Soaring to New Heights with Dr Ketan Kulkarni

PHOTO: Dr Ketan Kulkarni — Visionary Author, Celebrated Physician, and Advocate of Authentic Success and Fulfilment

Award-Winning Author on Wisdom, Vision, and Fulfilment

Dr Ketan Kulkarni discusses blending ancient wisdom with science, tackling burnout in medicine, crafting impactful books, and guiding others toward authentic success, purpose, and inner transformation through storytelling and coaching.

Dr Ketan Kulkarni stands as a luminous figure in contemporary thought and literature, seamlessly blending the realms of science, spirituality, and personal development. A physician of global acclaim, an award-winning author, and a visionary coach, Dr Kulkarni brings an extraordinary depth of insight to every endeavour he undertakes. His contributions span the clinical, academic, entrepreneurial, and creative spheres—making him a rare polymath whose influence resonates across disciplines.

His groundbreaking book The Legendary Quest, recipient of the BIBA 2023 Best Self-Help Book Award, offers readers a profound exploration of ancient wisdom through the lens of modern science, guiding them towards authentic success and inner fulfilment. Equally inspiring is his international bestseller Soar: A Soul’s Quest, an uplifting fable that invites readers to embark on a journey of self-realisation and excellence. Garnering five international awards and widespread acclaim, Soar is a testament to Dr Kulkarni’s ability to connect heart, intellect, and purpose in a way that moves and motivates.

This interview delves into the mind and mission of a man committed to enriching humanity—not only through medicine, but also through meaningful storytelling, transformative coaching, and a passionate commitment to wellbeing. We are delighted to feature Dr Kulkarni in Reader’s House Magazine, and to bring his extraordinary insights to our global readership.

Dr Kulkarni is a rare and inspiring force, blending intellect, compassion, and creativity to uplift minds and transform countless lives.

What inspired you to blend ancient wisdom with modern science in your book “The Legendary Quest”?

While the words success and fulfilment are used extremely frequently, current global data suggests an extremely high levels of personal and professional burnout, stress, exhaustion, mental illness epidemic. A lot of work and life satisfaction data doesn’t suggest people experience authentic fulfilment, happiness and success regardless of what they achieve, and how hard or smart they work! Happiness and joy seem to be fleeting and limited to brief moments such as holidays, certain life events, and sporadic circumstances. The result is that individuals believe these states are normal and expected! That they must exist! And that life is but a struggle, not a wonderful journey.

We wrote “The Legendary quest” as a life changing guidebook in an attempt to address this extremely important issue at the very core of our human existence and experience! We have written this book to answer these questions, and because we could not find a comprehensive resource that addressed these concerns in a simple, digestible format using evidence-based resources. We deeply explored both ancient wisdom and modern science. This book is our sincere attempt to present our deliberations, analysis, experience and investigations into a variety of these fields and to describe them in a comprehensive and unified manner. The book has been widely cited and won the BIBA 2023 best self-help book award.

How has your background as a physician influenced your approach to coaching and self-help?

Wellness and wellbeing are truly at the forefront of challenges in medicine and for medical workforce. A healthy workforce is a necessity to fulfil the need of ever-increasing complexity of healthcare and patient needs. Financial awareness is a key aspect too with a lot of work is needed in the area.

My own personal experience with clinical work, academic, extensive publishing and administration and leadership and entrepreneurship has provided me with a deep insight into these issues. Additionally, my leadership and coaching training and experience has refined my skillset further as we developed our own original coaching models and exercises. Many of these are published in the Legendary Quest.

Through these I am able to bring a high level of awareness to my coaching practice and act as a strong transforming catalyst in anyone’s journey towards success and fulfilment.

Could you share some of the most impactful life lessons you’ve learned during your journey of self-discovery?

I truly believe that authenticity, purpose and meaning are key for success and fulfilment. Additionally, regardless of their current circumstances, anyone can access and work towards authentic success if they put in the right effort.

“I truly believe that authenticity, purpose and meaning are key for success and fulfilment.” – Ketan Kulkarni

How did the concept of “Soar: A Soul’s Quest” come to life, and what message do you hope it conveys to readers?

I truly believe that there’s a Soar in some capacity in all of us. All of us are capable of living the best possible lives we can and becoming the best versions of ourselves. So, the idea of Soar came from the verb soar.

Soar: A soul’s quest is an inspirational fable of a young eagle who goes on an epic journey of self-realization and personal growth. Questions the way we live our lives. At its heart, Soar is a quest for excellence, self-improvement, personal mastery, wrapped in a beautiful and inspiring fable.

At the beginning of the story, Soar is forced to abandon everything that is familiar to him, and branch out into the unknown alone, on what becomes an epic journey of discovery and transformation. Soar is primarily a tale of self-awareness, and involves an often trying and testing, but ultimately rewarding, journey.

So far Soar has received 5 international awards and over 60 5-star reviews on variety of platforms.

What challenges did you face while balancing your career as a physician with your entrepreneurial ventures?

Time and task management have certainly been key. Ensuring that I appropriately care for my patients was essential to me as was balancing my family and personal life and responsibility.

I have realized that unless you have a passion for something and the zeal to make a difference, your entrepreneurial journey is less likely to be successful. One needs to bring their authentic heart and soul to embark this journey and to make a meaningful impact.

How do you approach the topic of burnout, particularly within the medical profession, and how can individuals overcome it?

Given the magnitude of the issue, I find that the best way to discuss the topic of burnout is through being vulnerable and sharing personal journey. This makes a huge impact. It immediately connects people, and they start seeing and validating their own experience which is often similar in many ways.

We are also doing a lot of collective work to bring the topic of burnout to the forefront of all discussions in clinical medicine and academia. This is essential to raise awareness of the issue.

It is only through open communication, transparency, accountability, collective work, and mentorship and coaching that medical community can face the issue of burnout. At individual level, everyone needs to understand their core values, what’s meaningful to them at personal level and embark on their own Legendary Quest!

What advice would you give to other authors looking to make a meaningful impact with their writing and connect with a wide audience?

I truly believe that there is no magic formula and certainly no shortcut. One must take action, put yourself out there, be visible, share your story, seek and accept feedback, be open to change, be adaptable, keep trying and keep sharing. Certainly, you will find your tribe and make a meaningful impact.

Failure isn’t when you don’t succeed, its only when you give up!