Most people who want to start a business think they should quit their job and start a start-up, not true in my opinion. Work nights and at weekends, test your idea out. The minute you have to push the start-up and work to make money is very different from, let’s see if this even works. Irrational optimism is the founder’s death trap.

When you raise money, it is not an achievement, it’s an obligation. When you raise money, you’re not just answerable to your customers but you’re also answerable to investors because they desire a return. Because they’ve raised money from someone who is also looking for a return. Now you’re under the pressure of growing your business which is a huge obligation. 

I am sorry to break your heart somebody out there has already come up with the same idea that you have. Somebody out there is already working out the same idea that you have. 

Your idea is not the start-up, your approach is the start-up.

All problems are interpersonal-relationship problems. 

So if you don’t have a good relationship with yourself then how you’re going to have a good relationship with others? It all begins with having the right relationship with the most important person, you. 

Would you be friends with yourself? Would you be your own boss? Would you marry your own self? What version of you would you rather not be?

Here is an unpopular opinion, empathy can’t be taught. You are either born with it or not.

Empathy is you saying I understand what you’re going through. Sympathy is you saying I feel sorry for you. And Respect is you saying I admire the way you’re handling this.

Respect>> Empathy>> Sympathy

It takes effort to find love. It takes effort to get fit. It takes effort to feel fulfilled. It takes effort to feel happy which is why most of us do not have love, fulfilment, happiness or fitness. When you give what you desire the most, you don’t desire it anymore.

True respect is when you respect someone even after you got to know them. It is easy to respect someone online or from a distance but that is not respect, it’s infatuation. It’s hard to replicate that respect when you know them beyond the perceived persona. Because now they’re not acting, now they’re without their mask, bare and barren. That is when your admiration either turns into loathing or respect.

Wanting to maintain a distance from someone you don’t relate to anymore doesn’t mean that you don’t care about them it just means that you care about the relationships you have with yourself more than that you have with others.

You are allowed to outgrow older adults and old versions of yourself. Outgrowing friendships is an entirely normal experience for anyone undergoing significant transformations in their life. Old friends who are on a different path may be inadvertently holding you back from reaching your fullest potential.

Mistakes Ankur Warikoo made with money

1)Associating money with negativity and having the mindset that money is the root of all problems.

2)Taking loans to buy real estate assuming the price appreciation would take care of the interest rate he pays.

3)Whenever he made any extra cash, instead of paying off the loans, He invested in start-ups, convinced the start-ups would multiply money several times.

4)Investing in illiquid assets like start-ups and real estate, and rarely in liquid assets such as stocks and gold so when tough times happened He had a lot of paper wealth but no cash.

5)He continued to maintain his expensive lifestyle when he should have lowered it. 

6)He invested in stocks when the markets went high in the hope of making fast money and he sold in panic when the markets stagged so that he doesn’t lose money. It should have been the exact opposite.

7)Whenever He was in need of money, he broke his mutual fund investment to generate cash. He basically broke compounding. He persisted with it during the painfully slow growth period and just when compounded growth was about to take off, he clipped its wings

8)Discouraging his partner from investing in mutual funds.

Don’t chase goals for two reasons

1)You do it for a destination, instead of becoming someone in the process. 

2)And you invariably start chasing another destination upon reaching one.

Instead, make habits that make you the kind of person you wanna become.

Pursuing habits opens up multiple doors but chasing goals may only open just one door.

Targets are the enemy of habits. Don’t set targets, set habits. Setting targets instead of habits makes us forget what kind of person we want to become. 

We not only want to run marathons, but we also want to become fit. We not only want to be sculpted, but we also want to see how disciplined we are. The more we get the process right, the closer we get to the targets. The more we run after targets, the more we sign up for feeling hollow once we achieve them.

Habits hire us forever and take us higher whereas targets tame us and leave us clueless after we achieve them.

1)Always carry notebooks like a school student. One for ideas, One for to-do lists for the day and One for meeting notes

2)Putting everything on the calendar and sharing it with his significant other.

3)Having two WhatsApp self-groups. One of these groups is for documents and images such as PAN card, license copy, passport copy, or documents for easy access such as tickets. The second group is for thoughts or to store something he recorded in the way.

4)Having an afternoon nap for an hour.

5)Setting the right environment is super important. Never working from bed, always on a table.

Whenever someone asks me what my advice would be for 20yr old self, I have one answer. Make sure, decisions in your life are made from a point of awareness.

Merely knowing what you need to do is not enough for you to do it, awareness is the start of the decision not the end of it.

Step 1) Awareness,

Step 2) Execution, 

Step 3) Rinse and repeat.

What is the best mental model for taking tough decisions?

1)What’s the worst thing that can happen?

2)Close your eyes and vividly imagine it happening.

3)Ask yourself will I be okay? Mentally, socially, financially, and Physically, and if yes, then go for it.

Definition of success changes for each individual. Risk and failure are just a state of mind, there should never be no fear or regret.