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There are three kinds of people that we need

• Those who tell us what we should be doing
• Those that tell us how to do it 
• Those who tell us how we are doing 

We live in a world where all three are mostly the same person. Our school and college teachers, our parents, our friends, our own selves, our bosses. 

Sub optimal. 

The first person should be you 

The second person should be your teacher 

The third should be your enemy

Create a portfolio of people 

Sometime back, I was asked to answer the following question on Quora

What qualities does Ankur Warikoo expect when he says, “If you are awesome”?
In many answers he mentioned that apply if you are awesome. What is his criteria? 

Here was my response to the question

I was at the ISB Admissions Interview yesterday.

A candidate walked in.
Asked him his biggest achievement till date
He replied “the fact that I can read and write today”
Perplexed, we asked him to elaborate

2 years back he met with a motorcycle accident.
Suffered 2 skull fractures. 1 in his collar bone.
After 2 days, he lost his memory.
He couldnt remember words, he couldnt remember how to dial numbers, how to read, how to do things that one learns by simply growing up.

After 10 days, he was watching a football match with his brother. Between Liverpool and Manchester United. He didnt even know that this was football. But somehow it looked familiar.
He asked his brother why it was looking familiar.
His brother replied that Man Utd was his favorite football club.

A visual had triggered his memory.

Over the course of the next 3 months, through doses of music, films, re-enacting incidents from before, travelling to places, and a thorough language training, he regained a large part of his memory back.

He is now an Income Tax Officer, after clearing the IAS with an All India Rank of 41

Awesome cannot be defined.
I do not know what awesome is.
I just know when I see it.

80% of the comments on this page were about correcting the fact that one doesn’t become an Income Tax Officer after clearing the IAS.

They missed the point completely.

Reminded me of the the most powerful lesson I have learnt in life

If you spend enough time – everything will have flaws.
But that may not be the best use of your time.

??I hate running
It is boring It is painful ??

And it doesn’t come naturally to me 
But when I ran the half marathon 2 years back, it was for a goal I had to achieve 

To tell life that I have overcome 
This year, running the marathon was to give my wife moral support. She wanted to run and I felt I should accompany here. 
The stadium was a festival 

Delhi’s largest selfie gathering 

People were dressed in the right gear

Ammunition, whether it’s music, or water, or energy drinks, around their waist

Warming up 

Making all the right noises 
It started

I took a deep breadth

Put on my headphones 

And started to run

With my head always looking at the road

Reminded every km by my running app, on how I was doing 
Along the way, I saw “death”

The cool headphones guy was dead 

The energy drinks guys was limping 

The puma gear guy was unable to run

People with the noises were somehow silent 
And I just kept telling myself 

Run

Don’t fucking stop 

If you stop before the next km, we will not hit our December GB

If you don’t do better than your precious time, we will not raise as much as I want to 

If you don’t complete it within 2.5 hours, we will not be a best company to work for 
And then, all of this makes you realize

There are people 

Who will make a lot of noise

Who will have the right equipment

Who, before the run, will try and convince you they are better 

But in long distance running, the enemy is your mind 
We are not running a sprint 

We are running a marathon 

And it doesn’t matter who starts first

Because the ones that will finish, will always win! 
Stay focused 

Stay awesome 

do epic shit 

About 16 years back I held a camera for the first timeand fell in love with it, instantly

We weren’t rich and this camera was a gift. 

Back then films rolls were how we used to take photos. 

A 36-photo roll used to cost Rs.100 and another Rs.3 to process one of them. 

So an investment of Rs.200 – not knowing which one would come out the way you want it to. 

But just the fact that I could imagine a picture, capture it in my lens, and see it convert into an image forever, was fascinating. 

And overtime I realized the biggest lesson of my life

I could change the image

At my will

By controlling how I saw it through the lens and how I captured it through the camera
Every single day, we meet people at work

And as we grow, we will meet even more

More often than not, we will have an image of them, even before we meet them

Always remember – you have the power to change that image

At your will

Watch this beautiful video and you will know what I am talking about

Don’t ever let perception come in the way of discovering people

Every interaction can be a new image

Of the very same person

beautifully composed

I couldn’t watch XFiles the movie when it  was released in india, because the ticket was too expensive 

But I don’t remember missing out on it. I remember loving the movie when I did watch it several months later

I didn’t travel to even one city during my masters in the US, because I had to save up for home

But I don’t remember missing out on it. I instead remember the awesome time Ruchi and I had going back to the US several years later 

I didn’t have enough money to enroll for classroom coaching for IITs

But I don’t remember missing out on it. I instead remember topping college and going to the US for my masters. 

I dont party. I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. 

But I don’t remember missing out on it. I instead remember feeling awesome at the end of everyday, having accomplished things at work and anticipating love at home. 
FOMO is always instantaneous. 

It never ever helps. 

Because it does not inspire. It instead scares. 

How about converting FOMO into something else. Something that could drive, could motivate, could make us move. 

The fear of never being able to do it

Question to Vidur (my 4yr old): “Aap bade hoke kiske jaisa banna chahte ho?” (Who do you want to become when you grow up?)

“Apne jaisa” (I want to become me)

Life lesson 101

Michigan state university was the only university I got through, for my masters 

ISB was the only MBA school worth it’s name that I got through 

A. T. Kearney was the only consulting firm that I got through, post mba 

Rocket Internet was the only company that shortlisted me, when I quit Accentium 

The management buyout was the only option Groupon india had

It’s scary to think what would have happened if either of these things didn’t happen in my life 

I never had choices 

So I grew up giving no choices to myself 

When you are building a company, you must believe there is an answer and you cannot pay attention to your odds of finding it. You just have to find it. It matters not whether your chances are nine in ten or one in a thousand; your task is the same. 

Hard Thing About Hard Things 

Success is the only mother f***king option; failure is not 

Last year, during my fitness transformation exercise, my coach Ajay (who also happens to be a colleague) gave me the best gift ever

A Nike dryfit tee, size medium 

It sticks to your body. Showing all your contours. 

I called it The embarrassment tee

“Wear it everyday to the gym. Your bulges will show, that extra mass that needs to be worked upon. You should feel embarrassed” 

Because then, you have two choices

1. Stop wearing the tee to work
2. Work so hard on yourself that the tee now looks good on you

The easy path

The right path

When you say sorry to the customer, you wear the embarrassment tee

When you apologize on behalf of someone, you wear the embarrassment tee

When you tell employees that we fucked up, you wear the embarrassment tee

When you own up to who you really are, with your mistakes, your shortcomings, but determined to work hard to overcome them 

You wear the embarrassment tee 

And that is any day better than wearing a loose fit tee of an awesome expensive brand. 

When Facebook recently moved to their new office, Mark Z posted a video of the same. It was a walk through, of his desk, his discussion room etc.
Personal
No jazz
All content

I loved it
And remarked to my colleague that we should do the same when we start our new office
He replied “he is Mark Z. Any video of his will look good. We are not Facebook yet”

This is how most of feel. This is how most of us operate.
However, I am pretty sure that Mark Z doesn’t get up every morning thinking he is someone big. He gets up wanting to do the same things he wanted to do 10 years back. Just that the scale has changed. But never for a moment would he have thought he is any lesser.

When I was young I used to love chess. And everyone around me was better than me. But each time I used to start a game, I used to ask myself – what is it that they know that I can’t know.
Never for a moment did I used to doubt my ability to win.
And I used to fail.
Almost always
But this attitude made me learn much faster than I would have otherwise.

Every single day when you wake up
Tell yourself that there is nothing
Nothing at all
That can make you lose today
Except your own belief

Self doubt has killed more people than self confidence ever will