April 12, 2026
Hotel Room at Siam, BKK
Round 2, at a coffee shop. Again, Siam, BKK.
This note comes from a hotel room in Bangkok. And a few more locations around the hotel room. Am here till about the 20th. At least. Could be longer. But as of today, till the 20th. I love this ambiguity!
Anyhow.
Let’s go.
So, truth be told, I have mixed feelings about being here. I love that am at a new place and building newer neural networks. And I don’t like this temporariness. I also dont like the inability to find a rhythm and a routine to get things done.
Oh on that.
I am a creature of habit and routine. I live such a predictable life that if someone had to map my movements, they could get it to last meter and last second and I would be like a sitting duck.
In Mumbai, you can predict when I would be at a Starbucks. And the seat I am on and the time I am and the order am having. In case I move from Andheri West, I will find another one at a walking distance. And I will find the same 10 things to work on.
I must mention that this tweet really made me think hard about life and work. To a point that I want to change how I operate. I see the merit in the arguments being made in this tweet but I also see the benefits in my approach. Lemme talk about it in a bit.
Right now, it’s the time for the weekly note.
The track of the week is music from Khudgarz.
I cant pick one specific track.
I would link the one that’s playing as I write this.
Tbh, I am so familiar with this one that I can predict the next song they’ll play in the medley. I love this so much that I want to create an ensemble band. I know there are many bands like this in the market but I would love to have my own.
Sigh.
So many ideas.
Such less time.
So few people that I can trust. On that note, if you are a young person who wants to get their hands dirty with life, by helping me do these “projects”, please do reach out. I am on sg@c4e.in. Or use this.
Ok, let’s go…
Lets get to the review.
💭 Highlights, reflections, updates, notes and thoughts from the last week
Last week I made these in an order. This week, I dont have an order.
1/ Travel
I have to start with this.
Ofc.
I’ve been on the road for almost a week now. And I will be travelling for another week, at least. While I love it, I also have some not so love-ful notes and thoughts. Lemme try the good and bad of each thing.
Garmi and Walks
For starters, I dont like the garmi here.
It’s way too hot for my liking. And humid. And muggy. And I dont like it at all. But I think this is better than India. I dont know why.
The good part?
I’ve walked about 15K steps on an average since I’ve come here! Maybe cos there is no dust? Maybe cos the city is very walkable with clean footpaths and shaded areas? Maybe the malls and stores are interconnected with large parts airconditioned?
Either way.
I am not complaining.
I cant tolerate the garmi but I’ve been able to rekindle my love for walking.
Fancyness and Belonging to the Streets
While I was here, I realised that I belong to the streets.
This means that I dont like places that are overtly plush or expect you to operate in a certain manner. I dont like fancy restaurants or needlessly boujee things. Ofc, I love attentive staff and tiny details to things but I dont like the randomly snobbish behaviour.
I also am not the kinds to queue up for anything.
I avoid queues if I can. Unless they are at an airport. And some day I would like to skip those as well. Or maybe someday I will walk in to the empty Benne and relish it so much that I want to queue up. But till that time, I dont think am doing that.
So, I belong to the streets. To the things you can touch and feel that are not behind glass walls. To the grime and dust and hustle that get through your skin and bones to your soul.
Exploration and Focus
Since I’ve been on the road, I’ve been using less and less of my phone. There is so much to do, see, experience IRL that I dont want to be be trapped in a 6.1″ OLED screen. If nothing else, I am sleeping better (may be its the walk?).
I know that I need to have a GREAT digital presence to attract opportunities but I see the merit in not being online.
The fact that my screentime is like 5 hours?
I love it!
I am now thinking, do I completely disown the mobile phone? I love the convenience that I get with a mobile phone in my hand. Its unparalleled luxury but then so is uninterrupted, peaceful sleep.
I want to experiment with not using mobile phone at all. Only use a dumb one. In fact, this month, I’ve been away from Insta and X and all that. And I will be, till end of April. May be I will do one month of insta and twitter and linkedin, one month of abstinence. Or maybe 15 days of guilt trip and then back to sanity for a month? I dont know yet. Lets see.
Staying on this exploration and focus thing, I have realised long ago that I am unable to work while I am on the road.
I had imagined that if I get couple of hours in the morning, I am mostly ok. But this trip has (and many others have) proven to me that I work best when I have my life defined by routine. If I have to embrace a truly nomadic life, I MUST find a way to balance work.
City Centres and Groups
This trip is with a group.
And these are people I love.
And ofc people I work with.
And a couple who’re not current colleagues. And each of us is eclectic AF. And as different as chalk and cheese. And yet we are together. I love it!
So, I’ve been the planner-in-chief of this trip. Which means I chose the part of the city we’d live in. The things we’d do. And who all will do what. Today’s day 3 of the trip and so far, I think I’ve done a pretty good job, considering all things and all the people. But I am sure there are many opportunities to do better.
Here are some…
- I booked a hotel and not a BnB. I think the decision was a blessing in disguise. Now that I’ve lived a few days, I think a managed place like a hotel was a good idea. We dont have the flexibility of the bnb but thats ok.
- I didnt book breakfast. I dont eat breakfast and I assumed others wont eat either. Big mistake. Next time I do a group trip, I will 100% book breakfast.
- I didnt define a budget. The trip has gone 40% over my expectations. Which is ok. I will live in the eco mode for a quarter and we’d be ok. Next time, I will inform this upfront.
- AK says that booking tickets and planning travel is my zone of genius. May be there’s something there?
There are more lessons but I think I will park it for the time being. Maybe I will wrote more of these once am back from the trip.
So that was travel.
Moving to the next thing.
People.
2/ People
A lot of notes about people.
Lemme list some.
I will remove names. For obvious reasons. I will create anonymous initials for them.
Lets go…
AB
This person is about 25.
One of the most talented, smartest people I know. To a point that I am envious of their talent. And ambition. And drive.
However, this person is inspired more by fame (than by creating impact) and aims to get famous and chase vanity metrics. And not delivering value. And not growing or learning.
And its not wrong. It’s just that at this age, you rather build something tangible. I wish I could put sense into them.
If youth knew…
CD
This person is my age.
One of my oldest friends.
Am grateful that he reads my notes and gives me honest, unfiltered advice. The kinds that you typically dont get from anyone. Love that I’ve got some real estate in his head. I nee to find more like him!
EF
This person is like AB above.
Young. Ambitious. And yet wants to take it easy. You know, make money. And chill.
I understand how this person wants to live life in a certain manner. However, my thought is, why would you throw away your gift in chase of an easy life? And your very life could become a role model for the rest of the world to follow. Why would you not do that?
GH
I know this person for 12 years.
And he’s been a mentor of sorts. And he and I spoke at length about where I am headed and how I would go there. Grateful that I have him. He’s promised that he would try and hook me up with some. Let’s see.
3/ Ego
This past week I let go of a client. Or maybe the client let go of us. The point is we are no longer working together.
Now that I am sitting by myself and thinking about it, I realise I made a mistake. It was a 100% salvageable situation. Many people were at fault. Starting at me. I was wrong. So was my team. And my collaborator. But it was not something that we couldnt have fixed.
I could’ve been strict with my team and told them to pull their socks up. I could’ve mentored them better. Heck, I could’ve replaced my team. May be I need to work with project orientation. In fact I had decided earlier as well that I need to think about projects more than I think about people. But I didnt pull the plug on that. Maybe I should’ve.
Anyhow.
What’s done is done. Lesson learnt. I hope to do better with the next ones.
The silver lining is that the client went away while giving us full marks for our effort. I just wish I wasnt spoken in a tone I was talked in.
4/ Routine
I started this week’s note with this tweet and I want to rethink how I operate.
I see the merit in the arguments being made in this tweet but I also see the benefits in my approach.
So I’ve always believed that luck is something that we can create. And I want to maximize my luck surface area. But then, I dont really do a lot of unfamiliar things. Like I said above, I go to the same cafe, at the same time, meet the same people, eat the same things. To a point that I am the most boring man.
I will change this.
Though, I need to first figure where my work will take me.
So that.
PS: I had imagined I would have a lot to say about this. But I dont. Lol!
5/ Work
Again, many threads in this.
Lemme try and articulate.
Deliberate life.
I was talking to SM yesterday and I told her that I want to live a deliberate life from here on. I dont know the shape it would take but I know some variables. I will try to articulate those here.
- I dont have a distinction between work and life. There is a significant overlap between the two and I will not have any other way.
- I want my work to a global business that takes me beyond borders and allows me to a “richer” life full of many experiences.
- I want to find many many ways to intersect with (and cross paths with) interesting people. This means
- I want to be very selective with what I work on and who I work with and what I charge for the same. More importantly, I want to do things that I enjoy. With good people who I really want to be with for the long-term. And some of these must challenge me and push me to do more.
- I want to use my time here to do things that I enjoy. And the act of doing those things must make meaning.
- I want to be a part of a cult where all of us have a similar mindset towards life. If I am unable to a part of some cult, may be, make one.
- Operate from trust and faith and freedom
I know this wont be for everyone.
I know a lot of these will sound vague.
I know most people wont relate to this.
I know this is extreme. But at the extremes is where you make things that are not ordinary.
Lessons from Pritam
Pritam has shown up many times here in the last few months. This week is no different.
This week, he taught me that I need to take hard calls and if need be, fire people who are closest to me. If I have to. And once I’ve tried everything.
And “incentivize” more people to do more. Even if I dont want to.
I also need to be more “real” with people. I must give negative feedback fast. Learnt this from Mihir as well.
He also told me that I need to be sharper and demand more from people. And if that means I need to do more to earn the right to demand more, I must. I also must go closer to outcomes and not stick to just inputs and outputs. Unrelated, when I delegate, I must implement this.
Lessons from Routine, Travel and The Client I lost
I MUST ask for more.
For me and C4E, this is as war-time as it gets and I MUST start to operate like a war-time CEO. And I have to be the warrior and not a gardener. And not create easy times. See this…
And this means I would change the shape of how I operate and work.
Wait and watch.
PS: I’ve been talking about this for a while but I havent acted on this. I guess time’s come to show myself what am capable of.
.
6/ People Connector
I need to be a people connector.
There.
I said it.
It’s my zone of genuis. It’s my play while others find it exhausting. I can do this for the rest of my life without thinking about it.
There are many examples that I can cite – Interesting People, NS, DMC. HT and Sanjay Mehta often talk about their annual trip with their friends. I’ve also attended one by Ajeet Sir. Bux talked about doing something similar. And I can see a GREAT value in it.
I must do this. For self. My own version. With my people. For all of us to live a deliberate life. And then, offer it to other people. For them to see the magic that such networks can create. Filing it in #someday column of notes.
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📸 Photos from the past few days
Stopped this from the last week.
In case you want to get photos from me, DM me.
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🈺 Trackers…
Here’s my trackers.
Tell me what you see.
I love how everything is in green.
And there is a lot of coffee.
And ofc I hate that I am back on coke.
Also, here’s the weekly one…
Again, I love how steps is higher, screentime is lower and mood is consistent at 1. Yay!
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🈺 Action on LARGE objectives for the year
In this section, I will capture my progress on large objectives for the year.
In 2026, I plan to do the following three things…
- Book2
- Human Flag Pole
- Save a million dollars
No action in the last week on any of these goals.
So, no progress and no update.
Hopefully from May onward, I will have something to show for.
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☑️ So, what did I get done last few weeks? And what will I do next week?
This is a one-line report on progress I made on various things that are important to me. I will only talk about things that I got done. Shipped. Not WIP.
So, this year, I want to track the following…
- Health. I will work on sleep, food and movement. Better than last week. Walked a lot. Slept ok. Did some pushups as well.
- C4E / Work. I want to shortlist some idea that I want to work on. I am still not closer to an answer. The deadline of 30th April 2026 stays.
- Brand SG / Distribution. No action on this.
- People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc). No action.
- Book2. I want to start with this. No action.
- Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc). I took some of my people to a trip to Bangkok. I love it. I wrote a part of this from a breakfast table where two of my kids were eating. Yay!
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🏃🏻♂️➡️ Health
I added Health as a key section last year. I read somewhere that you need 4 things to live long – sleep, exercise, diet and community. I will track all four. And then some more variables that I feel are important to me. Let’s see what comes out.
Last week, I did do any deliberate action per se but I did walk a lot more than I would typically do. So that counts something. Rest nothing tbh.
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🧠 Reminders from last week
This section captures things that I want to not forget. I add those to SG’s Office. I will copy paste these week on week and track updates.
A few things.
1/ Update C4E’s Culture Book.
This is still WIP.
I have a suspicion that this list will grow and will become unmanageable in a few weeks. I will find a solution when I get to it. For the time being, here’s a sheet where I track my actions.
2/ C4E’s website
I may not want to work on C4E per se but it’s about time we fixed it. And I have taken it upon myself to do that. So, added this here.
Here are the things that I’ve closed previously…
Start a podcast with C and AK. This remains open and will probably get shut. I dont see the excitement in the three of us.Storytelling presentation for the session on the 7th March. I missed this. And I will do this in March. Maybe on the 28th or the 29th? I missed this again. I dont think am doing this. So closing and moving on.
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🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?
Movement.
Not the kinds that I would like but the one where I was moving.
Physically.
Which is ok.
The other words for this year have been: Blur, Activity, Movement, Regular (again), Regular, Easy, Journey, Downtime.
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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. Previous editions:
PPS: Please do point typos.
PPPS: In case you see me being inconsistent in anything – work, writing, reviews etc, PLEASE do point out.