Fantastic Five Years

Five years ago, on this date, I started my journey of entrepreneurship and it has been one of the most exciting phases of my life. I have lived a decade in these five years and have done things I hadn’t imagined when I had taken the plunge.

While there is a lot to brag about, this yearly article is meant to document learning. Like in the past, I would stick to them. This year I have five of them. (Those keen on my previous blogs documenting the learning, here are the links for Year 2, Year 3 & Year 4)

1. It pays to invest in building social media presence!

In the recent past, I have been actively trying to build my social media presence on Twitter. Based on the benefits I have reaped already, I can strongly recommend investing in one’s social media presence. This is regardless of what one is doing in life or wishes to do. Having social media presence can fast-track many things for you — from getting hired to hiring

As a specific example, I did this video on YouTube about 4 years ago along with Romit. The target audience were young actuarial talent and the purpose was to give them a feel for the health insurance pricing model. Two months ago, an Insurtech co-founder landed on the video and now we are working on a project that would fetch me dollars in five figures!

2. You can’t influence your luck but can surely increase the probability of luck rubbing off on you

I have realized that I have been lucky more than many people around you. When I think about it, there is a pattern. One gets lucky more often when one

- is open to trying new things

- does a good job of the tasks at hand

- is genuine in dealing with people

- helps whenever possible

- is out there — reasonably visible

3. Putting yourself first is not selfish!

Many times we glorify sacrifice. While it looks great in theory but to me, it doesn’t look sustainable. How can you help others when you are not in a good shape?

It is completely alright to put your health (mental and physical) before your work. It is completely alright to protect your time and invest in doing things you like. It is completely alright to put your own oxygen mask on first before helping others!

4. Building something meaningful takes time

Anything that’s worth building/creating takes a long time. Be it learning a sport /musical instrument, building body/mental strength, wealth or a startup — everything takes time.

Knowing that it is going to be a long -long journey and building in a sustainable way is the key. For example, if you are building a startup, doing it on the side until it takes care of itself is generally a good idea.

5. Pay it forward. That’s the only way to die debt free!

While most of us who have tasted a bit of success tend to believe that we are self-made, the reality is many people did contribute to our successes. Most of them did it without any expectations of getting anything in return. They might have had selfish interests in paying it forward but I doubt if it was anything other than reducing the burden of favors they took while climbing up the ladder.

Thanks for reading!