wrong

When you’re successful, no one cares about your mistakes. You’re rewarded even for your smallest wins. Our society adores achievers. Time and again, we’ve seen this blind admiration lead to the rise of Ponzi schemes that dupe millions.

Get-rich-quick schemes have a shelf life. The sooner you, as a participant, realize this, the better.

The cheerleaders of the past are now today’s racketeers. The crowd-pullers of events, conferences, interviews, and showbiz are now in hiding.

We need to rethink what is right and what is wrong—and for whom it is right or wrong.

fragile

Our life is short-lived. The connection we make and, the moment we spend with our loved ones should matter most. We are so occupied with our wants and running with the capitalistic treadmill that we forget to live a life.

When our day comes we are in the grave. The time that we should have spent with our parents, loved ones, and siblings gets diverted toward accumulating more wealth, power, and stardom.

Most of us have not lived an iota of life yet, yet we dream of living. The time is now; take control of yourself and your actions. This fragile life should have a meaning beyond wealth and raising offspring.

simple

We were simple people, born without thoughts, raw and pure. As we grew older and saw the world, we became complex.

Our needs and desires did not come at birth. They emerged over time. Our social interactions and status were imposed upon us, even though they were constructs.

Our simplicity eventually became our foe. We now live in a world where others define what we eat and wear. It is societal norms that dictate us.

Rejection

I know, I must have written a post about rejection for the nth time. It has become a core part of life. In the early days of building our company, I would feel frustrated and humiliated. But with age and years of selling, I’ve come to hold a different opinion.

I’m more at peace with myself now and no longer take things personally. That shift has a lot to do with reading Seneca and building affirmations around everyday encounters. It’s never easy to hear a NO from the world. But if you look a little deeper, you realize you’re just a small piece in this vast universe.

It’s not about rejection — it’s just business.

Well, what is the price of lettuce? An obolus perhaps. If a man gives up an obolus and receives lettuce, and if you do not give up an obolus and do not obtain lettuce, do not suppose that you have received less than he; for as he has lettuce, so you have the obolus which you did not give.“

The Enchiridion, Epictetus

contentment

I’m not sure if contentment comes with age, is part of our nature, or is shaped by the thoughts we cultivate from observing society around us.

Both Stoic and Hindu philosophies have emphasized contentment since their inception.

Unfortunately, the world we live in today teaches the opposite—urging us to accumulate more and more. Many families hoard as many clothes in their garages as they do in their wardrobes. The craving for more is never-ending.
We live with unmet desires until we reach the grave, never truly content with anything.

Tradeoff

We have to accept life as it comes. Like the seasons, it can be rainy at times, while other days are cold or scorching hot. Some struggle to accept this reality, falling into madness or depression. In short, life is no utopia. Instead of crying over not having oranges, we must learn to make lemonade with the lemons we get.

Life feels like a tradeoff. If you want one thing, you must be ready to compromise on another. I’m turning 40 in a few months, and while some people ask about my marriage plans, they also reminisce about my independence. Some days, I long for a family; other days, I find joy in the freedom of traveling from city to city, selling products and living out of a suitcase.

I could take a strong stance, claiming my choices have either been wonderful or terrible. But the truth is, I was so immersed in living my life that I never had time to analyze it all. What I do know is that life will always bring its fair share of ups and downs, challenges, and happiness.

Click

What makes you click? That one thing so important to you that it becomes part of your daily habit or ritual—something you dedicate every moment to without hesitation?

The masterpieces of Van Gogh’s paintings, Michelangelo’s Madonna of Bruges, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Edison’s Lightbulb, and the Wright brothers’ quest for flight—all emerged from the click of their internal drive. They were broke but determined to stay on their path. It was their quest, the click they woke up to every day.

A lucky few of us find that click and build our lives around it. It becomes our second nature, a habit requiring no external motivation. 

Reject

In sales, most cases end in rejection. Does that mean we stop selling? What I have learned in my last eight years in sales is that people who like you will buy your product. And if they don’t, they will refer you to their peers.

As a founder, you must cultivate deep, lasting relationships and avoid focusing on the short term. People who don’t like you will never like you for one reason or another—you don’t need to waste time pleasing them.

Life is limited, and we must strive to make every second meaningful for our loved ones and the planet.

Grit

With the advancement in technology, particularly AI, it seems we will not be needed anymore. Does that mean we will go back to the Stone Age, premodernization, or the era of the Renaissance?

We seem to have become experts seasonally—transitioning from the pandemic to inflation, to crypto, to world war, and now to AI. What sets a few successful ones apart from the rest is grit. It’s the willingness to go against all odds, the quest to stay focused, and the burning desire to build a masterpiece.

The season of technology hype will come and go. What matters above all is flowing like water and delivering your worth to customers.

Cheer

Our world exists because we dream.
Our world exists because we believe in making it real.
Our world exists because we live in it, shaping it with every moment.

This is our world—ours to build, ours to create.
We are not here to give up so easily.
We are the ones who thrive, no matter the uncertainties.

So cheer up. The world is ahead of us, waiting to be made into something beautiful.