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How do you celebrate your first half-a-million?

YouTube was the platform where Ankur Warikoo clocked his first 500,000 followers once wariCrew was formed.

To celebrate this milestone, all of us decided to have a virtual offsite, where Supriya from our team led us for a fluid art workshop, followed by lunch and random banter. 

It turns out, celebrating success is equally if not more important than all the hard work to get there.

Some BTS:

1. Ankur’s colours and canvas were used by his kids two days prior only. He had to order a new set :)

2. Some of us were fortunate enough to have it delivered to our doorstep just an hour before the scheduled time.

3. The lunch that day was on the company that day, and Ankur had cham cham in dessert, which of course, he didn’t offer to all of us :))

The onus to market and sell your book is on you.
The onus to keep yourself happy is on you.
The onus to “create” your luck through your habits is on you.

Not anyone else.
They may help you.
Assist you. Root for you.

However, no one can walk the path for you.

The path is yours. So is the onus. Just like the success would be yours.

The biggest tragedy of life is going to the end of your life and not doing something you had always wanted to do.
The biggest tragedy of life is not giving your 100% to your work.
The biggest tragedy of life is not spending time with family because you were too engrossed in work.

The biggest tragedy of life is not living your life, and making a tragedy of it every day you live.

For the past 5 years, I have met someone new every week. 

Earlier it used to be in the office.
Now it happens through Zoom.

I decide spontaneously.

An interesting email.
An intriguing tweet.
An article that caught my fancy.

I just seek their time.

People have amazing stories, amazing experiences, amazing things to share!

It is like reading a book a week, in less than 30 minutes :) 

The best part, you ask?
Most of these conversations, I walk away with something that I need to think upon, work upon, improve upon.

Isn’t that beautiful?

“How much money do you need in life?”

I ask this question often.
And I’m fascinated with the answers.

Some quote crazy figures.
The others do not know.

If you do not know the answer to this question, you will continue chasing a number that never stops.

You will spend your entire life working to earn money.

Even when you have enough.
Enough to not work for it anymore.

For me, the answer is 21.7 crores ($2.5 million), which will meet ALL of my current and future needs and desires.

If we work so hard for money, we owe it to ourselves to find the answer!

We all have little of it.

Very little.

And when we see someone more successful than us, we think we have wasted our life.

What if we tell ourselves: It is not the years gone by. It is the years still left.

We have time in the future.
We have the choice to use it to help us bloom.
Or the choice to choose it to let us go to trenches of gloom.

The past is gone. The future is yours. Just like your choice in the present.

The world glamourizes financial freedom.
It is all about being rich, et al.

However, very few people know what it truly means.

When the money your investments make is good enough to cover all your expenses, that is when you are financially free.

You may be financially independent the moment you start earning, however, you are financially free the moment you don’t NEED to work.

And you are freer, when you don’t need to work but you want to work :)

Don’t run away from reels. Watch them.

Don’t run away from Netflix. Watch it.

Don’t run away from distractions. Have them.

I personally schedule an hour in a day for “wasting time”.

It allows me to be more focused during working hours.

So, go eat that forbidden fruit. However, rest of the time, let your productivity produce fruits.

Honesty, not in your conduct, rather choosing to surround yourself with honest people.

People with whom you can share what you are truly feeling.
People with whom you can share your truths about them – because you know they will be respected.
People with whom you can share your truths about yourself – because you know you will be seen and heard.

Only brutally honest people can choose to surround themselves with honest people. Otherwise, we are simply masking our own selves.

As a content creator, whenever you struggle with this question, it is mainly because you are trying to find something “unique” instead of trying to document your journey.

Document your wins.
Document your rituals.
Document your failures.
Document how you document things.
Document everything that you do, and that is the content.

Content isn’t unique. Your story is. Share it.