5 Logics, You Should Know — Before Taking Anything TOO FAR

Ting! Ting! Ting! Three back-to-back congratulatory messages arrived! My phone's screen lit up. A chill scratched my spine.

I'm starting it all over again.

I created my first startup in 2018. It left me in ruins. Hopeless. Exhausted. Humiliated. Tagged.

I'm doing it again after a gap of more than four years. But a part of me has already divorced this madness. Doesn't want any of it.

I picked up my debit card. Estimated the money left. It is not much if I quit my full-time. I decided I won't. I promised my rabbits.

We all three depend on it.

I looked at my rabbits. Murmured, "Why do you think I can do it, this time?". They did not respond. I realized it's a self-discovery thing. I looked at my Journal. Psyched, "Why do you think I can do it, this time?". The cover flashed, "Write and discover." I realized it was a laborious task.

So, I stood up. Picked the journal. Found a pen in the fridge. Walked to the bedroom. Got tucked in the sheets. Switched on the phone's flash. Adjusted it on my chest, scribbling, "Why do I think, I can do it? What has changed this time?"

I thought about the things that made me fail. I prepared a list of them, and the life lessons I have learned because of my failures:

Lesson 1: Diving into business with half-assed preparation, is setting yourself up for failure:

What I Have Learned:

Don’t reinvent the wheel. See if You can steal.

“As a CEO, I am finding that I have to become a learning CEO. I have to go to school all the time because I am learning new skills that I need to run this company and I am realising that I am not equipped to just coast. I have to constantly renew my skills.” — Indra Nooyi, former CEO of Pepsi

Inventing the bulb and creating an eCommerce platform are not the same things. You have to recognize the difference.

Most probably today you'll not be making anything out of air. It will not be as hard as it had been for the late heroes of our business world.

Today's world has solutions. It can offer courses, books, mentors, the internet, and almost every other thing to teach you. You can discover your blindspots before hitting them at a speed of 140 km/s.

Suppose you have to pitch investors.

Buy the damn courses, watch the Shark tank videos and read the articles before pitching any investor. If you don't have the money, watch the free stuff. There are investors on Youtube teaching you what they want in a pitch deck or live presentation. Go in prepared.

There will always be hard things if that's what you are seeking. But, you don't have to make it extra hard on yourself. Conserve your energy wherever you can.

Lesson 2: Drop the assumptions. Drop the attitude of being entitled. Be practical towards time.

What I Have Learned:

Rule 1, "It takes time."

It takes time to create the best logo, to know which market strategy will work for you, and to discover the trait secrets.

You, your partner, your employees, and your interns will not foreknow about the probable shortcomings that can occur.

You will have to learn to recognize shortcomings ➡ seek solutions➡execute➡ fail➡ tweak➡execute➡learn➡pass.

No one in this whole universe can duck this process.

Either you can work solutions with an irritated mind, or you can do it partying.

Creating a Pressure Cooker Environment only works once or twice. After that, it is just an abusive environment where no one wants to work.

“It is not the genius at the top giving directions that makes people great. It is great people that make the guy at the top look like a genius.” — Simon Sinek, author and motivational speaker

If you are sorted with the first rule, "It Takes Time"

Learn the second rule, "Time will test you”. You can't control it, and cannot predict what it has for you.

You can be on time for every meeting. You can grind for 18 hours a day.

But, that doesn't entitle you to the investor's money, or for your book to be bought by millions, for the people to flood in with hundreds of orders, or for any other outcomes you have hoped for.

You have to be that investor who sits on the stocks for 20 years without flinching at every crash. And watches the time repeating its patterns.

You have to time your Reactions and Actions.

Lesson 3: There are things set in stone, but you can always find another way.

What I Have Learned:

You cannot get out of every check-mate. Most of them are for real. So, kindly do not fall in love with your product if customers are not.

Attachments bind you. It is not philosophy but a mantra to adopt. You’ll gain emotional freedom. Business demands it.

Without emotional freedom, the loss of a business will feel like the loss of your baby. Your business is not your baby.

Indeed, it is a creature of your magic. But, If it's a Panda today, and people like Snake. Switch the Panda into Snake.

Whenever you cannot create demand, obey the existing market demands.

“If you wake up deciding what you want to give versus what you’re going to get, you become a more successful person. In other words, if you want to make money, you have to help someone else make money.” — Russell Simmons, co-founder of Def Jam Recordings

My work with startups during covid taught me this well.

A startup was creating a security app for females. Lockdown made it lose its entire foot traffic. It was evident that they could not do anything. It was set in stone.

Everybody thought their game was over. Worldwide startups were shutting.

But, they decided to utilize their team of developers to create safety apps for government, businesses, metros, societies, and hospitals. Against covid. Within months they were back in business. Raised another round.

They flipped their script.

Do you know why? They did not have a baby, they had a business. Be ready to flip your script. Create another way.

Lesson 4: Watch the Negative Self Talk. A loser cannot create a successful product.

“Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”- Winston Churchill

What I Have Learned:

To be productive, you need a system.

For that system to run smoothly, you need habits. For habits, you definitely don't need a giant treadmill in your face. But a mind that is supportive.

And the mind is loyal to only one thing. Its identity.

If hating yourself is your identity. Every time the treadmill will be in your face, your mind will go, "As if this will make any difference," or "Losing a few pounds won't change your world, get a real job first," or "I'm telling you, you will fail at this too, just stop it already," or "This is too hard for you, try lying on the ground"…….

The reptile brain in the amygdala knows all your insecurities.

It will exploit all of them to wear your will thin. The only option is "Self-love." Stand in front of a mirror. Look at the body part you don't like. And mock it by saying, "I Love you?". Make a cringe face for theatrics. Repeat it daily. Or whenever you can.

What we are doing here is flipping your script of negative-self talk by injecting these positive words.

After 66 or 100 days, depending on how much hatred you have for yourself. You'll find it easy and authentic to say "I Love You" to yourself. You’ll fall for yourself.

We all know we can do anything for the people we love. Now, if you'll ask your mind to run the treadmill. Your mind will be excited to consider it.

Lesson 5: Consider that your project will fail.

What I Have Learned:

A colleague of mine said, "a crashing startup is a good CV add." I agree.

Disclosing the tall tales of the ruins I once built, (my first startup), always helps me get job offers.

That's all our work is. A CV in progress. I guess Naval Ravikant said something similar.

"Your real resumé is a painful recounting of all of your struggles."- Naval Ravikant.

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I'm going in with all the lessons I learned.

I will carry the attitude that I know, that I don't know, what I don't know. I have blind spots. I will discover them on the way. I will not have everything in control. And I will not have favorable outcomes, all the time. But, a book out of this journey is surely coming.

My younger rabbit found its way to the bed. I scooched over. He stretched. I scribbled, "I think I'm ready to enjoy the ride this time." I told him the same. He yawned.

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