root

There are moments when you feel like going to the roots: your village for summer vacations, the uncle who bought you fruits from his orchid, and grandma sharing bedtime stories.

The beautiful part of revisiting root is that it makes you humble. It reminds you about your childhood days filled with fun and frolics.

I was in my village this Durga puja. It was not the same. I spent hours roaming around our ancestral home and lost in thoughts. There was no one, and it was all empty. But the memory of the past gave a smile.

battle

A lot of us die fighting a battle with ourselves. As a result, our allocated span of life passes on the fly. We become bitter with ourselves. Our inner insecurity hinders us from taking risks and affects our progress.

We should win the mind battle within ourselves first. Else, the world will take us for granted.

You have one life, and you have to live to the fullest.

Fundamentals

Most first-time founders get into the treadmill of matrics. And with the plethora of industries, each has its own defined set. The problem arises when they forget about running the organization with basic business fundamentals of revenue, sales, and profit.

In good times, no one asked for revenue and profit. People went on raising money on growth, GMV, and many others. With the bear market, everything is coming back to fundamentals.

It is a temporary but good change. Most resilient founders building a legacy for decades care less about metrics and more about fundamentals.

numbers

Last evening, I was at an event, and some folks were too curious about our growth numbers. When I told them I didn’t know, most were shocked. For them, it was like a cardinal sin, and how could I have no clue about the SaaS and financial metrics on my fingers?

I tried explaining that I care about Income, Expenditure, and Profit, nothing else. I could see the sense of anger and frustration.

As a founder, we are all unique and have our way of running a business. Some are data-driven, while others are for solving customers’ pain. There are many others purpose driven.

I believe in simplicity: doing business, earning, and paying to the team.

Priority

As the company and customers grow, the organization needs to prioritize. It can be on what existing features to improve versus building something new or continuing both.

We should keep our existing customers and their pain in the center and set honest expectations on deliverables. The what, when, and why have to be put in sync.

In unique scenarios, we have to co-create and charge for the development. The customer should be willing to pay for priority development.

Positive

One has to be in an unlimited positive state of mind to make anything happen. There is a thin line between success and failure. What gets us success is our radical optimism. It is that unlimited positivity.

Wright Brothers, Edison, Einstein, Ford, and others went along the grind. They had no option of giving up. It was their radical optimism that got the world all the innovations.

Also, success requires a lot of dedication and commitment. It will only come with the optimism.

The media talks about success without mentioning what one grinds for it. Overnight success has many failures, grind, hard work, and the will to not give up.

Kind

While entering the job market, you had a few people helping you grow. They could be your manager, co-workers and partner. They fuled optimism, guided, trained you and made you belive you can do it. Most of us have to be really lucky to find such folks in our life.

The world around us has people with multifaces. They try to dump personal agenda and biases. You get sucked in and manipulated. You have to keep an open mind.

There are kind people. Kindness goes long way. You have to pass the baton to the fellows later join this journey, who look at you for inspiration.

dislike

People will dislike you. They will avoid you if you talk about things they dislike. We are all different, and we see our world differently. We cannot push our way or pitch our opinions to others. It applies even to your close ones like siblings, kids, or parents.

Our mental well-being and consciousness is what keeps us alive. Acting desperate or preaching will harm.

We live in a small society where maintaining trust and relationships is hard. We should not give others a reason to dislike or avoid us.

Trying

We have to give our best in whatever state of life we are. Not because of the outcome and result but to avoid guilt. As we age, we revisit the past and get vulnerable in the present.

We all work towards becoming successful in our personal or professional lives. But what differentiates us is our effort. How much we are working and aiming towards it. The outcome, in most instances, is not in our control.

Did we do our best without a favorable outcome? If the answer is Yes, we will not have sleepless nights later. It will be painful in the short run.

dependable

The virtue of becoming someone whom the world can depend upon is like magic. We are living in a world of distrust and self-centeredness. Someone who delivers, and we can bank upon matters more in these times.

Look around yourself, and you will notice people who are successful in their business and life are the ones the world around them can depend upon.

In simple terms, if you are making a commitment, you will do it. We have very few around in our lives who are like that be it our personal or professional life.