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Is perhaps the only rule of fund raising as well

“Don’t waste your time with explanations. People want to hear what they want to hear” 

Prepare well. 

And that means – prepare for what works for them. Not what works for you. 

On second thoughts – this is the first and only rule for life. 

Prepare well. 

Last evening, at a team dinner, a much loved colleague remarked

“We don’t have assholes in the founding team” 

He didn’t mean assholes. Instead, he was using it interchangeably with attributes such as taskmaster, autocratic, “shut the fuck up and get this done” DNA. 

I felt at peace within, when I heard this. Because over this year I have come to peace with the fact that I am not this guy, will never be, and won’t allow the culture at nearbuy to exhibit this ever. 

Early this year, I wouldn’t have been. I may have even agreed. 

I was consuming content at a crazy pace and almost everything was telling me that the best founders in the world – the Elon musk, the zuckerberg, the jobs, the Jan koums – are all “assholes”. 

That’s how the media projected them. No bullshit, taskmaster, abusing, “why the fuck are you wasting my time” – mercenaries in every sense. 

It was after I studied them deeper, read between the lines and dissociated the media interpretation from my observation, that I realized they exhibit behavior similar to how I think

• Don’t create a false sense of urgency 

If something is required by tomorrow evening, don’t ask for it to be done today. 

Don’t let your bad planning become the reason to fuck someone’s planning

Don’t make things bigger than what they are. Always project the truth. Not the exaggerated version. 

• Be a fervent truth seeker 

Seek the truth, because that’s the only absolute. Don’t seek opinions. Or views. Or judgement. 

And don’t stop until you find it. The team then aligns itself around the truth and not around the happiness or pleasure or an individual. 

• Say more “let’s do it” than “no, let’s not” 

Give people the freedom to think and approach you with no hesitation 

Encourage people to challenge established norms, within or outside

Push them to find the simplest way to complex problems. 

Push them to take risks. And don’t reprimand if it fails. No one sets out to fail. 

• Respect people

You can be disrespectful towards the situation, the circumstance, the moment. But never the person. 

“Fuck this shit” is different from “fuck you”

• Be intolerant of mediocrity 

Mediocrity is not an absolute. And this isn’t easy to digest. 

People aren’t mediocre. They appear to be so in certain circumstances. And if those circumstances are the prominent ones in your world, then they will always look to be mediocre. In some other circumstance, they may shine. 

Let go of them. Don’t persist with them. You will rarely win.

The easiest thing to build today is a company. 

The hardest thing is to build an institution where people love to come to work. 

Asshole founders don’t create institutions. They merely start and run companies. 

Grow. 

It’s a big world. 

There’s room. 

You fit. 

I promise. 

I was told of a WhatsApp group last evening by a colleague

Upon getting added to the group, you can send in a request for an Uber ride, identifying the pick and drop.

Someone will respond with a quote less than the price Uber quotes.

You transfer that amount through PayTM to that number.

The Uber is booked, driver/cab details are shared with you.

And the world lives happily ever after.

Now if you were Uber, you might be livid. Someone’s fucking with you. Gaming the system. Exploiting loopholes. Let’s go get them.

Or

If you were Uber, you would engage. Enter their world and understand them. Clearly a bunch of folks have multiple free rides that they sell for lesser. How did they land up on them? Is there a pattern? Something I can learn for the future?

No one gets up in the morning saying I will fuck someone over today.

But if they do, it’s because they saw something that you chose to ignore. Or worse still dismiss.

Open your ears to the ones who fuck around with you, and you might have less of them. 

Million dollar home

Million (or billions) in funding 

Press coverage

Facebook and instagram shares

Awards 

Top lists

Jury invites 

Special passes

Autographs 

Success! 

Success – in the form we all have been trained to believe exists. 

Success – that we all work towards. Crave for. 

A misplaced definition of what the world chose for you and me. 
Do you sleep well at night? 

Does your body feel healthy?

Does your brain feel trained? Used? 

Does your conscience feel right? 

Do you dance, sing, smile when alone? 

Do you feel like waking up every morning, wanting to know yourself better

Does your charm make people give way to you without you asking 

Can you maintain eye contact 

Can you listen, even to the man in the mirror

Can you outwork anyone, anyway, without knowing if you will succeed or not? 

Does your meaning seem worth it? To you? 

Are you successful within? 

At 22, I was a shy, low on confidence, single track mind, under exposed to the world guy. 

Nothing to write home about. 

So when I meet a 22 year old confident kid, who knows the world, who understands the power of story telling, who knows their own self and their place in the world, I cannot help but fall in love. 

When I interview a fresher, I admire that some of them know so much for their age and are focused, curious, hungry and ambitious. 

It will be unfair for me to compare them with those who have had time. 

Just as it would be unfair if you were to compare yourself with an achiever and feel shitty about yourself. That achiever has most likely been at this for longer than you have. 

It’s not what you know today, that makes you awesome or not. 

It’s who you can be tomorrow, should you continue on the path you are on. 

Today we are all a fact. Tomorrow we can also be a dream. 

I always take the front seat when in a cab. Besides being more convenient, it is also respectful. Never understood the deal about sitting behind. 

Today though I was terrified. 

Because the seat belt wasn’t working. 

All through the ride, I found myself reaching out to the belt, subconsciously. I felt naked. Incomplete. Scared. 

And I remembered the day, when seat belts were made mandatory in Delhi. 

People revolted, ironically, against a law that was meant to save their life. 

They found hacks. Loose belts, fake belts, putting it on only when they saw a cop. 

Today, there is massive compliance. An entire generation has now grown up in the seat belt world, as a default! 

Sounds familiar? 

I am hopeful of a time when people will be terrified to use cash 

I am hopeful of a time when people will be terrified to drive a car

I am hopeful of a time when people will be terrified to remain on earth 

And all of these will require dramatic steps. There is no “getting used to them over time” mode. 

Humans don’t like change. Best way to bring about change is to bring it in a single cut. Today. 

During a match or race, this is such a valid question. 

During a debate or a conversation though, no other question can be worse off. 

When stepping into a debate, the intention is to discuss, put your point across and listen. Perhaps refine your view, or establish it even further in your head. 

More importantly, it gives food for thought for those on the fence. The half informed, the ones still deciding, the reluctant, the evaluating crowd. 

Don’t try to convince the other side that you are right. 

Don’t try to win conversations 

Try to have one instead

Thought experiment 

You lose your memory. But science has advanced. The reconstruction device can selectively gather your memory from someone else and upload it to yours. But it can only do so for 5 people.

5 people

Their memories about you

Uploaded onto your brain

To reconstruct yourself

Who will those 5 people be?

What is it that they know about you that’s so precious? 

How did they come to know of it all? 

How often do you go back into those memories yourself? 

Why are those memories important? 

Why are you spending time gathering others? 

Will this process be able to reconstruct a better you, than you today? 

A happier you? 

Isn’t it surprisingly how the sum of these 5 parts seems better than the whole?

Isn’t it strange that despite this fact we still end up creating a different whole.

A lesser whole.

When we start thinking of people not as a judge rather as a mirror, is when we reconstruct our best self. 

I am a big fan of anonymity. 

It works. No one can deny it. 

And no matter how hard you try, no matter how much you care, no matter how much you listen – radical honesty isn’t easy to come through. 

Embrace anonymity. 

Invite anonymous questions for the town hall

Have an anonymous feedback form for your work 

Call in for anonymous suggestions on how to grow

And anonymous ratings for your colleagues 

At all times keep your ears open. 

Belonging doesn’t establish itself by putting names to emotions. Rather the belief that one’s emotions will be heard.