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Words. Wisdom. Winners.
I am colorblind
I have red-green color blindness. Which means, when you see the image below you see a number. And I don’t see anything
No pattern at all. Just dots
But hey, that’s the world I was born in. It’s my world.
And it’s perfect.
Except
It’s not!
My world is not perfect. It’s incomplete. It’s perhaps even inadequate. How would I even know.
Yes, I can make do with what I have and still rule the world. But the fact doesn’t change of what my world really is.
And the sooner I realize this fact and accept it, the better I will be at dealing with it.
Imperfections are like humans. They need recognition. And acknowledgment.
Boundaries
Mathematicians and physicists are trained to always identify the boundaries and operating constraints, while solving a problem.
And yet, the best ones perhaps didn’t pay any heed to those boundaries.
They started from first principles.
The minute you start your problem with identifying the boundary, you have closed some doors. Closed some perspective. Perhaps closed your mind too.
“We only have this much money”
“We don’t have more than these people”
“This technology doesn’t exist”
“No one has done this before”
“We have never done this before”
The best solutions never defined the starting boundaries.
They didn’t even acknowledge their existence.
Probability
You toss a coin. There is a 50% chance it will land as tails. But it doesn’t. Heads it is.
You toss again. Heads again
And heads again
And heads again
And heads again
With 5 heads in a row, when you toss the coin the 6th time, guess what’s the likelihood of tails landing up?
Again 50%
Doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result is insanity (Einstein)
It’s also probability (Warikoo)
And probability only changes when you change something material.
The next time you are working really hard, hoping that the work itself will influence probability, ask yourself – what did you change from what you used to do?
If nothing – go back and change the probability.
Believe
One always wonders – what makes people successful.
Ambition
Determination
Hard work
Intelligence
Passion
Several other powerful words
To me, it’s a lot simpler.
Those who are successful BELIEVE that they are worthy of that success.
What do you learn?
ISB taught me a lot. But I don’t remember much of the classes.
Michigan State changed my life. And I aced the exams too. Wouldn’t be able to reproduce anything from the classes today, if I had to.
Same for Delhi university.
The best learning has come from what’s happened outside of the class. While I was living life.
The best learning has come when no one was teaching.
Instead when I was listening. Observing. Not with the intent to reply. Rather with the intent to learn.
It’s not what they teach you that matters.
It’s what you learn instead.
Energy
At the gym, You don’t burn out mentally. Because you always burn out physically.
It’s opposite at work.
Ironically, the side that’s still not burnt out, is the one that can get the other side out of its state.
At the gym – it’s your mental state that can get you of the physical burn out.
At work – it’s your physical state that does the same for your mental burn out.
Don’t sit – stand and walk.
Don’t take the elevator – climb up.
Don’t type. Write
Don’t eat shit.
Don’t whine.
Smile. Jump. Play. Focus!
Energy grows where focus flows.
How much does your drive, drive you?
I took a solo trip this weekend. The first planned one in my life.
Intent was to be around things that I wanted to do but couldn’t find the opportunity to. And to gather my thoughts around them.
I watched TED videos, saw Ship of Theseus again, read a whole bunch, wrote even more.
And in one such conversation with myself, I started speaking out what is it that I truly want to achieve in life. Why do I get up every morning. What drives me.
And as I thought about it and spoke about it, I realized I was crying. Involuntarily.
And I didn’t stop. Crying. Or talking. Or thinking.
And all three continued.
And then I remembered this video
And I was suddenly at peace. Knowing that my emotions were my strength. Not my weakness.
It used to be so much fun
It’s been 10 years since I graduated from ISB. and there are days I still miss it. It was such a happy phase.
I miss my DU days too. Getting to know Ruchi and getting to know my own self. It was such a happy phase.
Consulting was so much fun. Smart people. Great work. It was such a happy phase.
The trip we just took was so awesome. Reading. Talking. Walking. It was such a happy phase.
Every time we remember the past and call it happy, we somewhere tell ourselves it can’t come back.
What can’t come back is the situation.
The feeling always can.
Happiness isn’t a phase. It’s a feeling.
I have only so much brain space
I am always taking decisions. That’s what I love to do. Take decisions.
And that takes brain space.
And I would like to believe that it’s not unlimited. It has great potential, but it has a limit.
And if it does – my job then becomes to free my brain space of as many useless decisions.
There is a reason Mark Zuckerberg wears the same tee everyday.
And it’s the same reason why habits help us. It becomes natural, freeing up brain space. Think driving. It’s natural now. Wasn’t when I started – when I used to see everything around me.
The other trick and a harder one – stick to the truth.
Truth stays, so you just have to fetch it.
Truth doesn’t require a decision to be made. Lies do!
I became part of the problem
I am a founder. Also the CEO
A multi tasker by nature. A problem solver
Am always in a hurry. Am paranoid about losing.
If there is something important, then it better start now and finish today. Perhaps tomorrow.
Because of this I throw myself into virtually all problems out there that need a fix. With an impatience.
And that’s fucked up.
I become part of the problem.
When I take on the onus to solve it, I cannot objectively assess it. Or hold someone accountable for its success. I take that on myself. And see myself defending it – “at least I picked it up. It was lying there for days with no one bothered.”
Doesn’t work
As a founder, especially of a 100+ people startup, you have got to dissociate yourself from the task. And focus on the outcome.
Don’t become part of the problem
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