Category: #in2015

Hits and Misses of 2015

Good, Bad! Hotlinked from here.

We are now officially into the second day of 2016. And its about time I did I am very late for the review of the year gone by. Not the kind of reviews that KRK has made a living with; but the kinds that make you think and reflect and want to fix things.

So here are key hits and misses of the year. In no particular order,

Misses

  • Spent less time at home. Lesser time with my parents. I need to spend more time with them #in2016. None of us is getting any younger anytime and have to make the most of time with them.
  • Got fired. From a freelance gig. I mean, can you beat that? And more than getting fired, I was told that I did not “bring anything to the table.” May be I did not. I thought I was giving in everything but it wasn’t enough. It sucks to be told that you are not good enough. #sgMS kept telling me that all the time. And then there’s this. Anyhow, its a thing of past. And now that I think of it, I think it hurt so much because I took it on my ego I think. Whatever. I think I am over it. All the best to everyone involved!
  • After I quit my full-time job in Feb / Mar, three people from MDI gave me an opportunity to work on (paid) projects for them (or their companies). I promised things to them and they trusted me with briefs and I did not even get back to them. Despite my best intentions and effort I could not create anything for them that was worth their time or expectation. So I chose to hide. And no, in this business, reputation is everything. I can no longer do this. I will apologize to them. Pronto. And apologize to a startup that wanted to hire me but we could not reach a point of agreement.
  • Got an opportunity to write for TV. I did write a few episodes. But got fired! Not fired per se but I was told that what / how I write may not be suitable for TV. The producer and the creative director was really polite about the entire thing. Glad for the opportunity but I should’ve proved myself. And yes, I will give things another shot. I dont know when though.
  • Moved to Bandra. This is probably the biggest mistake I’ve made in a long long time. And I cant fix it till September of 2016. Cant do shit about it. Except wait. So I shall wait. Of course I’ve learned my lessons and I shall try and write a blogpost about it. Soon.
  • Book 2 should’ve hit the stands in 2015. But I am no where close to even finalizing the manuscript. I can blame it on my perpetual busy life but life is small and you ought to make the most of the time we have. No?
  • Broke heart of this amazing girl that I met on one of these dating apps. I did not intend to. It just happened. Its probably the worst thing I did in 2015. I dont know how to fix it :(. Any tips?
  • Lost money in a casino. At Macau and Singapore. At Macau, on the poker table, it was a mix of bad luck and pathetic play. At Singapore it was plain old stupid bad decision to play Roulette. 

Hits (again in no particular order)

  • I quit my full-time employment with Social Wavelength. They are a brilliant place to work and their brilliance has now been vindicated after the Mirum thing happened. However I had to row my own boat. I parted ways and its been one hell of a ride. The best part to come out of my stint at Social Wavelength was that I made a few friends while I was there. And I hope I will stay friends with them for rest of my life.
  • Initiated a Mastermind group with 8 other amazing people. We met regularly for about 6 months and then, haven’t met since Diwali. But the monthly meetings were great learning opportunities. Hope to get them back on track #in2016.
  • Met Raj! Everytime I meet him, I realise how much I love him and in awe of him. May not get an opportunity to meet him again but what the heck – you cant meet your God all the time! 
  • Starting doing events on my own. Thanks to a friend who gave me confidence to be able to take the plunge. And thanks to agony aunt for giving me the opportunity. It was huge considering I did not want to do anything without with my ex-boss. But then he got busy and I got hungry. Rest, as they say, happened! 
  • Two really good friends (with their respective spouses) moved into their respective houses homes. The ones they’ve bought. Amazing because even though its been ten years since I did my MBA, I cant seem to buy a car and these people have bought houses worth crores.
  • Traveled to Nigeria and Singapore. Two new countries. In terms of the ones I’ve been to earlier, I made a couple of trips to Hong Kong and one to Macau. It feels as if I have been to more places but cant recall. So may be, those places are not important. Oh, and I have to find more opportunities to travel. I can not grow old and not have traveled!
  • A really good friend, the kinds bros call brother from another mother, got married. Now, from the MML gang, there’s just Suds and I left. I reckon, I would be the last to get hitched. Lets see.
  • Met this girl in Delhi for work. I spent about an hour talking about work and all that. If I was not stuck on #sgMS and I was ok moving to Delhi, I would have asked her for shaadi. She has everything that I look for in a girl – talent, ambition, opinion, lust for travel, business sense etc. May be in next life. If PD says no in next life as well.
  • Decided that am done with Goa. I know I dont enjoy alcohol, or sea food, or parties or clubs. I do however like beaches and water and great ambiance. But every trip to Goa is mostly about drunker stupors, incessant eating, loud music and obnoxious taxi drivers. So I have decided that I am not doing anymore trips to Goa with friends. I will go there by myself, for work and with select set of people but I am done with Goa with friends. 

Thats about it for 2015. Pretty cool it was if you ask me. Though I hope I will make 2016 even more amazing. I am committed to take up my net worth to 10x the level it was in 2015. Help me reach there. You know where to reach me!

P.S.: Wrote these without referring to any notes or tweets or photos. The ones I can remember have to be important for me. No?

Notes2Self

  • I think of death often. It sucks that you learn so much and then one fine day you are gone! 
  • Though I want to get over #sgMS, she still is a large part of my life.
  • I am very emotional about what I do.
  • I need to stay in touch with all the people I know. I got a call from Renu Maam (Gravity) and I realized how much I miss these people.

Book 2 – Update – Apologies

After the phenomenal success of #tnks, I get a million emails everyday – each asking me about the status of my next book.




When I published #tnks, I promised myself that I will publish one book every year. 2015 was to see my second book. But 6 months in the year, I am not sure if the book is coming out. So, if you are disappointed, I am sorry.

And I promise I will continue to write. I will continue to work on my craft. I will continue to improve my storytelling. And in 2016, I will deliver something that will make you happy. And proud. For sure. I promise.

So the delay is for multiple reasons. Like other things, if you follow this blog, here is a list.


A. My laziness. Writing a book is about discipline. Its about writing 1000 words everyday. At least. And more if you want the book to be interesting. For #tnks I wrote that many words. Every day. For few months. And then there was time I spent on editing. This time around, thanks to my laziness I haven’t written anything per se.

B. Roti, Kapda aur Makaan. You’d know that I refuse to hold a steady job. And I depleted all my savings while I worked on #tnks. So this time around, I have had to put in a lot of time to make enough money to afford the fancy lifestyle I was used to. I know I know. There are people who work three jobs and yet get time to write. Salute to them. I dont have what it takes to do that. I cant live below a certain standard and still write. I am not crazy enough. Yet. May be when I am older.

C. Lack of focus. I have made a gazillion starts and I am not happy with any of those. I even wrote some 20K words for one of the plots but I am not sure I want to tell that story (the one based in Goa). However I now think I have something that I want to write about. Of course I will write crime but not that pop-culture kinds. I want to write serious, western crime. The kinds that gets converted into movies. Lets see if I have it in me. Lets see how it unfolds. Lets see if the story intrigues me enough to make me finish it by end of this year. If you really want to read the next thing, please pray that story keeps me hooked enough. 

D. Lack of motivation. While the response to #tnks to has generally been very encouraging, it hasnt made me a literary star. And I am the kinds who needs external motivation to get things done. I know I like writing and all that but I really needed people to praise me for what I had cooked with tnks. And it hasnt happened. I mean I get fanmail and all that. But the numbers are dismal. The number is far from 1000 true fans that KK talks about. May be it takes time to get to that number of fans. May be not. I will never know. Unless I write the next book. No?

I am sure there are more reasons but I can come up with just these for the time being.

I think what I really need is someone to give me a big fat wad of money so that I may just sit there and write. May be once I get that money, I will become lazier and fatter and not write at all. May be its not about money at all. May be its about that zabardat toofan that I think Faiz talked about? May be. May be not.

Any how, hope you guys dont abandon me after reading this. Like I said before, it’s people like you who support people like me to go forth and chase hard-to-get dreams like writing a book.

Thank you for supporting me.

Regards,
Saurabh Garg
July 2015

Oh, one more thing. The page for Book 2 is up already on FB. To be honest it doesn’t really help but its something that everyone does. And I am not cool enough to not do things that the world does. So, in case you want to “like” it already without seeing the book, please, be my guest!

Thanks!

I fold.

I fold!

This is one of those big decisions for rest of 2015.

I am going to stop playing poker. Few reasons.

1. I have been on a losing spree. As per my poker stats, I have lost 9 out of 10 times I have played. Also, I have wiped all my bankroll. Since I dont have any predictable earning, I am not sure how to build the bankroll without investing anything from my savings. And that, ladies and gents, is not happening.

2. Luck doesnt seem to be favoring me. Not luck, odds. I mean what are the odds that hand after hand you would have like 30 outs and you wouldn’t connect even one? Or you’d have pocket kings and every flop would have a string of aces? Or on the button you had hands so cold that you could deep freeze your coke with em. I am losing that perpetual “war with luck.”

3. I dont see myself improving at it. Improving at poker, I think, is a simple function of time, practice and reading. I dont have that time. There are just too many things that I am busy with – earning my bread, writing my next book, travel, trying to get fit and so on and so forth. Take guitar for example. Neo just got me a new guitar. A F310. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do. May be I would focus on it for 2015.

4. There is no 4. The above three are reasons solid enough reasons to make me reconsider my poker “career.”

That’s it. I think I would get away from poker. Except that home game once in a while and that occasional tournament.

I know quitting sucks but you ought to know who you are and what could you do!
 Wish me lucky with the guitar 🙂

P.S.: I will get back to poker at some point in life. It gives me everything that I want – money, travel, decision making, access to great minds, time and all that. Just that I have other things to chase right now. May be in 2016?

Notes from Home Run

Its a lazy tuesday and since I finished my meetings early, I am home, watching a random movie – Home Run. And while watching, I realized a few things as I saw a “former” sports star struggle with his alcohol addiction.

Here is a list…

A. 
I love sports. Though I would love to complete professionally, age is not on my side. May be pool. Or poker. I know, I know, they are not really sports. But I don’t have an option.

May be I could become a coach, a manager, an agent or something. I would love to be someone like Jerry McGuire​ some day. Or Mark Mascarenhas (if you guys don’t remember him, here’s a primer). I just need to figure out how to.

Side note, I would love to have someone at Hello. #sgMS had me at Hello. It was not hello but it was close.

B. 
I have a severe addiction problem. Of multiple things.

I am addicted to Diet Coke. Though I haven’t had it since Dec now, I still carve for it. Every time I see it, I want it. And with each passing day, it’s getting harder to control.

Apart from that I am addicted to food. Yes. Food. I just want to eat. And eat. And eat. And I know that food addiction means more than just perpetual hunger is more to do with psychology (the part time shrink in my tells me that I am scared about some sort of impending famine. Need to see a shrink about it. Any recommendations?

Then there is this terrible addiction to daydreaming. Nothing wrong with it I guess. But I’d rather get things done!

Thankfully, I don’t have issues with alcohol or cigarettes. So that helps.

C. 
With every passing day, I am getting sure that I want to move out of India. From a die-hard Indian fanatic to someone who wants to move on to other places, the damn change I think has finally happened.

Even though I am all for development and intelligent living, I so love small towns and community. I love to know everyone around me and yet I want to travel. And I want to be left alone when I want to. I want a simple life and a flamboyant lifestyle. What the fuck am I talking about? Damn it.

D.
I want to make movies. The damn medium is so effective that you just can’t forget a well made movie. Although writing gives me supreme happiness. I believe that the visual medium has to be the most effective means of communication ever. I need to somehow make the transition from writing to visual. Again, age is probably not on my side. But what great thing has happened without trying?

E. 
There is no E. Just 4 things.

P.S.: It’s a very ok movie btw. You don’t have to see it. See Whiplash instead. But it did make me realize so many things. Now to write a better version of that film ;P

Hello 2015.

2015. Via

Every year, around this time, I get into this self-evaluation mode. I think about what went right and what went wrong during the year. I think about the year ahead and things I would do in the coming year. I am after all, big on new year resolutions!

So, #in2015, I would do the following.

  • #writing. Write 250K words. Yeah. 250,000. Translates into about 4 full-length books. Looks tough to do but if I manage to write a 1000 words everyday, for say 5 days a week, for 50 weeks, I’d do it.
  • #writing. Publish book 2. I don’t know what to call it though. I am thinking of calling is #trss. But let’s see what it ends up being. I have a vague idea of the storyline. I was supposed to get the first draft ready by the year end. But havent been able to even start. So, I am looking at a 2015 release, I will have to get the draft out to Sachin and Parul by end of March 15. 
  • #fitness. Will be 30″. This’s been like a perpetual goal. It’s been three years that I’ve been trying but nothing has happened. I did lose some inches but I am back to my former glory, thanks to long work hours and a sedentary lifestyle. 
  • #running. Will run a FULL marathon in the year. Despite my hernia. I am targeting a marathon in August / September. I am following this book (after I saw it on Prof. Bakshi’s blog). Will start training in January. Have started the prelim training already. I am using the C25K app to get me to start running for 30 minutes before I begin the book. 
  • #money. Will have saved 10 lakhs. Right now, my savings account stands at Rs. 5005 700. Also, I will have created an alternate source of income. And I will not have to work for money. This is the number 1 goal on my list. For this, I am willing to be taken for a ride, willing to follow those babas, talk to those self-help gurus, walk the tight rope between ethics and legality. 
  • #music. Learn to play guitar. It’s going to be an expensive hobby. But I will learn it. Not because I want to perform on the stage but I want to challenge myself to learn a new skill. Why guitar? Because I like it’s sound. I love music. I can give an arm and a leg to be good at it. I just need to give it some time! 
  • #poker. Restart poker. I am an average player and have had some limited success with it. As per my poker stats, I have actually lost a total of 30K (not including travel, hotel and other incidentals) on poker. So, yeah I have lost money. I will focus on it and see if I can get any good at it. I will give it a year and see where it goes. If I dont become any good, I will revert to being a recreational player. The dreams of WSOP can take a back seat then.
  • #social. Identify a cause and work with that. Human conditions, diseases, nature, culture, conflict etc do not move me. Rather, education does. Development does. Sustainability (not in terms of nature but in terms of perpetual existence) does. Or may be something else. I will pick something up and work on it. 
  • #sgMS. I will try to get over her. No promises though. Thanks to rr for pointing out that it’s sucking the soul of me and I need to move on from her. 
  • #read. Read more. Learn more. Write more. Talk less ;P
  • #travel. As much as I can. Irrespective of money. Travel. 
So, in terms of a calendar, the milestones look like…
Mar: 5K race with a friend (Akshay)
May: Stop working for money
Sep: Marathon (full, in about 5 hours)
Dec: Book 2 out in market
Dec: 30″
Dec: Money in the bank
Sometime: Poker Tourney
That’s it. Wish me luck! And may be, help me crack these goals may be?

Oh, to get me to actually achieve these, I will have to resort to a few ideas. These sound like deviation from what I have been like. But like most other learning systems, I remain an evolving specimen of the tribe called the homosapiens. So I am learning. And evolving. Here are the ethos for 2015.

  • Do. 
  • Ship. Steve Jobs way.
  • My time is limited. Money is not. I can earn money. I can make money. Not time.
  • No regret principle. Something that Jeff Bezos says. 
  • Idea to project in 90 days. Read on Anaggh‘s twitter stream. 
  • Get aggressive about marketing (without being obnoxious about it)
For the context, here are the links to previous posts. 
2011

What about you? What are your goals #in2015? And, most importantly, can I do something to help you reach your goal #in2015?

What made 2014 special for me?

Devika prompted me to write about what made 2014 special for me. Here is the post that I wrote for her blog. This piece originally appeared on Devika’s blog. 

2014 is a very special year for me. I’d always remember it. For the rest of my life. After all, my first book, The Nidhi Kapoor Story (#tnks), published and released in 2014!

Writing a book has been a dream that I’ve had for I don’t know how many years. And now that #tnks is out, I don’t want to stop. It’s a high like no other. To see your name in print. To have strangers send emails to you and tell you that they enjoyed the book. To have your long lost friends call in and congratulate you. It’s a feeling that is unparalleled.

When I look back in time, I wonder why didn’t I write a book sooner. I always thought that writing would be tough and getting a book out will be next to impossible. But when I got around to doing it, I realized that starting was the toughest bit. After that, everything just, sort of, falls in place. Trust me it does! Start writing yours and you’d know what I am saying.

Apart from the dream-come-true bit, even though #tnks doesn’t sell a lot, the book has opened a lot of doors for me. I made tons of new friends and each friend taught me a thing or two. The ever-elusive doors to the Bollywood opened up (as I write this, I am talking to a few people to sell the movie rights of #tnks; fingers crossed). Friends and strangers read, appreciated and said kind things about #tnks (most people who’ve read the book have liked it and of course there are few who do not).

And all these things have encouraged me to go forth and write my next.

Also, may be, just may be, writing is my calling! I don’t know yet. I will figure out in the next few years.

Most importantly, writing and publishing a book has given me confidence like nothing else. Now that I have done the seemingly insurmountable task of getting a book out, I believe that I can do anything. Throw a challenge my way and I will accomplish it. Well, any challenge except beating Mr. Bhagat on the sales or popularity charts. If all goes well, I may actually do it someday!

While I was working on the book, there were so many moments of self-doubt. I remember I had considered leaving it midway at least thrice. After all my grammar sucked, my vocabulary was limited and the story was full of clichĂ©s. And which interesting writer has a name as boring as “Saurabh Garg?” I mean if I were called Chandraprakash Paul Chatterjee or Basant Singh Chatwal or something, I would’ve become famous by the virtue of my name. But Saurabh Garg? No way!

But everytime I felt like quitting, I was reminded of this famous quote by my self-appointed guru, Steve Jobs. He often said, “real artists ship.” I shipped. I did not allow my limitations to deter me and I continued to write. Once I was done with the manuscript, my publisher fixed a large part of my book. And helped me ship.

If I didn’t ship I wouldn’t have got so many people to give me feedback on how I write. Each piece of feedback has helped me improve. This post and the new readers I’d reach to, hopefully will help me as an author. In fact, if you are reading this, I urge you to please point out mistakes. I urge you to please write in. I shall be grateful.

Apart from the book, another highlight of 2014 would be my decision help other first-time writers. I realize that I’ve been lucky with the entire publishing process and there must be a lot of first-timers who may not be as lucky. So, I try and work with them on their manuscripts. So far, have worked with three authors already. I don’t claim to be an expert, but I do have some experience and insights. I have given them inputs basis my limited understanding of the publishing process. If you think you need someone to go through your manuscript, please do let me know. I would be happy to help.

Why am I doing this? Call it a way to give back or call it paying it forward. It just feels natural. So I am doing it!

To end this, 2014 has been great to me. And I am very excited about 2015. I plan to write 250K words #in2015. That’s like three full-length books. I also plan to publish my second book in 2015. And I plan to work with more first-time authors. And I plan to continue to push myself.

From where I am, the journey will only take me higher. I know it will be one hell of a ride.

Join me, if you will.

All the best to you too for 2015.

@Devika, thanks a ton for making me review the year gone by. Like last year 2014, I hope that in 2015, you continue to allow me to pick your brains.

@Other readers, may 2015 be the greatest year of your lives. Like I said, please do tell me if you think I could improve somehow. And if theres something I could do to help you, please do let me know.

Thanks!
Saurabh Garg
30 Dec 2014