7 AM. I am writing this on a train. And in patches. The intention is to publish this once I land in Goa. Because I cant rely on the Internet in train. Train. Lol. You know, how you don’t learn from your mistakes? That! The last time I traveled by train (Goa to Mumbai), I decided that I will not travel again on a train. But here I am.
Sigh.
So I am stuck in this metal box for the next few hours. And knowing the internet situation, I think I will remain offline. Luckily, I could tether onto patchy internet to be able to write this.
Since there is no one to bother me and no deadlines to catch, I can write at peace. And may be with some depth.
Lemme see what all needs to be talked about. Here we go.
Mumbai vs Goa
I am still on the fence about where I want to be.
The trip to Mumbai has been rejuvenating and I love the idea of meeting people face to face. There’s something about a handshake that a Zoom call can’t replicate. The conversations are deeper, the thoughts clearer, the focus unwavering! This trip, I met some people that I haven’t met in a while and the conversations and ideas that flowed in these meetings were, for want of a better word, fascinating! Oh, I crave for such chats and I missed these!
The other thing that I realised while I was in Mumbai is that the power of ecosystems is irrefutable. I bumped into a few people that I would have never met on a Zoom call or a twitter timeline. I got into a few open-ended conversations that may create opportunities. Some ideas were thrown around that allowed me to think more that what I thought was capable. I think, if not for places like Bangalore, Mumbai or Silicon Valley, we would not have any of the great content (films, TV shows) that we watch to kill time!
Most progress happened because people could collaborate with each other and come up with new things. This collaboration may not have happened if we were not in the same place.
On the other hand, Goa offers me a fresh start with whatever skills I have. I get to make new friends, learn new things, experience new challenges. The time I spent at Goa has given me some understanding of what to expect if I live here. What to expect? Intermittent connectivity, laidback attitude, incredibly warm people, eclectic bunch that is very creative and of course, in general, a better life. The challenge is that there’s no work here. So that’s that.
Work has started to pick up. I have a couple of gigs that I am working on. Both, thankfully, can happen from anywhere we have Internet. So that’s cool.
I also have a couple of opportunities to work as a full-time employee with a couple of startups. I have been thinking about those. On one side, there is a stable month-on-month paycheck. On the other is lack of freedom to do all the things that excite me. To me, this freedom is FAR more important than the money coming in. But then like I am told, money allows me to move things and I like movement as much as I like my freedom. You see my conundrum? Damn I dont want to settle!
WIP vs Settled.
Yesterday I met Anuabhb for drinks (believe it or not) and he told me that I need to change my mindset from “wip” to “settled”.
Lemme define these.
WIP is when you are trying to figure out where you want to be and what you want to do. Settled is when you know where you are headed and how you are going about things. While I know where I want to be, the path I will take to reach there is not clear to me. And while technically I am settled, I am still WIP.
At the time, it sounded convincing and I agreed. But the more I think, the more I realize that settling is not for me. Sorry, Anubhab! More on this on our chats.
Personal Board
The other thing we talked about was a personal board. This is very similar to the Mastermind group that I’ve often talked about and failed at. I will action this March onward.
I will do this at two levels.
a. I will make a group with a few like-minded people (like-minded is growth oriented, trying to grow and do more) where we would hold each other accountable and help each other grow. I am not sure how this would pan out and how many people may want to share things openly. But Anubhab has volunteered to help me kickstart by being a part of it. So, there’s two for sure.
b. I will form a personal board. I have thought often about this and I think its time to put this in action. I mean I do have some people that I use as board but I haven’t formally put that in action. Plus, whatever little I have in life, most of it has come to me because of these mentors.
Right now, to engage these mentors and seniors, I send them an occasional email where I send updates about what I am doing. I think in the next update I send to these, I will ask if any of them wants to be on my public personal board.
Public – I will make their names public. And I will make a WA group (or Telegram or Signal or something) so that I could engage with them deeper.
Let’s see where it goes.
Happy Birthday, Steve
Yesterday was Steve Jobs’ birthday. Steve has been a hero for a long long time. I really really wish I could’ve met him. No. I won’t know what to do if I did meet him but it would have been cool.
And yes, I dont really worship heros no more but Steve is Steve!
With that, this is the wrap-up for the day. Not really morning pages per se. But a post nonetheless. Over and out. See you guys tomorrow.
Wasn’t able to put my thoughts in a coherent manner with all the throwing around in the train. May be tomorrow.