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The biggest mistake people make with inspiration is thinking they will be hit by a bolt of inspiration whenever it strikes.

The truth is, inspiration is a habit.

What inspires you? Reading books? Watching the right videos? Playing and working out?
What’s stopping you from doing that to yourself, religiously, every single day?

If you wait for inspiration, you might always keep waiting.
If you go out and get inspired as a habit, you might inspire inspiration as well.

Not everyone is born a great leader.

However, each one of us has the opportunity to learn from the best leaders.

Here’s what I did…

Every year, I used to write a letter to the parents of the top performers at nearbuy, thanking them for their support (inspired by this from Indra Nooyi).

And then used to wait like an excited kid for their responses, should they come.
The parents’ pride and joy in receiving these letters warmed my heart.

Not only did it reinforce our trust and appreciation for the employee, but how often do parents get a glimpse of their child as an employee?

Till date, these letters comprise some of my most cherished memories at nearbuy :)

It turns out, sharing the joy of working with your colleagues’ family, is what multiplies your joy as well. And that’s the biggest joy as a CEO :)

Not everyone gets lucky.

However, everyone has the power to create processes that create their luck.

Here is how:

– I quit my job as the CEO of nearbuy in 2019, with no money. But another income stream had started emerging – speaking gigs – something that I had been doing since 11th grade!

– When the world shut down in 2020 and it was virtually impossible to go out, a friend suggested I teach online – because, hey, everyone was spending their time at home, on the screen, and they would want to have wisdom from someone 

Fast forward to today, while we made 17Cr in revenue last year, and are on the verge of making 30Cr this year, I would rather attribute it to us getting lucky. 

However, I would also let the luck know that a huge part of this came from building systems that would bring the trust of our customers, staying true to the process clinically, and listening to your customer intently.

The sad thing about luck is that you don’t know when it will work out.
However, the happy thing about luck is you know your systems would eventually work out.

A 5-point formula to measure your progress, that always works:

1. Identify the inputs towards things you want to do or should do (for ex: how much time do I read every day) 

2. Measure yourself for a 30 day period. Do not try to change anything. Just measure.

3. Form the baseline (how much do I read everyday. Record all the times you missed, times you read lesser, more, ups and downs).

4. Track for another month – and calculate growth, if any.

5. Figure what worked/didn’t.

Rinse and repeat.

My first day at the gym, for the 6 pack abs, the instructor asks me to do 20 push ups.
He starts counting, counts until 7 and then steps away, asking me to continue.

I then count:
8,9,10,12,14,17,20
DONE!

I cheated.
Because he wasn’t looking. What we do when no one is looking, is who we are.
That is the person others will get to see, when they are looking.

If you are working right now with someone leading you, you will eventually go on to lead people, unless of course, you choose otherwise. And no matter what position you are in, trust is the only cement that binds a team together.

Here are the 3 secrets of how leaders can build a team that trusts each other:

1. Start by hiring people whom you can trust first, instead of trusting them later. 

2. Remove all layers of power. Make access to information democratic. 

3. Encourage (by doing it yourself) to communicate, especially when it is difficult to do so.

Nothing beats a team that trusts each other.
Nothing saves a team that doesn’t.

The world does not need more tips.

The world needs more stories.

Which is where your tips come from.

Don’t give advice. Tell stories. And you never know, you may win hearts of people, along with their engagement on your content.

I will do it today, and get better tomorrow.

How many times do we say it to ourselves?
For alcohol.
For not moving from our chairs.
For not exercising.
For continuing to eat that junk food.
For not calling our parents.

The sad yet the happiest truth is, our future is defined by what we do today.

If yo don’t make good habits today, your bad habits are the baggage you carry to your future.
The best time to start was yesterday. The second best is today, right now.

The future belongs to those who belong to their habits of the present.

The biggest realisation for anyone while working is to know that they are NOT the customer of their product.

Which means, to have an empathy to understand what the customer needs.
What are their pain points.
What makes them happy.
What mood they are in, while they are using your product.
What is the feeling they want to feel, when they use your product.

The more you distant your apprehensions from the questions of the customers and go deep into the latter, the more you get closer to their hearts.

Empathy is what builds a customer. And make them stay.

My first day at the gym, for the 6pack abs, the instructor asks me to do 20 push ups.
He starts counting, counts until 7 and then steps away, asking me to continue.

I then count
8,9,10,12,14,17,20
DONE!

I cheated.
Because he wasn’t looking.

What we do when no one is looking, is who we are.
That is the person others will get to see, when they are looking.

Lifting weights for the first time, and they felt like boulders.
I closed my eyes, gathering all possible energy within me.

And my instructor shouted,
“No matter how much the weight, don’t ever close your eyes.”

No matter how big the problem, don’t ever close your eyes.

I was on my 20th lunge and it felt like I was about to faint. I looked down on the floor, shouting to release the pain. 

My instructor shouts back
“When in pain, don’t ever look down. Always look ahead.”

When in pain, always look ahead.

You are running, you are lifting, you are cycling.
And it feels like the pain will kill you.

But it doesn’t. It goes away. The pain goes away.
In a second, a minute, an hour, in a day, in weeks or months. It goes away.

But the pain of not trying, stays.

I have been working out for 7 years now, almost every day.
And one would expect it to have gotten easier. 

But it hasn’t.

It’s just as hard to lift, to run, to crunch.

It never gets easier. You just get better.