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1. Money is the root cause of all evil.

From an early age, thinking about money was not encouraged.

It was the unsaid rule that money is important, but thinking about it is evil.

After all, money was the reason behind the fights, the wars, and the disagreements.

Now I know it is not money that is the reason.
It is the importance we attach to it in our lives.

Money is simply a medium of transaction.

When it becomes an emotion is when it consumes us.
And that is true for all things in life!

2. Be wary of those who are rich.

It was always assumed that getting rich was possible only through exploitation of others, being cold blooded, and twisting the law in your favour.

Those who are rich are the ones who compromised on their morals.

Now I know that for every immoral rich person, there are countless more examples of people who treat money, people and values with respect.

It’s just that, by design, they are not the ones we hear of or speak of.

News covers the abnormal. Not the normal.

3. Saving money is important.

Of course, saving is important.
But we were never told the complete story.

That investment is more important.

Post demonetization, all the money “saved” by our parents came out.
They were lauded for their saving capabilities.

Most “savings” approaches that we were taught, destroys the value of money.
To make money beat inflation, we were never taught how to invest.

Very few find their passion early in life.
Most find it much later, if at all.

The world convinces us that we should “pick” a passion as early as possible and then settle.

I think all of your 20s should go towards discovering your passion.

Don’t settle.
Explore.

Passion isn’t about money.
It is about how you feel.

We are led to believe that if you follow your passion, you will make a lot of money, which will give you a lot of happiness.

The most passionate people I know are simply content.
They are at peace with who they are.

“Quit your job to follow your passion” is poor advice.
Financial stability is important.

When we sacrifice that to follow our passion, we put the pressure of making money on our passion, from day 1.
Our passion then becomes our necessity!
And ultimately dies.

Passions don’t come in templates.

Stop looking for standard answers to what your passion could be.
Your context, your experiences, your habits, your idiosyncrasies – all of them lend to a passion that is uniquely you.

Don’t make someone else’s passion yours.

Our failures direct us towards our passions a lot more than our successes.
Whenever we fail, we seek solace and inspiration.

It is during such moments that our potential passions emerge.
What we gravitate towards.
Where we can truly be ourselves.
And not have to pretend.

There was a time when there were no ranks.

No grades.
No scores.
No positions.

You worked at something until you wanted to, or you got really good at it.
And then, the industrial revolution changed it all.

Tests were introduced.
The outcome of the tests was not to measure knowledge or understanding.

Rather to grade.
To score.
And then to rank.

Someone with a 93% was deemed higher than someone with 92%.
And we all got addicted.
Addicted to this race.

Fast forward to today – all of us live in constant comparison.

“Am I the best student?”
“Am I the best employee?”
“Am I the best leader?”

All of us live in constant fear, as a consequence.
Assessing who else is better?

If only we stopped to realise: “I can never control if I am the best at anything.”
“I can only control if I am the best version of myself, at it.”

The race is not with the world.
The race is within.

Scared about how ChatGPT will replace your job?
Or how technology is eventually going to make you irrelevant?
Or how fast the world is moving and you feel overwhelmed?

There are 2 choices you have:
1. Continue to feel scared.
2. Embrace the change.

If you chose #2 above, here are 3 small steps to take towards doing so:
1/ Pick up online courses related to the technology you are interested in.
The Internet allows everyone to be a student and learn from the best teachers available.
Do that.

2/ Join an online community around it.
Facebook groups, Reddit forums, WhatsApp groups, Discord servers – get yourself immersed in the technology you want to master and hang around people who live it and love it.

3/ Pick up projects/internships utilising the technology.
Do it for free, if needed.

Just learn.
Get challenged.
Seek feedback.

There is no better way to learn.

When you make technology your friend, you prevent it from becoming your competitor.

Companies that ask for a minimum experience of 3 years while hiring freshers have a special place reserved for them in hell.

Everyone out there seems to have an opinion on you.

What you should do.
What you shouldn’t.
How you should live your life.

And how you have messed it up already.

The world doesn’t require another template.

It requires another rebel.

Be you, anyway!

1. The 30-day rule

When you desire a big purchase, do not buy it right away.

Give yourself 30 days and ask yourself if you still want it just as much as you did earlier.

If you do, go for it.
Chances are you won’t.

2. Keep a gratitude jar

Everyday, before going to bed, write down something that you are grateful for.

Anything at all.

Place it in the jar.

In moments of weakness, go through the notes.

3. Always ask “by when do you need this?”

Whenever given a task, even if an order, always check for the deadline.

Very often we have a different definition of urgency in our minds.

I write every day.
Not type.
Write!

Unfortunately, most of us don’t.

Not anymore.

Writing has been replaced by videos, typing, and digital pens.
And we have lost a huge part of our evolution.

Here is why writing matters.

When we write, we tell our brain that what we are writing is important.

That is why our parents (unaware of the logic) used to tell us to write the things down that we were trying to memorize.

Because the brain gets to know, “oh, this is important. That is why she is writing it down. Remember it!”

That is also why I always insisted people come to meetings at nearbuy.com (the startup I used to run) with notebooks. And not just laptops.

“Write everything down. Because we forget”.

Which brings me to the second part of why writing matters.

Because we forget.

Our brain is always trying to optimise one thing.

Its energy spend.

It tries to spend the least amount of energy doing anything.

That is how habits work.

If something needs to be done everyday, the brain makes it into a habit.

Because then we dispense the least energy in following that habit.

And that also means, if we do not write it down, the brain goes, “I just heard or saw something. But it wasn’t being written down. So it must not be important. Forget it!”

So, when we write, our brain knows it’s important.

When we don’t write, we forget.

Our colony was conducting a Double Tennis tournament. My team made it to the semi-finals and then we lost.
I played worse than the worst player in the tournament.

And then I spent the entire day thinking about it.
Over analyzing.
Questioning my shots, my strategy.

Nothing really explained it.

Except the fact that I was under immense pressure.

We were the top seeds.

We were the ones who were expected to win the semi-finals.
Heck, we were the ones who were expected to win the tournament.

And on the day of the match, the pressure got to me.

But I handle pressure really well.

I have been in high pressure environments, have been through really tough situations at work and life. So how was this pressure different?

Pressure is of two kinds:

One, the pressure that you feel everyday, because of your environment.

Imagine yourself in a top college, surrounded by super sharp kids.

Every single day, their conversations, their choices, their mannerisms, their opinions add pressure on you.

But this sort of pressure elevates you.
This pressure inspires you.

When we say that competition ups our game, this is what we mean.

If you are amongst people who are much much better than you, on a daily basis, the “pressure” helps you.

But the second kind of pressure is pressure of the moment.

Pressure of performance for a specific event.
Think of exams. Or interviews. Or a presentation. or, in this case, a match.

It doesn’t matter who you are, what you know, what you think, if you do not perform well in the moment, you will fail.

This pressure is damaging.
This pressure hurts.
This pressure doesn’t up our game. It reduces it.

And I realized, I haven’t had an opportunity for a really long time to experience the second kind of pressure.

I haven’t given an interview, sat for an exam, given an investing pitch presentation or anything like this, in a really long while.

My pressure is the first kind – of constantly surrounding myself with smart people and feeling like a duffer more often than not.

That’s what did not work for me!

The best performers are trained in the second kind of pressure.
Singers, dancers, sportspeople – they become the best because they know how to handle pressure that is generated in the moment.
BUT they are masters in the first kind of pressure as well. Always training with the best, always competing with those better than them.

Unfortunately, most of us are subjected to only the second kind of pressure, while growing up.

Examinations, interviews, tests!

If we do well, we pass. If we don’t, we fail!

And we come to hate pressure, understandably so.

We think pressure is bad.

In this case it is.

But it isn’t if we were to think of it as the first kind.

If you want to elevate your game, bring long-term pressure into your life.

Surround yourself with people better than you, EVERY SINGLE DAY!

If you are new to a field, here’s a 3-step process to help you learn effectively:

1. Pick up online courses related to the field.

The Internet allows everyone to be a student and learn from the best teachers available. Do that.

2. Join an online community around the field.

Facebook groups, Reddit forums, WhatsApp groups, Discord servers – get yourself immersed in the topic and hang around people who live and love the field.

3. Pick up projects/internships.

Do it for free, if needed. Just learn. Get challenged. Seek feedback.

There is no better way to learn.

These 3 things, even over a 1-month timeline (close to 20-30hrs), will make you go from zero to the top 10% of people in the field.

From here on – the curve will, of course, be steeper.

But you got yourself a good start.