Indra Nooyi: Leading Without Losing Who You Are [The Knowledge Project Ep. #234]

Shane Parrish: I want to start with this wonderful story about you and your husband. When you first met, you went to a movie and you watched Silver Streak at the Sandburg Theatre, and then you went out to dinner. And you decided to get married, but you’re still not sure who asked who, who proposed to who. I want the real story here. 

Indra Nooyi: That is the story. Sometimes I tell him, “Why did you rush this proposal? I wanted to be dated and wooed and dined and wined,” and he said, “I didn’t propose to you. You proposed to me.” So I said, “Why did you accept if I proposed to you?” He says, “I don’t know. It was just destined to be that way.” And I think over the summer, even though we didn’t spend much time together one-on-one, there must’ve been some spark, and he’s just a very good guy, to be honest. And I guess he thought I was a pretty good person, too, so it was just a meeting of the minds, value system, families, every which way. And I said yes without being wined and dined; he said yes without dating me and getting to know me. The rest is history; 45 years later, we can look back and say, “Huh. Who proposed to whom again?”