Nikhil Kamath, a successful trader and entrepreneur, reflects on life lessons from his 21-year career, challenging capitalist values and advocating for balance, authenticity, and gratitude beyond material success.
Key vocabulary
precautioushypocrisyconvocationinventorycall centeraccidental health insurancestock marketsbeginner's luckmoral valuescapitalismmedia interviewhierarchyfirst principlestattoomoralityanxietyinactionindoctrinatesconformist
Grammar notes
Conditional "I were" structures — Used to express hypothetical or counterfactual situations, formal and precise. Example: "If I were to remember when I was as old as you guys" and "If someone were to ask me what I want."
Inversion for emphasis in conditionals — The speaker inverts to signal strong conditionality or emphasis. Example: "If anyone here knows what will happen tomorrow, it's probably him."
Present perfect for life experience — Used to describe learning accumulated over decades. Example: "For the last 21 years, I've largely had one job, that of a trader, uh, investor."
Negation with "not that" to soften contrast — Softens disagreement or reverses expected meaning. Example: "Hard work is not that important" and "there is no right and no wrong" (meaning: there is moral complexity, not absolutes).
About this video
In this engaging commencement speech, Nikhil Kamath, a seasoned trader and entrepreneur, shares his personal journey from selling cell phones at 15 to building a successful career in stock trading over 21 years. Rather than celebrating wealth-driven ambition, he challenges the audience to reconsider what success truly means. The speech is peppered with candid admissions—like his realization that in a high-level office meeting, everyone (including himself) was "pretending to work"—and concrete examples drawn from his real experience, such as his trader's mindset applied to relationships and his decision to spend 10 days a month in Goa cultivating gratitude.
This is excellent material for shadowing because Kamath speaks at a measured, conversational pace with clear articulation. His informal style ("if someone were to ask me," "I quite don't know") feels natural and unhurried, and his recurring use of analogies (markets are like dating relationships) makes the abstract ideas easier to follow. The accent is neutral and intelligible for learners at B1 level and above.
The speech suits intermediate learners (B1–B2) who can handle longer stretches of connected speech on conceptual topics. Shadowers will encounter both everyday conversational English and more sophisticated vocabulary around finance, psychology, and philosophy. By following Kamath's reflections—particularly his three main lessons (hard work isn't everything; moral relativism; anxiety as a tool)—learners gain exposure to opinion-sharing language patterns, hedge phrases ("I quite don't know," "I suspect"), and authentic storytelling conventions used to make arguments persuasive.
Idioms & expressions
stay the course — to persist through difficulty and not give up despite challenges or setbacks. "If you stay the course, maybe they get better again."
beginner's luck — unusual success experienced by a novice at the start of an activity, before skill and experience are developed. "Beginner's luck really is a thing."
figure out — to discover or work out gradually through experience and reflection. "You do one thing a million times, you kind of figure out one or two things about that job."
pretend to work — to appear to be working while not actually being productive; to go through the motions. "For every 4 hours spent working, for me, three went pretending."
give someone ammunition — to provide someone with arguments or reasons (often flawed) they can use to justify themselves. "Hard work gives us the ammunition that I tried."
step out of line — to deviate from social norms or expected behaviour; to be nonconformist. "Social media that makes it easy to shame all those who step too far out of line."
kill — (informal) to do extremely well at something; to succeed powerfully. "Go out, kill, be tigers, try and win."
