9 AM, Jun 29
Listening to this as I write.
The halfway mark to the year is here. Normally I would do some sort of analysis on how the year was, where am I on my goals and all that. But this time I did not work on the year plan and thus I dont know where am going. I do know a few things – that I was supposed to be a billionaire by end of this year. And I was supposed to have climbed the Mt Everest. And I was supposed to have impacted a billion lives. I am FAR from all three. My networth is negative. I am the unfittest I’ve ever been. And lol on impact.
However if I look at it from other lenses, I think I am ok. In fact I continue to be divinely discontent. I am ok with what I have. And I would love to have a lot more. I am surrounded by family and a few friends who continue to wish me good. I live life on my terms (a lot of it, if not all). I believe I make a meaningful contribution to the ones around me. And I think I’ve made progress as a human being as well. I am still guided by the seven vices but I think I am more aware and I see some action on the right side.
Ok, let’s go.
💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the past week
PS: As always, these are not in any order.
1/ Meditation
I want to restart with it. There was a time when I could do upto 60 minutes each day. I think it was around COVID when Naval asked folks to do 60 minutes of meditation each day as soon as they woke up. I am not sure. And no, I dont want to go back in the history and check. The point is, I want to build this again. I will start with 10 minutes of Headspace and then see where it goes.
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2/ Justh’s new track
Here. No, I am not a big fan. Unless the track grows on me with time.
PS: It was important to capture it here cos I am a fan and I want to support.
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3/ Saw a play about Manto’s three stories around friendship
I love Manto as a writer. So much so that I even produced a podcast (thanks to Mudit and Anamika for lending their voices). So when I saw this poster, I had to go see it. And am I glad that I saw it. The highlight was the story of Mammad Bhai.
Multiple things happened while I was there.
Here’s a list.
3a/ Made me reflect on my friendships.
I spoke to Vivek about it. And I realised that the root cause of my inability to seek friends is the Heen Bhavana I have deeply embedded in me. I dont know an english equivalent of this. But that defines me. In fact, as I was reflecting on what Vivek told me, I could pin point a time when this Heen Bhavna got stronger. It was a rainy evening where all my friends were hanging out at some place in Powai. I was going through a VERY tough time financially and I wanted to avoid meeting (why spend). But I was emotionally blackmailed into going. The dinner that was to happen at home was moved to a random restaurant and I had to tag along. Lot of stupid alcohol and food was consumed and after paying for the bill, I didnt have money to even travel back home. And I walked for 2 hours. I know this must be life story of a lot of people and I speak from privilege. But this day broke me. And I am still trying to recover from that. So that.
3b/ Saw Naseer Saab in the audience.
Was reminded me the time when I actually sat in his drawing room, trying to make a film with Anshul, Smita and Shikha. Ofc that never panned out. But I do wish I had taken a more proactive role in how I managed things back then.
Also, I was unable to walk upto him and say hi. I know he wouldnt have remembered me – he meets a million people each day and my interactions were very limited and happened a few years ago. The lesson for me is that I ought to have a personal brand that makes a Naseer Saab come walk to me. And no, I am not coming from a place of pride. But from a place of having more opportunities and better experiences. You know, like Naval says, if you are famous, you get invited to better parties.
So that.
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4/ Conversation with Rimjhim
I met Rimjhim as a potential colleague. I want someone to work with me and help me do more. Someone recommended her. We talked. But we realised that we may not be a fit for each other. Nonetheless, I decided that I want to stay in touch with her. And then we decided to do a podcast.
I recorded it yesterday. And I LOVED how she managed that conversation. I wish I could ask questions like that. She REALLY made me think about a lot of things that I would otherwise not think. I am so so glad that I did that chat with her.
Must find more people like that.
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5/ Definition of Good Friends
The last two-three weeks have been tough. Because I’ve had to let go of some people. And in most cases these were friends. And I was unable to explain to myself that if I love them, why would I let them go.
And then I realised that the job of a good friend is to not just mollycoddle people. But show them the mirror, however harsh it may be. And then help them get better. I want to practise radical candor in each of my interactions. And that.
Also, this is far-cry from where I have been in life – that all your mistakes can be forgiven. I want to get to a point where I am an ideas person (and not people person). You know, family over sports team over village.
And yes, I am WIP and it’s important for me to capture this for my people. Afterall, the only people I have are the ones from work.
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6/ Middle of my own storm
Someone sent me this and I was BLOWN by it.
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7/ Reading
Prak would love this 😉
So, I was at Ankit’s place last night.
And he said that he was gonna give his books away.
This is the man who’s got THE BEST taste when it comes to reading and all that. So, if he’s doing a giveaway, he would probably have a great collection to part ways with. I may or may not participate in it but he gave me two Jeffery Archer paperbacks.
Once I was home, I read a chapter of one of those. And I am wanting to go back to it, even though I am writing.
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8/ Abundance with Food as reflection of insecurity
The other day I was talking to someone about why I always order more than needed and I want to always have some stuff to eat at home. That person, lets call them A, told me that it is probably because when I was growing up, I dint have enough food on my plate.
Now, this is factually incorrect. My parents ensured that we had enough food on the plate all the time. I mean, comparatively. We didnt live in luxury but in our middle-class home, there was everything we wanted, just that we had to wait and make choices.
May be A was hinting at my mindset. I’ve grown up wanting things that are out of my reach and all my actions are inspired by that chase.
9/ No Swiggy / Zomato
Staying on food, I have deleted online ordering apps from my phone.
No, not to save money. But to avoid snacking.
I want to make it hard for me to snack. I want to make it hard for me to eat random things at random hours. I will hate it for the first few days but I think I will get to it.
And I want to pick my food from places that I know will do a good job of making it (none comes to mind as I type this). I will make the effort to walk to a place to eat.
And I will work towards getting my own food. No, not cooking but getting someone to help me. Multiple people – Rohilla, Sonam, Ashi have volunteered but I just dont like the idea of a functioning kitchen at my home.
Lets see what I do over the next few days.
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10/ Saurabh Shukla
The number of people who’ve come to me and told me that I look like a fitter version of him is incredible. I hope to meet him some day.
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11/ How to get ahead in life?
This has been a recurring theme of questions that I’ve got from a lot of folks over the last few days. I think the answer is in being reliable, choosing action (over words) and thinking long-term.
I dont know why am posting this here. But came into my head as I was writing this.
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12/ CynLr on WEF
If there’s one highlight of the week, it would be this.
CynLr is a startup based out of Bangalore where they are reimagining what manufacturing could be like in the future. I’ve spent a lot of time working for them. While I dont work with them anymore, I continue to be a cheerleader and supporter. In fact, CynLr continues to be one of the stickers on my laptop.
Gokul and Nikhil are irrational, hardworking, focused and forces of nature. I love them!
So, Gokul had told me YEARS ago that he will be on WEF at some point in time.
And he is now!
Even though I had literally nothing to get them to this place, this feels like a personal victory. There’s nothing more I love than seeing people I care for win.
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13/ Kevin’s ideal end state.
I am in awe of each thing Kevin does. A few months ago he posted about Ideal End State. I read it and I decided to make a document for that. I revisited it and it reminded me why I started what I started. Made more notes. So that.
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14/ Freedom
Enough said.
If there’s one word that I want to stand for, it would be freedom. In conversation with Rimjhim, many words came out – freedom, adventure, curious, people-chaser, movement (harkat) and more.
If I had to pick one thing that would define me, it would be this. Freedom.
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15/ PD’s birthday
If there’s a second highlight of the week, it’s PD’s birthday.
I can never explain my relationship with her but I know she’s an important part of my life and personality.
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16/ Yatin Sangoi‘s show on RD Burman
Saw Yatin’s show. This was the second time I was seeing it. And like the first time I saw it, I was amazed. To a point that I am inspired to help more people build shows of their own. Let’s see when.
But there are many more takeaways. Here’s a list.
16a/ Anil Kapoor, Robin Singh, Saurabh Garg.
In many of the tracks that Yatin showed, there were Anil Kapoor and Jeetendra. Now, when someone makes a list of most successful actors of their times, Anil or Jeetendra would never show up. But they were consistent. Always. In fact, these folks are what they call, mild success.
Same for players like Robin Singh. He would never make it to any list. But he was consistently there. Read this (I wrote this a few months ago). Again, mild success.
Same with me. I will never be on any list. At least from the things that I’ve done so far. But from a lot of metrics, I am a mild success.
And I want to change that. I no longer want to be one. I would do whatever I can to be a wild success.
16b/ Fandom (for RD and others)
Yatin’s entire life seems to be dedicated to taking RD’s work to masses. I met Harshit there. A large part of his life is to take Hindi as a language to more people. Palash has a podcast where he talks about obsessive passion of people and how they take large risks. The Manto play I saw seems to have done by someone who’s passionate about the work of Manto.
The point is, some people get so obsessive about some things that that becomes their raison d etre. And that I think helps them build world class things.
In my case, I dont know what am obsessively passionate about. I am interested in way too many things. I like experimenting. I like the chase of the new. I love exploring. And may be this is why am a mild success at best?
Ok, moving on.
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17/ Saw M for a bit yesterday.
Yay!
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18/ Micro-Drama
I think the rules of filmmaking and storytelling are being rewritten by this new format that seems to have find new audiences. I will explore more on this in the next few days.
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19/ Life Straw
Got myself a Life Straw Go 2. Get your’s here.
Added it to my tools of trade page.
Yeah, am at mid-life crisis where am buying random expensive things. The next thing will probably be an On shoe. And yes, I already have All Birds. Even though I dont wear them.
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📷 Some Photos from the week gone by
Here are some photos from week 26. The one that I would like to plaster on my blog is…
🈺 The LARGE objective from the week gone by?
Book 2
No action.
I havent had the time.
Meru is taking LOT more time than I had anticipated.
PS: Dropped 2025 Plan a few weeks ago.
☑️ What did I get done last week?
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.
I may not have a lot to add this week but here is a report nonetheless.
At this point, the following things are important to me (I know too many but…) and these are IN ORDER.
- Health
- Meru
- C4E
- Brand SG
- People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
- Book2
- Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)
Health. No action. 0.
Meru. Moved the needle a bit. Not too much though. This has been the status for the last few weeks. 0.
C4E. No action. 0.
I think I am ready to remove this from this list. I don’t do anything large here anymore. I think I am ready to hand it over to C and AK as my heirs. On the work front, C and F run the show on the day to day basis. AK is in that liminal state. Let’s see when she decides. But more or less I think I can move on from it. Just that I didnt make it the Wild Success that I wanted it to be.
Brand SG. No action. 0.
I did record a podcast. But that’s too little.
HAVE TO PUT IN A LOT MORE EFFORT HERE.
People. No action on this. I’d say 0.
Book 2. Lol! -1
Shauk. Nothing. So, a 0.
So the overall score is -1 for this week.
Trends from the previous weeks: -1, 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 week.
Compared to the last 2-3 weeks, I’ve done much better on tracking at least. I need to fix what I eat though.
📖 Interesting Reads from the last week
I have a lot to share TBH but I may not have the time to write about all of those. So, I will get to those in the next week’s update.
The best place to get these updates is via my TIL WA group. It is inspired by Sunanda’s fabulous book, TIL, and on this WhatsApp group, I aim to post VERY VERY VERY frequently. Like MULTIPLE times a day. About things personal (rants, overshares, thoughts etc), what I read, what I want to think about, what I need help on etc. Join here.
So, some links that I want to share…
- Chamath’s Annual Letter. Here. The best quote from there is, “Taste is judgment. Discipline is strategy. Stamina is alpha. In a world without free money, survival is the product.”
- Mammad Bhai, by Sadat Hasan Manto. Here.
- Kevin’s post on Ideal End State. Here. I’ve spoken about this earlier as well. But it’s worth a revisit.
- This list of lessons from Tim. Here. The ones that have stayed with me are, “26. People who are always joking are hard to take seriously so they rob themselves of opportunities” and “6. The wealthiest people have a psychopathic sense of urgency.” among others.
- This by Seth on using words. Especially in this post-AI world. Thanks, Prad for sharing.
- This concept of Levered Beta. Incredible read. In Hindi, we often say, “seat pe rumaal rakhna”. This is the closest equivalent to that.
- Mike’s Build. Mike is quickly becoming my favorite Internet person. And while you are at it, read advice.
- This NYT piece about one of the things in Grief Tech.
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🧠 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…
- Long term
- Professional pool / snooker / poker. No action.
- Health
- Kitchen setup (incomplete)
- Gym membership (incomplete)
- C4E things (I will at some time stop tracking these things and have C do these)
- C4E Base
- Design
- Borderless agency
- Adding films
- Shauk / Personal
- Use of money to buy time – doing this already.
- Better dressed – lol
- Find love – lol!
- Demand more from life
- Speak better!
- Money (adding this on Jun 29)
- Passive income
In case you know me, lemme know if I have missed something.
PS: Adding a section of things that I talked about that I need to do in this post and the last ones…
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🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?
Disappeared.
That’s the world I would use for the last week.
The week literally disappeared. I need to be more in touch with reality and all that.
Oh and in the previous weeks, the one-word reviews have been… Experience, Grind, Busy for Nothing, Regular, Getting back to action, Slack, Busyness, Action, Survive, Looking Up, Survival, Taste, Community, Respect, Money, People.
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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), 23, 24 (missed), 25
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.