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We are with our friends. Yet we feel bad at the end of the conversation.
They care for us. Yet something doesn’t feel right.

We are there for them in thick and thin.
Yet we don’t see them happy when we are.

Too often, we are surrounded by beautiful toxicity in the form of friends.

People who are there for us sometimes, yet make us feel bad every time.
People who are themselves, yet never respect us for who we are.

Who you are is priceless.

The famous Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai opened in 1903 at Rs. 6 per room.
Today, that same room costs Rs. 26,000.

That’s 7.2% annual inflation for 120 years!

If your money is not growing (post taxes) at atleast this rate, it is LOSING value every year.

I am against FDs as an investment option because it protects your money.
Does not help it grow.

Banks clickbait you by offering stability and security in the form of FDs.
And then, resell the same money to you at higher rates, through loans.

What DOES help your money grow is investing it in the stock market.
Is it risky? Yes.

You cannot eliminate the risk.

You can manage it, though.
Through time.

Consider this — the probability of gaining more than 8% returns, had you invested for more than 10 years in Nifty50 (India’s top 50 stocks on the National Stock Exchange), has been 100% till date.

You don’t have to be an expert.
You don’t have to pick stocks.
You don’t have to run numbers.

Just start investing.
Every month — through an SIP — and stay committed for 10+ years.
The Nifty50 Index Mutual Fund is a great place to start.

Saving is hard.
Being broke is harder.
Learning about investments is hard.
Suffering from bad investments is harder.

Choose your hard.

Someone was kind to you for a long time.
Now, all of a sudden they’ve become rude.

This leaves you questioning.
How could they change? Why did they change? Did I do something wrong?
Somehow it has started affecting your self worth in that relationship.

Here’s the truth: People don’t change. They just surface. Depending on their life circumstances or even the situations.

When we accept people for where they are, we don’t do them a favour. We do one to ourselves.

When we talk about secrets to productivity, mostly we think they would be Pomodoro technique, having a schedule, working out, etc.

While all of that is true, there is something way bigger than it: Our rest schedule.

Rest and rejuvenation is not sitting idle, wasting time, and something to be done when we will have more time. It is rather a way of getting more productive. Because even when we are not doing “work” on the outside, amidst the games that we play, the music that we work on or maybe while folding clothes, the mind is working on its own patterns to bring us our solutions.

And that, in turn, accelerates our productivity.

If it made you happy yesterday, don’t put the pressure on it to make you happy today as well.

We humans change. External things don’t.

A wiser choice is to pick something different that matches your current state of happiness.

One of the happiest definitions of happiness is to know that happiness isn’t rigid. Nothing could be a happier realisation!

When we consume antibiotics, we need them.
Right now!

We don’t need vitamins right now.
If we consume them though, we may not need antibiotics in the future.

Good books, thoughtful conversations, observing and learning, are vitamins.

We don’t need them right now. However, if we have them, we may not need to have the urgent need for antibiotics in the future.

A vitamin a day keeps antibiotics away!

When we consume antibiotics, we need them.
Right now!

We don’t need vitamins right now.
If we consume them though, we may not need antibiotics in the future.

Good books, thoughtful conversations, observing and learning, are vitamins.

We don’t need them right now. However, if we have them, we may not need to have the urgent need for antibiotics in the future.

When you’ll do things their way, they will be happy.
And so you kill your own happiness to make them happy.

However, they still don’t get happy.
Guess what happens? You aren’t happy either.

Why not do what makes you happy?

If you’re getting it right for others, you are certainly not getting it right at all.

I often talk about suggesting kids in their 20s to go about exploring different career options.

But what should you do when you have really found what you love, you’re good at it and the world is ready to pay you for it?

Double down on what you’ve found. Think of what all could be possible and what kindles the fire in you. Ask yourself what is the next level in the field you’ve picked.

And then, work super hard on being the best at it.

Exploration never stops. Vertical one just follows horizontal. Rinse and repeat.

As humans, leaders and wise humans, we love to solve problems for others. It makes us feel better, and we believe that it would make them feel better as well.

Except, that it doesn’t.

Smart people suffer from a problem called The Curse of Intelligence. They want to solve things fast. Make everything aligned. Remove the chaos.

It hardly helps anyone. The one whose problem needs to be solved – the company, the family or friend have a certain way of operating that is different from who we are as an individual.

A really smart way is to ask questions. Questions help them understand the problem better. So do they help us.

The best part? The one seeking for help gets it in the manner best for them.