Sep 6, 2025
Starbucks, Versova
I am starting this on a Saturday. Let’s see if I get to publish this today. Last few weeks have been tough, accounting to all the work and meetings and all that.
Today’s Sunday. And I didn’t publish this on a Saturday! Lol!
Let’s continue.
Today’s track is from Lucky Ali. This one.
So, let’s go…
💭 Highlights, reflections and notes from the past week
PS: As always, these are not in any order.
A/ Ember Months Lock In
Most of the startup world is talking about the great lock-in over the Ember Months. Funny I didnt know of this as a concept all this while. But now that I know, I am inspired to something. I think I will make it about fitness. Work, life, people, relationships, etc etc will come and go but fitness will stay with me. So that.
A part of this is that I will run a HM on 31st Dec. I am 14 odd weeks away from it. And as of today I can only run like 10 meters. Let’s see how it goes.
What are you gonna lock-in the next 4 months with?
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B/ Teacher’s Day
A sum total of two people wished me Happy teachers’s day. Which is fine. I dont want adulation anyway. But I am very very big on learning and lessons and life and all that. And I want to believe that I am teaching a lot of people a lot of things. And while they may not acknowledge me, I hope they are using it.
On the flip side, I used to be big on wishing my teachers and my mentors each year. But since the last few years, I’ve stopped doing this. There are a couple of reasons.
1 – I am like eternally grateful to them. And I try and thank them a lot. And that means that I dont need a specific day to think about them and wish them.
2 – With time, these special days have stopped meaning a lot to me. Call it my laziness, call it my limitation but I no longer think a lot about these days.
3- I often thing that by wishing one, I am not wishing or thinking about others. And there have been way too many teachers that have made me who I am. So, my policy is, dont wish any. I know this is stupid – at least the ones I wish will feel good. But here I am.
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C/ New Twitter / X handle
If you know me, you know how important it is for me to connect with people – new or known. And twitter has been an incredible source for that. But lately, even though I got a premium account, my reach has been limited. I can blame it on my content (probably true cos I dont get reach on any platform that I am active on) or I can blame it on the ago (lol). But I dont get reach.
One investigation (in my head) tells me that its probably because I’ve done things that may flag the account as a bot (following a lot, unfollowing a lot, posting links etc etc).
So, I want to build a new handle and see if I get more reach on it. Also, on the new handle, I will talk about one niche (the holy grail of growth on twitter). The only trouble is, I dont know what niche to talk about!
Oh, while I made a plea to the world to follow me on the new handle, I asked them to share a quote. Some people shared and some of these are gems! I think I will get someone to make posters, frame those and send to people who’ve shared those quotes. AK, up for a challenge?
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D/ Fold Money + Kite by Zerodha
Thanks to Fold Money, I discovered that I had stock investments worth 80K! I thought I have no savings. But I was wrong. So I will sell those. And try to prepay some of my loan.
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E/ Saurabh Garg’s raison d’être
Aka, why am I here. Aka, what gives me joy. Aka, why I do what I do.
This is tough question that I will never find an answer to. Most people dont. While most people are ok with the ambiguity, I am not. I want to find an answer. I know it may never dawn upon me but I will continue to try.
A thread in that direction is as follows. PS: This was an outcome of one of my free thinking sessions.
My salvation is in thinking, reading, knowing more. And not in doing.
I am an explorer. I am an organic. I can get things done from others (not from self). I can push people to do more than they would have imagined. But I like to move across (not around) and I want to open doors. My magic is in connecting people and getting them to work with each other.
The life of an executer is not for me. As I reflect on my work and life, I realize I never was a great executer. I’ve not been a finisher. I like to take things from 0 to 1. But not from 1 to 10 and not from 10 to 100. I’ve never taken anything to 10, let alone 100. And I am ok with this.
So, I want to do more of what it takes to be this organic, this explorer, this tinkerer, this door opener. And then whatever happens from there on, I want to let that happen!
Also, when I let this happen, how do I make an honest living?
One way it that I find 1000 true fans who will give me 1000 bucks a month to live and then I do things that support them. Till last year I would have scoffed at the idea. But now, I dont. Talk of changing philosophy ;P
So, here’s my plea. If you are reading this and you want to support me, here’s a test. You have my number. If you don’t ask me. Make a transfer of an amount that you are willing to fund me for month on month. And then DM me. Let’s see if I get any close to my dreams.
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F/ Do things with hand
Dr H asked me to do things with hand. Last time I tried doing it, I learnt how to juggle three balls. This time I think I will go back to Uke.
My only problem is that my neuroplasticity with the Uke is way too strong. And not is a good way. So, let’s see.
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G/ The fall of the heroes
This past week two things happened that reinforced the belief that heroes fall. The Balraj incident and the dinner of tech CEOs.
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H/ MDI network
I am incredibly grateful to the network from MDI Gurgaon. There are so many times when I need help and inputs and support and the network ALWAYS comes thru. I hope to be able to help others when they need me.
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I/ Zakir Khan
Saw this (from Rajiv Nema).
And OMG. I am in awe of the man. The thing am taking away from this story is riyaaz. Must do more riyaaz. With everything I work on.
PS: Lately a few young people have pointed out to me that Zakir has not really lived up to the responsibility he has as a strong voice. I want to say that it’s his choice. And I am sad at the same time. Especially now that I have started to see things that Punit Pania wants us to see.
I think on this, the final word would be of Parijat’s. He said and I concur, “A spine is rare, harmful at times but valuable, I daresay”.
And no, I dont have a spine. More on this some other day.
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J/ Personal brand
See E above. And in continuation to that, I’ve started to think deeply about my personal brand. To be honest, this is not the first time. But this time I am committed. and this time, Riya is helping me like she’s never helped me before. I am hopeful something will come out of it.
I sent the following to some friends…
Hello Saurabh! I’m working on a personal branding exercise for my startup journey, and I need your help. Can you please take this short personal values test: https://personalvalu.es/personal-values-test
But instead of doing it for yourself, please do it while thinking about me — what values you feel represent me most strongly. At the end, you’ll get 5 values on the final page. Please take a quick screenshot of that page and send it back to me here. It’ll really help me understand how I’m perceived by the people close to me. Thank you!
I would love if you could take this and share what you think I stand for.
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K/ Larger font.
I had to change the screen resolution of my laptop to a higher one!
Age, sigh!
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L/ What does the life amount to?
Someone asked me, what does my life amount to. I mean I am 42 and I have -40 lakhs of net worth and literally no assets to call my own. Even my CA told my dad the other day that all I do is dream big and do nothing. And that was a rude shock. And I need to find a way to not be that. Anyhow, am digressing.
So someone asked me what does my life amount to and I didnt have an answer. Then someone else I know told me that that person has a different metric. They said, “maine paise nahi kamaya but izzat kamai hai, log kamaye hai”
And I was like OMG, I am this! All I’ve earned is izzat, people, exposure. But then, these things don’t give me no dal roti. Sigh!
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M/ Michael Lopp
The discovery of the week has to be Michael Lopp and his blog. I found him via someone on twitter and I think I’ve read a large part of his website. He’s one of those, “why didnt I discover this person sooner” person.
The few that I want to highlight are…
1 – Organics vs Mechanics. I am clearly an… go find out ;P
2 – Bored People Quit.
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N/ What can be road block for us?
One of the things I am grateful to Meru for is continued patronage of Hareesh Sir. And all the lessons I get from him.
In the most recent one, for each thing we work on, he asks us, what can be a road block for us in this project. He asks us to list those and then ensure that we prevent ruin on that end.
This one lesson is worth its weight in gold!
Also, random #parkedIdea – For each such thing, am gonna build a razor. You know, like Occam’s Razor. And maybe evolve them into decision making frameworks like Charlie has (you know, psychology of human misjudgment).
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O/ Disappear from internet?
I’ve been thinking lately that what would it be like to disappear from the Internet. I know I am far from it. In fact, if anything, I am hoping to bombard the internet with my face – you know, AI avatar, content, blogs, videos and all that. All in chase of that “personal brand” thing that will enable me to get more opportunities. That give me enough cash flow to take care of myself and my ilk.
I wish I had enough to not worry about anything and have access to everything. And then may be, I would actually go missing!
Ok, wait. I have a crazy idea. I dont login to social networks at all. I am only on email and whatsapp and all that. And I get my people to build / manage / operate those handles? As if Saurabh is a mere bot and there are people that run that bot!
What do you think?
📷 Some Photos from the week gone by
Here are some photos from week 36.
The highlight is this one…
More people must know that they are insignificant in the large cosmic plan of things. While we are on this, please see this.
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🈺 The LARGE objective from the week gone by?
I had two large things when I started this year. Book 2 and a yearly plan (that I’ve been writing for a long time. This year I couldn’t). And I just added health a few weeks ago.
Book 2 – I sat with Bri and I got it restarted. No large output yet. But I’ve started to work on it. No, I am not counting this as a win but this is definitely a start (was on pause for a while).
Yearly Plan – I dropped it long ago. Now its time to think about the plan for the next year. Lol.
Health – No large actions.
PS: I track my health updates here, in case.
☑️ So, what did I get done last 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.
- Health
- Meru
- C4E
- Brand SG
- People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
- Book2
- Shauk (Music, Films, Poker etc)
Health. I dont think it was on track. I did eat in moderation and I did try to be consistent. But I can do more. And I dont want to be randomly harsh. So, a 0.
Meru. No large updates in this week. So, a 0.
C4E. No action from my side. 0.
Brand SG. No action. Last week, at least I recorded a few things. This week, nothing. And this is an important plank. So, -1.
People. No action on this. I’d say 0.
Book 2. I moved some needle but not enough. So, -1
Shauk. No action. No time. And I am not losing sleep over it. So a 0.
So the overall score is -2
📊 The tracker from the last week
Here is the tracker for the week gone by.
What trends do you see?
I see…
- Inconsistent with sleep. But a couple of good days. I think it boils down to discipline.
- Consistent steps. I think I need to find a way to do similar thing with workouts and I will be unbeatable!
- LOT of coffee. And all of it at Starbucks. Need to reduce it. No, not
What do you see?
🏃🏻♂️➡️ Health
I added Health as a key section some days ago. I am still discovering what to cover here. Let’s see how it goes.
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. Also, I log a few things at these links – food log, my daily health log channel.
1/ Sleep
This was better than last week. There were two 90+ recoveries. Need to continue to invest more on this.
2/ Exercise
Walks have been consistent. But havent been able to add any fitness yet. I must.
3/ Diet
I track each thing I eat on my food log.
This week was little easy going. I ate things that I typically I dont want to eat. Really looking forward to the next week cos I am gonna get onto OMAD / 2MAD / Keto or something.
4/ Community
No large movement on this. Didn’t have the time.
5/ Crowdfunding health
I will remove this from next week onward.
6/ Movement
No action.
🙁
7/ Meditation
No action. I will start this for sure this week. Lol!
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📖 Interesting Reads / Views from the last week
Here’s a list of interesting things from the last week.
1/ This piece from Samarth.
2/ Visa’s homecoming. Very interesting read. I see myself in him. Like a lot of his fans.
3/ Advice from someone who turned 42.
4/ Incredible long read on AI Bots and its all-pervasive impact. And in fields like healthcare! Thanks to PradX for the recommendation
5/ Alan Watts on Game of Life.
Thats it for this week. I know I should have had more. But this is it.
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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.
I’ve been skipping this for a while now.
I think this will remain ignored for a few more weeks.
Let’s see when I get back to this.
🥡 So, one thing that defines the past week?
Routine.
This is how it was last week as well.
Oh and in the previous weeks, the one-word reviews have been… Routine, Busy, Grind, Blur, Stress, Numb, Blur, Fast, Uncool, Disappeared, 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, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35
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.