THIS IS OUR TIME!

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I was in the US for the past 10 days, visiting Chicago, Michigan and New York.
Met with a lot of old friends, after a really long time.

I landed in Chicago and was there for 3 days. I really like the city (used to go there when I was running Groupon India - the HQ of Groupon is in Chicago) - its weather, history, people. Seems like a nice balance of NY and SF.
I walked the streets of Chicago, spent a lot of time at cafes, working, thinking, writing.
But I could see signs of a post-pandemic city.
The energy wasn't quite there, as I had experienced it before.
Something was missing.

Then I went to Michigan (Lansing), where Michigan State University is.
They had invited me for a talk, which went really well.
I spent 3 days there meeting people, visiting my (astrophysics) department, walking the campus, and remembering my days from 20 years back.
It was surreal.

This used to be my desk, as a PhD student 20 years back. It hasn't changed one bit. It seemed no one has sat there for the last 20 years haha!

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This was the talk that I gave.
You can see the full recording here​

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On my last day there I was one of the judges for a startup pitch event. 15 teams pitched their ideas, to win the venture challenge, which was $15K for the winner, all the way to $10K for the 5th position.
I observed a marked difference in the pitches that I heard from them (mostly American students) and the ones I am used to in India. More on that in the later part of this section.

Then I went to New York, where I first met Sahil Bloom.
Sahil is an accomplished creator, most famous on Twitter - and a deep thinker. He is all of 31 years and it's commendable how he connects with people. We spent nearly 4 hours together, chatting, recording a podcast, having dinner and exchanging ideas!

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Then I met Sameer - my room mate from Michigan State. He is one of the nicest people I know and it was awesome meeting him and his family after several years.

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The big meeting was meeting 3 of my closest classmates from school (all of them are in the US). We were meeting together for the first time since we graduated from school 25 years back! But it didn't feel like it. We started exactly where we had left it off. We laughed, we ate, we did stupid things, we walked, we hugged and we fondly remembered the days!

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And on the last day, I got to meet GaryVee - the one who has inspired me the most on my content creation journey. I have learnt so much from him by just observing him, that I had to thank him for being the best invisible teacher possible.

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As I was waiting for my flight and reflecting on the trip at the NY airport on the last evening of my visit, I recognized something.

The US is a great country - it's developed, it's process driven, it's stunning, it's convenient, it's abundant, people are mostly good.
But what I felt it lacked was an excitement for the future.
I call it the smell of growth.
India has it.
Everywhere you go, you smell growth.
You see an insane level of excitement for the future. A certain sense of optimism that goes beyond rationality.

As I sat to judge the students in the venture challenge, I saw that they were smart, no doubt.
But something constrained them.
As if they knew what they can do and are capable of and they realized they should only stretch that far.
When I see students here, it's as if they do not know what they can do. They do not know their capability.
And instead of being constrained because of that, they stretch themselves even more.
They wish to fly, knowing they do not even have wings.
"We will figure it out somehow."

That energy is contagious. It's precious. It's rare.
That energy is what we need and what we have.
That energy will drive the next 10/20/30/40/50 years for this country.

It feels like our time.
It feels like our moment.
And I hope it is.

It's so good to be back.
And smell growth :)

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📕 Book I'm reading this week

Didn't read a single page this week. Didn't feel bad about it for a second :))

Here are links to two books you can read
​Do Epic Shit - hard hitting truths about life, one page at a time.
​Get Epic Shit Done - answers to 36 life questions that we all have, for our lives.

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🗣️ Response to last week's question

At what age did you take your first flight?

• When I was below 18 yrs
• Between 18-22 yrs
• Between 23-30 yrs
• Between 31-40 yrs
• Post 40 years
• Haven't taken a flight as yet

Here are the results

Because the average age of the newsletter subscribers is around 23-25, it is understandable that 1/3rd have not yet taken a flight. I am surprised at how many have already taken one before they turned 18.
If I zoomed in to the elder age group (30+), most of them took their flight between 23-30 years of age.

My answer:
I took my first flight at the age of 22 - and that too for the US :)

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🙋🏻‍♂️ Question of the week

Do you regularly drink alcohol?

• Yes, I do
• No, I don't
• I used to, but quit drinking
• Do not wish to answer

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Answer here

(and check the answers of others too)

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📸 Picture of the week

Lot of people last week got this right. This pic is of Paro Airport, Bhutan (DrukAir is the national airline of Bhutan).
No picture for this week, because the email itself was pictures :))

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🎙️ Podcast I shared this week

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🚀 Content I shared this week

📹 YouTube:​

​10 habits of the rich and famous​

📱 Instagram:​

​A scientist and his 5 monkeys​

🐥 Twitter:

​Story of Zerodha and the Kamath brothers​

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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.​
​(India jaisi koi aur jagah nahi ki kasam)

You can view all previous newsletters here.

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