Category: #yearlyExercise

Even with the pandemic on us, I really think I could have done the first two easily. I had so much time, and at a place where I was fairly comfortable (204, Chitralekha). And yet I did not. I can blame it on the general fuckery happening in life and mindfuckness induced by the pandemic. I can blame it on how I was bereft of inspiration. I can blame it on a million other things but all these would be is blames. I think when I die, I would leave behind a trail of neverending blames. Sigh. 

Anyhow. 

Here is a month by month recap of 2020. Thanks to YearCompass for the template! 

• Jan – Went on a trek after ages. Thanks to Shravan. Here’s a pic. 
• Feb – Saw ARR perform live. Thanks, Kila! Here’s a pic.
• Feb – Published a piece on The Ken. Was on my to-do since 2018 at least. 
• Mar – Did my last event before we went into a lockdown.
• Mar – Initiated thePodium.in. This is where we sort of sowed the seeds. 
• Mar – Cooked for a few days for self. Realized I am inept with a kitchen
• Apr – Had to take on debt to survive. The lowest point of my life ever. But then, grateful that I have people that are willing to lend to me. This allowed me to keep my tiny bunch of young warriors going. 
• Apr – Attended sessions with Anjum Rajabali, thanks to Satyanshu Singh
• Jul – Got to learn screenwriting from Boman Sir 
• Jul – AKG 
• Jul – Started NFG with AA and PK. This was big because I put myself on camera as a speaker for the first time ever for a public audience. Plus, I got to meet so many incredible people. Thanks, AA and PK.
• Aug – Went on a tiny hike with the 5×5 bunch. Here’s a pic for you. 
• Sep – Successfully evaded the world! 
• Oct – Took a shot at doing a startup. Couldn’t even get it off the ground despite having a great partner and one of the most sought-after angel investors backing us up. 
• Oct – Made my will. 
• Oct – Tried to look for a Naukri and could not land even one interview. The second-lowest point of the year. Realized that the network and connections I take pride in may not be too helpful. 
• Oct – Thanks to a couple of friends, got back to work. One project got over. The other is still happening. Not, not enough to keep going. But it’s a start.
• Oct – Got an opportunity to work very closely with someone who’s made a REAL impact with his work. Can’t talk more about it. Got this opportunity via Parijat. Thanks, Parry. 
• Nov – Moved houses yet again. More about it is here. 
• Nov – Spent 3 odd weeks in Delhi. I was in Delhi for this long after ages. Realized the fragility of life all over again and decided that I need to at least become a good son if I am unable to become an entrepreneur. So, will act on it this year. 
• Dec – Been in Goa for 4 weeks now and so far, I like it. Thanks to Rajesh Sir for the kindness. 
• Dec – Podium started making money. Thank you, for the kick in the back, Rashi. 
• Dec – Lost faith in my approach towards creating work (a mere handshake, no contracts, etc). Don’t want to write about it here but the very foundation of how I work has shaken. Here’s some context. 

I am sure I am missing on capturing a lot of other things that are as important. I of course started multiple side projects – Marketing Connect, 1 X 1000, Hero’s Journey, Skinkredible, etc. I could not complete most of those. Plus there are more goods and bads that I am not publishing here. They are part of my YearCompass. Once I have started to fully embrace Living In Public (a large theme for #in2021), I would probably make the yearcompass public. For the time being, I shall let them remain hidden on paper. 

So, if I were to sum the year in one paragraph, I would say it was among the worst I had. I lost people I cared for, lost all my life’s savings, lost my reputation. Of course, I am alive (and I am grateful) but that’s about it. Thankfully, I am almost a stoic, and at the rare times when I tend to lean to extremes, I am the glass-half-empty kinds. So, yes I survived. Wish I did more than that. Wish I could affect more things. 

Moving on. 

Quite a few. Here they are. 

A. Need to build a reputation that allows me to walk into a room and tilt decisions in my favor. Right now, despite trying hard, it’s tough to get things to come to me. Most work from what I know is an outcome of great relationships that you create with people. I have traditionally sucked at creating these relationships. Need to work on these. 

B. I need to ship. I think I did ship more things in 2020 than I ever did. When you walk into a room, you may have all the charisma but shit will only move if there is some precedence of your work. Plus, a large part of this shipping happened because I had great partners. Need to scale this by taking more shots and shipping more. 

C. Need to chase money. Even though a lot of my actions have been guided by money, I’ve hardly chased money per se. Probably this is why it has illuded me all my life. May be it needs to change this year? 

D.  I am average. I have realized that I am fairly average at things that I do (writing, talking, working) but then, I can be very very persistent with things. I can look at the big picture like no one else. I can imagine possibilities to an extent that no one else can. 

So hereon, I can go in two different directions. One, I get better at things. Thing. Choose one thing and give it all that I have. And see where it goes. Two, I can become the most reliable, most consistent, most out there, most approachable, most nice, most human hustler around. This one quality of being reliable is probably what is valued more than anything else. 

3. Brings me to 2021, the themes, and the plans. 

So these are the broad guidelines and themes on how I will live life going forward in 2021. No, this is not a road map of the action points. But guiding lights. North-star metrics. 

• Make myself a priority. The thing is, I have lived all my life trying to create opportunities for others. I have always assumed that once they grow, they would support me (you know reciprocation, fairness, etc) but 2020 has taught me that this is not always true. So, in 2021, I will make myself a priority. 
• Location independence. This may be an outcome of the recent stints in Delhi and Goa but I think I like this idea of not having a base. What if I become homeless? I have been toying with it for a while now but been on the fence – I like my comfort! But this trip to Goa seems to be solidifying it! This also means I will have to reduce attachments to people and material things. 
• Financial freedom. Need to get back to being debt-free. And then reach a point where I don’t have to make decisions based on economic criteria. 
• Living in Public. Live an honest, open, transparent, public life. Where my personality, brand, thoughts, actions et al are all authentic, consistent, coherent, and in-sync. I will not have to make pretenses when I talk to people. I will be out there and the world can take a call based on what they see. This is big on my agenda. 
• Build an audience. Of course, if you have an audience, you can do what you want to. The lesson I have learned from 2020 is that you don’t need to be a movie star to be able to attract an audience. You could be a blogger (no, not the influencer kinds) and yet have an audience. Clubbed with living in public, this could actually be a path to freedom – financial and emotional.

– Guitar. 

No, I was never good at it. I never knew how to play one, except the C chord. I did have the romantic notion of being able to play music like rockstars but I understand that it will not happen in this lifetime. I even tried it during the lockdown but lost interest. 

So I am giving up on it. And on Uke. Sorry, Vivek and Krishna. This means I will give em away. If any of you wants it, tell me why should I give you these two things that two of the dearest friends got me. 

I may pick it up again if I live long enough. But quitting for the time being. 

– sgElectra. 

I am ready to move on from it. 

Will hand it over to M (of the M&m fame) and she can choose what to do with it. 

4.2 And here are a few things that I want to do for others