Tag: Hareesh Tibrewala

Wk 23-25 – Weekly Notes

Weekly update from weeks 22 and 23. This has Saurabh Garg’s notes, thoughts, reflections and everything else.

Hi!

I am back after a break of a week. I couldnt write. I was on the road. No, I am not beating myself over it (unlike past times). But I am acknowledging that I am not being consistent. I will try harder.

Now with that motivational self, pep-talk, lets get back to business.

The update for the last two weeks.

From the top of my head, a large part of update would be about Bangalore trip, health, personal brand and village. Lets see what else do I write.

💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the past two weeks

A/ Anurag Sir
I want to start from here. You know, how heroes fall? That! I love the guy. I love his films. I love his storytelling. A large part of my life has been dictated trying to be what he and Vikram Sir have been.

But, the guy’s falling. Hard. I can say a lot but I dont want to. I just want to catalog that I am sad about him falling 🙁

PS: In case I forget in the future, note to self, read about what he said about Netflix launching in India with things apart from Sacred Games.

Staying on films, saw Khosla Ka Ghosla, at an event organised by Balram. Each time I see the film, I am amazed that the film captures Delhi nuances so well that I am inspired to do similar things!

And staying further on films, I really want to be in the films business. I know AI and all is gonna disrupt how this business works (we are already making short films using all the AI tools) but there’s something about visual storytelling that still moves people. I need to be a player in this space. Come on, universe…

B/ Bangalore
Many notes from this one. Lemme write in bullets.

  1. Played poker. Enjoyed it. Must play more. Met some really incredible people on the poker table. Must do more to be around Poker
  2. Realised that my personal brand needs a lot of work. I orgniased a meetup and I was unable to meet a lot of good folks. I HAVE to work on this
  3. Spent time with Sonam and each time I meet her, I want to be able to afford person like her to work with me (either at C4E or at Meru)
  4. Met a couple of really interesting folks (you know, the VC, startup kinds). I realised I enjoy meeting these people. I had this VERY strong urge to move to Bangalore, just for these connections. But I realised that I am chasing vanity and I would do well staying away, keeping my head down and building.
  5. Saw collective-thinking in action at a couple of places. A new fancy coffee shop has opening in Bangalore. I try to not go to these fancy places. And while I was not keen on going, I was taken there. By folks who apparantly “boycott” these places. Plus everyone famous at Bangalore seems to be there as well. It’s like how socialites want to flock the fancy places? No, I will not rant about it. Merely saying.

Ok this is it?
I thought I would have a lot to say about this trip to Bangalore. I clearly do not.

C/ Counter Strike
Recorded a video where I talked about how I am inspired by Counter Strike and how each thing their echos how I have structed C4E. In case you want to see, it’s here.

D/ Life Manual for the your 30s
On someone’s request, I wrote this manual where I talked about what . You may read this here.

The Life Manual for your 30s

On this note, please give me prompts that you want me to write on. I work the best when triggered!

E/ Build a new format to track what I am working on.
Each few days I have something new that I track. This time I have copied this from what I saw on screens of my new team at Meru. I’ve been at it for a few days now. Let’s see how long this lasts.

F/ FOXO
Got myself a FOXO subscription. This is the most expensive thing EVER that I’ve got for myself. Prior to this, the most expenisve thing was sgElectra.

So far the only tangible thing I know is that I can hold a plank for a minute and I am a diabetic. Oh, thrown in a gym, I can do 10 pushups. Plus my balance seems to be good and calcium in my bones seem to be ok as well. So, apart from my diabetes, most things are ok. I need to figure why and how do I have bad skin and less stamina. I need to work on my lower back and improve my posture. Let’s see what more I discover.

The other related thing is that I read this thread about Ray Kurzweil and one of the thing he says is that we will probably live forever. He says that “death will be optional” and there are three things he talks about – a, science seems to have learnt the secret of aging, companies like Neuralink seem to have found success in Brain Computer Interfaces and then the digital twins are already around (thanks to FOXO).

So, if we can live for the next few decades, we can be immortal. This is the frontier that no one knows (except Ashwatthama or may be Trivedi :D). Let’s see.

PS: I am an investor in FOXO. And C4E does some work for FOXO.

G/ Getting the AI FOMO
On a day to day basis, I have this HUGE AI FOMO. I have written about this in the past. And its all over my twitter. I think the only way to go about this is by actually doing this. I think the only way to do this is to carve time (now that I have agreed that I wont find anyone to work with me and support me). And I need to probably cut down on a lot of other things.

H/ Broke “H” on my laptop’s keyboard.
I tried to fix C’s laptop’s keyboard. I had fun. I was bored. On a whim, pried open the H on my keyboard and now I can’t fix it!

Grrr…

I/ Recorded an episode of The Optimist’s Manifesto Podcast with Subendhu (of FOXO).
He’s had a stellar life and has such a wide range of experiences that I want to be him! Spoke to him for two hours. I need to build a life where I have similar richness of stories!

J/ Jayant Mundhra
One of the conversations in the last two weeks was with Jayant. He’s an incredible writer and over the last 2 years, has built a community of about 100K folks that read general purpose advice from him. While I dont about each person I meet, Jayant is special. He’s doing EXACTLY what I want to. And he’s doing a GREAT job at it. And he’s consistent with it. If I could be a shade consistent of him, I would be elsewhere in life!

He also told me about Zero1 network, again something I want to be able to build. But unlike the Kamaths I dont have a lot of FCF. Maybe I will build a corpus as I go along? Let’s see.

K/ KP got hitched!
This means Pooja ka bachcha is growing up.
Poo saas ban gayi ;P

L/ High-Performance Org
One of the latest lessons from Hareesh Sir has been that I need to be a little more strict with my people. The idea is to build a high-performance organization that delivers on the promise to the stakeholders.

This is similar to the riff about idea people and people people from the last update. In fact this is something that I lack in my life.

I am way too kind when I work with people and I need to learn balance. I dont want to create weak people. May be that’s what I had done with other businesses? That in my unwavering support, did I create weak orgs there?

Lot to think!

M/ Mountain Goat
Thanks to J, discovered a new retaurant in Lokhandwala. Mountain Goat. They serve Wai Wai Sadeko. I think I will go there a lot (went there on May 28th and havent gone back, lol) if my sugar doesnt spike.

So this is it from the last 2 weeks. Lemme know what is interesting and what is not. And what would you like to see more.

📷 Some Photos from the week gone by

Here are some photos from week 22 and 23. A lot to be honest.

The one that I would like to plaster on my blog is…

🈺 The LARGE objective from the week gone by?

Book 2
I didnt get time to even think about thinking. The person I was working with seems to have a lot on her plate and thus I am unable to move. No, I am not leaning onto her and blaming her for my inaction but I didnt move on this at all.

PS: Dropped 2025 Plan a few weeks ago.

☑️ What did I get done last two weeks?

This is a one-line report on things I got done on various things that are important to me. I will only talk about things that I got done. Shipped. Not WIP.

At this point, the following things are important to me (I know too many but…) and these are IN ORDER.

  1. Health
  2. Meru
  3. C4E
  4. Brand SG
  5. People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
  6. Book2
  7. Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)

Health. Got FOXO membership. Now I have a CGM (for a few days) that tells me how I recat to food and all. I am more aware. No action. No done. So a 0.

Meru. Was an ok week. Moved the needle. But still far from where I’d like to be. Thus, a 0.

C4E. No action. 0.

Brand SG. No action. The trip to Bangalore told me that I remain an insignificant person in the large scheme of things. I need to get more active. I want to give a -1 but one a day to day basis, in my world, I get by ok. So, a 0.

People. No action on this. I’d say 0.

Book 2. Lol! -1

Shauk. No large things. Bangalore trip, FOXO, Poker. So, a 0.

So the overall score is -1 for this week.

Trends from the previous weeks: 3, 0, -4, 0, -4, -5, -5, -3, -2, -1
The max I can get is 7 in a week. Let’s see when I get to it.

📊 The tracker from the last week

This is the tracker for the last 2 weeks.

 

I really need to pull my socks on this. I cant be missing.

PS: I have noticed that each time I am on the road, I miss updating this. And once I am back to ground, I take a few days to get back to speed. And that causes the chaos. May be I need to find a way to do this better.

📖 Interesting Reads from the last week

Some links that I want to share…

  1. Rahul on Obvious – here
  2. Mary Meeker’s report on AI – here. Do not miss this.
  3. Derek O Brian was in a flight that got damaged in the hail. In this video, he talks about his near death experience.
  4. On “choice”, from David Ogilvy. Here. Thanks to Pradx for sharing this.
  5. From the top person at Snapchat – how to build companies – here.
  6. V told me about Navagunjara (no I did not know about this even though I claim to be a fan of Mahabharata)
  7. This is a great list of superpowerful maxims about life. From founders. The ones I love are as follows…
    • 1. Money comes naturally as a result of service.
    • 4. Be a professional opportunist.
    • 7. You don’t need to be a genius; you just need to collect more information.
    • 12. Mute the world, build your own.
    • 17. Make yourself easy to interface with.
    • 18. Relationships run the world.
    • 20. Quality of your life is the direct result of the quality of your decisions.
    • 23. Problems are opportunities in work clothes.
    • 31. Actions express priorities.
    • 32. The public praises people for what they practice in private.
    • 36. Business is problems; the best companies are problem-solving machines.
    • 40. Always more audacious.
    • 44. Making mistakes is the privilege of the active.
    • 46. Incentives rule everything around you.
    • 50. Intensity is the price of excellence.
    • 51. You can’t save souls in an empty church.
    • 61. Imitation precedes creation.
    • 63. Optimism is a moral duty.
    • 69. Repeat, repeat, repeat; volume and consistency win.
    • 72. The hard way is the right way.
    • 73. Be intolerant of slowness.
    • 74. Hire a professional critic.
    • 79. “Action solves everything.”
    • 88. Avoid boring people.
    • 90. All good things in life come from compounding.
    • 93. Have pride in creation, not consumption

PS: Are these useful? Do these help in any way? I read a LOT more than what I share here but these are what I think people I know must read. Skewed towards startups, hard work, deliberate living etc etc.

🧠 Reminders from last week

This section captures things that I want to not forget. I will copy paste these week on week and track updates. I will also add these to SG’s Office.

Here are things from the past few weeks that I want to remember. And no, this may not be a comprehensive list. In categories.

  1. Long term
    • Professional pool / snooker / poker. I played poker in bangalore and it was fun. I dint win a lot but I was able to read some players. So that’s cool. Other thing (pool) saw no action.
  2. Health
    • Kitchen setup (incomplete)
    • Gym membership (incomplete)
  3. C4E things (I will stop tracking these things and have C do these)
    • C4E Base
    • Design
    • Borderless agency
    • Adding films
  4. Shauk / Personal
    • Use of money to buy time – doing this already.
    • Better dressed – lol
    • Find love – lol!
    • Demand more from life
    • Speak better!

In case you know me, lemme know if I have missed something.

🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?

Grind.
That’s the world I would use for the last two weeks.

Oh and in the previous weeks, the one-word reviews have been… Busy for Nothing, Regular, Getting back to action, Slack, Busyness, Action, Survive, Looking Up, Survival, Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.

—
Phew!
Lemme know what you think.
See you around.

Oh, and this too shall pass!

PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes. The previous editions are here: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09 (missed), 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 (missed), 16, 17 (missed), 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 (missed)

PPS: Please do point typos. Grammarly is not working well and I don’t have energy to cut paste edit this in some other spell check thing.

PPPS: In case you see me being inconsistent in anything – work, writing, reviews etc, PLEASE do point out.

Wk 20-25 – Weekly Notes

Notes, thoughts, reflections and everything else from Week 20 of 2025.

Adding additional content (Saurabh Garg) for SEO ;P

May 18
6:34 AM

I started writing this yesterday at a Starbucks and then life happened and I moved along. And then I am back in the morning today to get this done. Oh, and I am listening to this as I write this.

Let’s go!

💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the week.

A/ TDL Accountabiltiy Group
I have joined a WA group of some folks who post their daily todo list. And then at the end of the day, check on things they’ve done. I am starting it today. Made my list. And let’s see where it goes.

Here’s the list from day 1…

B/ Lessons from Hareesh Tibrewala
I will make a seperate page on this, tbh. I get to learn so much from him that I curse myself for not being with him sooner.

Here are some lessons from this week alone…

  1. Any team member, how so ever bad their sitaution be, if they dont contrinbute to the team, they are better removed. Of course you must have empathy and support and everything else. But you need to think team first. This also echos with the idea people vs people people thing that I read elsewhere. Also, see point C.
  2. Ask for accountability. As a leader of a team, my only job is to ask for accountabilility. Everything else follows from there on. All you need to is ask “what” and “why” and enable your people to deliver on those.
  3. Stop sharam. He asked us to focus on the outcome and leave behind the sharam and all that. This also coupled with this video from Gary Vee. Must be more shameless when seeking work. In fact this is one of those earliest things that Suvi taught me – never ask for work from friends and family. And I will have to unlearn it. I will have to learn the skill to seek work. One life, man!

C/ Idea People vs People People
This is the biggest lesson from the week gone by. And thanks to Thej for sharing this link. While the context and meaning is tad different in this piece, I am taking away something else altoghter. Which is as follows.

I know that the world is a tansient place. This too shall pass. And I know that in grand scheme of things, all pursuits are purposeless and with our lifespans in double-digits, whatever we may do, as a collective, will all not amount to much. You know, Pale Blue Dot.

At the same time, I also know that the journey is all we have (thanks, Naval). I thus try to invest all my time, attention and energy in to being present in the phase of journey I am in.

Wait, I am rambled.

The point is, I can either work towards caring for people or for caring for ideas. All my life, I have cared for people, at the risk of reputation, work, money etc. However after I read the post, I have made this mental switch where I will focus on ideas. No, I will not stop caring for people. But I will become a lot more ideas oriented.

D/ Start with Hi
This is the greatest life hack in the world.

All the things you ever want and ever seek are on the other side of a simple hi. If you make a goal to say hi to 10 strnagers everyday, you would be unbeatable. Reminds me of this talk by Jia Jiang.

Thanks to AD for this.

E/ Reflections from a Life Coaching Call
A person from MDI is taking up coaching as a profession. She wanted to complete her hours and to help her, I spoke to her.

While I spoke, a lot of things came out. I am listing those here.

  1. I am in flux. A lot is changing about me – work, age, emotions etc etc
  2. Deep down, I have become a stoic. Mostly. I still have a long way to go.
  3. I am not motivated by money or anything. But by access.
  4. In life, most things happen in tandem. If I am doing well at one part of life, I am doing ok at most parts.

F/ 15504 Steps
I made a bet that I will average 12K steps per day in 2025. As of today (day 137), I have averaged about 7500 steps per day. And if I have to get to an average of 12K, I need to do 15504 everyday for the rest of 228 days of the year.

Looks tough. But I know that we would hit the baarish mausam soon and I am hopeful that would help.

G/ I need a faster laptop
Even though this is a “new” machine (I use a M1 that got for a colleague and I took it from her when she moved on), it has started to give me trouble.

H/ Toughest thing first
I was talking to C abotu something yesterday. I told her that if you have a task list, start with the toughest one (not the longest one). The one that you are dreading the most. Do it. And the dopamine you get from that, take it to the second toughest. And so on and so forth.

I/ 5 pushups
Inspired by Shruti, I did 5 pushups today! If I can do this for a week, I will get into the habit. Someone inspire me!

In fact, I will stay on this thread. This week, I was talking to Mihir about how we need to change our identity as that of a “healthy person” and then build a life around it. And then I reaslied that it may be easier said than done.

I am gonna make tiny changes in the way I operate. And that means I will not eat anything crappy and I will walk (lol) and I will be more disciplined with food and I…

Lol!

J/ Parallels between C4E and CS
Yesterday, I recorded a solocast and I drew parallels between CS and C4E. Ambition, Aim, Resources, Team, Strategy, Execution and all that. And I realisesd that sports team, armies, event teams etc etc can become very effective tools to deliver lessons to people.

K/ Excuse as a roadblock 
One of the biggest lessons I “gave” out to NG and VM is that they need to stop hiding behind an excuse.

Heres the back story…

I gave them a small project to work on, and when they were working on it, they came back to me saying they didn’t have the footage for that product. They told me this after 3 days, and it took me 3 days to know that the project is not moving forward.

Essentially, they were hiding behind an excuse to get their work done. Which is not something that we can live with because we are a small company. In life, I think we could either have excuses or progress.

L/ C4E – Past.
While wandering thru Roam, was looking at my notes and spotted this email I wrote to a friend in 2017 about how I look at C4E as a business. As of today, 8, 9 years have since passed and nothing seems to have changed. Except that we are no longer an events agency. And that’s a good thing and a bad thing! Anyhow, in case you want to read, ask for access. 

M/ Here are other things that dont fall in any category.

  1. I am still looking for someone to join me at Meru. See this post. And this one.
  2. The time has come for the kids to go back. I hope they learnt a few things while they were here.
  3. I want to start some mini-IPs that are clones of Sofar Sounds, TED talks, My Next Guest etc.
  4. I am mindfucked with all the garmi all around me and I dont know what do about it.
  5. I see the importance of having a large group of friends – at work and elsewhere. I’ve been shy about it and I want to get good at it. If you are reading this, how do you make new friends? Especially when you are in early 40s.
  6. I want to get memberships at all exclusive and boujee places like Soho, MCA, Quorum etc. I dont know if I will even go to these places but I want to have the option of going!
  7. Made a tiny investment (~1 lakh) in a friend’s startup. Its a tiny number but this is my attempt to show my confidence in the friend.

So that was from the week!
Phew!

📷 Some Photos from the week gone by

Here are some photos from the week 20.

I thought I had clicked a lot more. But clearly I was wrong.

🈺 The LARGE objective from the week gone by? And the next week!

2025 Plan and Book 2

I have dropped the plan.

On book2, despite multiple attempts, I’ve not been able to make any progress. And no, I dont want to let go of that. If you are reading this, please stay patient. Let’s see when I am back.

☑️ What did I get done this week?

I will give a one-line report on things I got done on various things that are important to me. I will only talk about things that I got done. Shipped. Not WIP.

At this point, the following things are important to me (I know too many but…) and these are IN ORDER.

  1. Health
  2. Meru
  3. C4E
  4. Brand SG
  5. People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
  6. Book2
  7. Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)

Health. I’d say I would give myself a 0. I didnt work out but I was mindful of what I ate. The week saw me struggle with garmi but I think I was ok more or less.
So, 0.

Meru. Not so good week. I moved things but I am not happy with the progress. Two critical tasks that I had to do – website and hiring – are open. And that means this was a step back. I will give myself a -1.
So, a -1.

C4E. No action from me. In fact, I saw the team struggling in my absence. C is doing what she can but we are not moving. So another -1.
So, a -1

Brand SG. No action on this either. But some action. So a 0.
0.

People. No action on this. Last week I had a lot of friends and family. This week nothing.
So, a 1

Book 2. Sigh!
-1

Shauk. 0 action. And thus a -1.
So, -1

So the overall score is 0 for this week.

Trends from the previous weeks: -4, 0, -4, -5, -5, -3, -2, -1
The max I can get is 7 in a week. Let’s see when I get to it.

📊 The tracker from the last week

Tracked most days! So that’s a win. Here’s the tracker…

Lemme know what you see.

📖 Interesting Reads from the last week

I spent a lot of time reading and reflecting. In fact, I would say that this was a good week when it comes to reading. Here are some pieces…

  1. Utsav on Taste. Link.
  2. Vivek and Molly on People over Ideas.
  3. This conversation between Jony Ive and Collision.
  4. Seth on systems.
  5. The “other” Saurabh Garg on How to Start a Startup.
  6. This post on X that talks about how Qatar happened to become what it has become.
  7. Someone compiled Kunal Shah’s content. Here’s the list. Since this is a compilation, this will not attract as much attention as a scarce piece would. Go figure why!
  8. This thread (old but worth it’s weight).

I had thought I would have more than 8 things to share!

🧠 Reminders from last week

This section captures things that I want to not forget. I will copy paste these week on week and track updates. I will also add these to SG’s Office.

Here are things from the past few weeks that I want to remember. And no, this may not be a comprehensive list. In categories.

  1. Long term
    • Professional pool / snooker / poker – no action.
  2. Health
    • Kitchen setup (incomplete)
    • Gym membership (incomplete)
  3. C4E things (I will stop tracking these things and have C do these)
    • C4E Base
    • Design
    • Borderless agency
    • Adding films
  4. Shauk / Personal
    • Use of money to buy time – on this!
    • Better dressed – lol
    • Find love – lol!
    • Demand more from life
    • Speak better!

In case you know me, lemme know if I have missed something.

🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?

Regular.
It was a regular week with regular work and regular things and regular inputs and outputs.

Oh and in the previous weeks, it’s been Getting back to action. Slack, Busyness, Action, Survive, Looking Up, Survival, Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.

—
Phew!
Lemme know what you think.
See you around.

Oh, and this too shall pass!

PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes. The previous editions are here: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09 (missed), 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 (missed), 16, 17 (missed), 18, 19

PPS: Please do point typos. Grammarly is not working well and I don’t have energy to cut paste edit this in some other spell check thing.

PPPS: In case you see me being inconsistent in anything – work, writing, reviews etc, PLEASE do point out.

Wk 10-25 – Weekly Notes

Notes from the 9th and the 10th week of 2025.

Hello hello!
I am back!
I missed week 9. I was unwell and thus I didn’t publish. I could have but it takes like a few hours of active thinking to get this going and I didn’t want to a shoddy job at it. No, I am not for perfection but I am definitely for putting in the effort and I know I was in no shape to put in the effort. So that.

The other thing, no one asked.
So much so for writing in public, and attempts to build an audience!

Anyhow. The point is, I am back to writing.

A lot seems to have happened in the last 2 weeks. And yet nothing seems to have moved. You know what I mean? Everything is happening at once and nothing is happening at all.

More in the next few paras…

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

A/ 2025 plan.
This remains open. We are now officially in the third month of the year. I’ve never been this delayed with this plan. May be I will take a day off this week and do this?

B/ Health
I have a LOT to report in this department. I got myself kitchen things. After I think 7-8 years. The last time I had a semblance of a functioning kitchen was when Sonali and I lived together in Ghatkopar. Once she moved on, I haven’t had the kitchen things.

I am building it back. I don’t like it to be honest but I need to live long and be healthy while I live long.

I am also adding some more ingredients to what I eat – things like Protein, Oats, Almond Milk, Sattu, Turmeric, Chia Seeds, ACV etc. I’ve built a habit of blending a lot of these things in a grinder and eating / drinking what comes out of it.

Been doing it for 3 days now and so far it seems to be ok.

Oh, the trigger for this was the latest episode of food poisoning. I fell sick and missed a few events. And that’s when I decided I’ve had enough of this life. Oh, I have activated this channel where I will upload EACH thing that I eat. And do read this from my clone.

I just need to add a gym and workout and I think we would be ok.

☑️ What did I get done this week?

I will give a one-line report on things I got done on various things that are important to me. I will only talk about things that I got done. Shipped. Not WIP.

At this point, the following things are important to me (I know too many but…) and these are IN ORDER.

  1. Health
  2. Meru
  3. C4E
  4. Brand SG
  5. People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
  6. Book2
  7. Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)

Health – Started to set up the kitchen. Will try and get a cook. And like I said, will add some workouts. I’ll give myself +1 on this.

Meru – This is new. I am adding this on top of C4E. At the time, we are setting up the business and this means there’s a lot of work – team, processes etc. On this a lot is getting done, thanks to Hareesh Sir. I will give myself a 0 on it.

C4E – I am not very active on this any more. The only thing I do now on C4E is take care of my people (mentoring, coaching etc) and service long-term relationships (clients that are now friends and I am invested in their success). The other critical areas (running the kitchen etc) have been taken up by others.

Over time, I want to stop reporting on this. But I may not be able to. C4E is the only thing I’ve created and probably the only thing I am attached to. With or without my running it like a business. Think Berkshire and Warren. I will give myself 0.

Brand SG – Recorded many conversations. For C4E, for Adulting, and for Meru. The first guest for The Otpmist’s Manifesto is decided. So good overall. I will give myself +1.

Now, need to find a way to build distribution.

People – Did nothing. -1

Book 2 – No action. I just need to carve out time to send prompts to Cluade. So, -1

Shauk – Nothing on this. So, another -1

So the overall score is -1 for this week.

The max I can get is 7 in a week. Let’s see when I get to it.
Added this to my tracker too.

📊 The tracker from the last two weeks

Here’s the tracker.

You’d spot a lot of reds. And greens. Blame it on food poisoning. I mean I think it’s food poisoning. I didn’t really go to a doc to check. My aversion to doctors is a well-known thing!

The point is, I was unwell. And that left me with some down days. And that affected how I live and work.

📷 Some Photos from the week gone by

Here are some photos.

This one is a mix of app screenshots and photos that I took. Do check out some of the sunset pics and videos. Absolutely bombs.

📖 Interesting Reads from the last two weeks

I know there are more things I read and saved. But this is all I have to share at this time.

💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the week.

A/ Starbucks
I am at a Starbucks as I write this. And I love that I am in the zone while I am here. I just need to build a space like this. At times I think I should start a coworking space. Other times I don’t want to. I may as well say, fuck it, let’s do it. And I may open it up. Anyone wants to partner up?

B/ Love
This is a big one. I think I am ready to find love. If I can find love. I mean I’ve been that romantic who believes that love just happens but it clearly hasn’t happened to me. I am unlucky like that (no am not crying about being unlucky – am VERY lucky otherwise).

Oh, and why do I want to find love?
Well cos apparently love is the fifth ingredient that you need in life to live long and thrive. Read this.

C/ From C4E to Meru
A large part of my time will now be spent on building Meru. While I do that, C4E will be run independently by Chandni, Anshika, Fareen, Kaushik and others. And they will be helped by our friends, colleagues, partners and well-wishers. I need to write a separate post on this someday. Not for others. But for self.

Oh, the other thing that has happened is that I now open Meru’s email before I open C4E’s. If this is not moving on, I don’t know what is.

D/ Spiritual SG
Lately, I have found myself to be very very spiritual. I find deeper meaning in the music I listen to, the actions I take, the people I meet and the decisions I make. I don’t know what this means or where I am going but this is new to me. I’ve been a transactional person all my life. I look at things from a problem-solution lens. And then I move on. Once I add spirituality to things, things change. So that.

I’ve been reading a lot of Kabir, Baba Farid, Buleh Shah, Rumi etc. I am not sure what school of devotion, spirituality, bhakti etc they belong to. But I like what I am reading.

E/ This tweet
I saw a couple of people I love get what they want. And that was incredible! This was easily the highlight of the week gone by. Do read it. Please 😀

F/ Films
While I was unwell, I saw a lot of films. Jack Reacher. The Runaway Jury. I don’t even recall the name of, or the story of the other 8-part series that I saw!

While vegetation is ok for a few days, I remembered that I wanted to make films. I will get back to it. I am not sure when I will find the time with all that’s happening but I will add this to the shauq column and get going.

G/ Mumbai
Here’s a thing. If you are young, ambitious and want to grow, you HAVE to be in Mumbai or Bangalore. No Delhi. No Pune. No Goa. No remote. While on this, read these two by Paul Graham – Ambition and Cities and Hubs. Of course, if you can go beyond India, look at places like Dubai, NY, SFO, Singapore and such places.

I know the world we live in is very connected and all that. But there’s some magic that happens when you shake hands and look at someone in their eyes. Hubs create magic that nothing else can replace.

Oh, this trigger came to my head because in the last few days, I’ve spoken to two really sharp young women who’ve expressed their desire to move from their cocoons to large hubs. In fact, I saw one really smart person move to Pune to join some startup that sells cheap Chinese knock-offs and it broke my heart. It could be a great career move but its life harakiri.

You will get limited as a person if you goto a place like Pune, Nasik, Kochi, Chandigarh, Indore, Jaipur, Ahmedabad (C4E Labs is based out of Ahd, btw) and all that.

Of course, if you are not ambitious, you can continue to “enjoy” the “quality” of life in these second-rate cities. But if you are ambitious and want to make something from your life, consider moving to a hub. Move to epicentres of action and not pine for the relaxed, remote life. You can relax when you’ve done what you’ve been sent here to do. And while the remote things may work for a few exceptional people, in general, for average folks, remote life is not worth it.

And I say this with all my disclaimers (edge cases, exceptions, strong opinions, power of youth, opportunity, privilege, life conditions, family etc etc).

And yes, the fuckery that “hubs” impose on you (bad infra, pollution, “fast” life, “struggle”) is 100% worth it.

H/ Space. Trust.
I realised that I want to have a large space for self. And then some space for my friends and family. You know, sai itna dijiye?

And thus I need more money. To be able to have a large space. And no, not on rent. But own. India sucks like that. Pesky neighbours look down upon you and question if someone is staying the night with you. I don’t know why we are such a low-trust society. And here I am – I put my faith and trust in even strangers.

So I need that. I will work towards that.

I/ Impermanence. Of loss.
Something happened at C4E that made us lose money (about 3 lakhs) and our reputation. As a team, we could’ve done better. We’ve taken our lessons. The largest for me is that I need to listen more to my gut and not give into emotions.

The biggest thing for me from this experience? Ensure that people directly involved are ok. And I second, do not add random processes so avoid such things from happening in the future.

No, I don’t want to get into too much detail. But the last word on this is, this too shall pass.

J/ Other things that I want to capture but I may not spill too many words…

  1. Looking forward to the workshop on Taste. On the 22nd. More here.
  2. The fact that I live away from my parents continues to eat at me. I don’t know what to do about it.
  3. Loved the connection between Baba Farid and me.
  4. Met a friend and gave him gyaan on how to manage life. I wish I could do more such sessions. Anyone else needs to put a structure to their lives?
  5. Plants remind me of Sonam. Starbucks reminds people of me. What else can one be reminded of? reminded by?
  6. I put this tweet offering help. Spoke to a few people. Must do this more often.
  7. cerebralquotient.com is gonna be live soon!

I think this is it. Was good to be back and writing! I really missed the joy this simple activity brings to me. Must do more of this.

🥡 So, one large takeaway from the week?

Survive. Survival. Surviving.

I think this is how I would summarise the last few days. This is what defines my week

In the previous weeks, it’s been Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.

—

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

Oh, here are the previous editions: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09 (missed)

PS: This series of posts is inspired by Thej and his weekly notes.
PPS: Added emojis!