TRES 05 (Mar 07, 2024): Being purposeful makes life easy

We are guided by some purpose all the time. We get ready in the morning with a purpose - to get to work on time. We send kids to school with a purpose - to teach them life skills. Every aspect of life is driven by a purpose, small or big, and whether we realize or not.

I am not talking about those purposes which are part of day-to-day life. This is about a bigger purpose. What's big and what's small? To me, a purpose that's much bigger than the individual himself/herself is big. 

And who gets to decide the purpose? None other than than the individual himself or herself.

When I observe myself in the past few weeks, few things have already changed. My social media preferences have changed - I am not drawn toward political stuff like before, my recent phone calls list has changed - more relevant to the business initiative, money spending has changed - not so driven by shopping as a hobby and buying things for self (used to do it when I was on job as if that money was for free), my reading preferences has changed - started reading books like 'Rework', 'Doglapan', 'Platform revolution', my writing topics have changed - this blog for example, otherwise I would be writing some comments on politics and it wouldn't have been easy to resist especially because of the upcoming elections. The changes are a natural evolution rather than pushed by a plan from behind. Couple of things close to my heart still find place in my routine though - I am taking out some time to complete the manuscripts of the novels I have initiated long back.

Now, this makes me think... was I not purposeful enough earlier? Well, there were sparks in life where the purpose seemed to be bigger than the current self and mood but definitely there was no purpose that consistently pushed me for a long time. There were purposes in thoughts, but not in action. 

So, why does life become easy when the purpose is clear? Life doesn't actually become easy, it becomes even more difficult and stressful because now the purpose is big and it calls for better time management, productivity, learning and reaching out to people for help etc.

The only thing that becomes easy (and it is important) is making the choices that guide your routine... now, your day doesn't drift much, your time and efforts are aligned toward something. 

Ultimately, all gyan comes down to nothing if it's not translated into action and achieving the targeted goals. Let's see... will keep you posted on that...   

Cheers :) 

TRES 04 (Mar 02, 2024): The transformations in me (so far)

The moment I decided not to continue in the job and try something on my own was liberating as if somebody guaranteed success, name, fame, money and all. Reality dawned on me soon... it did not take much time. 

That very night I could not sleep well... bag of mixed feelings didn't let me sleep well. People who know me know that I generally do not lose my sleep that easily. On one hand, I was happy that I am getting into something that robbed my sleep on day one itself and on the other hand I hope this wouldn't continue to be my experience every night. 

Basically, I am not looking at personal name and fame when I chose this route. I would like them only if they help in making my efforts more successful, otherwise what's the point. I do not believe identities define as person in the long run. 

So, what's the business all about, name of the company etc.? Will announce shortly. 

But, in the above list, money definitely matters, it's a powerful tool. More on this in another blog - https://thereluctantentrepreneurseries.blogspot.com/2024/03/tres-03-mar-01-2024-money-matters.html. 

In fact, I see money as a critical parameter to measure the success of any person or business. Why would someone spend money either on you (salary) or your products and services (business)? It is nothing but the value one places, it's a direct measure of your worth or the worth of your products and services. Isn't it? 

The highest motivation to me was to bring together all the diverse knowledge and skills I have acquired overtime to build something that's much bigger than me and lasts longer than me as a person and makes a positive difference to the society. To bring money into the matrix again, if something cannot be run profitably, the very sustainability of the initiative comes into question and the expanding it's scope and hence it's impact will be adversely affected. 

In the couple of days following the decision, I was down with fever, body aches and throat infection. It could be mere coincidence. For now, let me not attribute to the entrepreneurship journey that just got started. The thought that I am already tensed would make me even more tensed. I want stress to be a positive and a precautionary emotion rather than a negative and desperate emotion. 

The physical symptoms aside, there is definitely a bit of tension and a big 'what if' looming large in my thoughts. Then I thought of this - "If not now when and if not me who?" Even these words did not help. I realized all these motivational quotes help in pushing us to take the first step and ditch us badly as soon as that first step is taken, the point at which this one comes into picture from nowhere - "Motivational quotes do not work unless you do."

Interestingly, everyday started becoming important. When I was in job, I didn't assess myself so thoroughly, I didn't sit back and think what I did today. I did once in a while but not on a daily basis. Suddenly, a day wasted started seeming lot heavier. Unlike in job, the blockers on the path started staring into my eyes directly. I know... now, the buck stops with me.

I started losing the difference between week days and weekends. The 'Happy Friday' messages in the Whatsapp groups started making no sense to me. I still feel the Monday blues though, I guess it is ingrained within me since childhood and is almost part of DNA now. I feel it even when I am on vacations.

At times, the idea with which I have taken such a drastic step at this age and with so many responsibilities around me started looking trivial. The euphoria before I took the jump started vanishing. My mind started finding serious flaws in the very idea that pushed me from behind. Seriously? 

But, the decision is made. Let me push forward and deal with myself and external factors on the way, let me do whatever is required, and see where it would lead me to... will keep you posted. 

Please don't be surprised if more blogs come up in future with same or similar title... the journey just got started and yet to experience more transformations. Fingers crossed.  

Cheers :)

TRES 03 (Mar 01, 2024): Money matters

The most difficult thing for me in life is to talk about money. Let alone talk, even to think about money. Somehow stress hormones get activated when money topic comes up. 

So, what to do? Stop thinking about money and business? Why business alone? If stopping thinking about money is the solution, I should leave everything and go to Himlayas and meditate for the rest of my life and die there peacefully. Because, everything in the real world has to do something or the other with money. 

It is an individual's choice whether to make a positive impact with money or otherwise, whether to be within the legal jurisdiction to earn money or otherwise, and what point we declare financial freedom and pivot to other facets of life etc. But, the inevitability of money cannot be ignored. Unless a human decides consciously to be highly limited in his or her needs in life, money is an important matter. 

And, money is not bad as it is portrayed to be. In the process of earning money and spending money people contribute their part to the development of the society. 

For example, recently I watched Prannoy Roy's talk show with renowned financial expert Ruchir Sharma in which he pointed to the NRI deposits and remittances - each contributed to about 3% of India's GDP whereas the FDI accounted to just 1% in 2023. In spite all the brain drain debate, there is a benefit that is accruing to the country from the money earned by the NRIs.        

The biggest disservice parents and teachers and society in general in India do to kids as they grow up is not to talk about money and effective management of it. Even more bigger disservice is to give a negative connotation to money and earning money as if it is some kind of a crime while spending more than half of the their lives in earning it. What a hypocrisy? There is a widespread belief that Gujaratis, Punjabis and Marwadis are good at businesses, and the reason is simple - they don't hesitate to broach the topic openly in family discussions and even with kids.  

I am not saying life should all be about money, but if enough importance is not given to it at the right time then life eventually becomes all about money, forcefully. Paradoxically, giving money the importance it deserves frees the man from the money itself and gives him enough freedom to explore life and pursue other interests in life.   

Given a choice I would not like to handle money, think of finances, and not even have bank account. But, do I really have that choice? Eventually, I will free myself from money (I will bring up this topic in some other blog at some other time in future). But, before that I would like to attack this money part of life - will keep you posted on this.

Let us not hesitate to talk about important and necessary things in life irrespective of whether we like them or not. Money is one of them. The closest second thing I could think of is health, about which we'll about some other time. 

Cheers :)