To be or not to be

When one decides to do something big, one moves way out of their comfort zone. Their heart gets divided into 2 parts. One part tries to drive towards the goal and the other tries to pull away.

In the case of an entrepreneurial goal,  one part justifies the risks with the satisfaction of possible fame and riches. The other part focuses on the possibilities of financial instability, inhumanely long hours of work, lack of social life, delayed marriage, and/or unstable relationships.

It helps to have experienced a similar dilemma earlier in life. For me, someone who is keen on pursuing the entrepreneurial path,   my early experience of a similar psychological fork in the road was the strenuous and risky trekking of  Chokramudi Peak in Kerala, India. At dawn on April 1st 2017, I began the climb to the summit of the 7200 foot mountain peak with my friends. The mountain had many spots, that seemed like the peak, but once we reached those spots, we saw that there was still a lot to climb. At each of these spots, our numbers grew less with people giving up on the climb to the top.

It was summer.The sun was not merciful. At some points we had to use ropes to climb up, and it felt like being in a Mission Impossible scene. Near the end of our trek to the summit there was a big rock creating a steep climb. The guide warned us about the danger, “If you look down you will be unable to move, and you’ll get stuck; if you slip, you will fall down to your death.”

I was a little overweight at that time and not very athletic. This situation  was no less than a dare devil stunt for me. A few of those still remaining decided to stop there on the spot. I said to myself, "Ashish, this is it. If you can climb this, you can do anything in life." With that thought, I gathered all my strength and courage, and I climbed the rock. The feeling at the top of the the peak can't be explained in words. I was literally at the top of the world, well all of the world within sight.

This experience had everything in it: a big, seemingly impossible goal; perseverance, when others are giving up; dwindling numbers of  friends who keep pushing and supporting you; believing in yourself; taking one step at a time to eventually reach the ultimate goal, and finally the sweet reward of having a satisfied soul.

Whenever I have the choice of to be or not to be, I remind myself of that experience and eventually chose to be.

The Dream

One of my idols, Arnold Schwarzenegger once said, "Even if you have a perfect ship, you will just drift around, if you don't have a vision". Every success story starts with a dream, a faith that one day that dream will come true and a determination to do whatever is necessary.

Being raised in a middle class family, I was always encouraged to take the road most taken. That consisted of earning good grades, getting into a good college, getting a well paying job and finally raising my own family. Like an average middle class guy, I tried to follow the recipe the best way I could, but I always secretly dreamed of an awe-inspiring, luxurious life.

In my dreams, the vehicle to create that wow life kept changing from a famous actor, to a sports star, to a musician, to a software engineer at Google, and so on. Despite my desires and efforts, I have always been an average performing guy.

I have been in a good multinational company (MNC) with an ordinary salary for the past 5 years. When I started I was determined to quit the MNC  as soon as possible and either pursue my dream of entrepreneurship or get a high paying job.

Over  time I got distracted with the mediocrity of mundane life. At work, I always gave my best. That helped me to travel abroad twice. However, the dream of becoming an entrepreneur poked me every now and then, urging me to do something.

I kept listening to and reading various inspirational speeches and stories. They would make me create a plan, but in a few days the excitement would die out. I was struggling with being overweight, having an engaging relationship, and feeling reluctant to leave my comfort zone. I had all the excuses in the world every time I failed to follow a plan.

A few months ago, I went through a terrible breakup. It shattered me. It's not everyday you find your soulmate and then lose her.  Then my company sent me to Mexico. Being in a new place, I decided to put all excuses aside and start the work of becoming an entrepreneur.

To begin with, I decided to get rid of things I had used as excuses for not pursuing my dream in the past. I made a plan to tackle the layers of fat on me. So far, I have worked out in the gym 3 to 4  days a week and maintained a protein dominated diet. It's been almost 2 months since I got here, and I have lost 5 kgs and 5 cms in waist size.



Inspired by my little victory, I have decided to tackle my next big goal. To be an entrepreneur.
The goal is not just to make money; I want to work on something that will bring social and environmental reforms.



I have few ideas, which I will be refining and finalizing on in the coming days. I will be updating this blog at least once a week and record my struggles, my approaches to them and my progress.



It's time, to take the road less taken.

Prologue

Computer, electric car, social media, hotel booking app; the list goes on. Someone someday comes into limelight with a brilliant, innovative and successful business. Many writers try to reach them, to find out their success story, their secret mantra, their extra edge. Thus come various biographies. 

Many times these biographies don't give out the real grind. Sometimes they exaggerate or undermine the real struggle, owing to the fact that long term memory is not very sharp and can get easily influenced by the emotions remembering the struggle.

It's easy to have a success story, once you are at the top. The hard work, the fear of losing, the hopes for success or the doubts of an uncertain life or the compromises are not always captured microscopically. 

The idea of this blog is to write about the journey of a nobody, with big dreams and faith in his success. When he will reach the pinnacle and look back on the path walked on, he will have a story true to the bone.