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Don't be afraid of nothing!

“I hate my job, but at least I have a salary coming every month.”

“I hate this relationship, but at least I am not single, like most others.”

“I am not enjoying my college at all, but at least I will have a degree at the end of it.”

“I am not happy where I am in life, but at least I have something!”

“Something is better than nothing.”
​THIS is the worst lie sold to the world.

We are lying to ourselves that our sorry state of affairs is going to magically lead us to some happy state.

The truth is - we are scared of the options outside of our current state.

And so, we lie to ourselves that our current state offers us “at least something”.

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Something is NOT better than nothing.
There is space in nothing.
There is reflection in nothing.
There is a reset in nothing.
There is exploration in nothing.

When we stop lying to ourselves and instead go for the “nothing”, we may begin to see things we had closed our eyes to.

Every thought and gut feeling you have is telling you something.
Do not be afraid of it.
Explore it.
​(Share on X)​
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Book I am reading this week

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Still reading "The Courage to be Happy" by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga.
I like this extension. While the first book "The Courage to be Disliked" was about the Adlerian philosophy, this one puts it to use. It's a guide on not just understanding, but implementing this way of life.

Mind you - it's still not easy. By any measure. As is the case with most philosophy, it often hits hard and seems unviable, unreasonable, and impractical. But you sit with it and meditate on it - and you begin to see how it might work for you.
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On the note of meditation, I completed 5 years of meditating every day without missing a single day.
The reason I share this is not to impress.
Instead, to suggest a very simple yet powerful fact: If something works for you, there is no effort required to make it a habit. If it doesn't work for you, every day seems a struggle.

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My latest book, Make Epic Money, has sold 1,15,000+ copies in India with a 4.4+ rating.
It is the simplest book I know on personal finance, while I am extremely biased when I say this :))
You can buy it in Hindi, English, Marathi, Audio, and Kindle here.

Here is an alphabetical list of all books I have shared in this newsletter so far.
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Question of the week

Do you track the country's annual budget actively?

• Yes, very actively
• Somewhat, read about it once done
• Not so much, learn about the effects much later
• Not at all, don't care or understand

(and see the results of others, too)

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Results of last week's question

So interesting, no? There seems to be a correlation between age and whether the year is going well for you or not. Younger means "worse than expected".
​My response
​The year is going much better than I expected - on nearly all fronts :))
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3-2-1
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3 pics from last week

This is a pic from 14 years back (2010) when we had gone to Leh/Ladakh for the first time. I look different, haha!

My usual breakfast - a protein shake with granola and Greek yoghurt.

Just got done with book signing at Crossword in Chennai. Finished a crazy thali (Kari Virundhu) and feel like I can crash now, lol!

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2 quotes I wish to share

Making mistakes is not the mistake. Not learning from them is.

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Don't be in a hurry to create impact. Be in a hurry to learn.

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1 new thing I learnt this week

Lee Kuan Yew, the former leader of Singapore, used to obsess over airports and the first few miles of the city. Because he felt it was the onboarding experience for talented future citizens.
He used to inspect the Singapore airport personally.
Toilets, immigration queues, luggage handling, cabs - everything had to be top-notch.
He wanted to "create a first airport experience so magical that people question why aren't they living here".
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And if you have been to the Singapore airport, you know that this strategy worked!
Singapore went from a third-world country to a first-world country in just a generation!
Crazy!
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🎙️ My top content from last week
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📹 YouTube:​ 20 money mistakes that make you poor​

📱 Instagram: If you died​

🐥 Twitter: Everyone's company is a mix of these 3 things. And so is every individual. ​

🎧 Podcast: 10 reminders​
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You can, of course, always write to me by simply replying to this newsletter.

I love reading all your emails, even though I may not be able to reply to them all.
Yes! I READ ALL MY EMAILS. ALL OF THEM.​
​(Chennai ke amazing khaane ki kasam)

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