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…
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- I am in flux. A lot is changing about me – work, age, emotions etc etc
- Deep down, I have become a stoic. Mostly. I still have a long way to go.
- I am not motivated by money or anything. But by access.
- 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.
- I am still looking for someone to join me at Meru. See this post. And this one.
- The time has come for the kids to go back. I hope they learnt a few things while they were here.
- I want to start some mini-IPs that are clones of Sofar Sounds, TED talks, My Next Guest etc.
- I am mindfucked with all the garmi all around me and I dont know what do about it.
- 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.
- 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!
- 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.
- Health
- Meru
- C4E
- Brand SG
- People (Family, Friends, Strangers, etc)
- Book2
- 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…
- Utsav on Taste. Link.
- Vivek and Molly on People over Ideas.
- This conversation between Jony Ive and Collision.
- Seth on systems.
- The “other” Saurabh Garg on How to Start a Startup.
- This post on X that talks about how Qatar happened to become what it has become.
- 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!
- 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.
- Long term
- Professional pool / snooker / poker – no action.
- Health
- Kitchen setup (incomplete)
- Gym membership (incomplete)
- C4E things (I will stop tracking these things and have C do these)
- C4E Base
- Design
- Borderless agency
- Adding films
- 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.