Re-Invention of “You” Re-Visited

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Welcome back, happy Monday morning to you yesterday on the podcast, I talked about a distinct thought I had the night before, which is having other people in our lives and other situations in our lives, other things in our lives, and how to deal with them. And I made a point that we came here alone, we are going to go alone, and we’re going to stay alone. So now that we have to stay alone, why not make solitude our friend and our partner in this equation called life. And as I quoted Socrates, Socrates said, the best form of life. And Socrates said that the best form of life is contemplative. That means, we are asking questions, we are challenging the default. And we are asking for a good design of life.

So today, on the podcast, I want to extend that thought, and this episode is going to be valuable to you if you are in a phase of life where you are questioning and questioning a lot. That means you are unwilling to deal with the default situations. Default situations have gotten you here, default situations were instilled into you, or default programming was instilled into you very long, very early in life for a very long amount of time. So you were told, go get a job, go make money, go buy a house, go get married, have children, your life is gonna be okay. And you believed all that you got here. And now at this point, you achieved all that. And now you’re questioning what else there is to life? And where else can I go with my life? Are all the things that I can do? And what all can I undo? Because I know, those were not right, to begin with, those questions you’re asking? If you are, then this is for you. This questioning, by default, starts in the 40s, early, mid-40s and kind of becomes very intense, by the time you reach 50-55. That’s the age. So we call the midlife crisis, like, we start to see that we are becoming less and less employable, we’re becoming less and less relatable. And other things are coming in into our thinking. And then you start to see, you’re looking you’re finding you are at least you are pursuing to find logic in this life, you thought was a logical thing. But then it’s no less than absolute, a logic that’s playing out. And that’s called the mystery of life. So at this point, you have to reinvent yourself, the answer is to reinvent yourself.

So we accept what we have accepted, except that we are not changing anything. We can’t change things that are outside of our control. And suddenly, now, after all these years, you start to see that you’re not in control at all. You were told you were in control, you’re no more in control. So this is the reinvention start of reinvention. I did multiple podcast episodes on reinvention. How do you reinvent yourself? So I want to revisit what this reinvention is all about? How can you reinvent yourself? I did an episode a long time ago, I don’t know if I find the link, I’ll post it in the podcast notes here are then this is kind of an extension to that. So more or less every podcast episode I have done here is a way to structure life structure, activity, structure, time structure, approach productivity, and get them out get to the outcome. That’s the podcast here. That’s the overall nature of the podcast. And all the episodes more or less, are about that.

So how can you reinvent yourself? Given that you are asking these questions? And if you’re not asking these questions, you can obviously close the podcast, and maybe listen to another episode that makes sense. But you’re asking these questions. How can you reinvent yourself? Here’s a plan. And this is a plan that has worked, at least for me. As I started going through this process, I’ve seen multiple individuals, coaching clients, and seminar attendees go through these people without me seeking, giving me testimonials that I have gone through this and this is how it worked for me. So I’m basing what I’m going to be telling you just now I’m basing that on the feedback I’ve gotten from people of course my personal references there my past experiences there, but then it has come from people.

So first the foremost, as a part of your contemplation of life, you need to create a list of things that you want to change that you are unhappy about, that you want to accomplish, that you want to get control of. Or you want them to perform in a better way, a list of those things, those items, so spend some time today and create a list. The bigger the list better it is. Just put everything on the list. Powerful when you start writing. Once you have the list, identify the three most important things in terms of priority and criticality. Three things that are critical. Three things, and then you saw those three things based on priority. That is critical, but they also have some priority also. So the most critical one has to go on the top, then the second one, then the third one, okay, critical means they need to be addressed now, or should have been addressed yesterday, should have changed should have been managed, should have been whatever, right? Whatever the word address means. Now, you give an example, let’s say weight loss, critical, but let’s say it is, let’s say a job search or job change. Let’s say buying a house, I’ll take the top three things, let’s say those are the three things. Not necessarily critical. You can be happy without losing weight, you can be happy without changing a job, you can be happy without, you know, changing your house or buying a house, whatever. But you get the point. For the sake of example, let’s take these three things. Now. Everything on the list should need three things.

Number one, let’s say you are trying to lose weight, you need a plan. That means with the plan comes a system, you need to find a system. So plan not a system. That’s step number one. Step number two, are you taking action on a daily basis towards fulfilling that plan. We’re not talking about timelines here. And we’re not talking about deadlines on any of that. Some of these things like weight loss may take six months, buying a house may take you two years, and changing a job may take anywhere 30 to 90 days, depending upon how serious you are, right? So all these things have different timelines. I won’t get worried about the timelines here. I’ll start with a plan and a system a systematic approach to the outcome of step one, step two, what am I doing daily to get to the outcome? How much time do I’m spending, looking for a job? How much time do I’m spending losing weight? What activities am I doing? I’m going to eat right sleep right? Workout, right? Drink, right? Whatever that activity is, I need to be taking daily action. The third element is I have to constantly reinforce why am I doing this? See people forget the why. They give up the why.

I know why I came to America. I gave the why. A long time ago I gave up. See? I forgot why. So every day, anything you do you ask why am I doing this? And they have to be clear. So this podcast, I’m doing this? Why am I doing this? I asked that question. Why am I doing this? And it takes me back to my original commitment. My initial commitment to do this reminds me of that state, I might have forgotten that state. People do forget. So the three things that you have chosen, in this example, are weight loss, changing the job, searching for a job, and house buying. They all individually have three things plan, daily actions, and why. So if you see this, a majority of our success is the mindset. People ask what strategies and techniques it’s all about. And a significant part of that programming is why it’s amazing when you ask why am I doing this? Then obviously, the follow-up question to that would be what am I getting to do? And when you have this VI and what is in place, the next question that comes up is, how do I get there? See, all this is interlinked. But the first question is whether the VI has to be. I’ve seen this multiple times when somebody is Why is powerful and deep and big systems techniques, nothing mattered, even puts a little bit of a push a little bit of an idea, a little bit of a resource, they could achieve big things. So somebody says, If I like to, I can’t do this, because I don’t have this I don’t have that is the truth is, there is always going to be something that we are not going to have. And the truth also is that most people will for entirely during their entire lifetime, seen I’ve seen and, and this will happen before also, they want to make that one thing as the single biggest thing that they ever lacked to become successful. And whatever the success is to them. I couldn’t do that, because I didn’t have this. You could do it because you had it. See that? This is how we reinvent ourselves. And I wanted to catch you in the phase where I did the podcast just yesterday about the solitude and today I wanted to catch you on the reinvention. Because it just goes they both go hand in hand.

You’re in a contemplative state with your life, complaining about life and asking questions. And this comes in handy. This comes in handy. Hopefully, it does. So go do that. No, put a list at least find the top three things you want to do. People say can I do 510? Yeah, do whatever but beyond a certain point all about your mind defeating itself. So just three things, identify them, go after them with a plan of the system with the daily actions and keep on asking why you’re doing it so that you stay on course, you don’t lose the traction.

Okay. Hopefully, this is helpful. If it is read, write a review, and share it with a friend or a family member. And I’ll be back here again tomorrow, and we’ll pick up from where we live today. Okay, that’s all for now. Bye.

The “Others” in Our Lives

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Welcome back, happy Sunday morning to you today on the podcast, I’m giving a voice to a distinct thought that crossed my mind last night. And this has to do with loneliness. This has to do with emptiness. This has to do with solitude. And this has to do with people who break your peace by bringing negativity into your life.

Now, if you are a listener of this podcast, and a subscriber of this podcast, I have done multiple episodes here talking about all these topics individually. But this thought is a little distinct. And there’s a different way to present this thought. So I’m making an attempt on the podcast today. So here is the premise to all this. We are living a lonely life, whether you agree or disagree. We all need friends, family, society, community, humanity all that is needed because we are humans. And I made that point multiple times before. But then if you look at it very carefully and use a different kind of lens, you’ll start to see that this is a lonely life. And people around you who drag you into negativity or say negative things in a positive way, and that’s a big one. They do not live your life. They don’t know. They don’t understand the kind of life you live. And I made a point before also, people married for 2030 years living under the same roof in the same room, sleeping on the same bed don’t know each other. And if you seriously think about these different dynamics, you start to realize that this is a lonely journey. This is a journey that only belongs to you. You are taking this journey and you only know even though you do not know the path, you have to go alone. There isn’t someone who is going to push you or pull you. I’ll tell you one example here. I made an attempt in 2019 to go up all the way to the peak of Mount Everest. And I was struggling on my path through the replacement called Khumbu Icefall on Mount Everest is the starting point. And I struggled through the Khumbu Icefall and my Sherpa told me, it says, you know, he was pulling me and it was pushing me based on different situations and where I was, but then at some point, he said, I can’t do anything, once we get into the death zone. And you’re struggling here like this. I’m worried about you, once we get into beyond camp. And at that point, you have to be on your own. I mean, I’m there, but I’m not there. Because I need to take care of myself, the more inefficient I become, the more deficient I become at that level, and the more there is a threat to my life. And I’m here to save your life, but then it will be hard, both of us are going to die. And that’s in that moment, I realized, I’m alone. I have support systems, but I’m alone. So you have support systems now in your life, you’re alone? You have no idea. So I meet people who tell me, I’m doing this for my children. I’m doing this for my family. I’m doing this for my parents. Yes. I respect your values. I respect your intent. And, you know, you have my best wishes, and may God bless you for what you do for whoever you do for. But understand that there is no payback. You’re alone. You should never be in a situation 2030 years from now. And you say, I did this? Why is nobody doing anything for me? Because this is a lonely game. You’re born alone, all of us, you’re gonna die alone. And while these two are facts, why not respect the loneliness that exists between birth and death. You’re not talking about Everest. A mountain is a perfect example of how far can you go alone? How much you can expense as an individual. There is an objective to go to the top. That is the start point. But then what are all you’re willing to give up to get to the base of the mountain and from there, what additional you have to give up to get to the peak of the mountain by the time you reach the peak of the mountain, let’s say, let’s assume that yes, we all we will all be, we all will reach the peak of the pinnacle of everything that we are doing. And that’s the idea behind the pursuit anyway. So whether Everest means a mountain to you, or Everest means the job, or the rest means finances for you, financial freedom for you, whatever.

So everybody has Everest in them. They’re trying, they’re chasing it, they’re trying to climb internally or externally. But there is, so what is the cost we pay by the time to get to the peak? And what does it take to make sure that we get to the peak? So the mountain itself is a good measure of how far somebody goes physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, of course, financially. See, we live in a culture or are the last at least last 17, 18 years since the social media revolution has happened. We are in a culture where people feel they’re powerful. And they feel the power of pulling others down. So there is direct negativity already. So there was before, before there was, you know, passive negativity, you know, people nice to you, and, and telling you things without knowing they have no idea but they’re nice to you. But then you take their niceness as if they’re attributing towards your positivity and towards your success. And then you take them seriously in the process, you fail to achieve your goals. And I gave one example, a long time ago, my mother used to tell me, why did we, you know, why don’t climbing Why do exert yourself, my father also growing up used to. Now, you know, why exert yourself, don’t do this, don’t do that. The love the care, get that than my parents, but then that’s not what I want to be, I don’t want to be like them, I want to be different. And this is probably happening right now, with you with your children, you don’t want them to do a few things, but they want to. So that’s their path. That’s their journey. And we justify our positions from an experience standpoint, and they are justifying their positions from a time point. These times are different. This is our time, we got to do these things.

Here is a side note completely a side note, you cannot stop anybody from making mistakes. People will make mistakes, and there is a lesson in making those mistakes. And then all you have to do is let them make the mistake, but make sure that they learn from mistakes. So specifically in the case of your children, let them make the mistakes, but let them learn. And when they learn, you also learn a whole different new aspect of that mistake, which you thought you wanted to prevent. So every mistake, when the lesson is taken from the mistake, it allows you to now deal with a different kind of a mistake with a whole different level of understanding and knowledge. No matter which way you look at it. It’s a blessing. Talking about loneliness, talking about others in our lives, we have too many of we have people obviously, but then we have too much of other stuff. We have politics in our lives, we have taxes in our lives, we have economy, not lights, we have, you know, obviously, you know, people who do not we don’t want to, but we still because we are tied to them through blood and through all that. So there’s a lot of this in our lives, the question becomes this, this how all this is going on, we can’t change or we could change a few things. And we know that we are here. And we got here alone, and we are going to get out alone. And then we have this path or this gap in between where we have to respect this aloneness of this loneliness.

Here’s my message on this. And this is a distinct thought from last night, which is, let’s respect this loneliness. Let’s take this loneliness, as solitude. That means the time given to us so that we can stay with ourselves. So take the time to be with yourself. It’s a good one. Aristotle, a Greek philosopher, Aristotle says, the best form of life is contemplative. So when you are alone with yourself, you’re gonna ask questions, you’re gonna contemplate, you know, what is this life? Where did I come from? Where am I going? What are the things that I need to do? What makes sense? What doesn’t make sense? What should I keep and what should eliminate? What should I spend more time with? What should I not spend? No time but like things like these deep questioning happens. Oh, boy it, philosopher. But Racz I think that’s the name of the site says something. Solitude rehabilitates the soul corrects morals renew affection, erases blemishes, what is just or false and the concise God with the man or woman. See, that’s how powerful this is. Sort of rewind this just a few minutes, and on your app and listen to those lines, powerful. So if you’re lonely, you’re powerful. If you have a lot of things going on in your life, and everybody is pulling you and pushing you in different directions to have different agendas going on. It’s okay to strengthen yourself because the only way they’re between you being bond lonely, and you’re going to die lonely, is all of us will. And we are here lonely. The only way we took we deal with everything that’s coming at us is by strengthening ourselves on beliefs or values to the commitments we strengthen every day. And there are numerous podcast episodes we have done already and I’ll continue to do talking about strengthening the soul. And there is no other shortcut that I think of and this is the thought that crossed my mind last night.

Okay, so that’s all for now. Hopefully, I give the right words to my thoughts, hopefully on this podcast. The bottom line is this. This is a solo journey. We are all together in the space and connected but then we are all individually leading our own lives. And so nothing matters. All mattresses you. take yourself seriously. Bye now.

For The Entrepreneur In You!

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Welcome back to Success with Srini. Happy Saturday morning to you. Today’s podcast episode is for you, if you are an entrepreneur, this is also for you if you ever thought of becoming an entrepreneur. And this is, of course for you, if you’re in between. And what is this in-between, I’m going to define that in a second. And before jumping into the core, I want to set the tone for today’s podcast by sharing three different articles that came from three different sources. The first one was published on March 9, 2011. This was on Business Insider, it says unemployment is forcing people to become involuntary entrepreneurs. People do business from necessity, then having a great idea or entrepreneurial spirit. That’s the title of this article from Business Insider. Then, on May 6 20.1, exactly 10 years later, now we are in a different situation in 2021. They’re already a year into COVID. And the world has changed. This is an article from The Wall Street Journal. It says millions are unemployed. Why can’t companies find workers? So this article was going deep into the benefits that people are getting not going to work. It was also talking about unemployment benefits. This article was more about people not going to work because of the COVID situation, the fear of getting COVID, and all that. So there are fears and then obviously the unemployment benefits and all that. So this article is pretty comprehensive. And we already know this problem, because this problem has just recently played out, it was all over the media. So you probably know this.

Now, between 2011 and 2021, there was an article on ink.com. And this was published on February 3, 2016. And it says why the cure for unemployment is not more jobs. If unemployment is a symptom of a weak economy, creating jobs, is just a bandaid. The real cure is a resurgence of entrepreneurship. So entrepreneurship is what fixes the problem. So let’s take this February 3 2016 inc.com article and look and take that into our lives into your life into my life, our lives. Let’s first define where we stand. A typical listener of this podcast stance, you know, I can’t generalize this, but I’m going to make an attempt. So has a job has a defined title has a defined income has a volatile role is not clear. But in a somewhat compromised management structure, has liabilities has bills to pay, so has to keep the job and work hard, has a family has two kids. He or she doesn’t matter. Okay? Now, this individual decides, I don’t like this, I mean it, I’d have taken it for 510 15 years now I want to change my situation, this individual decides to change. And the first change this individual wants to make is fire. My manager. I don’t like my company, I don’t like my manager. So it’s better that I’ve worked for myself. So this individual decides to go independent. And again, there are so many other issues like Visa, depending upon which country this individual is from. Most of my listeners of this podcast are in the United States. So depending upon the visa and the eligibility for employment, that there are some things there.

Okay, so this individual results, all those issues in a 10-year span, and the timeline and decides enough is enough, I’m going to go on my own. Okay. So the first thing this individual does is start a consulting company. I have all this experience I’m a pro, so I should be able to do This myself and decides on I’ll go and get my own client, I’ll get my own customer. So let me go try this out on my own, okay, at this point, this individual is, in a way he or she believes that they started a business effectively, they didn’t start a business that just becomes self employed. It’s a self-employment situation. Nothing changes, again, fixed income. Now have multiple managers. Yeah, a little bit of flexibility in terms of taxes, maybe running a business operating through a personal entity, things like that, but nothing changes as much. Now that situation. Soon this individual stock starts to see that it’s not a good situation to be in. Okay. And now, after a few years, decides, why don’t I replicate myself. So I’m going to go hire a bunch of people into the company who can do exactly what I do. That way I can make more money. And then goes hires people. Now more complexity gets added. Now the management of those people, of course, more revenues, not necessarily proportional profits for the effort going in. This is how consulting companies operate the majority of my clients and people I talk to, have this challenge, they have an inflated organization, which makes them feel as if they are business owners. But they really haven’t found the freedom yet. So now, they think they own a business. But they really don’t. They’re working in the business, they can’t take time off, they can’t go anywhere. They have issues.

Now they’re dealing with issues that are outside of their work structure, that dealing with issues externally, to the company and people’s personal issues and all kinds of stuff. Now, at this point, sometimes people tell me, I’m an entrepreneur, I have a consulting company. Just because you have a company doesn’t make you entrepreneurial. You could be doing it because you saw an opportunity that you wanted to encash. And you probably did that with maybe one or two different situations. And now you started to believe in that. And now you are building an operation around those kinds of opportunities, and you’re looking for opportunities here and there. But not necessarily have freed yourself. This is what I say. People who have gotten out of the job situations but not necessarily become entrepreneurial entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship involves and new ideas, new ways of thinking. It could be in terms of products, it could be in terms of concepts and philosophies, some parts, but then taking an idea, mobilizing different resources, and giving it shape and form. Maybe it could become profitable, maybe not. But in a business situation, you are looking into, how do we operate this? How do I make it run, I have to open the office at 9 am, how to close it at 9 pm, something like that. So there are a lot of businesses that have business owners, not necessarily all business owners or entrepreneurs. Now, where am I going with this? Your job is to become an entrepreneur. Your job is not to become a business owner. Now business ownership happens because you became an entrepreneur. It’s one of the elements of entrepreneurship, not necessarily the qualification for entrepreneurship, you become an entrepreneur first. But as you grow as an entrepreneur, you’ll end up owning a business or two or three or five. See that? I’ll put one name there, Elon Musk, okay. Go study him, study his growth, study his current approach to life and business. And overall, with the trajectory that he has right now, you will understand exactly what I’m saying.

Most business owners are so caught up in their businesses that they’re not open to new ideas. That looking for ideas, but they don’t have time. They can’t think now a business as a business owner. You are only a business owner. If you’re not working in the business. That means you have people who are like you, they work you make a profit from them but If you are sitting there and taking a paycheck and you’re still working, you’re still managing them. It’s not business. So how do you go from having some professional experience? to becoming an entrepreneur? How do you kind of go? How do you cover this journey? Here is the answer. There isn’t. There is no shortcut to this. See people who go from regular jobs, they say, I want to become an entrepreneur, let me bring an idea. And I’m going to get some investor to invest in all, you know, get raised some money. I hear that all the time. Most people don’t get lucky with that. Most people don’t get the money. Most people don’t. And you probably need 3040 50 different ideas and probably 3015 102,000 different presentations and tons of people along the way, to whom you present, who will say no to you, who will reject you, and lots of a segment along the way. It’s not easy. See, it doesn’t work that way. So the staying power in the game is what defines you as an entrepreneur, how long can you be at it? And what are the things that you’re going to sacrifice to become that it’s not about profitable, it’s not about making money, it’s about going hungry, it’s going becoming sleepless and just, you know, losing? I’ve seen different people talk about this. Somebody asked me the question that as to become an entrepreneur, I lost my 401 K, I lost W2, my income. And for years and years, and yes. And don’t know if I’m an entrepreneur or not, I run a business. Right? I define my time and find my schedule. Not sure yet. See, I’m still in the process. I’m not there. But I’ve seen people who got there. And I get inspired by looking at them. So how do you grow? How do you accelerate this growth from becoming from being a professional who is on a paycheck to becoming an entrepreneur who has multiple ideas and has the time and flexibility liberty to pursue anything and everything at will? How do you get there? Well, here’s the deal. Okay, do as many jobs as you can do it, take up as many jobs as you can. Okay, start adding as many businesses as you can. Okay, not accelerate the process, but first, become self-employed. Let’s go there first, okay. And fix some issues. So change the situation, fix some issues. And then from there, change the situation again, okay, start a business and hire other people who are identical to you to make you better than you. Let them run the show, you stay back.

Now you focus on entrepreneurship, it takes some time. It doesn’t happen overnight. Some people are lucky. They know that one born into it in a different way altogether follows. But then entrepreneurship is the highest form of self-development. I said this multiple times on this podcast, there is nothing in this universe that will test you like entrepreneurship, you lose relationships, you lose money, you lose sleep, you lose your health, you lose many things along the way, there’s a price that you have to pay for the price. There is a price you pay for the price. And multiple times I mentioned this year on the podcast too, if you are a regular listener, people read books, self-improvement books, they do nothing, they come to seminars, they do nothing, the gold coating, they do nothing, nothing nothing. And the field they are doing something amazing things solving the mind, not on the ground. No one business, I’m willing to start a business, I’m gonna fail over the next 12 months or 24 months I go hungry. I’m willing to do that rather than reading 40,000 books over the next 40 years. You can’t do that. But I’m just saying, right? I read books, I have to go to seminars for the next 40 years to become an entrepreneur. I would rather do a business now. fail, learn, fail, and be done with it. Remember why you’re doing this is because you want to take the freedom not necessarily the money. Money is a byproduct, you do something you bring a good idea. You create a good product, you provide incredible service, people will reward you and reward comes in the form of profit. It’s not about a client. It’s not about the customer. It’s not about revenues. It’s not about anything. It’s about you doing something much bigger than you and having a bigger impact than anybody else. And people can take in yours, whatever you created into their lives, and now in slightly raising their quality of life because you created something and because now they are getting profits are they’re getting the benefits. You they raise your value by giving you some profits. That’s the equation there. Hopefully I connected the dots. Okay, I’m going to stop you at this has gone too far.

The takeaway from this podcast today is this. Keep accelerating your desire to become an entrepreneur despite the situation that you are in right now. Keep it alive and you keep on waking up every day to this idea and then awakening yourself through your own learnings on a daily basis on an incremental basis and soon you’ll arrive there okay that’s all for now take care