The Horizon - December 2024

It was 2011. Mom used to do her evening Puja, and I used to sit on a chair outside, soaking it, kind of passive-meditating, those sessions used to last 20 to 45 minutes. Most of that time was spent thinking, daydreaming, and chanting. I was an introvert; I always had a vivid imagination and could create a scene and play in my head during the sessions. During these times, the things pondered were - How can someone work every day? Without play? How hard must it be to be an adult?

I still can't understand how people work without play or fun. They must have fun in their own way. But after working full-time for the last six years, I have started working every day. I didn't touch my laptop from the 21st to the 30th of December, and this is the longest streak without work in my career. I will be out of the office until the 6th of January 2025. This is a good reset before the new year, but I am not used to it. And I couldn't stop myself from pulling out my laptop today. 

Year-end is a good time to reflect and plan for the coming year. Some people argue it is just another cycle of the sun, yes, it is. But every new round is an opportunity to let go of burdens & start afresh. Every new cycle is the beginning of New Hope. May it be entirely new, or may it be compounding. I have been talking about my life working in cycles. And funnily, a very hard-working, thoughtful, and relatively successful friend mentioned another angle of looking at the cycles. Three years is the optimal time I have found to be working on one cycle, for me. This is a number that makes more sense looking back. 

The end of each cycle is a new beginning. I am wrapping up the last cycle and sitting on the horizon for the next to begin. My birthday falls in Feb, but I keep a count of December, It is a great time for a new start. Gives me a head start of 2 months. 2024 has been a kind year. For the few of you who know, 2016 to 2019 was finding my feet, 2019 to 2021 was redemption. 2022 was a break year. I wanted to step back and break out of habits and schedules - although all were good habits. I put on 14 extra kgs. I Lost them in 2023 in the first 2 months. 2023 and 2024 were supposed to be the prep year. And so they were. So, where am I now? Where do I want to head?

Let me answer my approach to living first. This would flow into where I am. And where I want to head. In one of the interviews - either Gayle or Darren Sammy said - We west Indians live like there is no tomorrow. It was surely a decade ago. It was in my mind, but it got into my way of living only a few years ago. I lost one uncle in the village, who was very supportive of us in our hard times. I was sad for a bit. I am very realistic about life. I tried to understand the emotion, and it turned out - I was sad because I wanted to say how grateful I was to him and how much he meant to me. Life gave me a chance when He was alive; I didn't take it. I never thought I had limited time, yet we all have limited time. Rule no 1: Think there is no tomorrow - while treating people. Rule no 2: Death is eventual; be prepared for it, The way to be prepared is to have no regrets and have pride in myself. I stole it from a Hindi movie called - Roudi Rathor. Action-Drama, if you have a hell of free time, then Bollywood can kill time. 

Rule 2 to live is a bit meta, let's break it down. What does it mean to have no regrets? What does it mean to have pride? Oh, you might be looking for where I stand in life. This paragraph should answer it. Back to regrets and pride. We all mess things up. And regret not taking an alternative. But can we not take an alternative after X days? Let's say - I had an ugly fight with a hostel mate, and one part of my brain says the fight wasn't required, and my ego says I stood up for myself. When my ego settles down in two days, it might be too late to settle things up. This is where I would regret not settling it earlier. But not with rule 1. I wouldn't pick up the fight in the first place, and if even 1% of my brain says that wasn't required, I would go settle it up. Even after 10 days later. Regret is a missed opportunity. And when it comes to people, you always have an undo button unless time runs out. And it does run out very fast. But how do you not have regrets for, let's say, not scoring enough in 12th? Well, I can't do anything about it now, you can theoretically solve a math problem by proving it is unsolvable. Similarly, if I can't solve a situation in life, it is the reality. I have to accept and make the changes today with all the learnings. What about pride, then? Well, pride is pretty much a feeling of excellence. An honest answer to "Did I give it my all"? I am not too fused about Did I get it all? With all the resources I had, did I do justice? "With a relatively good brain and a good mind, did I create the impact in the world in my capabilities, or did I try my best to create it"? This is the question for me. 

I have broken down the Rule 2 in the above paragraph. As you might have noticed, both Rules 1 and 2, and almost all my conversations are around people & impact. And this is what I want to do. This is what I have been trying to do. Have an impact on people's lives. Wherever I live, wherever I go, whoever I cross paths with. In return for my selfish pride and preparing for eternal truth. I can tell you I have been doing decently good at it. I have been able to touch & inspire a few souls. Have tried a bunch of things in pursuit. It is a lifelong project, after all. This is where I stand. You got the answer finally. 🕺

It must be 3 minutes already. It is going to be a long read. And I am intentionally keeping it more abstract in the beginning. I don't want people to read actual stuff. I want them to drop off before they read the actual stuff. I am an introvert, as I said already. Even if you read, I don't want to answer anything concrete in follow-ups. I am always on for going abstract and more philosophical conversations. 

Another filler line after a filler paragraph. I am 28, and in my mind, I am jumping into my 30s. Just 2 years in my 20s, so I should start preparing. I am betting on my good habits to be equally productive at 60. What's the point of physical, mental & nutritional attention, what's the point of living remotely in a village, never touching alcohol, even no caffeine if not. This means I have optimistically 30 years of having peak impact. These are pointless numbers why am I bringing them up? I wanted to start up a few months ago. I explored a few ideas and domains. The answer to what I wanted to do - has always been to have an impact on first-degree people's lives. But startups are a wealth creation tool, not necessarily first-degree people's impact. Then why not NGOs? I wanted to start-up to create wealth. Wealth enables impact; It can enable NGOs, can't it? If 20's was the knowledge accumulation time, 30's is the wealth and leverage creation phase. My bet is to compound all of it in the '40s and have a massive impact in the 50s and '60s and compound just on impact & leave it here in the latter half of life. 

This is the horizon I am looking at, from knowledge to wealth creation/accumulation. Knowledge accumulation should be passive and continuous. We learn to stand, and then we learn to walk. Standing becomes passive even when we continue learning sprints, long jumps. That's how compounding works. The horizon I am looking at requires taking bets, thinking bets, and winning bets. It is a game of delicate thinking & execution - smart work some people say. I am bad at giving references, but I want to get better in 2025. It is also a game of luck. But luck, as I define it, isn't such a miracle. 

If you are still here, I wish you a very good new year. I know we all are in a fight. Each new cycle will make you more powerful and wiser to keep fighting, and till you keep fighting, it is your game. Luck will come your way, and you will bend it to your will, as I said, Luck isn't such a miracle.