76: Darren McKellin, Area Director Large Enterprise North Asia, Zscaler

Darren McKellin shared great insight into how he became a leader
through his journey to mindful leadership. Mr. McKellin’s choice
to come to Japan was both one of economic strategy and love for
international affairs after studying in both Mexico and Sweden
during college. After college, Mr. McKellin joined the Japanese
air cargo company Kintestsu located in Chicago. Through the
directors’ brother, he was able to move to Japan as an English
teacher in Yamanashi. After a year he moved to Omotesando to work
at his old boss’s brothers’ company in Minami Aoyama where he
worked for four years.


 


This was the beginning of his 30-year long career in Japan. At
this company, Mr. McKellin learnt about sales and selling
products to a Japanese consumer.  When he left this company
after four years, he had one failing venture at Chrysler Japan
but that did not stop him from persevering through a difficult
time with macho management and a harsh environment to thrive him.
Afterwards, he moved to sell ads for a computing magazine known
as Japan Inc.


 


Through Japan Inc he was able to gain connections with various
tech companies both large companies and small start-up companies.
Through this opportunity selling ad space for the Japan Inc
magazine, he learnt more about systems interrogation type of
work. Through the gaining rise of technology and his gaining
interest in the IT market, this would eventually be his last job
outside the IT world. After Japan Inc. He would later join the
tech company called Techno Box. This company was the first cloud
serving within Japan which allowed him to learn more about
managing a team of people. After this, he would move to World Com
but they went bankrupt two years later.


 


After this stressful time, he gained a job at Vodafone. He did
this through the power of intention which was an important part
of his success. Mr. McKellin has gained an appreciation for
intention and mindfulness when he read the book “Think and Grow
Rich” by Napoleon Hill as a young child at his grandfather’s
house. The idea of mindfulness had become an integral part of Mr.
McKellin’s life and the reason for his success.


 


At and after his time at Vodafone, he began to grow as a leader
managing large teams of people at Oracle and later NetSuite. As a
leader, he learnt how to use harmony, and patience as a way to
motivate and lead his team to great success. Through his use of
mindfulness and gaining inspiration from Google’s ‘search inside
yourself’ program, he co-founded the Mindfulness Project at
Oracle which helped improve the lives and mental health of
employees. After his time at these two companies, he became the
regional head of Zscaler.


 


Currently, through his ideals, he has helped the team at Zscaler
grow at a tremendous speed. He has helped develop the team from
five people to sixty. Which has also helped Zscaler become a top
leading IT company which now has a $40 billion market cap. Not
only has he helped Zscaler become a leading company he also wrote
a book to help others.



His book ‘Mind Over Sales’ is a revolutionary book that helps
readers gain knowledge about how they should use mindfulness to
develop a more fulfilling life and successful career. Mr.
McKellin strives at helping other gain knowledge about seeking
self-awareness, intention, and harmonization to gain effortless
success in their life.