chatter

Have you tried sitting 10 minutes quietly without a cellphone or internet? Like being with yourself and your thoughts?
What happens when you try doing it?
Does your mind explode?

People spend money or lock themselves for ten days at vipassana. How much of this helps?

We are what we think. Observing why and what we are thinking can help with calming us. The environment around, media, and news we consume can also be the reason for this chatter.

Support

The last year has seen all money poured into the private market and startups becoming unicorns faster than reaching PMF.

Once the market cools down is going to be customer support. In the end, customers deserve support for the service they are paying. Most startups are burning cash for newer markets instead of satisfying existing customers.

I feel customer delight is the easiest moat any startup can achieve. These customers will be bigger evangelists than some Bollywood star dancing for your brand.

connect

It’s not easy to meet like-minded people. We live around humans but still, we relate with very few. Some become our friends for life and others our well-wishers.

It’s like they understand us our actions and observation so well. It is like they are our mirror. If we end up finding such people, living becomes easy.

A few claim that having too many like-minded people results in limited thinking and mindset.

The blood-stained throne

I was in Kathmandu last December and this time visited the Narayanhiti Palace. I had heard about the Nepalese royal massacre. My friend gave some insights that resulted in me picking the book.

I was curious to know about Nepal Monarchy and, the book takes us through the journey from the very beginning (1775-1914).

I felt like am reading a plot of games of thone. Every other page is about gruesome murder, change of guards, and fights. All the vices we could name come with the throne or conquering it.

It is a 250-page book and can be finished in a single sitting.

Yaadon

Yaadon ko simet liye za rahe hai sang apne. Yaadon ko liye ja rahe hai jo rahenge zindgi bhar sang apne. Kuch bhole, kuch masoom aur kuch karguzarne ki khawaisoo me dube hue yaadain.

Hum apne zindgi ko yadoon ke me aise ghol dete hai ki ab ki sur aur khabar reh he nahi zate.

Ye waise bhi hamare sochne ke uper hai ki hum in yadoon ka kya kare. Kuch kar dete hai dafan yaadon ko dil ke kisi kone mae, aur kuch ji jate hai zindgi ko yaadon ke in lamho me.

Ab ye apke uper hai ki kare kya aap yaadon ka – inke ho kar ji jaiye zindgi ko ya dil kae khandahar mae daba de in masoom yaadon ko zindgi bhar ke liye.

the body

I think it was Aparna who recommended this book to me. The author Bill Bryson has written dozen other books as well.

I have been taking care of my health more in the last four years. The only way I could have gone through the pain of running my startup and books were a great resource.

After reading a dozen books on varied fields from guts to food to exercise, running, This book gave me a feeling that I am reading a smaller encyclopedia health book. The author has covered good ground on all parts of the human body and lifestyle.

I have added this book to my gift book category for all the wisdom.

build

I have heard from many about planning and then executing. My problem with planning is that it drains you so much that there is no energy left in execution.

There exists a multibillion-dollar industry on project management and roadmap tracking. On a multi-year and thousand minds, it makes sense.

But when we are small and building, what matters is the initial customers and their pain. Every team member gets motivated seeing their work used in the real world.

In our founder’s catchup, we always circlejerk and converse over hiring a head of product and whatnot. I always suggest early customers define your product. In building a consumer app and copying a US counterpart you need a product person for the donkey job.

social

I tried my best asking parent to move with me and leave Bihar. I realized after all these years of trying, it is not happening. One main reason for this is the social capital built in the last 50 years.

My mom and dad have a separate bunch of friend circles. Some meet every day or weekly. Apart from this, we have the same milkmen, cleaning lady vegetable wala who knows everything about us. They have seen us growing since early childhood. They have this huge social capital built around.

If I bring them here, it will be like putting them inside a walled garden which they will not enjoy.

Apart from the family we also need a company of friends around as we age, something I have learned with time.

winning

Enterprise sales are about winning people and their trust. At the same time, one cannot make everyone happy. We have many sales closed because stakeholders believed in us and, we delivered our promise with time. In numerous instances, our believers switched organizations and got us there as well. We closed multiple sales just by delighting those who believed in our journey.

We had gone through dozen-odd meetings where our potential buyer would ask us to come back next set of features. It would be never-ending.

We did it because we were also learning and desperately needed early product uses. With time we realized about qualified or unqualified sales prospects. It would take us a few meetings to pursue or move on. I think time and experience made us better than before.

We are still not perfect and, it’s day zero for us. But one thing is sure, people or customers have to like you before buying your product.