals of the future seems to take a blend of instinct, data synthesis, effective risk management, sometimes obsessive discipline, a lot of dedication and empathy, and a little bit of luck. It’s at least the introductory set up in getting to know Paraag Marathe. Paraag has been with the National Football League’s San Francisco 49ers for the past 22 years, and serves as both the President of 49ers Enterprises and Executive Vice President of Football Operations. Now, his own professional arc connects the dots of a child loving sports and growing up in the Bay Area to working as a consultant on a salary cap analysis project for then 49ers head coach Bill Walsh, to serving in a variety of executive roles critical to the 49ers success, including being a steward of using data analytics to overseeing the development and opening of Levi’s stadium in 2014. Paraag is the team’s chief contract negotiator and salary cap architect, and in the scrambling world of constant pro football player personnel moves, supporting the GM and the head coach to orchestrate yearly success at the highest level requires an affable toughness and an empathetic sharpness. He’s among only a handful of South Asians in the NFL, and his multi-dimensional portfolio speaks to his many interests and passions: he oversees the 49ers stake in Leeds United as part of the Premier League, he’s been a leader of USA Cricket, he lectures at Stanford’s business school on negotiation dynamics, and he’s been an ardent community champion in fighting mental illness and eating disorders, serving on the boards of several non-profits. Paraag and I had a chance to share a conversation about his experiences and in leading up to the recent NFL draft, I asked him whether or not spring in the NFL and this time of year bringing in new players and hitting the reset button was at all kind and maybe even restorative…

Thanks so much Paraag. Remember that you can catch all episodes of TRUST ME I KNOW WHAT I’m DOING wherever you’re getting your podcasts. It’s May, and it’s national mental health awareness month in the US, so if you or someone you know needs to speak with a trained crisis counselor, call or text 988 and globally , please visit befrienders.org or checkpoint.org globally. Till next time, I’m Abhay Dandekar.