Category: Blog

Wk 07-25 – Weekly Notes

Notes from the 7th week of 2025. I talk about C4E, Book2, Hospitals, AI and its impact on life Personal Brand, Economics and more.

Versova
Starting writing this at home.
Now at Starbucks.
There’s calls and meetings. So let’s see when and how I finish this.
Now at Jamjar at 1805.

The 7th week of the year is over!

Is this year flying past by like a rocket to the moon or what! I know that time seems to pass on faster as you age but this year has been something else. I don’t remember when the new year started and I don’t know when Feb is now ending in like 10 days!

I think this is also cos I’ve been on probably the steepest slope that I had to climb. And on this one, I am not merely climbing. I am sprinting. And no, I am not complaining. I am loving it!

Anyhow, here’s my update.

What I was supposed to do in the week gone by. And my report on the same.

A/ 2025 plan.
I don’t even want to talk about this. Open forever. It’s no longer on my radar. I don’t think about it.

But like I said last week, this is my ritual for like 1000 years. I want to not have done this. I will pick this up. If not next week, then in the week after that. And if not then, then some other day.

B/ Health
This was not on last week’s list. It was in one of the things that I wrote about this was NOT on the top.

I am adding this to the TOP from this week onward.

My ability to do large things and go beyond is indexed on my health. And I need to work on it.

A few days ago, I tried to shift my identity to that of a healthy person. So far it hasn’t helped. I need to do more action on it.

I will track these two as North Star things. I will remove the plan once I do it. But health will be my north star.

Moving on.

The tracker from the week that went by.

Here’s the tracker from the week gone by.

Here are the changes I made…

  1. I have added a weekly average column to know how the week was (often it gets tough to see that in large context). Now I know that in this week, I spent more money than average. I walked less than average. I slept more. I was more in control of my emotions. Etc etc.
  2. I added a color code to “good” behaviour. You can see the two days when I slept more than 7 hours. V will be proud of me 😀
  3. I can’t stop eating Kachra!
  4. If you see this, please tell me what you see that I am missing.

Photos from the week

Here are some photos from the week gone by.

There are a lot that I want to capture for posterity. I am uploading those here as well (with slight edits to ensure that this page is not messed; originals are on the link).

Oh, since I have a new phone, am taking a lot more photos.
Plus I am reading a lot and thus a lot of content to share.
Plus I went to the beach more times this week.

So that has helped.
Let’s see how it is the next week.

Interesting Reads

Here’s a list of things that I read / saw / consumed that left an impact on it. In some cases, I went and stirred up debate in my network.

Here’s a list. In no particular order.

  1. If there’s one thing you read, PLEASE ensure it is this. In the essay, Prasad talks about life and careers in a post-AI world.
  2. On the same thread, Sam Altman’s Three Observations.
  3. It would be useful to re-read this piece by PG. On writing. And life in a post-AI world.
  4. Prak shared this piece by Michael Dempsey. I read it. Took notes. Went down the Rabbit Hole on Schelling Point. Still unable to wrap my head around it. But will spend more learning. In fact I am increasing getting fascinated by Maths, Physics and Economics (see this channel). Let’s see where I end.
  5. The Pygmalion Effect. Video (not a read per se)
  6. Jung on Life After 40. This was very interesting, especically cos I am, well, over 40. And even more so cos I keep crying that I am old and all that.
  7. No one cares. Read this.
  8. Been reading about SEO and these two pieces were good to read. In one line, all the fears of folks about AI-written content are dumbfounded. Google does NOT punish (as of writing this, unless things change).

There are more links and things that I read. And there are more videos I see. I share those on this group. In case.

This brings me to highlights, reflections and notes from the week.

In no order…

A/ AirPods Pro Max
I had decided that starting 15 Feb if I could write for 30 days straight (and even AK had to write), I would get myself one. But none of us wrote. So, no AirPods for me. Important to document.

B/ Book2
I’ve started to work on it. And I am leaning on Claude for that. So far, I’ve “written” 5 chapters of approx 2500 words each. So that’s fast. At this pace, I should have a draft ready in like one month!

Here’s a WA group that you may join in case you want to help me read the early drafts and help me find direction.

C/ C4E lacks action and attention
I’ve not been able to focus on C4E in the last few days.

Thankfully we are in the middle of our downward cycle and thus there isn’t much to do. So we are ok. Plus the team is running whatever we have well.

However, we as a unit lack action-orientation. We take too much time for everything. We think a lot. We dont break enough things. We are not ghissoing our chappal enough.

Need to fix it. And add some sense of urgency. I will pick this up in the next week.

Three things worth noting here.

  1. We wanted to price ourselves at a premium. We took action towards that we haven’t made any large progress.
  2. Our new creds was to be ready last week. It is not. I will not ask for it or chase it. I will make one myself. Adding to my todo.
  3. We need to reinvent our model. We haven’t done anything about it.

D/ Dave Matthews Band
I’ve recently been tripping onto music from Dave Matthews Band. I dont know but I love the sound they make!

You can start here.

E/ Claude and Cursor
I’ve been experimenting with the two things. One to write “code” and the other to “write” book2. And I love it.

I feel my mind has expanded. I can see it expand! I now realise that I can do a lot more. The power of my thoughts is a lot more, well, potent! The sky seems to be the limit. I will try and write more on this. But time seems to be a roadblock.

F/ I suck at negotiations
I knew this all along but I know this more now. That I suck at negotiations. I dont know if I want to learn that, at this age but it’s a good thing to know about. I will ensure that my kids learn the skill. And do whatever needs to be done – to make them great at it.

Oh, and as a matter of principle, I will not work on any negotiations from here on.

G/ Growing up
Had to go to the hospital. And I hated it. Each time I go to one, I hate it. I dont have an answer for my hatred or my aversion to those. But I hate them.

I know I will have to go to more of these in the next few years. It’s a deep fear. And I am trying to learn. I hope I am better. I hope I grow up!

H/ H2 of the day makes me sad and ineffectiveness
I’ve realised and I have known that I can’t do anything productive in the second half of the day. So this week on, I will move all my non-value-add things to the second half. The first half will only be to do deep work, independent of any conversations. If someone has to meet, it has to be in the second half. At least, for as long as I can control.

Even today, I did a lot till about 1 PM. Post that I went to the clubhouse and merely vegetated. Must be my sugar levels or something.

Irrespective. I will try and control this a lot more.

I/ IPO
Ajax are getting IPOd tomorrow.

They are a client and this is the first time I’ve seen a client get to IPO. Incredible learning experience. One more feather to the cap.

Now the lifegoal is to build a company that IPOs. Or may be not. I may not do well with the public scrutiny that public companies must endure. Let’s see.

K/ Angry and Sad with Kumbh
My parents were stuck in an overnight jam somewhere in UP. Or whatever state that Kumbh is happening at.

And I hate it.
And I dont know what to do about it.
I am angry and sad about it. I have enough money that they are not on public transport. But I dont have enough money to get them a charter plane and VIP darshan. I wish I had.

Plus, on top of it all, I dont understand how faith and religion becomes so important that they are willing to endure this. I am reading Man’s Search for Meaning I and get the why to live and all that but where is the why in this?

Thankfully their spirits are high.

L/ Other things that I want to capture but I may not spill too many words on those.

  1. For a work thing, I decided to submit to two elder gents. I will blindly do what they ask me to. I will offer to them the kind of adulation and submission I’ve wanted from my people. See this.
  2. Managed 45 days of daily journal. Now will aim to do 365.
  3. Deleted Insta yet again from my phone. I will put that on sinphone and see how much time I invest on it.
  4. Became a fan of Nicobar! But only when they are on sale. And I am ok to wear older fashion. The only thing latest I want is the iPhone 😀
  5. I am increasingly getting interested in Economics. Here is one of the creators that I absolutely am a fan of!
  6. I need to check for ADHD. I dont know if there are online tests. But I need to know.
  7. I have started to work on my personal brand all over again. This time on video. Have reached out to AD for help (now that he’s doing this professionally). Let’s see where I reach.

Ok that.
Phew

One large takeaway from the week?

In one word?
Respect.
More about it on my Roam. Or somewhere in the deep confines of my mind 😀

For context, last week, it was Money. The week before that it was People.

Ok!
This is it!
Lemme know what you think.
Gotta go.
See you around.

Oh, here are the previous editions: Wk 01, Wk 02, Wk 03, 04, 05, 06

PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes.

Wk 06-25 – Weekly Notes

Notes from Week 6 of 2025.

10:25 AM
Starbucks, Versova
Let’s see how long do I take on this. I’ve started a Forest timer. Let’s see.
Update: Made numerous calls in the middle. Publishing this at 14:06 PM

So, this is my favorite time of the week. Where I am by myself. And I sort of journal what’s happening in my head. I do a recap of the week. I dump all that I need to get out of my system. Call it flushing. Some things make it to the blog. Some dont (the ones that dont, get to my Roam). The thing that I am most careful of is that I dont delve in the past. and I dont want to worry about the future. I am present. Thinking. Cataloging. Actioning. Just the act of sitting at one place and writing and publishing is nice. In fact, I often think that if I could just write and pay my bills, I will do that. But then, that’s alternate reality. I need to act on whats up today!

Oh, I am listening to this as I write.

Here are sections (I want to change this but I will do so at some other day)…

What I was supposed to do in the week gone by. And my report on the same.

A/ 2025 plan.
This has been open for like 2 months now. I met Neha last night and she mentioned that she’s been seeing make these plans for 3 years and no action. I am still poor, fat and all that. Vivek says the same.

But…

I remain a thick skinned person. This is my yearly ritual and I will not trade this for anything. So, at some point, I will get to this. Parking as sgp1 and todo.

The tracker from the week that went by.

Here’s the tracker from the last week.

I ate a lot. I walked some. I spent a lot. More or less the emotions were in control. My streak of daily updates is good too (I’ve moved those to @altsg). I had a REALLY bad day couple of days when someone shat on C4E on a public platform. But now that I look at this chart, apart from that one red and yellow window, I was mostly ok.

This is surprising. There’s a disconnect. My daily twitter posts reflect otherwise. May be I need to write my posts better? Or maybe I need to capture things better. Will be more mindful in this week.

In fact, J said that for someone who claims to be a Stoic, I am moved a lot by my emotions. She’s not wrong. Must be more mindful.

If you see this, please tell me what you see that I am missing?

Photos from the week

Here are some photos from the week gone by.

Oh, btw, I tried to find a way to embed Google Photos into WordPress. I found a plugin as well. But I was too incompetent to get it to work for me. IF you know wordpress well, would you want to do this for me?

Interesting Reads

Adding this section from this week on. The intention is to capture what left an impact on it. And have my people read these and debate.

  1. Triangle of Talent by Shaan VP. FUCKING EYE OPENING.
  2. Derek Sivers on How to Spark a Movement. I see this often.
  3. Imperfection by Dharmesh Shah. Loved loved loved it.
  4. This presentation by Paras Chopra where he makes a case about why India needs to build our own AI Model. I have my disagreements but he is the man in the arena. Also, Paras is inviting people to work with him to build those models. Some of you may want to apply. Going by his reputation, he will ensure that it reaches fruition.
  5. This piece on Atoms and Bits.

There are more links and things that I read. I share those on this group. In case.

And this brings me to highlights, reflections and notes from the week.

I will lean onto my Roam and Daily updates for this.

In no order…

A/ C4E – a LOT happened at C4E in the last week.
And here’s a quick summary.

  1. Reputation. I dont care about mine. I may live or die. But C4E is a village and I will not have ANYONE call us a scam or a fraud. I am ok to not meet your expectations or whatever. But I am not a scam. I will work harder than anyone else you may find. You know, more chappal than anyone else. But I am NOT a scam. The sad part was that apart from me, I dont see anyone else at C4E care for the reputation! I wrote more on my daily update here.
  2. Premium Pricing. I will restructure C4E to only charge a premium pricing. I may die hungry but I will not work for anything that I am not comfortable with.
  3. People Ops. I will ensure that we treat people better. We are mostly good but I want to take it up a notch. We HAVE to be the best when it comes to people.


B/ Health
I am at that age now there I am seeing multiple health issues. I have something wrong with my heart and I need to see more docs for that. Skin seems to be breaking out. My back hurts perpetually. I really need to fix my hernia. I need spects. I can go on and on.

I need to work on this. And I will. Starting today, I am changing my identity to that of a healthy man. I will do each thing that you expect a healthy person to do. Including working out.

And this will be more important as I go along with the startup that I am working on!

C/ Farheen 
Spoke to this lady. She’s all of 23 and WOW. My gut says that she will do a lot in life and go far. But let’s see. She offers social media marketing, SEO and allied services. If you are on a lookout, you may consider chatting wiht her

D/ Dubey Ji at Marine Drive
Just yesterday, I was at Marine Drive and I did what I do each time I am there. Get a massage. And of course got talking to the masseuse. And he told me about this person – Dubey Ji. Apparanty, he’s the guru of most of the masseuses on the Marine Drive. The important part is that Dubey Ji is now retired and each of his shagirds give him a tiny sum each day! I would love to be that where all my kids are doing well and I am merely living vicariously thru them!

E/ I got a new phone.
And I dont feel any emotions towards it. It was important to capture. As a young person, each time I got a new phone, I made an event out of it. I realised that it was no longer the case.

F/ AKs website is up after a month!
So cool! The world needs more of her. Here’s the link – akforthevibe.com

G/ C and Krishna
If I were to make a list of people who believe in SG, Krishna and C will probably top the list. And I have been unkind to both of them over this week. And I need to fix it.

But…

I don’t know how. I know both of them will read this post and both of them will say, “its ok”.

H/ Took a loan
I had decided that I will not take a loan again. But this month I had to. And by the looks of it, I will need to take another one. I dont know when this cycle will end. Let’s see.

I/ The AI Fomo
I talked about it last week too. And its getting all the more real. TBH, since last week, I have made some progress. I am more aware. I have read more. But I still dont have enough to give me comfort. I need to find that.

J/ Worth Living For
Prof Kavi Arya mentioned this in a conversation. He said something on these lines… “Most people tend to think about things that they want to die for but this approach was refreshing – what are you willing to live for?”

This opened by eyes like nothing else had!
I am willing to live for a lot of things. And no, these things don’t mean leisure or pleasure.

K/ Other things that I want to capture but I may not spill too many words on those.

  1. Updated my Work With Me Page. After I got the inspiration from Hardik Pandya’s page.
  2. Gokul NA. Each time I speak with him, I am inspired to do more with my life. I REALLY wish I could drop everything and work FOR him. He’s a rare person that I want to work FOR. And not WITH.
  3. May get to work as a marketer on a project at IIT Bombay. I am not getting paid a lot but I would like to get the experience of being at IIT often. Maybe know more students and all? Oh, on my previous visit to IIT, I bumped into Mayank Pareek! Talk of serendipity!
  4. Films business. I HAVE to do something about it. I will have to restart from scratch now that I am out of TRS but I will do it.
  5. I have a crush on a 51-year-old!
  6. I’ve been missing Steve Jobs.
  7. Made some tough calls that I was avoiding for a while. Some more tough calls need to be made. Will do those in the coming week.
  8. Met Arun Kedia for a coffee. One of the best meetings in a long long time. More notes in my Roam.

Ok that.
Phew

One large takeaway from the week?

In one word?
Money.

Last week, it was People.
This week, its money.
I don’t want to write more here (context is on my Roam). In case someone wants to know more, you know where to find me.

PS: Reminds of KWAN – love, respect, community AND the dollars too!

PPS: Now that I am on films and trailers, I saw this and it brought a lump to my throat. Happens each time. And then I saw this.

Ok!
This is it!
Lemme know what you think.
Gotta go.
See you around.

Oh, here are the previous editions: Wk 01, Wk 02, Wk 03, 04, 05

PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes.

Wk 05-25 – Weekly Notes

Notes from Week 5 of 2025. I talk about things I did, things I learnt and things I am thinking about.

6:47 PM, 2 Feb
Jamjar, Versova

I should be at CSS.
But I am sitting this one out. I have multiple reasons. Here’s a list.

A/ I want to write this before the day ends. I started late and then I had to be at places and thus I didn’t get time. This is my pursuit and I am responsible and I have to get this done. CSS is C4E’s pursuit and I have it in very capable hands of AK.

B/ Also, I want AK (and other kids) to start taking independent ownership of things. I want them to start living with the idea that I will not be around. I also want to learn to not have the pleasure of seeing my kids in action. I want to give them the space to grow and I want to be absent from their lives. I want to be proud of them from a distance. Howsoever tiny it may be but it’s indeed a thing that I value a lot. More about CSS is here.

Ok two only 😀

Anyhow. Coming to the review of the week. Here’s a report.

What I was supposed to do in the week gone by.
And my report on the same.

A/ 2025 plan.
In one line, I haven’t been able to work on my plan for the year. I think now that one month of 2025 is gone, I may never get around to doing it. May be I will still do it during the next week. Let’s see.

The tracker from the week that went by.

The tracker from the last week is here.

As you can see, I have started to miss some days. I need to get stricter about it. And now that I’ve done this for a month, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t do this everyday.

What do you see in this tracker?

Photos from the week

Here are some pics from the week gone by. Here is the link for the week.
As you will see, it was quite a week!

And this brings me to highlights, reflections and notes from the week.

Highlights from the week gone by…

In no order…

A / Unidimensional personality
I’ve realised that I have a very unidimensional personality. I was dinnering with a friend of 20 years last night and I did not know what to talk to her about. Each time she would talk about current affairs, friends, etc etc, I would bring it back to work.

While its ok for me at this stage of my life, I think I will have to find a way to change this. Oh, I do want to change this. While work is interesting, what I do today is not world-changing. Aisa bhi kuch khaas nahi kar raha main!

B/ AI FOMO
I have this HUGE FOMO about my lack of participation in the AI rush. While we at C4E have a client who works at the forefront of AI, I am still a silent observer. I feel like that person sitting on the sidelines while life is passing him by!

I don’t know what to do about it.

I do have a friend and collaborator in Krishna. I do have that not-so-secret startup that I am building with a few friends. Both are on the fringes of AI but I would like to have a more mainstream participation. I don’t know how. Any ideas anyone?

C/ AK at Hyd
AK is going to Hyd in the next week. I am INCREDIBLY proud of it. I know she will read this. And I want her to know that I love her!

D/ Processes over people
Each day I am reminded that if I want to scale, I need to think beyond my love for people. You know, I REALLY wanted to prove to the world that I can create a billion-dollar company with great people at the helm and all that. But each passing day I think its getting difficult.

Today I met AK Sir (not my AK but AK sir) and reiterated that if I want C4E to go beyond where we are, I will have to think more about processes than people.

So that.

I know, I know. Sad and disappointing. But this is how it is. I swear that the world is unkind, unfair. And at the same time, it is good, nice and all those warm things. I think its fair to say that the world is indeed a reflection of who you are!

ISTG, I am full of hope on most days. In fact, as I write this, I am staring at the first loss-making year for C4E since COVId-19. And I remain hopeful that we will do well.

Time shall tell.

E/ Took a laptop back from a C4E alum
One of the people at C4E moved out abruptly. Many things lead to this. We weren’t able to challenge the person enough. We couldn’t pay her well enough to help her retain her lifestyle. We didn’t have enough work to keep them meaningfully employed. And then some more.

Each time someone moves on from C4E, I feel sad. In most cases, I justify my sadness with the knowledge that whoever goes away, has gone to a better place. And that’s ok.

In most cases when people go, they go with the gifts that C4E had showered them with – most of these are intangible. In some cases it’s tangible. This person when she moved, C and I decided that we would ask for the laptop that we had got for them. This is very unlike us. I have promised people that I will take care of them for as long as I can. And in most cases, I do. Even after they move on from our life.

But for some reason, this one seemed personal. And I hate it. HATE IT.

But I had to do it. You know, a man’s gotta do. I am also justifying this one as the first in many steps that I will have to take to make C4E bigger and better. So that.

Oh, in the same bullet, I want to write about a tough separation with someone who we were trying to get at C4E. But I shall skip the gory details. All of us at C4E failed with that. Our culture failed. I wish we didn’t. But lesson learnt.

F/ Private Twitter
On the counsel of AP, I’ve made my Twitter private.

I will continue to be on @saurabh and I will build that into a large distribution page (despite the flag and shadow ban). But all personal updates will move on @altsg. Go follow that.

G/ Met Prof Kavi Arya
What a guy!

This meeting was probably the highlight of the week. He runs e Yantra. I heard his journey and I was inspired to do more with SoG.

Meeting him again on Tuesday the 4th. Looking forward to that!

H/ Met Murtaza.
Again, what A GUY!

Again, the second highlight of the week. Murtaza is all of 33 and wise beyond his years. I wish I could be like him. I wish I could create the kind of impact and wealth he’s been able to create.

I/ MDI Network
For the startup, I have been asking for help from people. The set of people who came forward the most is from MDI! I even made a post on LinkedIn about it.

I can’t express in words how much the help means to me. I would’ve spoken to 10 odd people and EACH person gave out advice, inputs, connections and more. I am so so floored by the generosity of these people.

I aspire to be like that. I want to be that person in deed when someone comes to me in their time of need. Come on, universe!

J/ Other things worth noting
I am adding this section for things that I want to take note of, but don’t have large comments to make. This doesn’t mean that these are small things. Just that I’ve either spoken about them elsewhere or I want to keep those private. Here they are, in bullets…

  1. Sachin told me to stop with self-deprecating humor. Wrote more about it here.
  2. Vinny told me about the secrets of the restaurant business. It’s no longer a case but there was a time when I wanted to run a restaurant (I still want a cafe / co-working space etc).
  3. Pradeep did a KICKASS job on Towards Eternity! It is a weekly newsletter that curates and brings together insights from the world of healthtech. Aimed at health enthusiasts, startups and investors, Pradeep cranks out a kickass letter week on week. Do subscribe!
  4. I failed as a leader at C4E. I failed to instil camaraderie. I failed to inspire a sense of urgency in my people. I failed to have us at a team seek higher standards. More is on my roam.
  5. Decided that at C4E, we will stop with low-value work. More on this in some subsequent post. Maybe Chandni will write this.
  6. Read about Bardo. Loved it!
  7. Was reminded that I need to learn the art of sales. I suck at it and I will make a deliberate effort to learn. Thanks, Ramanuj.

Ok that.
Phew

One large takeaway from the week?

In one word.
People.
Simple.

In the week gone by I must have spoken to some 20 people and each was an intense, long chat to learn more, share more, connect more and all that. And I want more! Lol!

Ok!
This is it!
Lemme know what you think.
Gotta go.
See you around.

Oh, here are the previous editions: Wk 01, Wk 02, Wk 03, 04

PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes.

Wk 04-25 – Weekly Notes

Notes from Week 4 of 2025. I talk about things I did, things I learnt and things I am thinking about.

Various places in Versova
Wrote some part of it at home, some at Starbucks, some at Jamjar!

So, the last week has been a blur. I worked a lot, travelled a lot, and wore pants a lot. Took a lot of heat for my team’s non-performance. Socialised a bit. Went to the beach a couple of times. Did not get time to take photos but it was good to be on the rocks at Sunset Club. Oh, I also missed tracking one of the days (more on the tracker in a bit).

Overall, the kind of week that I would love to have, week after week.

So, here’s the report from the week gone by.

What I was supposed to do in the week gone by.
And my report on the same.

1/ I said I will work on my 2025 plan.
This remains open. 4 weeks now. Red flag.

However what I had thought towards the end of last year and where I am at this time in 2025, I think it’s a large change. So, I may have to revisit the goals etc. But then, apart from goals, the other things need to be done. And that’s something that I intend to do this week. Lol 😀

2/ I said each time I open insta, I will do three push-ups.
I failed at this yet again. Despite reminders. The good thing is that towards the end of week, I ran out of storage on my phone and I had to uninstall apps that were non-essential. Read, Instagram.

So, till I find the money to acquire a new phone, I don’t have insta on my phone. I will use it from a browser and the clunky experience there would ensure that I reduce my time there.

Oh, I would still do three push-ups when I use Insta.

3/ I said that I would delete food delivery apps.
Failed. I use them not just for food but also for groceries. I need to find a solution. Let’s see what common ground do I get.

The tracker from the week that went by.

The tracker from the week gone by is attached.

More or less it was all green!
Yay!
And this is when I had a hard week.

Some realizations...

1/ I love it when I am busy! And if you look at my mental state, despite my busyness, you will see that I have a lot of greens. Even the sleep hours and recovery is nice. So that.

2/ I need to work on eating better.
Let’s see when.

3/ I spend a lot of money.
I need to fix that.
I mean I don’t need to, to be honest.
Life has been kind. But still.

Nothing else to take note, tbh.

Ok, moving on.

Photos from the week

This week was busy.
Took some but none worth showing.
Still, here’s the link for the week.

Highlights from the week gone by…

Like I said, this week was a blur. I my not recall a lot of things. I will lean onto my daily journal updates on twitter to identify the notes worth capturing.

1/ The Club
For a meeting, I went to The Club. I love the place. Its like the perfect oasis in the middle of jungle called Andheri. I am told that the membership is about 40 lakhs. Adding it to the list of material things that I want to acquire.

2/ Hiring
For the new startup that I am hoping to be a part of, I am trying to hire people and its incredibly hard. To a point that even though I am willing to pay a lot of money, I am unable to find the right people. Lesson for me – work on personal brand, distribution and communicate the mission of the business.

3/ People
I met Ahilya yesterday and it was fabulous. She was with us at C4E for a bit and we’ve staying in touch. It was good to see her. And she travelled all the way from Pune to meet us. I mean she was here for something but she did take out time to be with us. So that!

4/ M
VG sent me a pic of M in a saree. That girl is growing so fast that I don’t know how to cope up with that. Come to think of it, she was the first kid that I even thought of as my own and to see her as an adult with her own quirks and all that are beyond my control – I am not sure if I am ready for it. She’s now entering her teens. Lets see how those years are. The good thing and the bad thing is that she lives 10 hours away from me (by a flight) and I see her once a year and I only get to know about her from her father. But whatever. I wish I was at least in the same country as her. Ok, my mind goes in a soup when I think about her 😀

5/ Met a founder friend
The guy is a second-time founder and loved his humility, candor and intent to help me do better. I owe it to the universe to get better and pay it forward!

6/ Jonah’s Complex
I’ve been reading about it and I am trying to understand if I suffer from it. And if I do, how do I get over it.

7/ Burnouts (at work)
C asked me about burnouts. I told her that I am not a believer in those. But that’s me. And I am often wrong.

I believe burnouts etc are caused by situations when what you think, believe, say, do are not in sync. If I were to look at my life, I can safely say that I am far from burning out. May because I’ve tried to live a life where each thing is in sync. My success. Or my failures. Or even my attempts. I get a lot of flaks from close friends, from strangers but I march on.

Read the next point.

8/ Build in Private
A couple of people told me that I need to be little more private. I dump my entire head on to the internet. It’s like dear diary. But in public. To be honest, I am ok with it but I can see how people may not be. I see the merit in that. I need to find a balance.

This week, I tried to be little more discreet and vague. Let’s see how that works.

9/ Life Plan with folks from MDI
In one of my conversations with Sanjay, he told me how he was the chief instigator of a getogether of his classmates from his engineering days. And how he reconnected with them after 30 years. And that too at a deeper level. I am inspired. I will do this with folks from MDI. I am not friends with all of them but people from there are closest thing to emotional attachment and I will try to do that. I will do this in this week.

I am to record a video for that. Once I done, I will share that here as well. Let’s see.

10/ This tweet by Palash was one of the highlights of the week.
Try to decode this :d

11/ The Forever Alone thought got reaffirmed.
See this tweet.
I am copy-pasting the text.
I plan to write a long post on this. It’s in my drafts and I will write it some day. Meanwhile, do read this. And please point out flaws in my thinking.

Yesterday, I sought for professional help (where I was going to pay them) from someone who I had helped when they didn’t have money to pay for their rent.

My help was in for of hard cash. Upward of a lakh. And if you know me well, I don’t have a lot of money.

At the time I justified it as SoG Grant. And as my promise to my mom that I will donate 10% of my income (not just profits).

And when I asked them, they refused. And the reason they gave? We are now so big and busy that we don’t have time for a small person. I was left seething with anger.

Now as I write this, I think I was wrong. The help I extended was without any expectation. It was a donation. A grant, if you will. And its wrong on my part to assume they will come around when I need them. Same for things with SoG. I don’t own the lives of kids that I support. Same with people I invest my time and energy in. They don’t own me.

Reminds me of my chat with V that as the gardener, I don’t really deserve the fruits of the garden that I patientilly mend for years. It’s my false sense of righteousness and want of fairness that made me angry. The stoic teachers would be disappointed. I should’ve done better.

I think this is it for the time being.

Ok.
That.
Moving on.

One large takeaway from the week?

I cant think of any to be honest.
I think I will have to make more notes as I live through the week.

I guess this is about it for the week.
Lemme know what you think.
Gotta go.
See you around.

Oh, here are the previous editions: Wk 01, Wk 02, Wk 03,

PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes.

Wk 03-25 – Weekly Notes

Notes from Week 3 of 2025. I talk about things I did, things I learnt and things I am thinking about.


9:05. 19 Jan.
Starbucks, Versova

The week gone by was long. Busy. Hard. To the point that Poo called to check in if I were ok. Two other friends wrote in to check if I was okay. I will talk more about this shortly. But lemme follow the format that I sort of discovered last week.

What I was supposed to do in the week gone by. And my report on the same.

1/ I said I will work on my 2025 plan.
I failed at it. The year is upon me and how. And I didn’t even think about it. This means that the review letter is also delayed.

2/ I said each time I open insta, I will do three push-ups.
No, I didn’t do push-ups when I opened insta. So I failed on this.
I will implement this from today. And keep a track. Will add it to my tracker.

3/ I said that I would delete food delivery apps.
I did for a couple of days.
But then, installed it again.
Convenience is a tough trap to get out of.

4/ I had to write the #dateSG doc.
I didn’t.
I won’t call this a fail cos this is not high on priority.

The tracker from the week that went by.

The tracker from the week gone by is attached.

I am glad to report that I have tracked almost all things. No, I didn’t really get any better. But tracking is an important first step. And yay to self for that. #win

You can see that I had a rough one.
But now, we seem to be doing ok.

Some realizations...

1/ For a one-person house I run and with my kind of lifestyle, I spend a lot of money. I need to check my spends.

2/ My day emotions are off the charts. I need to do something about it.

3/ I am consuming a lot of coffee. What’s not on this is that I don’t have coffee after 12. But, this much is not good. I will try and stop.

Ok, moving on.

Photos from the week

This week was bad.
Couldnt take too many. Here’s a link, in case.
Will get back to this next week.

Highlights from the week gone by…

This is a little different from what I did last week. Let’s see which one sticks.

1/ Made it to Thej’s weekly notes.
In fact these weekly notes are inspired by Thej’s. And this is the second thing that I have taken away from him. The other being SoG Grant. A good reminder that I need to move the needle on that.

2/ Spent time with Manish.
I am grateful that he takes the time to coach C and me. I don’t know what I’ve done to get kindness from so many people. I can only promise myself that when I have something going for me, I will pay it forward.

3/ Warikoo revealed his earnings from the year gone by.
The highlight was this part. I quote…

From Jan-Dec 2024 we earned Rs. 48.22L (USD 56K) in affiliate income. 100% of the affiliate we have earned (and will earn in the future) goes towards the education of kids who cannot afford it.

It is a simple process. Students email me, we ask for their student ID, college details, Aadhaar and a link to pay the school/college directly. And we make the transfer.

Last year, we contributed 43L towards the education of 104 kids and since existence we have contributed nearly 1.7Cr (USD $200K) towards the education of 397 kids.

I will do something similar.
I will channel a source of my income towards this. May be for SoG Grant. I don’t know yet. I will think on this.

4/ AK’s thought about C4E Culture.
She pointed out that when we get new people at C4E, they don’t get time to ramp up. And that needs to change. No person will ever go back from C4E with a sore experience.

Oh, while am on AK, the girl has made 7 posts so far. I think she will get her AirPods Pro Max at this rate.

5/ I am learning a lot about myself with this new startup.
Some things worth noting are…

  • On this one, I am not the captain. I am merely one of the charioteers at Mahabharata. And its good to see that am able to navigate it well.
  • I thought since there are heavy weights, I would not be able to speak. But I surprised myself with my actions. I was not sure I had it in me to speak in a room like that. I did. And I made eloquent conversations. Humbling and proud. And a #win.

6/ I want to be well-known (and not famous)
I wrote about this on my Twitter today. And I found a good articulation. That I want to have the respect of the ones that I respect. And this respect must give me access to any room that I want to get into. Simple.

I will repeat what I wrote today morning. I’ve been the kinds to always shy away from spotlight. I have wanted to be a kingmaker (not the king). I want to have a band (and not a solo act). I want to help run a village (and not be the mukhiya). I want to be a Krishna (and not Arjuna).

But I do want to be a famous Krishna. I also mentioned that I want to be on the thank you page of 1000 books, 100 Oscar speeches and more. I really want to be the person that offers shoulders to giants.

I don’t know how I will get to it. But this realisation is interesting to have. May be this is what growing up is?

Oh, as part of this, I will build the ability to do small talk with people.

7/ I failed to deliver something simple to a senior that I look up to. At the same time, in a review of C4E, our board member mentioned that we are in a poor place at C4E.

These were the large reasons why I was so fucked in the head the whole week.

I will ofc try and fix but I didn’t like that I failed so bad.

I want to note that I didnt let the heat come to my team. If I could just not overreact and eat random crap, I would have handled the crisis well. I need to work on self-control.

8/ At C4E, we are going to be more process-oriented.
Again, this is a thing that I’ve known for a long time and I’ve always stayed away from. Gokul taught me in detail. And I ignored. Manish reinforced this when we met him in December. And I ignored. But now I am learning that both of them were right all along.

Ok.
That.
Moving on.

One large takeaway from the week?

I think I have discovered the word for 2025.

Consistency.

Everything else that I need or want is on the other side of just one thing. Consistency. All the magic – compounding including – happens on the other side of consistency. Wish I had learnt this earlier.

I am going to embrace it.
I’ve even added this to the Knock on C4E’s door. See if you can spot it.

I know I know.
People have opinions and thoughts about YOLO and FOMO and how you ought to experience life and all that. But I think there is merit in being consistent and living a life built on top of discipline, long-term thinking, small actions, and consistency!

I guess this is about it.

As I close this, I am thinking, how is this weekly note different from the daily journal that I am writing on twitter? Maybe with time, I will publish more than these streams of consciousness? Maybe with time, I will have these two evolve into separate things – one to talk about things on a day-to-day basis and the other from a helicopter lens where things are a little more broad and large? Let’s see.

Ok, I have a long day ahead.
A lot to be done.
Gotta go.
See you around.

Oh, here are the previous editions: Wk 01, Wk 02

PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes.

Wk 02-25 – Weekly Notes

Notes from Week 2 of 2025. I talk about things I did, things I learnt and things I am thinking about.

9 AM, 12 Jan.
Blue Tokai Oshiwara (yeah, not Starbucks :))

So, week 2 is over.

It took its time to come and pass by. Like most other weeks (and months and years and all that), this was a blur as well. I don’t know when one day ended and the other began. I have the same routine – wake up, take 3 steps to my table, put on my morning track list, reply to emails, get ready, get to Starbucks, make calls, eat, sleep, repeat. And in between, find distraction on Instagram (which has become a serious addiction and I need to fix it) and daydream.

I have an idea. Each time I open Instagram, I will do 3 pushups.
Let’s see. Will keep a track.

So, in this entire madness, the only good part is that I don’t have to worry much about money (no I am not financially free but I have an ongoing business that on most days does ok; these days however it’s not doing that well as I would want it to).

The other good part is that I am mostly ok in the head, apart from the days when I have to travel. I think I am blessed.

Ok, this is becoming a blog by itself. Lemme get to the notes, reports, reflections and all that from the week gone by.

Lemme start with what I thought I would do this week. And my report on the same.

I said I would work on the startup and work on my 2025 plan.

I am glad to report that I made progress on the first one.

And nothing on the second one. However, once I publish this, I plan to spend the rest of the day planning for 2025.

So we are ok on this count.

The tracker from the week that went by.

I thought (and decided) that I would live in public and track some metrics thru the year. Here’s a screenshot from the week that went by.

While this tracking is helpful, here are my takeaways.

  • I don’t have discipline when it comes to food. I need to work harder on it.
  • I haven’t been able to slot workouts or exercise into my routine. From how things are, I think I can try for an evening session. My mornings are way too important for me to do anything. So lets see if I can make an action on that.
  • I can’t really make any correlation between what I eat, how much I walk and my emotions. The last two have been bad. I don’t know why. And because they’ve been bad, I can see that I’ve been eating more than I typically do.

On the tracker, VG has made a public motion of no-confidence. I no longer want to argue or fight. Each time I have wagered against him, I’ve lost. But I will try my best to keep this going. If I’ve done it for 10 days, there’s no reason why I can’t do this for 364 more.

Time shall tell.

Oh, here’s an ask.
If you see me missing these updates, please remind me and force me to update this. I need to gun for consistency in each thing I do.

May be Consistency would be the word of the year for me?

Things at the top of my head

1/ I said no to an opportunity to travel to Noida.
If I had gone, I would’ve probably built some business connections. But I want C to take on the lead. And I want to not travel and focus on health.

2/ Should I offer this?

3/ I am deleting food delivery apps from my phone.
Let me see if I can live without it. The only thing I will miss is the instant delivery of groceries. But lemme try and be more planned about it. I anyway don’t care about being wasteful. I’ll report next week.

4/ Twitter threads
In my pursuit to grow my distribution, I am working with someone to help me write Twitter threads. The first one they’ve sent has come out nice. Let’s see how that grows.

Some photos from the week gone by

I am starting this new thing where I hope I get to share some of my “masterpieces”. Here are some…

You may see this link in case you are unable to spot it.

What didn’t go well?

1/ Lost a classmate
Last night I got to know that one of the 150 odd people I went to MDI has passed away. Unlike a lot of others, I am immune to it. I know that as I grow older, I need to grow up. But I am unable to make sense of loss. These are the times when I question the existence of good and the usefulness of all the things around us.

But I also know that life is beautiful and I love to live and whatever time we have, we ought to make the most of it. So that.

I hope the family finds peace.

2/ People didn’t join me
I reported last time that I am working on a startup that I am very excited about. And now it has reached a place where I am trying to build a team. All my life I have prepared for a Mahabharata and it seems to be upon me. And all the allies nad friends and alliances I forged had to come in handy at this time.

But not one of them did.

So many thoughts and lessons in there. The biggest one? I need to rethink and redo my take on my ability to be with people. I often say that I am a great scout and I can read people well. This experience is teaching me that I am anything but that.

I’ve written more about this here.
There’s more but that’s for my notes.

What went well for me? for C4E? for my village?

1/ I wrote Twitter threads every day (except one day)!
Woot!
If I can get this consistent with things in life, I will change the world.
You may see those here.

2/ Sent handwritten notes to some people on New Year
I am not sure if I covered this in last week’s update. I am too lazy to go check.
Yet to send some.
Will send today.
I like the idea of doing such things for people I love.

What did I learn / realised / discovered etc etc?

1/ At C4E, we need to get more efficient.
While we are and will remain a culture-first company, we don’t operate from a place of urgency. The principles of ‘Ready, Fire, Aim’ are not practised. And that’s not cool at all.

2/ Twitter is a goldmine when I comes to people
With all the brouhaha around Elon and his antics, I’ve made some incredible connections with Twitter. In the past week, I met Anand, Saurabh, Rohan, Amul, Advik (Advik was the highlight) and many more people. Need to amp my twitter presence. Any ideas anyone?

3/ Graeful that Astha exists.
While am in general grateful about a lot of people, this week’s highlight would be a chat with Astha on Jan 08.

4/ I published these lessons from this TED talk by Anurag Kashyap.
Each of these lessons is worth chasing.

5/ Amul taught me about branding, identity and more.
If you are a curious soul, you MUST follow Amul.

6/ I need to work hard on the AI stuff.
the world around us is changing fast and I feel I am missing the bus by staying on the sidelines. While the world is already talking about AGI and other things, I can’t even tell people a difference between AI or Intelligence!

So, need to get my act together on it.

7/ I’d love to be around a Bonnie.
Imagine the rest.

Ok, coming to what I look forward in the next week?

This assumes that I will have finished my #in2025 document by end of the day today 😀

1/ Build a business case for a project that I am undertaking.
This is the part of the startup I am building (I mentioned it last week).

2/ #dateSG document.
Where I want to list things that people must know if they want to date me. Assuming they want to. assuming I want to (with all the action happening around me). But then I have discovered that in my life, if one thing does well, other things fall in place. And if one thing gets fucked up, everything else does!

3/ The 2024 Review Letter
Again, this depends on my ability to write the 2025 letter. From the look of things, I’ll block next Sunday and work on this. Let’s see how it goes.

That’s about it!

Honestly, as I end this, I think I could’ve written lot more but I am trying to manage my time well. I’ve been on it for two hours now and I don’t want to invest more time. I’d rather do more things. May be the next week’s update is better.

Oh, here are the previous editions: Wk 01

PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes.

Wk 01-25 – Weekly Notes

Inspired by Thej and his weekly notes, am starting this weekend, a series of weekly notes. I plan to do this every week and I plan to capture what I’ve done in the week gone by. I have earmarked two hours every Sunday for this on my calendar and once something goes my calendar, well…

Welcome to Weekly Notes!

Snce this is the first time I am doing this, I dont have a structure yet but I hope with time I will evolve. I did write a lot of morning pages back in the day and I did arrive at some structure.

And now, first things first.
Why am I doing this?

Well, many reasons.
Here’s a no-filter, stream-of-consciousness list.

  1. I love writing
  2. I haven’t been writing as much as I want to. To blame is work, travel, life, and in general fuckery
  3. I want to be internet famous. This means I need to be known by more people. Dont ask me why I want to be internet famous. But I want to be. And I dont know any other way to do so apart from writing.
  4. This is like therapy to me. Most people in my age need someone to talk to and unlike others, I don’t have any one. So I use my writing as my therapist.
  5. I love the idea of living a “quantified self” life and while I am not a nerd about it, I like to track what am thinking, what am doing etc etc. Writing morning pages, journals etc has been helpful in the past. I can go back to this date and see what I was thinking! In fact, I have public blogposts going back to Jan 2004!

So that.

Ok, coming to notes from the week.

This was the first week of 2025 and I think I’ve had a good start. I’ve largely been consistent. Keyword is largely. I want to be 100%. I want to be like the JILA clock. Always on time. Always doing what it’s supposed to do. I have a long way to go on that.

What did I learn / realised / discovered etc etc?

In one line, a lot!
Too much to capture but I will try.

A/ Someone said that the world is a malleable place.
This gets reinforced each time I see someone make things happen. In this case, the startup I am trying to build, the oldest member there pushes us more than I thought anyone else could!

If he can, why can’t I?

B/ I love the idea of giving gifts to people.
I dont know what need of mine am I trying to fulfil with this. Often these are the gifts that I can’t afford even for myself. But that’s ok.

C/ I realised that dressing well can actually pay off.
I dont know how to find better dresses. But let’s see. Oh, this realisation came to me after I saw a post from Anthony Bourdain about linen shirts and leather jackets. I didn’t save it and thus I can’t find it.

D/ I need to stop the ‘Garg NGO‘ – my offer for help for free.
While I dont want to charge anyone anything that they cant afford, I need to be more protective and mindful of my time and offer help to only those who deserve.

E/ I am not the only one who finds Taleb uncool.
He recently got in a spat with Bryan Johnson and Bryan is not wrong. And yeah, this is important cos Taleb has blocked me on Twitter.

F/ Respect needs to be earned and not demanded.
Can’t get into specifics but it’s on my Roam. Ask me if you know me 😀

What went well for me? for C4E? for my village?

In general am a tad harsh on myself.
So this part would mostly be empty.

A/ I am working on a new startup.
And things are moving fast on that. We may annouce it to be the world as early as end of Jan.

I have known one of the co-founders for almost 10 years now. He’s someone I’ve worked for and is someone I’d like to work for me. Plus, one of the investors is part of the unofficial board of C4E. C needs to decide if she wants him on the official board.

Once this takes shape and we announce, I will officially hand over the C4E baton to C. I had thought I would retire with C4E on my epitaph. But as life would have it, never say never 🙂

B/ I have started to live in public.
Here’s a tracker I fill in most days. So far, I’ve NOT missed a single day. I am also updating this thread, in case. I think I will get someone to put this on LinkedIn as well. Let’s see.

C/ I got paid by a client AFTER 6 months!
One of my clients had not paid me in over 6 months. They finally paid me. This has helped me pay back part of the loan that I had to take to run my business. The ambition now is to get to a point where I am able to pay back all the loan.

What didn’t go well?

A lot.
Like I said, am a tad harsh on myself.
So read with that lens.

A/ Nothing on #in2025
I haven’t had the time to write my 2025 goals (this includes my review of the past year) and to me this is a BIG BIG loss.

I am very very big on planning my life and time and all that – been doing this for a while. And I want to do this asap. So may in the coming week.

If you are bored, you may want to read my #in2024 goals.

B/ I wasted time on conversing about cricket
The last few days, the chatter about cricket was maddening (India vs Australia ofc). Even though I have blocked the words from all the places I hang out at, the chatter was so pervasive and palpable that I gave in.

The worst part is that I dont even follow the game and I dont know the names of more than 5 players. And yet, I engaged in meaningless watching of cricket. Must exercise more control and restraint.

C/ No workout etc etc
I had decided that I will work out (at least do yoga) but it’s been 5 days and I have not done shit about it.

The only saving grace is that I am eating in moderation. Today, as I write this, I feel bloated for some reason but otherwise, last few days I’ve been ok.

D/ I dont like to wear pants 😀
Even though I’ve said above that I would like to be better dressed, I’ve realised that I dont like garmi. At this point, I am ok but in a few weeks, I will need to find a solution for that.

E/ One of the C4E Villagers quit
While this shouldn’t affect me, I am affected to a point that it has made to this list. One of the people who I wanted to work with for the rest of my life chose to walk out. And while I should be ok about it, I am not. I want to give each of my people a life that they have to think VERY hard before moving on from. So when someone leaves me, I feel bad and sad and I get into a spiral that is tough to get out of. In fact it was so bad that on Saturday, I merely vegetated for like 3 hours!

PS: After I published this, some people pointed flaws in my thinking. I am grateful for that. I will change!

Ok, coming to what I look forward in the next week

Two things.

A/ The biggest thing for the next week would be work on the aforementioned startup. And succession planning for C4E, if it comes to that.

B/ I will also try and make time to write my #in2025 piece. I’ve started on it but it’s nowhere close to where I want it to be.

I think these two things are all for the next week.

Also, to be honest, more often than not, I dont really have any large attachments to any outcomes or anything like that.

If you’d like to get these in your mailbox directly, please subscribe here…

I think this is it for the week.
Lemme know what you think!
Over and out.

What Do I Do?

One of the most common questions I get asked is, what the heck do you do.

I find it tough to explain and here’s an attempt to do so.

PS: This is as of 25 Nov 2024. Any may change as early as tomorrow.

For context, I am a regular Indian 42-year-old male who’s privileged, opinionated, secretly introverted, loudly private (and yet building in public), non-techie tech-bro hoping to make a ding in the universe.

And I am a very self-aware man; especially of my privilege.

Currently, I work on four things.

  1. The C4E Collective
  2. C4E Labs
  3. A startup in the elder-tech / age-tech space
  4. SoG

Apart from this, I have a million personal projects on the side.
100 likes to this and I will make a list 😀

Lemme deep dive into each.

1/ C4E

I started this 10+ years ago and we’ve gone thru various iterations and shapes.

In the current version, along with a hand-picked team of great people, am working to make C4E a leading marketing, branding, and communication services agency. In the words of my co-founder Pooja, we want to “help build brands that become verbs.”

We are small by design, selective with who we work with and on the premium end of the mass-market agencies.

We rarely hire someone to work with us on a full-time basis. We work with collaborators and believe in being transparent with how we work – both with our clients and with our collaborators. We love to sleep well at night. See this 😀

PS: This iteration of C4E happened because I was lucky to have Pooja next to me when I was building this. Along the way came friends and we are what we are INSPITE of me 😀

PPS: Sometime this year, I passed the C4E baton to Chandni Menda. She started as an intern. Now she’s the one driving it.

In terms of work, we do the following…

A/ Brand Strategy and Management.

We work with large companies and startups to manage their brands. This includes creating / fixing / rebuilding brand identity (and thus brand books), nomenclature (naming your business), brand assets, packaging design, website design and all that.

Our most visible work is what we did for GFF.

There are many many more pieces but I don’t like to tote them around. I know I should be advertising more but I don’t like the idea at the fundamental level. I rather want to be recommended by my clients.

Oh, we have recently started to see that our work spills over into business and product strategy as well. For at least three startups in the health-tech space, our work has straddled between brand, business and product strategy. In one of the startups, we even were part of the team that contributed to the pivot to a new business altogether. And they did raise substantial money post that. No, can’t reveal names 😀

B/ Content. Everything around is content and we <3 it!

We do content for all screens, all formats, sizes, and all occasions.

From a WhatsApp update to emailer to podcasts to TVCs to everything in between. A large piece of work we did was for Incredible India when they were revamping their website. We’ve made ad films (as a production house) and we’ve created I don’t know how many assets for one of the largest insurance companies in the country. There’s lot more that I can talk about – we’ve been at it for 10+ years now. But, no I don’t want to.

C/ Creative Services.

Anything that you still don’t consider content. Think print ads, hoardings, event collaterals and all that.

D/ Social Media Marketing.

Of course. The bread and butter. We manage this for a large healthcare giant and for Mumbai’s favorite bakery chain and for THE largest player in a segment of the construction industry and for a couple of businesses in Africa and Dubai and many many more. This gives us the stability we need for all the experiments that I keep doing!

E/ Misc.

We started as an events company and we’ve done events in some 30 countries for gatherings as intimate as 5 people and as large as 15000. We no longer pitch for this but in case someone asks for it, we are very very happy. Once an event manager, always an event manager.

In terms of play, we keep cooking and supporting numerous ideas.

More than ideas, we give our shoulder to people. Some of these in the past have been TRS, PPP, Podium / Founder Thesis, DD. We run a Grant. I am sure there will be more such things. But from now on, the decision is Chandni’s. And not mine.

We also create opportunities for friends and family to hang out and meet each other. One such example is CSS. See here.

2/ C4E Labs

I am building this with Krishna and KP into a venture studio of sorts and we are creating information products, micro-SAAS tools, and other such experimental things.

The ambition is to get free.
More on this freedom some other day.

3/ ElderTech Startup

Along with a mentor, am working on a startup to solve for challenges that our elders face. Early days but we’ve raised a tiny round from FnF. Heads down working behind the scenes right now. More on this in few weeks.

PS: If this space excites you, I would love to talk!

4/ SoG

This is my life’s work.

The idea is to become a finishing school for young people. To become the shoulder that they can stand on top and see afar. To enable their daring, audacious, stupid, unrealistic goals.

To do so,
I want to work closely with them.
And learn from them.
And show them my mistakes.
And give them launchpads.
Ofc, I need to be worthy enough to earn their patronage.
If I had all the money in the world, I would just do this.
And play poker.

So far (over the last ~8 years), I’ve spent time with ~50 people, from the ages of 13 to 22. And it’s been one of the most rewarding, enriching, humbling learning experiences ever.

At some point in time, I also want to become a talent scout. But that’s for a different day. Right now, I want to talk about all the things I spend my time on right now.

PS: A lot of this has been inspired by Theil and lately by Samwal.

So that was that.

To summarise, currently, I work on four things.

  1. The C4E Collective
  2. C4E Labs
  3. A startup in the elder-tech / age-tech space
  4. SoG

And numerous side projects.
I will make a similar list of side projects at some point.

Oh, while I work on all these things, I am indexed highly on freedom, movement, people, long-term thinking and culture. I have a long list of values that I hold dear. Some of those are in the attached image.

And while I do all this, I want to make a lot of money. No, money for me is not the end that I chase. Rather, it’s my ticket to do what I want to do.

I take a lot of inspiration from poems and all.

For example…

लगाकर आग शहर को,
बादशाह ने ये कहा
उठा है दिल में आज
तमाशे का शौक़ बहुत
झुकाके सर
शाहपरस्त सब बोल उठे
हुज़ूर का शौक सलामत रहे
शहर हैं और बहुत

Another example…

साईं इतना दीजिए, जामे कुटुंब समाए
मैं भी भूखा न रहूं, साधु न भूखा जाए

PS: Much to the disdain of a lot of friends, I am inspired by the likes of PG, Steve, Elon and other such loud, obnoxious tech-bros. I believe in separating the art and the artist. I also like NRN’s 70-hour thing. No, this is not ragebait.

I mean it.

So that!

PPS: Credits for this post…

“Khada hoon, kahin bhaga nahi hoon”

It’s no secret that I am a fan of Nath Saab. 

For the uninitiated, he’s a friend’s father. He’s lived a very interesting, full life and has seen ups and downs and more. While I met him just a couple of times, that too, in passing, I consider him like a guru who’s taught me from afar. He’s the Drona to the Eklavya in me. I’ve heard numerous stories from my friend, her husband, and her relatives. There are hardly any interactions with the friend when a Nath Saab story doesn’t pop up. 

The other day I met her for something and I was talking about my challenges with managing working capital at C4E. She mentioned Nath Saab and of course a story from him. 

I will spare the details but in broad strokes, the story goes as follows…

Nath Saab once fell on hard times. He had to take some business loans – from individuals and institutions, and he was unable to pay them back in time. When he knew he wouldn’t be able to pay, he went to the creditors and told them, “Main khada hoon, kahin nahi ja raha. Aaj nahi hai. Jis din honge, wapas doonga.”

And he did. 

Found himself a job, earned, saved and paid every penny back, bit by bit.

This translates into, I am not running away. I dont have the money right now and the day I get it, I will pay you back. 

Now, this seems like an inconsequential statement. But to me, this amplified Nath Saab’s reputation even more. He went many notches higher. And gave me one of the greatest life lessons ever.

That we are nothing but our reputation. 

And different people have different ways to build, grow and sustain reputations. 

For Nath Saab, it was his zubaan.
Similar to what Rajesh Sir taught me.
Something that I am developing as I get older.

To me, this means I want to respect other people’s time and do what I say I will do. I will also bring my passionate, energetic, best self to every conversation I am invited to. I will add yathashakti value to every interaction I am a part of. I will want to ensure that I do my best when no one is watching. I bring my A-game to circuit boards, wooden fences and everything else. 

See these two exhibits from Steve Jobs.

In the first, he’s talking about designing PC Boards that no one’s gonna ever see. Here’s a snippet. 

Another snippet from him is from his interview with Playboy magazine in 1985 (I don’t know how many of you were even conceptualised at that time) where he’s talking about carpentry. 

So that! 

I will do whatever it takes to do my best. And I know my best will often be poor for others. And that’s ok. I am not ice cream and I can’t please everyone. But I will continue to show up and give my best. I think, if I were around Steve, he would’ve fired me a hundred times for not being good enough! 

Wait. I digressed. Like always. 
Back to reputation. 

So what is reputation? 

My loose definition is, what people think of you and describe you as when you are not in the room. Reputation is a proxy for trust. It dictates if others would want to engage with you or not. In the long-term, iterative and repetitive games of the world we live in (which is built on pillars of mistrust) get easier to play, better and more rewarding if your reputation is top-notch. 

Think of Nath Saab.
The fact that he stood around and acknowledged and did not run away adds to his reputation.
I would love to be around such a man.
You? 

I understand that reputation is not merely about intent or actions. It’s often about outcomes. I know giving my best with my best intent may not translate into even average outcomes. And I am ok with it. I know this is counterintuitive and folks in this day and age only want to talk about what you get done this week.

I know that at C4E, I am pushing folks to talk about what they got done (and not what they did). I know this is hypocrisy at its very best. And I ok with it. I am trying to find a balance between the two. I want to push for greatness and yet I don’t want to break people along the way. And I am sure with time, I will find my way. Or maybe not. As long as I am standing with my spine straight, I am ok. 

Coming to building, sustaining and growing reputation, I think the most important is what they call the 8th wonder of the world – compounding. 

The way you behave, operate and act over time becomes your reputation. And then each act from thereon adds to it. And if you do it well, it compounds! 

The scary part is, that the first time you defect, the reputation shatters. Think of glass. Once it’s got a crack, you can’t do anything about it. You have to start all over again. If you have the time left to start. And at my age, I dont have the time. So, I am very very protective of my reputation. Even at the cost of letting go of opportunities. 

So, you must protect your reputation at any cost. Of course, there are exceptions (think businessmen, politicians, film stars and all that). Just that I am not an edge case, yet. I am at best a mid-wit at best and thus I need to work hard to build and uphold it. Nath Saab has built his over so many years with deliberate work and effort. 

I did something similar a few weeks ago. I said no to something that I knew was a sure-shot way to make money and create impact but it would have meant that I would lose my reputation. Strangely it was just me (in a group of 10 other super smart folks) who thought that my reputation was at stake. Maybe if I were not a midwit, I would’ve taken the plunge! Anyhow. Different story for a different day. 

Coming to reputation and lessons from Nath Saab. 

As I try and scale C4E and see what else can we apply ourselves to, I think I need to be reminded of this reputation as the starting point and even the destination. And I think I would do well if at the age Nath Saab is at, I have a reputation like his. 

With this, here’s a question and a request.
This is an anonymous form you can fill in to give me feedback.

The Evocativeness of Elon

Been reading and thinking about Elon’s team catching that rocket in midair. See this…

While everyone acknowledges that it’s a marvel of science and is that tiny step for a team that would mean a giant leap for humanity, the event did a lot more for me.

It has thrown my thinking about life and all in turmoil. I have way too many, too conflicted thoughts. Here’s an unfiltered, unedited brain dump.

If I slay some sacred cows, I am guilty.
If I ruffle some feathers, I am guilty.
I am in a funk and I need some shocks to get out.
Would appreciate some feedback and inputs.

Let’s go…

1/ Is Paul Graham’s founder-mode really a good place to operate from? What if the cost of human progress is to be not-nice to others?

Context – I’ve been nice all my life and I have nothing to show for that. This is when most of my idols have been not-nice to others (Steve, agency guru, etc) and have been very mission, outcome and outcome oriented capitalists! The nice ones that I follow have been mild successes at best. The wild ones are the ones that were not so nice. So there’s some anecdotal evidence there.

With C4E, I had set out to build a culture-first, nice place and almost 4 years in, we are still not close to any sort of success. We struggle to meet our payroll each month. People are happy but the org is not thriving.

May be I need to shift my stand and let niceness and humanness and culture go to hell and do whatever it takes to go win.

Assuming I can do that!
Assuming I have it in me to be unkind to people to get things done.
May be I should accept that I will never be a wild success and go sell stupid courses on Topmate 😀

2/ Do I double down on respecting the art and ignore the artist?

Context – I am often able to abstract the outcome from the people who make it happen (most of Bollywood and agency business is that in the first place). I try to spot lessons even in the worst personalities. With this rocket (live streamed via his Starlink!), and my money to get Twitter premium and my want of getting a Tesla some day to my admiration for his speed with xAI and my fascination with neuralink and many more “signs” (see Huang talk about Elon, couple it with Munger talking very briefly about Elon), do I index more on output, progress? Or do I continue to be nice? And accept that I will never be successful and all that? And get that topmate account 😀

3/ Do I stop investing in people? And get mission-oriented, project-oriented, money-oriented, outcome-oriented only?

I often think of myself as Karna and Yudhisthir – an irrational fool when it comes to giving, even to strangers. And in the case of loved ones, give while harming self. And all this giving and investing has happened only because I am long-term greedy. I have hoped that today am ok to live like a pauper and have others live like kings so that tomorrow, it will be a king-like life for all of us and more. You know, compound.

But in life, I’ve seen that when I need people, they, sort of, don’t show up. I understand that they are not obligated to. But even the basic “am with you” narrative changes once they get into ivory houses and look down at my rundown tent with disgust and indifference.

I can’t forget a time a couple of years ago when I was down to my last 500 bucks and despite knowing this, my best friends called me for a rando party at some shady bar where we paid crazy money for alcohol that I anyway dont drink. After that incident, I didn’t commute to even meet clients cos I didn’t have the money on me. And I have stopped going to parties with that group unless there’s M.

No, I am not sore.
I am merely old. Lol.
No jokes apart, I write this with equanimity and I know life and things and people change. I haven’t stopped investing in people. I haven’t stopped supporting whoever I can. I know I am being taken for a ride and I play along. If I can be that ladder that they can use to get ahead, why not? Life is supposed to be grand for all of us. There’s so much magic around us. Abundance!

Again, I am not complaining about people and the change. I am merely saying that I’ve lost business, opportunities, money and more importantly time by being nice.

Do I stop being nice and start being a bitch?
Or accept that my fate is that of a failed coach who sells courses?

4/ Do I have it in me to take a shot at grandness?

This is the most important one. Do I have it in me to even take a shot at greatness? A classmate (he’s not a friend) from MDI Gurgaon told me some 10 years ago that he had accepted that he would never be a CEO and thus he will do whatever he can to get a great life.

Today, he and his family are in the US, and have an easy life of a Silicon Valley DINK executives (last I checked, his wife leads HR for THE payments company of the internet).

Should I just accept that I will never be the one to make that ding in the universe? I will never send those rockets up there and catch them. Wait, I dont even want to send rockets up there. Lol. I am not inspired by space as the space. I’d rather make life beautiful, engaging, full of experience and better for people here or wherever we are. Mind it – not happy. But engaging and all.

The thing is, Elon’s solving for survival and making us interplanetary. I was and I want to solve for us living “better” – you know, the one where you are free, have the freedom to do whatever. And you choose what is life for you – you could be like my friend (who wants it easy and is going for hikes and runs and pickleball and concerts and holidays and all) or you could be like me (always on a treadmill and remain unidimensional about work and all) or anywhere along this spectrum.

You choose.

Ok, and thanks to this vagueness, I dont know what the output would look like. And thus the fuckery.

5/Maybe I will stop talking about the ding and find my tiny little hamlet where we make a better life for people who choose to be there.

You know the village.

Where we invite nice people to live AND work with us. We create something that people really value and are willing to “give their lives” for – both for creating and consuming. I can think of people like DHH (and Basecamp), Shashank (the creator of The Whole Truth), impact investors (maybe – I have a very cynical view of impact as the space) and others.

These people are at the right intersection of things – build “good” things that they love to build, create a “free” life, sell to a LOT of people on their terms, and care deeply for their customers (to a point that they’d shift business strategy if they hear a lot about it) and continue to chase and optimise for personal growth.

Some of these people find balance.
Some remain on the treadmill.
May be that’s the way to go for me?
May be I need to double down on C4E Labs?
That will mean I move to Ahd.
I dont know if I want to go there 😀

TBH, apart from the location constraint, nothing stops me from pivoting to C4E Labs. At least I would have the freedom to create things that I want to. And hopefully, at scale! And I would be living around nice people who do nice things for the world at large to live a nice life!

The trouble is, this would mean quitting C4E in its current form – and at a time when things seem to be looking better for us – we have some reputation, some clients, some really engaged, great people doing great work with our tenets of reliability. We are looking at expanding the team and getting more clients. Etc etc.

Or maybe I can run the two. I dont know. What if I run both into the ground? But then this is also not akin to making a ding. This is at best a good compromise for the failed attempts at making dings. If not C4E Labs, maybe find something like what Tons Valley Shop team is doing.

However, there’s no product that I am uniquely passionate or excited about.

Maybe something in the health space?

Lately, I’ve been invested in that – thanks to work. I had a co-founder opportunity that I let go cos I didn’t align on vision and people. If Elon had caught that rocket earlier, I would’ve probably joined it 😀

I have a founding team opportunity that I will get closure on either today or tom. It will still not be a ding but it will solve for problems at scale.

The best part is that if it pans out, C4E would benefit. And it would be a nice thing where I don’t need to be in the founder mode :D.

So may be that?

If not for Labs, I can even think of faith-based orgs. You know, churches, temples, Hare Krishna etc. Faith becomes paramount and everyone is happy. No, I can’t create this. At best, I can think of Vipassana folks.
But no. HARD NO!

So that.
Ok, I have vomited a word salad.
PS: I first wrote this on Twitter / X.

Now that I’ve written. Must write more.
I know that I need to move on from people-first.
I also know that I may not be project-first.
I also know that I will need to find a “compromise” I probably need to unlearn a lot and learn more lots.
At 42.

Sigh!
Chalo onto work.

Oh and disclaimers. This really is an unfiltered stream of thoughts. This is unedited. This is not how I would publish a lot of things. But living in public, FTW!