Alan Watts (1915–1973) was a British philosopher, writer, and speaker best known for popularizing Eastern philosophy in the West.

With a gift for turning complex ideas into vivid, poetic language, he introduced audiences to Zen Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism through books, lectures, and radio broadcasts.

I recently came across one of his talks and found it very fascinating.

He has explained complexities of life by using a simple gaming analogy.

I kept listening to it over and over again.

Sharing the unedited experts from the talk below..

Remember your first day of school? Kindergarten was just to get ready for first grade.

Then first led to second, and on it went—always preparing for what came next. The treadmill began early.

High school arrived, a “big moment.” You had to choose tracks, keep scores high, keep climbing.

Do well and you reached university. The pattern continued: prepare for the world, for the future, for the life you were told was coming.

You finally stepped out—and it was the same rhythm. Another ladder, another race, another “next.”

One day—at forty, earlier, or later—you pause. “Is this it?” you wonder, feeling much the same, only more tired and unsure.

We’re told we must go on, must survive. It’s necessary because… it just is.

But that never quite sits right. So what have we really been doing—and what have we missed?

We take life far too seriously. We act as if it’s something to be endured until a reward arrives, as if grimness were a virtue.

Consider another approach: life is not a journey or a test. Suppose it’s a game—or better, a play.

A proper game has enough structure to engage and enough uncertainty to stay alive. Too fixed, and it dies; too loose, and it dissolves.

Tic-tac-toe is dull once you know the trick. There’s no play left in it.

At the other extreme, try three-dimensional chess on eight stacked boards. Most give up before the first move.

What we seek is the middle ground—games like poker, bridge, or chess, where chance meets skill and mind meets mystery. You never quite master them, yet they’re never out of reach.

So too with life: a balance of known and unknown. Predict too much and the game dies; let go of everything and it disappears.

We want the dancing edge, the razor’s edge—between order and chaos, where the music plays.

We crave security and build plans and predictions. But when life becomes fully predictable, we lose interest.

Imagine a fortune-teller who reveals everything. Would you truly want to know the exact day you’ll love, sicken, and die?

Knowing the ending drains the story. No sparkle, no curiosity.

We love games because outcomes are uncertain. You can guess and strategize, but you don’t truly know.

That “not knowing” keeps us involved. When the future is too defined, life turns mechanical, and we begin to wonder what the point is.

The fascination is in the play, not the ending. In the mystery, not the outcome.

Given keys to absolute certainty, we’d quietly throw them away. Our spirit prefers adventure to safety—the open sea to the harbor, storms and all.

Life, like great art, isn’t total precision. It’s a dance or a jazz improvisation: structure that lets the unexpected move with grace.

Technique is only the beginning. Greatness requires surrender.

Think of a Chinese calligrapher’s brush. Years of practice—yet the moment is risky: the ink may run dry, the paper may bleed, a line may wobble.

In that slight slip of control, beauty comes alive—the “controlled accident.” A flicker of chaos inside the frame, a dash of wildness inside the rule.

Bach’s stately harmonies carry a mischievous whisper. A subtle bend awakens the ear and stirs the soul.

Try to perfect every move and life goes dead. Master the form just enough to let go—and it becomes play.

Our hunger for order hides a danger. Make life too secure and you smother it.

It starts innocently: a rule here, a precaution there. Bad behavior invites a law, then a form, then another form, until we forget how to live.

A world of complete security—yet no one dances. When control becomes master, not servant, we trade freedom for safety and spontaneity for structure.

To be completely safe is to be completely dead. Nothing moves; the spark is gone.

We keep believing one more rule or system will save us. But life isn’t a system to manage—it’s a rhythm to dance.

Without risk, surprise, and not-knowing, the music stops. Orderly, perhaps—but joyless.

Look to the artist for a clue. A true artist seeks life, not perfection.

A brushstroke that runs dry is a mistake for a beginner—but for a master, it’s character, movement, breath. That imperfection gives soul.

Technicians control; creators invite the unknown and frame it into meaning. A jazz musician doesn’t just read notes—he listens and responds.

The “wrong” note, embraced, becomes rhythm. Even the cosmos plays this way.

Stars don’t form perfect grids. Waves don’t crash in even intervals—yet beauty is undeniable.

Why insist our lives be tidy and controlled? Why not trust that beauty emerges when we let go?

Life isn’t a cabinet to arrange. It’s a fire to dance—fueled by free wind.

We also try hard to control ourselves—and failing that, we try to control each other.

This springs from an old suspicion: human nature can’t be trusted. Left alone, we’ll wreck the place, so we build cages of morality.

But not everyone agreed. In ancient China, Confucius spoke of human-heartedness—an innate kindness.

Asked to define it, he refused: “You already know.” Virtue may arise naturally when we stop straining to be righteous.

Righteousness can be more dangerous than greed. The greedy may steal; the righteous may destroy in the name of principle.

So perhaps we can trust our nature. Flowers don’t learn to bloom; waves don’t study how to break; hearts don’t take lessons to love.

Not every thread must be knotted. Not every path must be lit.

Life isn’t a puzzle to solve. It’s a forest to enter—wide-eyed, barefoot, willing to get a little lost.

If you demand certainty before moving, you’ll never move. Wait for it all to make sense, and you’ll wait forever.

Life is beautiful because it doesn’t wait for understanding. It moves, stumbles, flows.

You don’t play a game to finish it. You play because playing is delightful.

There is laughter in not knowing, joy in trying, grace in the fall. So stop trying to “win” at life—there’s nothing to win.

There is only this trembling moment, this unfolding pattern, this strange dance. You never quite know what comes next—and that’s the charm.

To be completely safe is to be completely dead. And you were not born for safety—you were born for the game.

Hope you find this insightful.

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

So there I was, sitting next to my co-founder Mohnish in this conference room, both of us skeptical as hell. We'd signed up for this Psychogeometrics workshop by Mr. Praantik Panigrahi because, honestly? Our sales calls were bombing. We'd pitch ProfitBooks with all the passion in the world, but half the time, we'd get these blank stares or polite "we'll think about it" responses that meant absolutely nothing.

Praantik asked us to pick a shape that "felt most like us" from five simple options: circle, square, triangle, rectangle, and squiggle. Mohnish immediately grabbed the triangle. Me? I stared at that square for a solid minute before admitting it was basically my spirit animal.

"Don't share the PPT or take screenshots," Praantik said with a knowing smile. "This is about experiencing it, not documenting it." So here I am, sharing my scribbled notes and the absolute chaos of revelations that followed.

Haven't We All Bombed a Sales Call?

You know that moment when you're twenty minutes into a pitch, you've shown every feature, quoted every statistic, and the prospect looks like they'd rather be anywhere else? That was me. Every. Single. Time.

I remember this one call - I'd prepared fifteen slides of ProfitBooks features, complete with comparison charts and ROI calculations. The prospect, a CFO of a mid-sized company, kept checking his phone. When I finally paused for breath, he just said, "Okay, but what's the bottom line?"

I was crushed. Mohnish, ever the optimist, said maybe we just needed better slides. But I knew it was something deeper. We were missing something fundamental about how people make decisions.

The Workshop That Changed Everything

So basically, Praantik had us do these exercises - lots of them. Not just picking shapes, but actually embodying them. There was this one where we had to sell the same pen as different shapes. Watching Mohnish (triangle) cut straight to "This pen will make you sign deals faster" while I (square) listed the pen's specifications was... enlightening and slightly embarrassing.

But here's where it got real. Praantik made us analyze our recent failed pitches through the shape lens. Remember that CFO who kept checking his phone? Classic triangle. He didn't need my data dissertation; he needed the decision-making summary.

Then there was this HR head who'd kept us on call for ninety minutes, asking about our company culture, how we treat employees, whether ProfitBooks would make her team's life easier. We'd been frustrated by all the "irrelevant" questions. Turns out, she was a circle, and we'd completely missed what mattered to her.

Praantik had us do this exercise where we walked around the room and tried to guess each other's shapes based on quick conversations. I met this guy, Karthik, who within thirty seconds was telling me about three different projects he was juggling, his weekend paragliding plans, and a new startup idea he'd dreamed up that morning. Classic squiggle, as it turned out – creative, high-energy, sees possibilities everywhere.

Then there was Priya, who spent five minutes carefully explaining her role, making sure I understood every detail before moving on. Rectangle through and through – transitional, thorough, sometimes caught between wanting stability and craving change.

The Shapes Start Making Sense

So let me get a bit into what this whole psychogeometrics thing actually is. You know how sometimes you meet someone and within minutes you're thinking, "Why is this person so difficult?" Well, turns out it might not be them or you - it's just different operating systems trying to communicate.

Praantik explained that this isn't some new-age thing. Dr. Susan Dellinger, an American psychologist, developed this back in the 70s and 80s. She was basically trying to figure out why some teams clicked while others crashed, why some people could sell ice to Eskimos while others couldn't sell water in a desert. And she found that people's thinking patterns, their decision-making styles, even how they process stress - it all mapped to how they related to these basic geometric shapes.

I know, I know. Sounds like those "What Pizza Topping Are You?" quizzes. But here's the thing - it's based on how our brains actually process information. Some of us (squares like me) need structure and sequential thinking. Others (circles) process everything through an emotional and relational filter first. It's not pseudoscience; it's just a really simple way to understand complex psychological patterns.

Think of it like this - we all have different apps running in our mental operating system, and these shapes are just a way to identify which apps are running in the foreground.

⭕️ Circles are the people-people. They're the ones who remember your kid's birthday and ask how your mom's surgery went. In meetings, they're making sure everyone feels heard. I realized my colleague Rashmi, who I'd sometimes dismissed as "too emotional" for business decisions, was actually picking up on team dynamics I was completely missing.

🔲 Squares (like yours truly) live for organization and data. We're the ones with the spreadsheets and project timelines. But here's the humbling part – Praantik pointed out how our need for perfection can paralyze teams and stifle creativity. Ouch, but accurate.

🔺 Triangles are the decision-makers, the ones who cut through the chatter and say, "Here's what we're doing." My CEO? Total triangle. Suddenly his impatience with my detailed reports made perfect sense.

▭ Rectangles are in transition, which explains why they can seem inconsistent. They're growing, changing, figuring things out. I realized I'd been unfairly frustrated with Arun from our product team who was simply in a rectangle phase after a promotion.

〜 Squiggles are the creative dynamos who think outside every box you try to put them in. They're exhausting and exhilarating in equal measure.

Let Me Be Frank About My Dad

This is where it gets personal. My dad and I have had this ongoing thing where I'd constantly tell him how to do things.

"Dad, you should take your medicines after breakfast, not before,"
"Dad, that's not how you use the new smart TV,"
"Dad, you need to exercise more."
And every single time, he'd get this look - you know the one - like I was treating him like a child or something.

During the workshop, while learning about triangles, I literally had to stop taking notes. It was like Praantik was describing my father. Triangles need to be in control, they express love through grand gestures (Dad's constantly buying expensive gadgets for the house we don't need), and they absolutely hate being told what to do.

Now? I present options.
"Dad, I was reading about managing blood pressure. Some people prefer morning walks, others do yoga in the evening. What works better for your schedule?" Or "For the doctor's appointment, we could book the 10 AM slot or the 4 PM one. Which timing suits you?" Or even "Mom mentioned we need a new water purifier. Should we go with the RO system or the UV one? UV is better but you decide."

The change was immediate. Last week, he actually called ME to ask about which colour would look good on the walls of the room he is renovating. Twenty years of friction, solved by understanding a simple shape.

Similarly, I realised why my wife is so obsessive about keeping things in order :-)

But I Was Wrong About Something Important

I'd initially thought this was about putting people in boxes (ironic for a square, right?). But Praantik dropped this truth bomb: "You're not just one shape. You're a primary shape with secondary influences, and you can develop skills from other shapes."

He shared how he'd been a hardcore triangle in his twenties – driven, focused, climbing the corporate ladder with laser precision. But after burning out and losing key relationships, he consciously developed his circle qualities. "I had to learn that being right wasn't always as important as being connected," he said, and I felt that in my soul.

We did this exercise where we had to communicate the same message as different shapes would. Watching myself try to be a squiggle was... let's just say it was like watching a robot attempt interpretive dance. But it opened my eyes to how differently the same information could be packaged.

Identifying Shapes in the Wild (Your New Superpower)

Okay, so you're probably thinking, "This sounds great, but how do I actually spot these shapes?" Let me share what I learned from obsessively practicing this after the workshop.

Spotting a Circle:

• They'll ask how you are and actually wait for the answer

• They remember personal details you mentioned weeks ago

• In meetings, they'll say things like "How does everyone feel about this?"

• They take forever to get to the point because relationship-building IS the point

• Their workspace has photos, plants, personal touches everywhere

• They'll unconsciously mirror your body language

• They avoid taking important decisions (So, look for a triangle and square in their team)

• They don’t have a track of time, they can spend hours talking on phone :-)

I remember this one sales call with Anjali from a textile company. She spent thirty minutes talking about her team's morale issues. Old me would've been internally screaming "GET TO THE BUSINESS PART." New me recognized a circle and leaned in. We closed that deal, and she still sends Diwali greetings.

Spotting a Square:

• They'll ask for data, proof, case studies

• They take notes. Lots of notes

• They'll want things in writing - "Can you email me that?"

• Their questions are specific and detailed

• They're uncomfortable with vague promises or generalizations

• Their workspace is organized, often with systems visible

• They are well dressed, clean shaved, properly groomed

During ProfitBooks demos now, when someone like Rajesh from accounts starts asking about data security protocols and backup systems, I know I've got a square. I pull out the documentation we've prepared specifically for them. Their relief is visible.

Spotting a Triangle:

• They interrupt (not rudely, just efficiently)

• They ask "What's the bottom line?" or "Just tell me the ROI"

• They make quick decisions and get impatient with indecision

• They'll often check time or mention their next meeting

• They sit in power positions - head of table, facing the door

• They speak in absolutes and directives

Mohnish is brilliant with triangles now. Like when we met Vikram, a startup founder - he cuts straight to results, gives them control options, and never, ever wastes their time with fluff. Triangle are literally opposite to circles, in fact they can’t stand circles :-)

Spotting a Rectangle:

• They seem inconsistent - confident one moment, uncertain the next

• They ask lots of "what if" questions

• They're often going through visible life or career changes

• They might contradict themselves without realizing

• They're genuinely exploring, not just being difficult

• They need more reassurance than others

• They are mostly indecisive

We had a prospect, Sneha, who kept changing requirements. Instead of frustration, we recognized a rectangle in transition (new role, new company). We became her stability anchor, and she became our biggest advocate.

Spotting a Squiggle:

• They'll jump topics rapidly

• They get excited about possibilities and potential

• They might doodle during meetings or fidget constantly

• They'll ask creative "Have you thought about...?" questions

• Their workspace is organized chaos

• They light up when talking about new ideas

• Their dressing style is quite colourful

Our marketing agency contact, Amit? Pure squiggle. Now we start meetings with "What crazy idea are you excited about this week?" before getting to business. The energy shift is incredible.

Let's Talk About the Business Applications

This is where things got really practical. Praantik had us map out our current teams by shapes, and suddenly SO MUCH made sense. Our marketing team? Mostly squiggles and circles, which explained their creative campaigns and strong culture. Finance? Squares and triangles, which explained their no-nonsense efficiency but also why they struggled with the "softer" aspects of change management.

I remember this moment when he asked, "How many of you have hired people just like yourselves?" Almost every hand went up. "And how's that working for you?" Nervous laughter filled the room.

He showed us how balanced teams – with intentional shape diversity – consistently outperformed homogeneous ones. A triangle might drive the vision, but they need circles to keep the team cohesive, squares to handle the details, rectangles to adapt to changes, and squiggles to innovate.

The Sales Revolution (And Some Humble Pie)

After the workshop, I was so fired up that I immediately made our entire sales team go through the same training with Praantik. I'm not gonna lie - there was resistance. "Shapes? Really? We need better leads, not geometry lessons."

But then something beautiful happened. Remember how I mentioned square-shaped people need detailed written information? We created what we called "Square Sheets" - comprehensive PDFs with every possible ProfitBooks specification, security certificate, and comparison chart.

For circles, we developed case studies that focused on team transformation and employee satisfaction. For triangles, we made one-page executive summaries with clear ROI metrics. For squiggles, we prepared vision documents about future possibilities with ProfitBooks.

The results? Our close rate jumped 40% in three months. But more importantly, our calls became conversations instead of presentations.

The Uncomfortable Mirror

Here's where I need to get vulnerable with you. I realized I'd been a terrible square boss. I'd been suffocating my squiggle designers with processes, frustrating my circle account managers with my emotional blindness, and boring my triangle colleagues with excessive detail.

There was this exercise where we had to role-play difficult conversations using different shape approaches. I had to deliver critical feedback as a circle instead of a square. Instead of my usual "Here are the five things you did wrong with supporting data," I tried, "I noticed you seemed stressed during the project. How are you feeling about everything?"

Meera, who I was practicing with – a real-life circle – actually teared up. "That's the first time feedback has felt like someone cared about me, not just the work," she said. I'm not gonna lie, that hit me hard.

Applying This in Real Life (Where It Gets Messy)

So I went back to work determined to apply this stuff. First attempt? Disaster. I tried to be all circle-y in a meeting with my square CTO, and he literally interrupted me: "Just tell me the numbers." Lesson learned – you can't force your newfound shape awareness on everyone.

But here's what did work:

Email styles should be adapted based on the recipient's shape. For squiggle creative directors, emails should begin with the big picture and exciting possibilities. For square analysts, data and structured bullet points should lead the communication. For circle HR managers, the human impact should be acknowledged first before diving into business matters.

The change was almost immediate for me. People started responding faster, with more enthusiasm. One colleague even asked, "Did you get a communication coach or something?"

Remember, We're All Works in Progress

I think the biggest revelation for me was understanding that shape flexibility is a skill you can develop. I'm still a square at heart – I wrote this post with an outline, obviously – but I'm learning to access my inner circle when my team needs empathy, channel my triangle when decisions need to be made quickly, and even tap into my squiggle when brainstorming (though that's still a work in progress).

Praantik shared something that stuck with me: "The goal isn't to change who you are. It's to understand who you are and develop the flexibility to connect with who others are."

But Let Me Be Frank...

This isn't a magic bullet. I've seen people showing different shapes in different situations. Mostly businessmen who deal with variety of people, adopt to all the shapes and can change as per the person sitting next to them.

Want to experience this? Go to any popular shop run by Marwari people. They speak fluent Marathi, Hindi and even working Tamil in some cases depending on the customer. That sales person from Saree shop will speak differently with a bored husband and differently with the enthusiastic lady :-)

This comes naturally to people who’ve been dealing with a lot of people as part of their job or business.

So, What's Your Shape Story?

As you're reading this, you're probably already identifying yourself and others. Your micromanaging boss? Probably a square gone wrong. Your brilliant but chaotic colleague? Squiggle energy off the charts. Your partner who takes forever to make dinner plans? Classic circle, building consensus with themselves.

Here's my challenge to you: Don't just identify shapes. Start experimenting with speaking different shape languages. If you're a triangle, try asking how people feel about a decision before making it. If you're a circle, practice making a decision without checking in with everyone first. If you're a square like me, try – just try – starting with the big picture instead of the details.

The beautiful thing about psychogeometrics is its simplicity. Five shapes. That's it. But within that simplicity lies profound insight into how we connect, communicate, and collaborate.

I left Praantik's workshop with a notebook full of insights and a slightly bruised ego (turns out I wasn't as self-aware as I thought). But mostly, I left with hope. Hope that the communication breakdowns I'd been experiencing weren't insurmountable personality clashes – they were just different shapes trying to connect without a common language.

We're all just shapes trying to fit together into something bigger. And once you start seeing the shapes, you can't unsee them. Trust me on that one.

What shape speaks to you? And more importantly, what shape do you need to develop to connect with the people who matter most in your work and life?

Feel free to share in comments.

It was first Monday of January.

And, perhaps the best time to look back at previous year to assess what worked and what didn’t.

I read quite a few books productivity and implementing those concepts since many years.

Problem with books is that the author talks only about one concept that he or she is obsessed about, ignoring work of other authors.

I really liked YouTubers like Ali Abdal, Joey Schweitzer (Better Ideas), and Matt d’avella who actually practice these concepts and then share the results.

Anyway, I also tried few methods and some of those turned into a habit for me.

Here are 5 Productivity Tips That Worked For Me:

Tip #1: Have only 3 items in the task list

As a co-founder of ProfitBooks, I have to wear many hats. I look after sales and marketing activities apart from working on strategic initiatives.

My task list is usually flooded with tasks and it used to get overwhelming to even look at it.

Do you know what happens when you have a lot on your plate?
You start procrastinating.

To overcome this, I started using a simple app called Weekplan. It was a one-person company back then. Founder got inspired by the book — ‘7 Habits of highly effective people’ and created that tool.

In that app, you have buckets for every day, plus an additional bucket for ‘some day’.

I used to put only 3 tasks in day and move all other pending ones to the next day.

When those tasks are completed, I would move next 3 from the next day to the current day.

Nowadays, I use a simple notebook and a pen to do this.

I put a date on blank page and add just 3 tasks there. Nothing else.
It looks clean and manageable.

I’ve been following this method since 2012 and working out to be best for me.

Tip #2: Eat that frog

This method was first introduced by Brian Tracy in the book by the same name.

You need to identify that ONE task, which if done, will give you a sense of accomplishment for that day.

It could be a small task that you’ve been ignoring for a while. If you keep it incomplete, it eats up your mindshare.

For example, you need to book tickets for the movie for tonight. It’s a morning and you don’t want to do it as your first task, maybe because it’s not that important.

But by afternoon, that task, which takes just 10 mins to complete will start making you uneasy.

Another example can be of an important task that takes around 2 hours to complete. You keep that as a last thing so that you can work on it with full focus.

But then it’s afternoon and you start to panic.

So, identify that ONE task and do it as a first thing.

This productivity hack really worked for me. Before starting my day, I identify my top thing to do for that day and do it immediately.

It takes away the burden and then I focus on other things, and it feels nice to tick that item off from the list.

Tip #3: Delegation

I was very bad at delegation.

During early days of ProfitBooks, I used to do the keyword research, blog writing, creating cover image, SEO, promotion, all on my own. It used to take me 2 and half days to come up with a blog post.

It was exhausting. I enjoyed research part and the writing part but hated all other parts of the process.

I realised my mistake late. But when I did, I delegated all the tasks that I didn’t enjoy doing.

Then there were other things where I was not very good at. Like creating a cover image. It made a lot of sense to delegate those tasks too.

Nowadays, we engage a lot of freelancers at ProfitBooks to work on various activities that can be easily outsourced.

It not only saves time, it saves money too ;-)

So the message is simple — delegate the tasks that drain you and boost your productivity by doing things you enjoy doing.

Tip #4: Find out, protect & make most of your ‘productive period’

This one is the most important productivity tip.

We all have our ‘zones’ or time periods in a day when we are most productive. Some people call it a ‘flow state’.

In my case, I’m most productive between 9am to 12pm and then between 5pm to 7pm.

How do I know?
Well, I observe myself :-)

When I discovered my productive period in a day, I started managing my tasks accordingly.

I work on important things such as strategy, planning or some execution during my productive zone.

All my client meetings, team calls, are scheduled between 1pm to 5pm.

It’s important to identify our productive time but even more important is to protect it.

During my productive period, I don’t attend calls. My mobile is on silent mode. I don’t check mails.

Pro tip: I use Calendly to schedule meetings. It lets you specify the available time slots. In my case, I make only afternoon slots available.

During my down time, I read news, watch YouTube, hang out on Quora and do all the non-essentials stuff.

It helps me achieve more in less time.

Tip #5: Time blocking

There are a lot of things that I always wanted to work on but just couldn’t find time for those things.

Like writing this blog post, or reviewing my finances for a month.

Things related to my businesses always took priority and filled up my tasks for a day. All other things, mostly personal projects, were always left out.

Then I read the concept of ‘Time Blocking’ in one of the books by Robin Sharma.

This essentially means that you need to schedule a meeting with yourself for accomplishing a certain task.

Now, I have blocked 30 mins on Saturday to review my finances. When it’s on my calendar, I get notifications.

It’s a simple tip but works well.

— — — -

Alright, let me quickly share what didn’t work for me:

1. Tight deadlines
   I just can’t handle the pressure. I stare at screen and find ways to proteinate :-)

2. Multiple to-do lists
   I used to have my tasks scattered over Reminders (Mac), Trello, Clickup and even in Gmail Tasks. Now, I trust my notebook.

3. Very long term goals
   Things hardly go as planned. Long term goals are waste of energy. It’s best to plan for 3 months. I plan for 2 weeks.

4. 20 Min rule
   There are a couple of variations of this method, like 5 min rule, 30 min rule, etc. I can’t tell how much time my important task will take. This rule didn’t work for me.

5. Pushing personal projects to weekends
   I thought, I would work on business during week-days and allocate time for my personal projects like writing, podcasting (still haven’t kicked off), etc on week-ends.
   But that doesn’t work. I don’t want to put myself under pressure to accomplish something during weekends.

That’s it folks.

I have seen people turning into robots in the name of being ‘productive’.

Please don’t do that. Productivity is a tool.

Try out different things and then continue with what works for you.

If you like this post, consider subscribing to the newsletter.

See you in the next one ;-)

If you are running a tech company, managing product roadmap is a tough job.

You get feature requests from all the directions and it’s almost impossible to prioritise the things.

There are defects that need to be fixed urgently, there are feature requests that can improve the product significantly and finally there are some traps that are extremely appealing, highly promising and hence take the top spot on the priority list.

While running ProfitBooks, we are guilty of falling in each of those traps and ended up wasting a lot of development effort, time, and money.

Let’s talk about these 5 traps that seriously hamper your product roadmap.

1) When a potential customer says – “build this feature and then I will buy your product”

Every now and then we meet a customer who kind of blackmails us. During initial days, we badly needed customers and we would accept any demand made by the customers if they promised to buy the money.

As ProfitBooks is a software product, price of the application is fixed. Even if build a new feature, we can’t charge specific customer for that. When we raise prices, the change is applicable to all of our customers.

So, adding a new feature for one customer was a stupid thing. Out of desperation, we entertained too many requests like this during early days and that resulted in messy code that was difficult to maintain.

When we realised this mistake, we stopped acting impulsively and started recording all the feature requests. We did loose some customers but that was fine. We were to prioritise the feature requests based on the number of requests coming from our target customers.

2) Channel partner says – “I’ve 100 customers who want this feature. Just build it and I will sell 100 licences”.

Out of nowhere you get an inquiry from a channel partner/distributor/reseller who promises you huge number of ‘ready’ customers if you build a certain feature.

You get excited, put other work on hold, prioritise the suggested feature, develop it, deploy it, show it to your guy and boom… nothing happens.

Not a single customer is onboarded!

We’ve been there, seen that.

These channel partners come from a remote country in Africa asking for ‘small changes’ and just disappear when we build the features.

Not anymore.

3) Sales person says – “Our competitor has this feature and if we build it, I will be able to sell more licences”.

Competition is inevitable and there is always going to be a case where they do a certain thing better than you do.

Even if one customer asks about it, sales executive thinks that adding this feature will help us get 100s of new customers and huge sales.

This rarely happens unless the feature is essential. If it’s small enhancement, it’s never going to be a deal-breaker.

But working on it impulsively will definitely break your product roadmap.

Rule is simple, if that feature is advertised as a selling point or USP by your competitor, you have obviously build it.

Otherwise, take a deep breath and just ignore it.

4) Co-founder says – “This is a very small feature. If we add it, our users will love it”.

I’m guilty of doing this one. During initial days, I used to signup for competitor’s application and used to spend a lot of time analysing their screens.

I would think that this particular feature is great and if we add it, ProfitBooks will be the best accounting software out there.

I didn’t have any data to back my claim. It was possible that our competition might be thinking of removing that feature as nobody was using it 🙂

So, I used to chase our co-founder and CTO to work on it. That often turned out to be a failed experiment.

Here is my advice – don’t get into FOMO state by looking at your competitor’s product. Build your roadmap based on data and not on emotions.

5) Another company says – “Build an integration with our system and you’ll be able to sell to all of our customers”.

Isn’t it appealing?

Well, this could also be a trap. They might be needing you more than you need them.

We had explored integration opportunities with Gym management systems, hotel booking systems and many more. Nothing worked out and we ended up wasting our time.

Integrations are important but there must be data backing up the demand claim.

We built integrations with payment gateways and those were instant hit with our users.

Final Thoughts

I had recently met an entrepreneur friend who is running a SaaS company. I saw him walking into one of the above traps and compelled to write this post.

Hope my experience will help you avoid these traps so that you can stay on course to your product roadmap.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Signing off,
Harshal

When we launched ProfitBooks in 2012, I had designed the website using plain HTML.

That time it didn’t have a blog and a lot of pages. But as we started to invest in content marketing, plain HTML website was just not enough. We had to move to WordPress.

It was a great decision as it also helped us tremendously in boosting our Google rankings.

While maintaining WordPress, I developed my love for the platform. I had launched numerous experimental websites using WordPress in last 10-15 years. I even got a dedicated hosting server for this.

In this process, I tested a lot of wordpress plugins. In this post, I’m going to share my highly recommended, must have, most essential wordpress plugins that you should install on every new website.

These plugins are free to install. Most of them offer a paid upgrade but their free plan is good enough for most the users.

Here is a list:

Topics Covered In This Post

1. 1) Jetpack

2. 2) Google Sitekit

3. 3) WP File Manager

4. 4) All-In-One Security (AIOS)

5. 5) UpdraftPlus

6. 6) Yoast

7. 7) AMP

8. 8) Broken Link Checker

9. 9) WPCode – Insert Headers and Footers

10. 10) Yoast Duplicate Post

11. 11) Akismet

12. 12) Joli Table Of Contents

1) Jetpack

This useful wordpress plugin comes from the creators of WordPress (Automattic) and offers many useful tools. It’s good for boosting site speed, loading images faster (by image compression), securing the website managing various small but useful site settings.

Jetpack has recently launched these separate plugins – Jetpack Boost (for improving performance) and Jetpack Protect (for security).

2) Google Sitekit

This free wordpress plugin by Google gives you access to website insights, page speed and analytics right into the wordpress dashboard.

Very useful plugin.

3) WP File Manager

This file manager plugin helps you upload, download, edit, delete, zip files in WordPress directory durectly from the WordPress Dashboard.

It comes handy when you want to make changes to configuration files such a .htaccess.

4) All-In-One Security (AIOS)

Even after so many years, wordpress is still vulnerable and a soft target for hackers. It’s important to protect your wordpress installation using this best security plugin.

It comes with a lot of tools such as firewall, login security, content protection, system file protection and many more to help you secure your website. There is a small learning curve but if you set it up properly, you don’t have to worry about losing your website content to hackers.

I would also like to mention another plugin – Wordfence. It also does a great job in protecting your website. You can install either one of these.

5) UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus, the superhero of WordPress backups! This plugin is your ultimate savior when it comes to securing your website. With just a few clicks, UpdraftPlus automatically backs up all your website data and files, so you can sleep soundly knowing that your website is safe and sound.

Plus, if you ever need to restore your website to a previous version, UpdraftPlus makes it a breeze!. This plugin lets you set up automatic backups and store them on different cloud services, like Dropbox, Google Drive, or Amazon S3.

You can also move and copy your site with the premium version of UpdraftPlus. A must-have wordpress plugin.

6) Yoast

If you want your WordPress site to shine in the search engines, you need Yoast. This trusty plugin helps you optimize your website’s content for search engines like a pro.

With Yoast by your side, you can easily boost your website’s SEO by optimizing your titles, meta descriptions, and even the readability of your content. Yoast also provides helpful suggestions to improve your website’s overall SEO performance, making it a must-have for any website owner who wants to dominate the search engine game!

Yoast is also created by a bunch of SEO wizards who know all the tricks and secrets of the SEO world. So, go ahead and install it.

7) AMP

AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages, a web component framework that helps you create fast, beautiful, and user-friendly web experiences.

With AMP plugin, your website can load at super-speeds, keeping your audience engaged and happy. This plugin helps you optimize your website’s pages for faster load times on mobile devices, so your visitors can get the information they need in the blink of an eye.

Plus, with AMP, your website is more likely to be featured in Google’s “Top Stories” carousel, giving you a superhero-level boost in visibility!

8) Broken Link Checker

Broken links are bad news for your SEO and user experience, so you want to get rid of them as fast as you can.

Broken Link Checker is the vigilant guardian of your website’s links! This plugin works tirelessly to scan your website for any broken links that could lead to a frustrating dead end for your visitors. With Broken Link Checker, you can quickly identify and fix broken links, making sure that your website doesn’t have any dead ends.

You can then change, remove, or ignore the links from the plugin dashboard. Broken Link Checker can also stop search engines from following broken links, and optionally make broken links look different with custom CSS styles.

9) WPCode – Insert Headers and Footers

Insert Headers and Footers is a WordPress plugin that allows you to add custom header content to each page of your site. You can use it to insert custom CSS, JavaScript, meta tags, or any other code that you want to show up in the head section of your page.

It is super easy to use, as it adds a new box to your page editor, where you can type in your custom header goodies.

10) Yoast Duplicate Post

Yoast Duplicate Post is the magical clone-maker for your WordPress pages and posts! This plugin lets you quickly and easily duplicate your existing pages or posts, saving you time and effort when creating new content.

With this plugin, you can duplicate posts with all their content intact, including metadata, categories, and tags. You can use it to create duplicates of your existing posts or pages, and then tweak them as you wish.

11) Akismet

Akismet is a WordPress plugin that helps you get rid of comment spam and contact form spam from your site.

This plugin works tirelessly in the background to filter out spam comments, trackbacks, and contact form submissions, saving you from the annoyance of sifting through a sea of unwanted messages. It scans all your comments and contact form messages against its huge global spam database, and kicks out the ones that look like spam.

Akismet also shows you the status history of each comment, and the URLs in the comment body to expose hidden or sneaky links.

It is the most popular WordPress comment spam buster, and it comes ready to use with every WordPress site. All you have to do is to activate it.

12) Joli Table Of Contents

Did you notice that shiny block about ‘Topics Covered In This Post’ in the first part of this blog? That’s called the ‘Table of Content’ block and I’ve made that using Joli Table Of Contents plugin.

This plugin automatically generates a table of contents for your WordPress posts or pages, making it easy for your readers to navigate through your content and find exactly what they’re looking for. With Joli Table of Contents, you can customize the look and feel of your table of contents, as well as choose where you want it to appear in your content.

There are couple of more plugins like this and most of those work fine. I found this one to be more feature-packed and customisable.

Final Thoughts

So, in summary, we’ve covered some of the essential WordPress plugins that every website owner should consider.

By utilizing these essential plugins, you can take your WordPress website to the next level, protecting it from potential threats, optimizing it for search engines, and creating a better user experience for your visitors.

Do you know any interesting plugin? Share it in the comments section below.

I started my career as a software engineer. Before quitting my job after 10 years, I was working in various management roles.

When I started my business, I knew nothing about marketing. We couldn’t afford hiring any marketing professional. Even if we did, we didn’t know what to expect from that person.

As my co-founders took responsibility of finance & product development, I decided to take on Marketing.

My best sources of knowledge were books and blogs. I started enjoying reading everything about marketing. I read about SEO, traditional marketing, digital marketing, copywriting, and a lot more.

I was always interested in psychology as a subject and interestingly, you must learn psychology to be a good marketer.

As a business owner, I know how important marketing is for the success of any business. Marketing is not just about selling products or services, it’s about creating a connection with your audience and providing value.

With so many marketing books available, it can be overwhelming to find the right ones that can truly help you improve your marketing strategies. That’s why I’ve put together this list of the best marketing books that have helped me and my team in our own business.

In this blog post, I’ll share the key learnings from each book, so you can apply them to your own business and see real results. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to take your marketing to the next level, these books are sure to provide you with valuable insights and actionable tips.

It’s difficult to cover entire book in a couple of paragraphs. So, I’ve tried my best to share 5 key learnings from each book.

Let’s get started..

1) Made To Stick

“Made to Stick” by Chip Heath and Dan Heath is a book about creating messages that are memorable and impactful. The book explores what makes certain ideas “sticky” and provides practical advice for how to make your own ideas stick.

Here are five key learnings from the book:

1. Simple messages are more effective than complex ones. To make your message stick, focus on a single, simple idea that people can easily remember and repeat.

2. Use concrete examples to illustrate abstract ideas. People remember specific stories and examples more easily than abstract concepts.

3. Emotions are key to making ideas stick. If you can make people feel something, they’re more likely to remember your message.

4. Use unexpected or surprising elements to grab people’s attention. People are naturally curious and will pay more attention to something that catches them off guard.

5. Provide a clear call-to-action. If you want people to take action based on your message, make it clear what you want them to do.

Chip Heath is a professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and Dan Heath is a Senior Fellow at Duke University’s CASE center. They are both bestselling authors and sought-after speakers on topics related to business, marketing, and behavior change.

Takeaway: The key to making your ideas stick is to focus on simplicity, concrete examples, emotion, surprise, and clear calls-to-action. By incorporating these elements into your messaging, you can create messages that resonate with your audience and leave a lasting impact.

2) The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

This book by Al Ries and Jack Trout is a classic book that outlines the principles of successful marketing strategies. The authors offer practical advice based on their extensive experience in marketing and branding. They have written several books together and separately on the subject of marketing and branding.

Here are five key learnings from the book:

1. Focus on a specific target market. The more narrowly you define your target audience, the more successful your marketing efforts will be.

2. Be the first in your market. The first brand to establish itself in a new market typically has a long-term advantage over its competitors.

3. Create a strong brand identity. A strong brand identity makes it easier for people to remember your brand and what it stands for.

4. Position your brand in a unique way. Find a way to differentiate your brand from your competitors in a way that resonates with your target market.

5. Keep your messaging consistent over time. Consistency in your branding and messaging helps build trust with your audience and reinforces your brand identity.

Takeaway: The principles outlined in “The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing” provide a solid foundation for any marketing strategy. By focusing on a specific target market, establishing your brand early, creating a strong brand identity, positioning your brand uniquely, and maintaining consistent messaging, you can set yourself up for long-term success in your marketing efforts.

3) Traction

“Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth” by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares is a book that provides a comprehensive guide to achieving rapid customer growth for startups. The book covers 19 different marketing channels, including SEO, email marketing, social media, and more.

Here are five key learnings from the book:

1. Focus on one or two marketing channels at a time. It’s better to master a few channels than to spread yourself too thin and try to tackle them all at once.

2. Use a framework to evaluate different marketing channels. The authors provide a “Bullseye Framework” that helps you identify which channels are worth pursuing.

3. Experiment with different tactics within each channel. Not every tactic will work for every channel, so it’s important to test and iterate to find what works best for your specific situation.

4. Measure everything. Use data to track your progress and identify which tactics are working and which aren’t.

5. Continuously refine and optimize your strategy. The key to sustained growth is to continuously evaluate your results, make changes, and optimize your strategy over time.

Gabriel Weinberg is the founder and CEO of DuckDuckGo, a search engine that emphasizes user privacy. Justin Mares is a growth strategist and entrepreneur who has worked with several successful startups.

Takeaway: “Traction” provides a comprehensive guide to achieving rapid customer growth for startups. By focusing on one or two marketing channels at a time, using a framework to evaluate different channels, experimenting with different tactics, measuring everything, and continuously refining and optimizing your strategy, you can achieve explosive growth for your startup.

4) This Is Marketing

How can we talk about marketing and not mention Seth Godin?

He is a well-known marketing guru and author of several bestselling books, including “Purple Cow” and “The Dip.” He is also a highly sought-after speaker and has been featured in numerous publications.

“This Is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn to See” by Seth Godin is a book that challenges traditional marketing practices and offers a new approach to marketing that focuses on empathy, connection, and serving customers.

Here are five key learnings from the book:

1. Marketing is about creating change. It’s not just about selling products or services, but about creating meaningful change in people’s lives.

2. Identify and serve a specific group of people. Don’t try to appeal to everyone. Instead, focus on serving a specific group of people who share common values or interests.

3. Create a story that resonates with your audience. People remember stories more than facts, so use storytelling to create an emotional connection with your audience.

4. Build trust with your audience. Trust is essential for successful marketing, so make sure you are transparent and honest in your messaging.

5. Marketing is about serving, not manipulating. Instead of trying to manipulate people into buying your product, focus on serving them and providing value.

Takeaway: “This Is Marketing” offers a fresh perspective on marketing that focuses on empathy, connection, and serving customers. By identifying and serving a specific group of people, creating a story that resonates, building trust, and focusing on serving rather than manipulating, you can create a successful marketing strategy that truly makes a difference.

5) They Ask You Answer

I’m still reading this book at the time of writing this blog post and it has made significant impact on the way we look at content marketing at ProfitBooks.

“They Ask You Answer: A Revolutionary Approach to Inbound Sales, Content Marketing, and Today’s Digital Consumer” by Marcus Sheridan is a book that offers a new approach to content marketing that focuses on answering your customers’ questions.

Marcus Sheridan is a content marketing expert and speaker who has helped hundreds of companies improve their content marketing strategies. He is also the founder of The Sales Lion, a marketing agency that focuses on content marketing and inbound sales.

Here are five key learnings from the book:

1. Focus on your customers’ questions. Instead of focusing on what you want to say, focus on what your customers are asking. Answer their questions thoroughly and honestly, and you’ll build trust and authority with your audience.

2. Use a variety of content formats. Don’t just rely on written blog posts. Use videos, infographics, and other formats to engage your audience and answer their questions in different ways.

3. Be transparent and honest. Don’t try to hide anything from your customers. Be transparent about your pricing, your processes, and your mistakes. Your honesty will build trust and credibility with your audience.

4. Measure your results. Use analytics and other tools to track your content marketing efforts and measure your results. This will help you refine your strategy and improve your ROI over time.

5. Continuously improve your content. Don’t just create content and forget about it. Continuously review and improve your content to make sure it’s up-to-date, accurate, and relevant to your audience.

Takeaway: “They Ask You Answer” offers a new approach to content marketing that focuses on answering your customers’ questions. By focusing on your customers’ needs, using a variety of content formats, being transparent and honest, measuring your results, and continuously improving your content, you can create a successful content marketing strategy that builds trust and authority with your audience.

There you have it, folks!

These are some of the best marketing books out there that have helped me to create successful marketing strategies. From learning about the importance of storytelling to mastering the art of customer acquisition, each book offers unique insights and actionable tips that you can apply to your own business.

So, grab a copy of these books, get cozy, and get ready to take your marketing game to the next level. Who knows, maybe you’ll become the next marketing superstar!

Happy reading!

It was summer of 2012 when I finally decided to quit my job.

I was trying to build a business part time during the weekends for past 2 years but was a it hesitant to go full-time. I knew that someday I will have to quit my day job but didn’t know when that day would come.

What made me quit my high-earning job at a reputed MNC to start a business? I will explain the reason in some time, stay tuned.

After running a business for 10 years, I can say that starting a business can be a thrilling and rewarding experience, but it’s not for everyone. I’ve seen people starting their business but later regretting their decision.

This usually happens when you start a business with a wrong reason.

Before you dive headfirst into the world of entrepreneurship, it’s important to make sure you’re starting your business for the right reasons. In this post, we’ll discuss five wrong reasons to start a business and why they might lead you down the path to failure.

Reason #1 – “I want to get rich.”

Ah, the classic reason to start a business. Who doesn’t want to be a millionaire? But if you’re starting a business solely to make money, you might want to reconsider.

I’ve never seen someone starting a business just to get rich and actually succeeding at it.

Running a business takes hard work, dedication, and often, a lot of patience. Sure, some businesses hit it big and become overnight successes, but for most, it takes time to turn a profit. And if your heart isn’t in it, you’ll likely burn out before you ever see the big bucks.

You have better chances to get rich by working your way to the top in your current job than building a business from scratch. It take much more to make a business successful than a desire to become rich.

Reason #2 – “I hate my current job.”

Don’t we all? But just because you’re unhappy in your 9-to-5 doesn’t mean you should start a business. Running a business comes with its own set of stresses and challenges, and if you’re not passionate about solving a problem for your customers, you’ll likely end up just as unhappy as you were in your old job.

Trust me, customers are much tougher to deal with as compared to your boss.

Take some time to figure out what you really want to do, and make sure starting a business is the right move for you.

Reason #3 – “I want to be my own boss.”

Being your own boss sounds pretty great, doesn’t it? No one to answer to, no office politics to navigate. But being the boss also means being responsible for everything. You’ll be making all the decisions, dealing with all the problems, and shouldering all the risks.

Are you ready for that kind of responsibility? Do you have leadership qualities? Are you empathetic towards your subordinates?

This is again an ego-based decision and absolutely disastrous one.

Reason #4 – “My friend is doing it.”

Just because your best friend is starting a business doesn’t mean you should too. Your friend’s business may be perfect for them, but it might not be the right fit for you.

You might read about a successful startup and think – I will do the same thing and build equally successful business. It doesn’t work that way.

Do your own research, figure out your own niche, and make sure your business is something you’re truly passionate about.

This brings me to…

Reason #5 – “This thing is my passion.”

Wait, what? Isn’t following your passion the right thing to do? Well, yes and no.

While passion is certainly important, it’s not the only thing that matters. You need to make sure there’s a market for your passion, and that you have the skills and knowledge to turn your passion into a successful business. Don’t let your passion blind you to the practical realities of running a business.

You might be passionate about technology but if you don’t know how to code or how to hire & manage a team than can code, you won’t be able to build a successful business.

Being passionate is not enough. With passion, you can be a good technician but not a good businessman.

First, understand what it takes to build a business. Learn about hiring, building a team, manufacturing, operations, sales, marketing and other important things that make the business successful.

Combine this knowledge along with your passion and then give it a shot.

One reason to start a business:

Alright, enough of discouragement :-). So, what is the right reason to start a business?

As per my experience, it should be – “I’m starting my business because, I can solve this one problem for thousands of people at profit“.

I started ProfitBooks along with my co-founders because I knew we can build an easy to use software that can help a million SMEs with their finances. We knew that we will be able to make money even after making the software affordable.

I was passionate about solving complex problems using my creativity. But that was not enough. We could build ProfitBooks because our 2nd co-founder was an expert in finances and 3rd co-founder was expert in technology.

Building business is a team effort. Understand this.

Final thoughts

Starting a business can be a daunting and challenging task, but it can also be one of the most rewarding things you’ll ever do. But before you jump in, make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons.

Don’t start a business just because you want to get rich, hate your current job, or want to be your own boss. Instead, start a business because you’re passionate about your idea, have the skills and knowledge to make it work, and have done your research to make sure there’s a market for your product or service.

Remember, starting a business isn’t easy, but with the right mindset, preparation, and hard work, you can achieve entrepreneurial success.

Good luck!

I’ve turned 40 a couple of months back.

To be honest, I’ve still not accepted the thought of becoming a 40year old person. Still feels like I’m 33–34 years old :-)

When I was in 20s, nobody used to take pay attention to my opinions. When Microsoft completed 30 years in business, Bill Gates mentioned that “People start taking you seriously when you turn 30”.

Actually, he was right. By 31–32 years of my age, people did start taking me seriously :-)

I’m 40 now and I’m expected to know a lot about life.

But I’m still figuring out the mysteries of life and that’s why still hold the mindset of my 33year old self.

Anyway, here are 40 things that I learned in the last 40 years..

1) Things don’t go as planned most of the times.

I love to plan things out.. and most of the times, things don’t go as per the plan.

That holiday trip, that weight loss goal, that plan of learning Spanish, that Gym, those books.. and the list is long.

But when I look back, I don’t have any regrets. Whenever things didn’t go as per my plan, the outcome was always favourable in long term.

2) Our opinions change and that’s fine.

In my 20s, I never understood the concept of religion and god. I was an atheist. Then I started to see the meaning behind the rituals. My opinion changed.

At times I didn’t like the idea of eating meat & other non-vegetarian food. I turned vegetarian for quite a some time but didn’t experience any change in my thoughts or my body. So, I again started eating non-vegetarian food occasionally.

My opinions kept changing as I discovered new things about the same subject.
People used to say that I’m not firm on my decisions, but I think it’s absolutely fine to ‘improvise’ our thought process.

3) Burden of expectations kills you

This one haunted me for a long time. During school days, college, when I got my first job and finally when I started my own business.. the burden of expectations was huge.

At one point it almost killed me. I was under tremendous stress.
Overcoming this burden and living the life stress-free is among my biggest achievements.

Now, I can think clearly. My actions are based on my intuition and no longer based on my family’s and society’s expectations.

4) Self-imposed pressure of performance

When I overcame the burden of expectations from the family, it was time to deal with self-imposed pressure of performance!

When I crossed mid-30s, I started comparing myself with the fellow entrepreneurs and developed a feeling that I’ve not achieved enough.
That started killing my productivity.

Later, I made peace with this and realised that it’s okay to move at our own pace.

30s is not the end of my life. It’s just an interval.

Look at any good movie and you’ll notice that the first half is just a build-up. Actual action happens after the interval :-)

5) Being judgemental halts the personal growth

Putting labels on every situation and personal actually limits the thought process.

People change with the situations. So, it’s really immature to put the good or bad labels.

6) Relationships are the most important aspect of life

My relationship with my wife, brother, parents, in-laws and friends defined my life.

If I take this aspect away, then my life will become meaningless.

7) Daily habits are the only way to achieve goals

The legendary author, James Clear taught me the importance of daily habits in his book Atomic Habits.

Later, I realised that if good habits help you move forward by a step, bad habits pull you back by 5 steps.

Imagine eating right food for 6 days in week and then having beers and pizzas on Saturday night. It spoils all the efforts.

So, focusing on good habits is important but it’s equally important to get rid of bad habits.

8) Maintaining a life log to understand patterns

Somehow, I had his habit of maintaining a private journal since the college days.

It gives a lot of interesting insights when I look back at the diary after many years.

It feels like going back in time while reading posts written in my 20s.

9) We can’t change our family

Our family members are not perfect and that’s absolutely fine. We are not here to change anyone’s basic nature as per our own beliefs.

It’s great to accept the people as they are. 🤗

10) We can’t & should not try to control our kids

I realised that the kids are born with a certain nature and skills. As a parent, my duty is to nurture those skills and help them flourish rather than influencing them with my beliefs.

I stopped influencing their thought process.

11) Me-time helps in introspecting

Whenever I was feeling low, taking some time off for self-reflection helped me 100% of the time.

It’s okay to take a pause for few days, stop running around and do the thinking.

12) You need a guide

No matter how much intelligent you think you are, you need a mentor. I was able to navigate my business with focus when we hired a business coach.

When I feel stuck, I turn up to my friends, my family, my wife for an advice. I have no hesitation about that.

It helps 100% of the time.

13) School friends are special

Among all the friends I’ve acquired during my life, I really cherish and enjoy the company of my school friends.

They are unique because they know the ‘real’ you.

They know you before you became that business owner, director in some multi-national, etc.

I don’t have to wear any mask in front of them.

14) Managing emotions is a key life skill

When my business was going through a rough phase, I had to deal with stress, anxiety, that feeling of uncertainty, fear of failure and some similar demons.

It took me a couple of years to make peace with these emotions and when I learned to ‘manage’ my emotions, I felt like I’ve become a new person.

15) Change of environment brings transformation

On many occasions, I was running out of workable solutions to my problems. During that time, a complete break of minimum 2 weeks really helped me.

When we change the place, people around us and the environment where problem was created, we kind of break the bubble of negative energy and only then we are able to think clearly.

16) Mindset of a seeker of truth

Somehow, I was not very religious during my teenage days. I always used to question various rituals and even challenged the existence of God.

Later I realised that there are communities for atheist, vegans, etc which was no different than a religion.

I preferred to go solo and be a seeker of truth.
This mindset has served me well till now.

17) Nature heals

I’ve experienced the healing power of nature. I don’t need to explain this.

Just a bare-foot walk on grass can make all your worries disappear. Nature heals the wounds of body, energy, and mind too.

18) Power of gratitude

If my mind is gripped with negative emotions and stress, a sure shot way to change the feeling is to start thinking about the blessings.

It sounds simple and sometimes empty talk, but the gratitude is a powerful stuff.

Ever since I discovered it’s power, I maintain a gratitude journal and it’s transformative.

19) How to read the books

Reading is good but then there are tons of good books when you go to the book store. And the book recommendations that flow from all the directions make is more overwhelming to chose what to read.

So, how do I pick my next book?
I pick up a book that is going to help me solve my current problem in life. For example, when I wanted to setup marketing in my business, I started reading books about marketing. When I felt directionless in my life, I picked up books by Osho and Om Swami.

This is the best way to consume books. I don’t read fiction.

20) Money is energy

I learned this very late in my life — in late 30s, that money is not a ‘thing’ or ‘object’, it’s an energy.

This energy flows ‘through’ those who can manage it well. It has characteristics like a person. Maybe that’s why we call it ‘Goddess Laxmi’ in India.

A lot can be shared on this topic, maybe in another post.

21) Our needs & wants have limitations

It’s very important to find out what do really want in the life. In my 20s, I used to have lousy desires like becoming a billionaire, having huge mansions, etc but later I realised that there is limit to how much we can handle.

My good friend Vijay (Chennaite) used to give an analogy of Idli :-). He used to say, how many idlies Ambani can eat in a day? He was right.

We can lead a very happy life if we know our ‘needs’ and ‘wants’ correctly.

Chances are, we don’t need as much as we desire.

22) Intuition

Our actions either come from instinct, intelligence, or intuition. We know how instinct and intelligence work, but we often reject intuition (that gut feeling) as if there is no base to it.

Somehow, I always trusted my intuition. The more I stopped doubting, the stronger it became.

You can’t see Intuition from the eyes of logic. Logic is ‘intelligence’s domain.

Daily meditation practice helped me become more intuitive.

23) Law of attraction does exist

Like many others, I was introduced to LoA by Rhonda Byne’s ‘The Secret’ movie. Later on, books by Josesh Murphy, Nepolian Hill and the work of Wayne Dyer helped me go deeper into it.

So, the law of attraction is real. Our thoughts waves attract similar frequencies.

It’s not magic. It’s just another law like other laws that work all the time.

You need to ‘believe’ it to experience it.

24) It’s ok to play small

When I started my business, so called business gurus told us — ‘Go big or go home’. That’s a terrible advice.

When we look around, we see a lot of small business owners, popular shops and successful professionals.

Not everyone wants to be like Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg and wants to build a billion-dollar business.

It’s absolutely fine to play small if it fulfils your needs and makes you happy.

25) Happiness is subjective

Oh god, this is such a simple learning but don’t know why people don’t get it.

Not everyone wants to be a millionaire, not everyone wants to live in a mansion or own luxury cars.

I’ve seen people enjoying at their time at farms, I’ve seen people running small cafes and passionate about serving food to their regular clients.

Happiness is not a standard thing. It depends on how you’ve been raised, where you are born and many other things that shape your thought process.

When I truly understood this, I was able to get rid of the burden to become successful.

26) Diet plans should not be generic

This is the biggest mistake that most of us commit — following a generic diet plan.

After trying low-carb, no-carb, low-calorie, high-protein, Rujuta Diwekar’s diet, Dixit’s diet, intermittent fasting, etc, I realised that any diet plan works differently for different people.

Ayurveda explains it beautifully. Finally, I understood my ‘Prakruti’ and designed my own diet plan.

It was sustainable & it worked :-)

27) Body is the best dietician

It’s important to listen to what our body says. It tells you when to eat, when to stop eating, what works and what doesn’t work.

But it’s not as easy as it sounds. I removed all the distractions while eating, meditated regularly, closely observed body’s reaction to a particular food and then I was able to understand body’s signals correctly.

This means, we don’t need to pay heavy fees to the nutritionist, our body is the best dietician.

28) Food affects the mood

When I’m in a bad mood or feeling low, almost in 50% of the time it’s because of bad stomach. It has nothing to do with others.

Sometimes a bite of chocolate or a good panipuri is enough to elevate the mood :-)

29) Don’t trust what you see and hear. Always question.

I have so many stories where I misinterpreted the person based on what they say. Many a times, I misinterpreted situations based on what I saw.

Now, I don’t form any opinion until I’ve taken a 50-feet-above view of the situation.

30) Surrender means alignment

I heard so many spiritual speakers talking about surrender. Read books on it but I never understood the concept.

Recently, I realised that the true meaning of surrender is to align with higher intelligence. After meditating consistently for days, I experienced this only a couple of times.

Lot of work is required to understand is completely. But when we understand it, it feels transformative.

31) Amazing things happens out of routine conversations.

We call this ‘Manthan’ — it’s when 2 or more people discuss a certain topic, and something really great comes out of it.

Interestingly, I got many great insights from the friends who are not from the IT industry just by talking about the problems I’m facing about my business.

I often indulge into such conversations with my wife which leads to better clarity and meaningful outcome.

32) Detaching myself from the outcome

In Bhagvat Geeta, Krishna tells Arjuna to focus on actions and not on the outcome (कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन). He further suggests to take only selfless actions that are beneficial to the larger society.

It took me 3–4 years to understand the meaning of this simple sentence. Why should I work for society? How can I get motivated to work if I don’t think about the outcome?

When I read about how Karmic cycle works, I understood what Krishna wanted to teach. Our aim should be to accumulate as little Karma as possible to exit the Karmic cycle. And only way to do this is to take self-less actions.

I’m still learning :-)

33) Nothing is permanent — people, places, situation

It took me a while to understand this. I always tried to make things permanent.

I lost touch with my best friends when I left the college, lost another bunch of good friends when I quit my job and so on.

I used to blog on MSN Spaces, had a website on Yahoo Geocities and used to spend most of my time in organising my MP3 collection in Winamp.

Nothing is permanent :-)

34) Victim mentality

When my business was going through a low phase, I unknowingly started blaming the employees, government policies and so on for our own failure.

But the new businesses were launched by others became successful during the same time, in the same environment.

Victim mentality is the lowest state of mind, and it shuts the doors for any possible opportunity.

35) Nobody is crazy

Morgan Housel used this term in his book while explaining investment behaviour. But this applies to real life as well.

People behave according to their memory imprint — where they are born, their family, friends, social circle, situations they went through, etc — there are so many factors that influence our behaviour.

That politician, that boy with a strange hairstyle, that boss, those people in religious rallies, that rash driver — nobody is crazy.

36) Forgiveness

In one of his books, Wyne Dyre had said that people don’t die because of the snake bite, they die because of the venom.

When we have an argument with someone or someone does terrible things to us, then after the incident (snake bite), it’s our thought (venom) that kills us.

Later, when I understood that we are one and part of a same higher consciousness, forgiveness became very easy for me.

Now, I don’t hold any grudges or resentments in my hearts for anyone 😇.

37) Karmic imprint drives our behaviour

Understanding about how Karma works was a transformative experience for me. You can get answers to life’s many mysteries using this framework.

In ‘Matrix Reloaded’, Oracle tells Neo that “we’ve already made a choice, we are here to understand it”.

38) The current moment is inevitable.

Whatever is happening now is not sudden. A consecutive series have events have led to where we are now.

This means we can’t avoid this moment. It’s inevitable.

There is not point in putting a label on it. We just need to experience it.

39) Books are not the only source of knowledge

Many authors have explained the power of subconscious mind in their books. We can tap into its true potential using meditation, self-hypnosis, NLP or other techniques. When we do it, we can get access to unlimited source of knowledge.

I’ve also met people who’ve gained divine knowledge using sacred ceremonies like Ayahuasca. There are people who can communicate with higher spirits to get answers to their questions.

Books are definitely not the only source of knowledge.

40) There is a limit to how much we can understand about the universe.

When my 10-year old kid asks me questions, I answer him according to his age. There is no point in giving him a complete information if he can’t understand it. He will eventually get it as he grows.

Same way, when I read Bhagvat Gita, I derived different meanings from it at a different point of time in my life.

Later, I got convinced that there is a limit to what a human mind can understand about the mysteries of universe and it’s creator.

We don’t know what we don’t know.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -

Phew! That’s all folks.

I hope some of my learnings will help you in your journey of life.

Let me know in comments which one resonated with you the most.

I’m not done with learning yet. Will write a follow up post after a couple of years :-)

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Cheers!

👋 Hello, and welcome!

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