assurance

Our life is not a straight line. It is a mixed journey with curves and shapes. We have to sail through it.

Some of us in our life get lucky. We find helping hands as partners, friends, or parents who are there for you. We are falling for individualism. We are on our own.

Having an assurance that I am here for you and come what may is insurance. It helps us go to the unknown, take a risk, and live life on the edge.

Most of us don’t have that assurance. We are every minute in survival, flight, or fight mode.

Community

Community is about togetherness.
Community is about acceptance.
The optics of the community has changed.
It has become agenda driven. It is more about selling than nurturing.

I got lucky that the 2006-07 Linux user group took me under their wings. I don’t know where I would have ended up now.
I made friends and mentors like Karunakar, Vivek, and others. Most are still part of life. The seed of open source and free software became the prime persona in life.

I sometimes wonder if I learned more from these meetups, open-source projects than going to college.

As I grew up, my career progressed. I became part of other communities like Ubuntu, OpenStack, Drupal, Minio, and others.

run

We are on the run.
The infinite chase of wants. The more we do, our goal post increases. Also, as we age, we realize all we did was endlessly run instead of living.

Our society embeds its guiding principle in us, fuelled with the saliva of capitalism, where everything comes down to wealth. Our existence becomes the grand chase.

Most die without realizing what they have done all their life. Was it even living? Others forced expectations and desires on them. The conditioning made them something or act like someone.

The facade got buried with them. The run was never-ending.

FOMO

In a digital age, we tend to fall into FOMO. Who will not crave for European vacation seeing friends’ Instagram posts? As a founder, the game goes to the next level. Your success becomes the VC money you raise, media mentions, or coming to the Forbes list.

We are all animals. We suffer from jealousy and cravings for stardom. But how much does it matter in a real sense? Is this what keeps you alive, keeps you on your toes 24/7? Or is there a bigger long-term purpose you have?

We are all different. We see a different world. The way we react to adversity and opportunity also differs. Then why do we have to get into FOMO?

freedom

What is the definition of freedom to you? Is it about unlimited wealth, company of friends, or enough free time?

As we grow old, we realize how time flies and death approaches. These times we realize how much time we spent chasing things that never mattered to us. We get weak, our skin wears off, and our bones weaken. We get too much time to think and mostly regret. I have heard many times from my aging loved ones about their decisions in life, what they could and have not done.

In the end, we have to surrender to our thoughts. What matters is living with no regret and ultimate tranquility. It is impossible considering our expectations and worldly desires.

Are we all caged?

Surround

We have a limited and finite amount of time left. We need to make the best of our living. One big part is our company: the people we surround ourselves with. Our mind works in mysterious ways. The flight and fight mode is constant. These scenarios and situations our company comes to guide us.

Growth

Building a product requires pain and people that willing to pay for it. With time we grew and added more features with customer insights. All we had were customers, developers, and I did support calls. We got lucky to be working with customers and getting insights.

Our growth happened with customers connecting us to more customers.

Umeed

Umedoo mae bane hai duniya mere. Jite ja rahe hai hum zindgi ko is kadar isme ki ab mae aur inme koi farq nai dikhta.

Chote se is zindgi ko hum ab me zete hai magar wo umeed he to hai jinke bal bute kal ke zariya banate hai ham.

Kya jine is zindgi ko naa-umeede mae zab hai sabkuch diya uska, jab hai wo hamare saath par har pal. Hum maula ke karzdaar hai. Unke de hue zindgi hai yae. Unke hawale hai sabkuch.

Hum, aaz is pal mae ziye za rahe has mast mad mast aur chor diya hai umeed unke hawale.

Virtues

With age and experience, and reading philosophy, I have learned about the virtues of successful people of the past.

  1. Faith
  2. Trust
  3. Benefits of doubt
  4. Big smile
  5. Leaving on the table
  6. Living now
  7. No regrets
  8. Give everything, ask nothing
  9. Relationship over money
  10. Living in nature
  11. Radical openness
  12. Action over the result
  13. Detachment over the outcome

We are running for our glory and Ego. Those past virtues look like chapters from some textbook giving limited importance.

As you see

Our life is like a maze. We see it and believe in it as it is, and it’s the magic of it.
We appreciate small little things. We celebrate them. It’s like a guest at a party and living to the fullest.

We are worried and complaining. All it will lead to is suffering and pain. We will get sick and die early. Even when we are alive, we will live like a headless chicken.

The choice is ours living life as a gift or miserable pain. This minute and moment matters. You can do the magic and change the life of everyone around.