A personal & blunt take on how loneliness is a function of our self-worth, relationships expire & the depth of our lives is a choice.
I’ve been contemplating on whether I should publish this piece for a while now since it is rather personal to a certain extent, but I figured that there’s no harm in sharing if it can help someone else who may be struggling with the same things as I. Life isn’t always sunshines and rainbows anyway.
My friends never fail to remind me how much of an inspiration I am to them, but they fail to realize that I am only human as well. I live, laugh, love, and lose just as much as they.
So for what it’s worth, here are some of the hard realizations I’ve had in 2020. …
Consistency is the gold standard of a good life because it means you’re unstoppable: you will show up
Human beings speak about 16,000 words a day on average. Just imagine how many unspoken ones run through our minds. The large majority of them are not facts, but judgments entwined with emotions.
All healthy human beings have an inner trajectory of thoughts and feelings that include criticism, doubt, and fear. That’s simply our minds doing what they were designed to do: anticipating and solving problems, and avoiding potential challenges or failures.
Why Be Emotionally Consistent?
The prevailing wisdom says that we should be emotionally consistent — not by denying our emotions, but rather by using our attention, our most important asset, to cultivate this essential capacity for inner consistency. …
When you’re at your wit’s end because you have too many solutions to a problem
What is Analysis Paralysis?
Analysis paralysis refers to a situation in which an individual or group is unable to move forward with a decision as a result of overanalyzing data or overthinking a problem. This can occur when you overthink your choices to the point you feel paralyzed and can’t make a decision. This is common amongst investors when they are executing a trade, consumers when they have too many products to choose from, fresh grads trying to figure out which career pathway or opportunity to pursue, and even entrepreneurs who are figuring out what is their next step to move the needle.
I faced this issue of analysis paralysis multiple times while working on my startup (Gulliver). Working in a startup, being a freelancer, or running your own business probably means you wear multiple hats, with your job scope spanning product, finance, recruitment, marketing, sales, design, and more. …
Leadership Principles, Lessons & What The Future of Mankind Holds from the CEO of Microsoft
“We’re making great progress, but we should never be done. It’s not a program with a start and end date. It’s a way of being. Frankly, I am wired that way. When I learn about a shortcoming, it’s a thrilling moment. The person who points it out has given me the gift of insight. It’s about questioning ourselves each day: Where are all the places today that I had a fixed mindset? Where did I have a growth mindset?” — Satya Nadella
Took me a little over a day to power through this book — A solid read on Satya Nadella’s leadership principles, long term vision, and product strategy as the CEO of Microsoft. …
From A Founder To All Her Supporters & Customers — The Backstory of Her Travel Startup
Actually — it has been more than two years since this idea was conceptualized in my head. I got rejected from Techstar’s Accelerator Program in Boston today, and felt it would be a good time to document and share this journey as well as what to expect from us with everyone — customers, friends, family and strangers included.
At this point, I have revised my deck over 50 times, applied, interviewed, and pitched at over 20 accelerators/grants/competitions. While I am grateful to say we managed to snag a couple of awards and prizes, $60k in equity-free grants, free incubation at a co-working space in school, $5000 AWS credits, and more, we have also faced many, many more rejections, and are still far off from where we hope to be. …
However, if you find enough value in it, plow through the challenges to extend its shelf life.
I feel like all people have an expiry date, not all relationships last forever — and that’s okay.
There will be the honeymoon period, regardless of what kind of relationship is. During this period, you don’t know each other too well and get excited by the freshness of a possibly exciting relationship. Over time, you either accept the tiny quirks about the person or slowly realize they are perhaps not the person you want to spend your (finite) time with.
This loop may occur infinitely within a lifetime when you meet new friends, co-workers, or lovers — crossing paths with people you want to keep close forever, as well as those whose relationship sizzles out and drift away faster than you expect. It can be rather difficult to find people you connect with so well, that they survive the drifting spell. While it may be sad for some incredibly brilliant people to eventually leave your life, it isn’t always a bad thing — not everyone is meant to stay. …
Understanding How Our Brain Works & Maximising Its Potential
I had a little bit of spare time the past week and decided to take up this course on learning how to learn. I have been struggling a little with the other courses I was taking, and decided to do this first in hope of accelerating my progress for the rest of them.
While many of the concepts covered were not completely new, I did pick up a useful thing or two which has helped me grasp concepts more effectively. I decided to do a TLDR on the overview of how we learn (if you don’t have 8 hours to spare for this course), along with some of my top 3 habits I often use. …
What we see in others is simply a reflection of ourselves. Sometimes the best fix for someone is to do nothing at all.
At different points in our lives, we cross paths with different characters who bring us laughter, joy, tears, and unique memories who mold us into the person that we are.
Not everyone you meet will be on the same page of their journey as you are, even if you hope for them to. Sometimes we find beauty in some characters, which reflects certain things about ourselves.
And being the self-serving humans we are, we try too hard to make things work in our favor, holding on to a relationship for our selfish reasons. …
“When we dream, we get the pieces. When we wake, we can know the whole” — How to maximize the time you spend asleep.
While we sleep, our brains replay, process, learn, and extract meaning. Essentially, they think.
I remember when I was in college, I overloaded my schedule every semester and took extra classes while interning or freelancing part-time. While this did result in a rather high level of stress and anxiety, I always enjoyed the jobs I took up (a lot more than school in fact), and hence wanted to turn those opportunities down.
It became a norm for me to fall asleep while doing a tutorial at night, and continue working through the particular math problem while I was asleep — and make actual progress which I would occasionally recall when I woke up. …
Getting an investor is essentially a marriage based on money.
The new normal we know today is essentially an accelerated version of the digitalization trend. What was going to happen in the next 5–10 years was fast-forwarded due to the pandemic, forcing the adoption of e-commerce, e-healthcare, and more.
While competition levels are still lower in Southeast Asia compared to Silicon Valley and China, fundraising is still a difficult task. What should startups really be focusing on when it comes to wanting to raise funds from VCs?
It really boils down to 1 thing — being a good storyteller.
Storytelling is a 2 way street — beyond just delivering your story, it is important to read your audience and understand why they would be interested in the first place. Set yourself up for success by asking yourself these…
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