Success

Our success depends a lot on our worldview, taking responsibility, and leading the life.

The mindset of successful people has no place for blaming others. History shows people who succeeded in life have failed multiple times. What kept them going was that they did not give up.

Seeing opportunity in adversity makes the journey less painful. I am not saying you become delusional but living a rational optimist.

Giving up is easy. Blaming others is easy. What is difficult is owning our actions and responsibilities.

History

In the last three years, we witnessed the emergence of wealth thrown at the Venture Capital market.
On the positive side, people could get funded on ideas.
Everyone was raising and splurging.

There were multiple occurrences where potential hires would tell us to our face that we could not compete with other offers.
It was extremely challenging to retain and hire.
We sailed through the valley of death.

We at taghash sell our product to VCs.
Every other sales demo would end up with our potential customers offering us money for growth.
In all instances, we had to deny it.

I have been part of the hype cycle in the cloud computing era.
Some people made enough money in those two years to retire for life.

Our greed and FOMO have always turned a noble cause into a fake show. Many friends who raised or enjoyed the cycle are in pain. Some speak offline about the stress because of THAT lifestyle and the debt. I feel sad seeing all this.

It’s like history repeating itself every decade. We are not learning from the past.

resilience

Our world is people around us. Our thoughts, actions, and many decisions excel because of it. It can be right or wrong. The suffering and benefits fall upon us.

Some of us are driven and resilient enough to lead through ourselves. A few don’t waste time deciding right or wrong or are not scared of the suffering or dreaming of the outcome.

I feel resilience is walking on a path and sticking to it. People give up on social pressure, insecurities, and emotions. As a result, accept life as it is instead of being resilient to its course.

rules

Our life is limited. Our thoughts constitute what we think, our company, and what we read. We can say we are living in a closed world. It has its positives and negatives.

The negative is that we are unaware of most other intricacies of the world. Our world becomes limited.

The positive is that we spend most of our time on ourselves. Our limited circle ensures close-knit bonding and open communication.

In my case, I have both worlds. I am part of closed as well as wide-knit. My simple rule of being available to my loved ones keeps me going. I will be available for people whose virtues do not relate to mine.

We cannot make everyone happy. We cannot please everyone on account of torturing ourselves.

roles

We were living in an entrepreneurship bubble. A low-interest era and cheap money resulted in making everyone rich. At the same time, anyone with an idea could raise it in bulk with connections and pedigree. The side effect of this is that many unwanted job roles crept in.

Fast forward now. Most of those roles are gone. Most companies are conserving cash. Every day mass layoff stories are becoming common.

Companies pay people for growth. The True North raised funding amount. Everyone from the media to politicians was gloating over unicorns.

I see a different world now. Everyone is talking about revenue. I know this is temporary.

tribe

A successful founder creates a tribe and leaves a legacy.
The real wealth benefits everybody, not just founders.
We have numerous books dedicated to building successful startups.

Very few founders talk about treating humans above the stock price.
And even less on values and radical openness.

A company is built by it’s people.

Building a successful enterprise requires a tribe of like-minded people with drive, vision, and independence.

Digital cameras existed in Kodak’s research lab. Also, a team of Blackberry software had a marketplace at work.

Hostel

Thinking about hostel days in early childhood gives me goosebumps. My parents thought this would show me life and make me more human. I think it was class 4 or 5.

I thank my parents for this. When you are thrown early on into unchartered territory, you grow up. There is no one to pamper you. You have to live every single day on your own. All the human mind, psychology, and survival instinct come into play. You have seniors ragging you, big ones bullying you, and others stealing your snacks.

The positive side is you taste freedom early on, take chances to commit more mistakes, and are more audacious to break all the rules. There is no helicopter parents or mobile app to track your path.

The virtue of the daily schedule and rituals of the early days has played a role even now. I am more flexible than my peers, thanks to the 5 a.m. yoga/gymnastics. I feel the team building and socializing also came from there.

I cried going away from my parent’s early days. But later on, I started enjoying this freedom. It has played in making me a globe trotter. I am an extrovert and experimental with life.

My sister went to KFI, Varanasi, and I went to Vikas Vidyalaya, Ranchi, and CSKM, Delhi.

India

I feel blessed and lucky to be born here. The unity in diversity makes me better every day. We are a young country and developing.

We all have our way of seeing our world. For me, I am loving my country and living here.

What is the meaning of asking not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country?

–John F. Kennedy

When we start seeing the negatives, we can fix them with our efforts. Or we can crib. I want to be the one solving whatever I can. Our life is limited, and the opportunity to breathe in a free country is one of the best gift.

I am optimistic about everything in life in general. I believe our country will be a shining example of leading the world on multiple fronts.

Meritocracy

We are living in the era of Meritocracy. If you have a dream and work hard, you will have backers to make your dreams come true. You will find the way, but all hard work needs to be done by yourself.

I know many rags-to-riches stories where people built their lives with hard work. They had no time to complain about the world or others. So why can we not take risks and make dreams come true with our hard work?

Why do we have to complain in the era of opportunity? An age where we are all on the same surface? One can build a product in Africa and have customers across the world.

No one is stopping you from changing the world and becoming famous. It requires hard work. If you have it in you, you will find it.

Superpower

We all carry certain powers deep within. It has been through us all along. We can’t see it because we get lost in daily chores and world pleasures. As a result, these powers become dormant.

We were born with a clean slate. As we grew old, society conditioned us. Our worldview became opaque with a limited lens. We are no more ourselves but the wisdom of the crowd.

We lost our superpower. We lost our art of critical thinking. The right to decide, observe, try, and fail.

Everyone wants us to forget these superpowers: Our government, capitalists, and people manipulating us for their favors.