Blog

Happiness is our nature as kids. If we enjoy something, we are in a state of flow doing it. If we don’t, we’ll cry our hearts out to make sure we don’t do it.

And then, we grow up. Unfortunately. And forget to make our happiness a priority.
We pursue courses that our family wants, marry someone because we’ve been told to, and end up living a life that is totally apart from how we would be happy living it.

In the pursuit of trying to make others happy and giving up our own, we realise we aren’t happy either. So, choosing our happiness is the safest option to ensure not only ours rather everyone else’s happiness.

How do we know if we are happy doing something? By asking two fundamental questions:

a. What about it makes me happy?
b. Am I truly happy doing it?

It turns out, the happiest thing we could do to our happiness is live with it forever. That’s the most difficult yet the easiest thing to sign up for.

How do we operate when no one is watching?
What’s a complete no-no, even if it is an immediate gain for us?
Do we want others to win, or is it just a sole game in a team?

Values aren’t something that we just write and let it be there. Values are who we are, something that we would never compromise on.

When things fall apart and values don’t, it means we are on the right track. More than anything else, we know we are practising them right when others know us through those.

Our values are our foundations. While it is lucrative to work on the building, nothing keeps the building stable if there isn’t a foundation.

Ma always stood for perfection.
But she has a very interesting and inspiring definition.

Perfection is when you do something with such finesse that people are left amazed at how you even did it.
But for you, it is not a big deal.

It is a habit.
It is natural.

I learnt from her that perfection is personal.

It is what makes others wonder.
But for you it is the only way you know!

“I don’t have the time.”

This self-sabotaging statement drifts people from acting on their dream projects.

The universal truth is everyone has the same twenty-four hours.
What we do during that window makes or does not make a difference.

Searching for more time is essentially searching for more energy.

When we figure out how to have more energy, we’ll be left with even more time!

We don’t need more time.
We just need more self awareness to pursue things that give us energy.

A friend of yours got married at “the right time”.
Another one got settled abroad.
The neighbour spends weekends relaxing and weekdays grinding.

The world is out there chasing the obvious things.
Settle down quickly.

However, if you chase what everyone else is chasing, you will end up with what everyone else does.

Chasing something that does not excite us leaves us with a life that does not excite us.

Chasing something because there is no other option visible leaves us with no other options visible.

The obvious way to beat the resistance is to resist the obvious.

How will we ever know what we could do if we are always entangled with what the world does?

All the work we do at wariCrew is documented and tracked on Asana.

We have been using it for 2.5+ years now — with awesome success.

3 reasons why:

1. It keeps everyone accountable.

2. It allows us to manage projects and their various tasks and dependencies efficiently.

3. It keeps us on time — across content and courses.

It is also the system that determines the timeliness of team members, which in turn, drives 40% of their quarterly bonus through profit sharing.

How is the profit-share determined for every individual?

While the pool is common for the team (10% of net profits), the individual amounts are determined 60% by the quality of their work (which is reviewed through their monthly self-rating followed by my assessment) and 40% by the timeliness of their work.

Last year, the total profit-sharing pool was 52 lakhs.

Such tools help our team of 21 operate remotely and asynchronously.

Class 6

Dad had just lost his job. We were under severe debt. Desperate for money, he started working at a corporate gifts biz.

That night, we had to fill ball pens with refills, to be paid per 100 pens.

The room was full of pens. And I asked "how will we ever fill them all?"

Dad said, "There are 3 of us. We can fill 3 pens each every minute. So 9 pens every min. Which means in a night we can do 3000 pens!"

And I was like "wow!"

We filled pens the whole night.

He gave me hope.
We made it! :)

I have always found teacher-student conversations fascinating.
No, not the ones in school :))

The ones where there is no school, there is no class, there is no curriculum.

There is simply curiosity.
From both sides.

Find that teacher, by becoming that student.

Because the best teachers are not born.
Their best is brought to the surface by their students.

We picked up a book to read.
Now we don’t quite enjoy it.

However, if we leave it midway, guilt quickly jumps in.
Should we finish it up or read it fully?

The guilt works strangely.
Instead of making us decide, it makes us give up on reading altogether.

What if we kept down the books if they took away our interest?
Or perhaps we skimmed through it?
Or read between the pages about what piqued our interest?

The best relationships with books are give and take.
We give them our time and they keep us hooked to read them.

1) What are the things that I WANT to do?

These could be anything - do not put any constraints as yet. Do not think of whether you will get it, whether it's the right thing for the future, or whether you are qualified.

No constraints.

Just a list of all the things you want to do.

2) What is stopping me?

This is where the constraints are listed.

It could be your capability, it could be your parents’ permission, it could be lack of opportunities, or it could be the fact that it doesn't make enough money.

It could just be your mind tricking you that you can't do it.

Whatever is stopping you from doing it - figure that out.

3) Which of these are in my control to fix?

THIS is the clincher.

This is where you transfer control - from the world to yourself.

YOU ARE IN CHARGE.

Not your circumstances, your family, or the world.

Which of these constraints are in your control to fix?

And you know what? You will realise that there are only so many things in your control. BUT if you were to take control of them - you will actually be ahead of most people in the same boat who want to do the same thing but never start.