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When we think about why we got successful, we may call it our hard work, dedication of our parents, and our commitment. 

While all that is true, studies have shown time and again that the ones who got successful were because of a huge stroke of luck. Being at the right place at the right time. Being picked by the right people. Born in a country where we can grow.

All of this is something we cannot control. But has hugely affected where we are.

Yes, we wouldn’t have made it without our hard work. But we wouldn’t have made it without luck either.

It’s a privilege to be where our success has led us. And the best thing we could do is help create luck in the lives of others.

Being a founder was never so cool.
Quit a high paying job. Took a risk. Making a dent in the universe (perhaps).

But here’s the truth: Being a founder automatically makes us a celebrity.
What we say becomes the Gospel.
What we do becomes the gold standard.
And what we don’t fail to achieve becomes the talk of the town. Forever.

The standards we set become the standards set by everyone else.
As the Spiderman movie says, “With great power, comes great responsibility.”

Comfort is a trap.
It’s worth sacrificing – for your happiness and for your growth.
It sadly seduces us into believing that we don’t need to try.

However, one comfort is worth always living with: Comfort in your own company.

The world is designed to tell us to hang around people, be like them, talk like them, and do everything that makes us fit in. 

Finding comfort in your own company and growing your relationship with yourself is the only comfort to forever strive for.

Human species is hardwired for progress.
Our families celebrated when we started crawling or walking.
Or when we went to college from school.
Perhaps that first job promotion.

We could see we were progressing. So could others.
However, such moments of external visible progress are rare. And mostly out of our control.

How about the rest of the moments? What if we measured our daily progress? Why don’t we do it?

One of the reasons could be our internal craving for maximum progress, that we don’t feel satisfied with 1mm of progress each day.

But it is that 1mm compounded over a period of time that makes the miles shorter.

We may or may not get validation from others. However, documenting our progress is the sure shot way to internal validation – backed by evidence!

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We are not alone

It’s a belief. It may be true. Someone may be going through the same emotions, same struggles, and same riddles to solve in life.

Or perhaps that belief is false.

Maybe we all are alone.

Our problems since our childhood are different. So are the blessings we have been fortunate to have. So are the struggles we face today. 

There are no two same lines. So will none of us end up at the same point.

We are not alone. Or perhaps we are.

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When we taste a little success of a product we built, we want to 10X it. Or 100X. And make a lot of money from it.. 

Except, that when we aim for quick money, we lose it quicker.
Several reasons.
Our self image hasn’t adjusted to it.
We grew by luck or perhaps a great product – however, we never grew along with the process.
More than anything else, we were hardly able to reflect – a superpower that comes after failure.

Growing your business and having more money is great. It helps us make better choices. However, when we want everything right now, we end up trading the lessons of a lifetime for loss of a lifetime. The last thing we’d signed up for.

The fastest way is slow.

Of the entire childhood of waiting for summer vacations, having crushes, that little pocket money and having nothing to worry about, what do we reminisce the most?

That when we were we, we were free.
That when we were authentic, life never brought in anything pathetic.
That when we lived in the now, we hardly wondered about the next “how”.

The best thing about childhood was that we didn’t have to do anything to be an original.
The better thing is, we can still do it. We just have to take off all that we have acquired.

I want to quit a “successful” career because I’m not happy doing it.
We’re not going to raise funding because it is not in the best interest of our customers.
We’ll give no-questions asked refund, and will comply with it 100% of the time.

These are difficult choices. The choices on the other side seem easy. They have the vote of the majority.

However, when we do what we think is right, we stand tall and upright even in the middle of a storm. When we create a cult standing true to our core values, we create a bigger cult that short-term gains never provide. When we listen to our heart instead of external chatter, we bring in love for our work instead of superficiality. 

Living by our values instead of just putting them up in the company’s intro is what differentiates the great from the good.

The world will, by default, question our difficult choices. However, when we make choices that seem authentic to us, we stop questioning ourselves daily. And that’s priceless.

Most of us had a childhood of competing with others.

Get more marks than your competitor.
Higher rank.
Go to a better college than them.

These were (and unfortunately still are) the parameters that defined success for us as kids.

Except: Everyone is running their own race.
We aren’t competing against anyone, but us.

Being alone in the race is super powerful, because now we get to focus and win our way. Not someone else’s. 

Maybe you figured a PM fit that worked.
Maybe you wanted to try things on this side of the world.
Or perhaps you were just happy doing it.

Whatever it is, that reason is important.
Your “why” is important.
Your root cause matters.

The reasons hyped by the media, the Twitteratti, competitors, don’t matter as much.

When you know why you became an entrepreneur in the first place, the only story that matters is the one between your two ears.