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Those who say that money is not important, are lying.
Money is VERY important!

May 2003

At the age of 50, my parents had decided to buy a house.
They had moved to Delhi 20 years back.
Made it home.

But they had no home to call their own.

Every 2-3 years, moving from one rented house to another, had tired them.
Physically and emotionally.

There was a house in Faridabad that caught their eye.
It would cost 10L.
Which was not a small amount, by any measure.
A loan of 8L was somehow arranged.

August 2004

Papa was fired from his job.
At 50, it was hard getting another one.

So, he decided to start on his own.

The business didn’t work so well.
Money wasn’t coming.
The EMIs had begun defaulting.

One day, he called me, checking if I had some money to spare.
I thankfully did.

“Yes Papa. I have money right now.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much.”
And as he said so, he broke down.

He was tired of how much money ruled over us almost all our life.

At that moment, I HATED MONEY.
I hated what money, or the lack of it, did to us.

Today, I believe we all have 2 lives.

One, that we spend earning the money that we need in life, to have enough.
Two, that we live once we have lived the first.

Money is important.

It buys you peace of mind.
It buys you health.
It buys safety.

But, at the same time, do not run after it endlessly.
Know how much is enough.

Around 28, I came up with that number. And have worked towards that.
Today I have it.
So, I do not need to run after it anymore.

Find that number for yourself.
And do not feel any shame, chasing that number.

And once you have it, live your second life.
Where you do not chase anything.
Except your inner voice.

You want a new job.
Or start your own business.
You want to get out of a relationship.
Or you want to lose weight.

But you’re unable to do any of these.
Not because you don’t want to.
Rather because you’re afraid.

Afraid of failure.
Maybe afraid of what people will say.
Afraid that they’ll make fun of you.

The question isn’t to avoid the unavoidable; the question is to ask yourself, “What is it that I’m afraid of?”

And when you do know what you’re afraid of, you can take the next step of getting comfortable with it. And taking action anyway.

Failure is discomforting.
Being comfortable with it makes the discomfort less scary.

We’ve all made mistakes.
We still do.
We will continue to.

However, the first mistake rarely brings any harm.

Ignoring the mistake and not learning a lesson from it causes real harm.

Because we’ve wasted a learning opportunity.
Because we might repeat the same mistake again.
Because we have let a life teacher go by without giving us a lesson.

Committing mistakes is not the mistake.
Not learning from them is.

What is the role that we define ourselves by?

Am I a Product Manager?
A painter?
An engineer?
A leader?

Society has trained us to believe that we should be just one thing in our life.

However, none of the successful people in history – from Michelangelo or Albert Einstein to Bill Gates did just one thing.

They did multiple things, and that helped them excel in the one thing we know them for.

What if our role was not limited to just one title?
What if we could do everything that nudged our emotions?
What if we made this possible?

We have just one life.
Why live it with just one identity?

Strengths are our trump cards.
We already have an edge over them.
They make us start ahead of everyone else.

Weaknesses are our jacks.

We will have to work more than everyone else to even be at par.

Then why is it that people are told to work on their weaknesses and not on their strengths?

Working on our strengths gives us a competitive advantage.
Working on our weaknesses doesn’t offer that; every bit is a struggle.

Strengths increase on the principle of compounding; so do our weaknesses.

Which one would you choose then?

When we only do what we were told to do, we own the output.

If anyone else gets that work done better, cheaper, faster than us – they would replace us.

Owning the output makes us dispensable

However, if we stopped and asked ourselves, “Why am I being told to do what I have been told to do?”, We will own not just the output, but the outcome as well.

Owning the outcome will surprise people each time we deliver stunningly more than what we were supposed to do.

Owning the outcome, instead of the output makes us indispensable.

Given how rapidly everything changes now, I often wonder what is the most important skill of the 21st century?

Is it to code? To become an AI expert? To be a storyteller?

I believe the most important skill of the 21st century is the ability to learn something new, whenever required.

If we have the ability to become a student whenever we have to and not think of our school or college as the only occasion to do so, we will have the superpower to face the world.

The future belongs to those who stay students forever.

When you are working towards something, there is always hope.

Hopelessness is felt on two occasions:

When you haven’t yet started and feel there is no way you can (untrue more often).

When you achieve what you wanted but it doesn’t change how you feel (true more often).

When do we grow old?

Is it simply upon hitting a certain number?
Or perhaps before that?

We grow old when we think the way we see the world is the right one.

When we believe it is our point of view that matters, and it need not be changed.

When we refuse to see another way to live life, because it will challenge our comfort zone.

We grow old when we refuse to embrace the new.

What did you do today?

Learned something?
Met someone interesting?
Took notes and executed upon your ideas?

Or watched Netflix, ate junk food and slept a little more.

And what will you do tomorrow?
Day after?

Quicker than you know, the days turn into weeks, weeks into months, months into years.

Quicker than you know, your present turns into your future.
By the choices you made today.

The best way to predict your future is to look at your day today.