differentiation

Modern-day sales run on steroids: discounts, growth marketing, and deceptive advertisement. It takes the company’s revenue burning a chunk of cash in the short run.

The era of abundance and choice is a double-edged sword. It has made customers pampered. All companies are running after this limited number of customers.

The key to selling your product cannot just be the steroids. You have to differentiate yourself with a unique DNA.

A great customer support : something most enterprises forget after sales.
Sticking by the promise: something most enterprises limit just to an advertisement.

meetings

Most meetings are a waste of time. So the best way to avoid it is to say NO. But in the society, we are living in, we get judged or termed as assholes for being a straight shooter. So my mantra is simple, chat over WhatsApp or other IMs to gauge if the meeting is needed.

Our life on this planet is limited. We are not experts in everything. It is alright to express your limitation of knowledge and turn down a meeting. It will save time for both parties.

We don’t realize how much harm we do taking meetings and throwing out our bias or half-baked knowledge to the young entrepreneurs. They are the ones living in the journey of building, and we end up confusing them. We should be extra careful with our meetings, conversations, and discussions.

together

When anyone asks me for startup advice, I tell them about finding the right co-founder.

There can be many attributes associated with the right co-founder one that tops the list is being dependable.
In the early days of a startup founder has to multi-task, and there is the least time for back-and-forth communication, collaboration, and negotiations.
A co-founder getting shit done takes away that challenge.

Building a startup requires lots of luck, hard work, and patience.
While we can not create our luck, we can be aware of what will not screw up our journey, and one being a wrong co-founder.

Once we have a co-founder whose vision and expectations align with ours, we can sail in the journey easily with much lesser negotiation.

health

After 30 years of age, the importance of health came to me. I would request others to be aware early. 

The first wealth is health: Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in 1860. It makes sense. 

How productive can you be with disease engulfing you? Will you be focused or creative?   

Our ultra marathon life leaves no space for personal well-being. Taking off or not doing anything haunts us: call it FOMO. On top of that, our lifestyle filled with coffee, highly processed food, and alcohol is causing many lifestyle diseases. 

Steve Jobs died. All his wealth could not cure him. 

community

We think about achieving something in life. Success depends on many factors apart from our hard work. Community is core. It’s the people around us in our lives who inspire us, open doors for us.

We need to be a giver and open doors for others too. That is how we grow the tribe.

It takes a village to raise a child. It takes a community to build a successful business.

reason

There is no particular reason to be unhappy.
We are breathing, all body parts are working, and we have a company of friends.
It is something that Epicureans talk about.

The more I see or observe I feel it is about having basic necessities.
Our need is limited.
Our wants can be infinite.

Our life on this planet is limited.
Look around the world we are living in.
There is more reason to be thankful.
We survived the pandemic.
We have our loved ones around.

Life is not easy, but looking for what we don’t have and living in regret or being thankful for what we have will define the attitude and reason to live. You have to decide.

peace

We have to seek peace within.
Our quest for wealth, popularity, and stardom has its side effect.
It is making us more like a machine.
We are doing everything for our peace after running like a headless chicken.

It is like eating antibiotics and then going to a doctor for more dosage.
We are over-feeding ourselves for peace with externalities like travel, reading, yoga, or whatnot.
We are empty, in pain not honest with ourselves. We have no clue to listen within and talk to ourselves.

How many hours do we spend without the internet, gadgets, or books? I mean, just being in our thoughts? Most of us are scared and cannot face ourselves and hence no peace.

guiding principle

People will come into our lives every now and then.
Some will try to torment us and our virtue.
We have to stick to our guiding principles instead of falling for their criticism.

Some will try to make hostage with their words, while others with their acts.
They will do emotional blackmail, drench us, and play the victim card.

We have to again think about our guiding principle and lead life.
Feeling sad, pitiful, or empathetic will do no good either. It will drag the ending. At the same time, it will go against our guiding principle.

slow

I remember elderly advice coming from all fronts:
Eat slowly
Talk slowly
Write slowly and many others advice. I would wonder what was wrong with them all.

As I grew up, the era was all about running fast. We were fed immediate gratification from food to relationships to sex, all on a single mobile tap. Slow ended up becoming a vice. We want everything quick and now.

All these years, startup founders got the same teachings. Fast is cool, but as money has dried up, slowing down is new cool.

Our life is limited, I understand, even then: we should live like a human, not a cyborg.

Slow down, breathe, listen to birds chirping, and observe the stars, the colors of plants around, and the trees. You are lucky, unlike those whom the pandemic killed.

competition

During our catchups or demos, some customers will list out our competitors. I would get uncomfortable.

As we progressed in building Taghash, we realized the only competition worth focusing on is: solving customers’ pain. Once we solve it, we get paid both monetarily and via word of mouth.

All these years of existence: we spent less than a lakh rupees on marketing or promotions. Almost 90% of our sales closed via our customers connecting to potential.

It makes me humble and gives me a reason to be out there as a customer support person first, than a founder.