It stopped me in bed.

Not because of the big ending. Because of the small scenes. The unpaid Dean Witter internship. Sleeping in a BART bathroom with his son. The paint-stained interview. The father who refuses to turn hardship into anger.

Chris Gardner gets hit again and again - right when things start to look up. Most people in his shoes would become bitter.

He doesn’t.

In the film’s quiet thesis, Gardner wonders about Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence:

“How did he know to put the pursuit part in there? That maybe happiness is something that we can only pursue…”

Leave a comment

That line hit me harder than the Oscar-bait ending.

I was him in my early 20s. And the struggle started long before that.

1. Hardship doesn’t require a hard personality

I can imagine almost anyone in Gardner’s position becoming irritated, agitated, and angry all the time. Life throws a hard ball the moment things look good.

But Gardner keeps walking. He protects his dignity. He protects his son. He protects the dream.

“You got a dream, you gotta protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they want to tell you you can’t do it. You want something, go get it. Period.”

Subscribe now

That hit close to home. The financial struggle was real. I had to find ways to earn money. And I was always pulled toward computers and the internet.

2. The night I broke my father’s laptop

I was 12 when my father bought a Lenovo laptop.

In India then, a laptop wasn’t “a gadget.” It was luxury. Closer to a cleaning robot or VR headset.

I wanted to help him. Viruses were everywhere. Antivirus subscriptions were expensive. So when a friend’s brother offered a “free” install file, I felt like a hero.

I plugged in the pendrive. Installed. Rebooted.

The laptop froze.

No touchpad. No keyboard. No restart. No shutdown. Just a dead machine until the battery died.

I cried myself to school the same day. My father worked late nights on that laptop. I was sure I’d destroyed everything. I wasted all those father’s night.

You might wonder how “antivirus” freezes a laptop. Twelve-year-old me had a conspiracy theory: antivirus companies spread viruses to win customers. Looking back, it was almost certainly malware dressed as help. The lesson wasn’t tech. It was what happened next.

My father didn’t yell.
He didn’t shame me.
He said: We’ll get it fixed. If not, we’ll buy another one.

We did get it fixed. No data lost.

And that soft landing lit a fire. I didn’t run from computers. I ran toward them. I needed to know how they worked and what they could do to a life.

Psychologist Carol Dweck’s research on growth mindset helps explain why that moment mattered. When adults treat mistakes as recoverable, not as proof you’re “bad” -- kids stay curious instead of collapsing into shame.

My father gave me a soft landing. Curiosity did the rest.

I later saw the same trait in Chris Gardner: do the hard thing without turning your pain into punishment for everyone around you. Life can go wrong. Every move can veer off course. Character is how you respond.

3. When family finances collapse, the mind goes into survival mode

Few years later, my father got a chronic illness. Hospital bills crushed the family income. Savings started to look temporary.

So I started saving. Thinking twice before eating out. Hunting deals to buy stuff cheap. Finding money where most people only saw apps.

Behavioral science has a name for that pressure. In a famous Science study (Mani, Mullainathan, Shafir & Zhao, 2013), researchers found that money worry can tax cognitive bandwidth, roughly like a 13-point IQ drop or losing a night of sleep.

Scarcity doesn’t only empty the wallet. It captures attention.

That was our house. Survival first. Ambition second.

India’s new application market boom had one loud game: refer and earn.

I played it hard.

I promoted apps while studying full-time. Resold rewards in the secondary market. Then came LINE’s big scheme:

• Every 25 referrals → bonus

• At 300 referrals → a new iPhone

25 was easy. 300 was war.

I hit the milestone. Held the iPhone. My sister wanted it but we sold it for the money our house needed.

Then I did it again, not on one account, but more than ten. Then I moved into direct dollar payouts for installs. Enough to keep the house running, paying hospital bills and tuition fees.

Subscribe now

In Gardner’s language: this was the unpaid internship season of my life. Ugly work. Necessary work. Not glamorous. But forward.

4. Progress has a bill - pay attention to which one you’re paying

But progress has a bill.

I failed two subjects in my first college semester.

That was the fork.

If I kept grinding referrals at full speed, I might have saved more months… and lost the path that later led me to Amazon.

So I stopped. Recalibrated. Kept moving, just in different direction.

This is the part inspirational movies sometimes skip: the edit.

Hustle without a steering wheel becomes self-sabotage. Gardner didn’t only grind. He chose the path with the highest long-term compounding, the brokerage seat, even when it meant unpaid months and sleeping on bathroom floors.

“Don’t ever let somebody tell you you can’t do something. Not even me.”
— Chris Gardner to his son

Share

The quieter version for students and early-career hustlers:

Don’t let short-term survival tell you that long-term self-destruction is “necessary.”

The Soft Landing Rule (a simple mental model)

Chris Gardner taught me one thing the movie never says out loud:

Most people turn pressure into anger. Anger into bad decisions. Bad decisions into more pressure.

The successful ones do something else:

1. Take the hit without becoming the hit. Life can be unfair. You don’t have to mirror it.

2. Turn soft landings into fuel. My father’s calm didn’t erase the mistake. It converted shame into curiosity.

3. Hustle for survival — then edit for the future. Referral schemes paid bills. Stopping them protected the career. Both mattered. Timing mattered more.

4. Walk forward in baby steps. Not every stride has to be dramatic. Forward is forward.

Call it the Soft Landing Rule:

When life throws the hard ball, respond soft enough to keep learning — and firm enough to keep moving.

Subscribe now

Chris Gardner slept in bathrooms and still showed up like a professional.
My father faced a dead laptop and still chose repair over rage.
We faced hospital bills and still chose curiosity over bitterness.

One question to keep (and one research-backed reminder)

The next time life hits you mid-progress, ask:

Am I about to harden… or land soft and walk forward?

Cornell psychologists Thomas Gilovich and Victoria Medvec (1994) found a painful pattern in regret:

So protect the dream. Take the baby step. Edit when needed. Keep walking.

Because happiness isn’t a finish line you own.

It’s a pursuit you practice. Every ordinary day you refuse to quit.

“Walk that walk and go forward all the time. Don’t just talk that talk, walk it and go forward. Also, the walk didn’t have to be long strides; baby steps counted too. Go forward.”
― Chris Gardner, The Pursuit of Happyness

I send out Master Mentee 🎓 articles with curiosity and a passion for growth. If you’re enjoying it, I’d be grateful if you shared it with a friend who’d appreciate it too.

Share

Not subscribed yet? Join the growing mentee squad of curious minds.

✨ Get the next issue in your inbox:

Subscribe now

💚 If this resonated, tap the 💚—it’s free for you, but it supports my work and helps Master Mentee reach more amazing people like you.

One month later, I’m still adjusting coming back to India — but this time the surprises weren’t about meetings or lunch breaks. They were about money, customer support, and a reminder that even carefully chosen career moves can suddenly feel uncertain.

The hardest upgrade isn’t the lifestyle. It’s the mindset.

One of the biggest things I’ve noticed since moving back is this:

Not because they don’t want better things, but because spending still feels wrong.

I see it most clearly in my parents. They spent their lives optimizing every dollar (rupee). My mother will go out of her way to buy the same vegetables for a few cents less. Leftovers never go to waste — they go to someone who needs them, or at the very least to animals. Every hour, she turns off every extra bulb (or fan), even when the house still needs light. My father keeps old slippers for years. Buying new ones feels like disrespecting what still works.

I inherited some of this too. I still check three online stores before buying anything — not because those few dollars would make me rich, but because if I paid X and later found the same item for less, it felt like someone had tricked me. Or worse, like I had been careless.

I’ve intentionally improved a lot in this area. My parents still struggle. They don’t get happier by upgrading their lifestyle, and that surprised me more than I expected.

Why don’t people enjoy spending — even when the money is there?

This isn’t just my family. I see it in my friends too. One of them makes more than half a million dollars a year, and he will still spend an hour to save $10. Anyone looking from the outside would say that trade-off doesn’t make sense. But he isn’t doing it consciously. His mind learned that path years ago — and it never fully left.

Aristotle once said, “We are what we repeatedly do.”

Share

Money habits are no different. Financial psychologist Brad Klontz has a useful idea for this: our money behavior is driven by unconscious “money scripts” formed in childhood.

One of them is money vigilance. It looks healthy — save carefully, avoid debt, stay careful. Taken too far, it becomes anxiety and an inability to enjoy financial success.

Another is money avoidance. It links wealth with guilt, and that can lead to under-spending even on reasonable purchases.

When a carefully made decision suddenly feels fragile

Recently, Amazon announced another round of layoffs — this time specifically in its AGI organization, the same org I recently moved into.

You know that feeling when you make a decision carefully, and then the ground shifts underneath it? That was me. I moved from another team into an AGI team just one month ago, and then the layoffs arrived. Luckily, I wasn’t impacted. But I’m with everyone who was.

Layoff news is rarely gentle. It arrives suddenly, and it can change a life overnight. I saw that up close with a roommate who was laid off in Amazon’s first wave, just when it started across companies.

It’s scary — not only for the people who lose their roles, but for everyone around them who suddenly wonders what “secure” even means.

And yet, over five years — or twenty — that same disruption can become useful in ways you can’t see at the time.

A friend of mine is in London today because a layoff pushed his career onto a different path. At the time, it felt like an ending. Looking back, it was a beginning.

Steve Jobs put it better than I can:

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward.”

Subscribe now

There is not one path in life, my friend. Sometimes the path you didn’t choose is the one that opens next.

The other shock: customer support

The second big realization this month has been simpler — and more frustrating. Customer support here is often poor, and even international companies don’t feel the same.

Amazon US customer support is not Amazon India customer support. You can’t return many items easily, even when the quality is wrong, or the product arrives different or damaged.

That gap became very real when I recently bought term insurance. I wanted to protect my family from the unexpected.

The agent filled out the entire application for me — without asking, without sending it for review, and without even sharing a copy.

Then Indian law did something useful. An automated email landed in my inbox with the filled details, and many of them were inaccurate. I asked them to correct it. Over the phone, the agent casually said they had.

That “yes” didn’t give me comfort, so I sent a formal email to their official address and asked for a written response.

Then I went ahead with multi-step, multi-day, multi-week process of getting term insurance. Eventually the policy became active. Then I received the final documents — and the application still hadn’t been updated.

I reached out to customer service. The responses were unclear. Sometimes they closed the case without a proper explanation. I finally said something simple: if I don’t get a clear answer, terminate the policy and refund the money.

That got their attention. They filed a complaint, and I finally received a short written response that gave me just enough comfort to keep the policy:

“We have carefully re-evaluated the application and the information shared by you. We would like to inform you that, as per our underwriting guidelines, there is no impact on the aforementioned policy with respect to the declaration made by you regarding your health status.”

Leave a comment

Not a long explanation or specific details. Just a few generic lines.

I’m staying with what I have — not because the experience was great, but because I already spent weeks getting here.

Maybe the next company’s support would be worse. I don’t know.

What I do know is this: I need to change my expectations around customer support in India. Not lower my standards completely — but stop assuming every system will behave like the ones I got used to abroad.

What this month taught me

Coming back after years away doesn’t just reset your calendar. It resurfaces old habits, and it exposes new gaps.

Some of those gaps are personal — like the money scripts we carry from childhood.
Some are structural — like how customer support works from country to country.
And some are professional — like realizing that even a thoughtful move into the “right” organization can still leave you standing next to sudden uncertainty.

Same person. Same country I grew up in. Different expectations.

Subscribe now

Coming home has felt a lot like that. The place looked familiar. The current does not.

And that difference is still teaching me.

I send out Master Mentee 🎓 articles with curiosity and a passion for growth. If you’re enjoying it, I’d be grateful if you shared it with a friend who’d appreciate it too.

Share

Not subscribed yet? Join the growing mentee squad of curious minds.

✨ Get the next issue in your inbox:

Subscribe now

💚 If this resonated, tap the 💚—it’s free for you, but it supports my work and helps Master Mentee reach more amazing people like you.

This week, I want to talk about work.

I spent nearly five years at Amazon US before moving to Amazon India.

Same employer.

Same leadership principles.

Same performance reviews.

Same engineering bar.

Yet after just a few weeks, it felt like I had joined a different company.

Not because Amazon had changed.

Because culture had.

I’ve started believing that culture is the operating system. The company is just the application.

The application stayed the same.

The operating system didn’t.

Subscribe now

My first culture shock happened before anyone arrived.

On my third day, I reached the office at 9:00 AM.

The lights were on.

The coffee machine was running.

The cafeteria was open.

The office wasn’t.

Almost nobody was there.

I checked Slack.

Silence.

For a moment, I wondered whether I’d accidentally come in on a holiday.

Later that morning, one of my colleagues smiled and said,

“This is completely normal here.”

That was the moment I realized I had moved countries, but my internal clock hadn’t.

For five years, my mornings started early.

Now I was the only one following that schedule.

Ironically, a month later...

I stopped coming at 9.

Reverse culture shock isn’t just learning new habits.

It’s slowly letting go of old ones.

Lunch became my daily reminder that I had changed.

In the US, I naturally ate around noon.

Here, most of my teammates eat around 2 PM.

Two hours doesn’t sound like much.

But every day, I found myself sitting alone in the cafeteria.

At first, I thought,

“I’ll just wait.”

I never could.

My stomach was still living in Seattle.

Share

It sounds like a small thing.

But culture often hides inside small things.

Not holidays.

Lunch breaks.

Meetings taught me that time has different meanings.

One thing I quickly noticed was how differently people treated calendars.

In the US, if a meeting starts at 10:00, people usually join at 9:59.

Being on time is almost an unwritten rule.

Here, meetings often begin a little later.

And unlike what I was used to, they frequently run beyond their scheduled end time as well.

At first, that bothered me.

Now it doesn’t.

Not because meetings changed.

Because my expectations did.

The biggest surprise wasn’t work.

It was relationships.

During five years in the US, I almost never exchanged personal phone numbers with colleagues.

Slack.

Email.

Chime.

That was enough.

Here, sharing phone numbers is completely normal.

Managers call.

Teammates call.

Work flows naturally into personal communication.

I’ve chosen to keep my own boundary and still prefer messaging first.

But I also understand why many people don’t see that boundary the same way.

Different cultures optimize for different things.

One optimizes for personal space.

Another optimizes for accessibility.

Neither is objectively better.

They’re simply different.

One conversation made me genuinely uncomfortable.

It was an intern’s last day.

People started asking about the internship.

Then the questions became surprisingly direct.

“Who was the worst Senior Engineer L6?”

“Tell us three good things and three bad things about your manager.”

Everyone laughed.

The interns answered.

But I noticed something else.

Their voices became quieter.

The people they were talking about were sitting right there.

Including their manager.

I kept wondering how I would have answered that question as an intern.

I’m still not sure.

Then there were the late-night meetings.

One thing I appreciated in the US was predictability.

Most meetings were over by 5 PM.

Here, I’ve heard stories of meetings continuing at 2 AM to accommodate global teams.

Does everyone work insane hours?

No.

That’s actually one misconception people outside India often have.

But global collaboration does create schedules that can stretch far beyond the traditional workday.

It’s less about working harder.

More about working across more time zones.

What surprised me in a good way

Not every difference made the adjustment harder.

Some made it easier.

People spend more time talking before meetings.

Lunches are longer.

Conversations are more spontaneous.

Someone drops by your desk just to chat.

Teams celebrate together.

Food is better.

Relationships feel warmer.

It reminded me that productivity isn’t the only thing workplaces optimize for.

Sometimes they optimize for belonging.

The biggest lesson

When I first moved back, I kept asking,

“Why is everyone doing this differently?”

A few weeks later, I started asking a better question.

“Why do I assume my way is the normal way?”

That’s when I realized something.

I thought I knew my own country.

Five years abroad had quietly taught me a different set of invisible rules.

Coming home wasn’t about remembering India.

It was about unlearning America.

And that’s what reverse culture shock really is.

Not forgetting one culture.

But discovering that you’ve become part of another.

I’m curious.

For those who’ve worked in multiple countries:

What invisible workplace rule surprised you the most?

Leave a comment

I’d love to hear stories from places beyond India and the US.

Pack a few bags. Parcel few packages.

Book a flight.

Start a new chapter.

Reality had other plans.

It’s been a couple of months since I moved from the US back to India, and I’ve learned something interesting:

Coming home can feel just as foreign as moving abroad.

People often talk about culture shock and reverse culture shock when they move back to Indai.

Here are a few lessons I’ve learned.

The hardest thing to rebuild is trust.

In the US, shopping became effortless.

If an item arrived damaged—or simply didn’t fit—I returned it.

No arguments.

No stress.

A refund showed up a few days later many times few minutes.

That experience builds trust.

Back to India, I realized many products don’t even have a return policy. Once you buy something, it’s yours.

I never appreciated companies like Costco or Amazon.com until I no longer had them.

The difference isn’t just about refunds.

It’s about confidence.

When customers trust a company, they buy more without overthinking every purchase.

Trust is invisible.

Until it’s missing.

Subscribe now

Punctuality is more valuable than most people think.

One experience taught me this the hard way.

I hired a moving company, agarwalpackers.in “Bade Bhaiya”, to transport my belongings.

The sales representative confidently promised delivery within 8–10 days.

Day 10 arrived.

My shipment hadn’t even left my hometown.

Customer support repeatedly told me, “It will reach in two days.”

That wasn’t even possible because the shipment hadn’t been dispatched yet, and the journey itself takes around three days.

Eventually, the salesperson stopped answering my calls.

Emails didn’t help either.

After countless follow-ups, my belongings finally arrived on Day 21.

The delay was frustrating.

The lack of honest communication was worse.

People can accept bad news.

What they struggle to accept is being misled.

I’ll write a separate article about how the corporate culture within the same company surprised me.

But moving back also gave me something priceless.

I get to live with my parents again.

That sentence means more to me than any salary increase ever could.

For the past three years, I couldn’t even meet them in person because of circumstances outside my control.

Now I get to have breakfast with them.

Talk to them.

Simply be around them.

You don’t realize how valuable ordinary moments are until they’re no longer ordinary.

One idea changed my perspective forever.

I once read about author Sahil Bloom calculating how many dinners he had left with his parents.

Instead of thinking in years, he thought in moments.

The number wasn’t as large as most people would expect.

That idea stayed with me.

It made one thing obvious:

Success means very little if you’re too far away from the people you love.

Moving back wasn’t only a career decision.

It was a life decision.

Another dream quietly came true.

My parents lived in the same house for 35 years.

I always wanted to give them a better living experience.

Because my work required relocating to another city, renting was the practical choice.

Compared to apartment rents in the US, I found a beautiful apartment with something I’d always wanted:

A balcony.

Every evening, I come home, sit outside, and watch the lake, the skyline, and the trees.

Nothing extraordinary happens.

That’s exactly why I enjoy it.

Sometimes happiness isn’t buying something new.

It’s finally having enough time to appreciate what you already have.

My biggest takeaway

Moving back to India has been a mix of frustration and gratitude.

I’ve experienced broken promises, delayed deliveries, and moments that tested my patience.

I’ve also gained something far more valuable.

Time with my parents.

A home I genuinely love coming back to.

And a reminder that the best decisions in life rarely optimize only for money.

Sometimes they optimize for people.

Looking back, I’d make the same decision again.

I send out Master Mentee 🎓 articles with curiosity and a passion for growth. If you’re enjoying it, I’d be grateful if you shared it with a friend who’d appreciate it too.

Share

Not subscribed yet? Join the growing mentee squad of curious minds.

✨ Get the next issue in your inbox:

Subscribe now

💚 If this resonated, tap the 💚—it’s free for you, but it supports my work and helps Master Mentee reach more amazing people like you.

“At the end of life, nobody regrets not spending more time at the office.”

A few days ago, I did something many people dream about but few actually do.

I left the United States and moved back to India.

Not for a better salary.
Not for a startup opportunity.
Not for some glamorous “digital nomad” lifestyle.

I moved back for family.

And the experience has already forced me to rethink money, success, comfort, and what actually matters in life.

The Shock of Living in Two Different Worlds

When I left the US, the weather was around 49°F.

When I landed in India, the afternoon temperature crossed 110°F.

It felt like my body traveled between two planets.

The heat here is relentless. You don’t casually “go outside” in the afternoon. You plan around it.

For the first few days, my entire strategy was simple:

Stay indoors.
Sit under the AC.
Survive.

Thankfully, modern India has evolved in ways many outsiders still don’t realize.

Amazon delivers quickly.
But what truly amazed me were the 10-minute delivery apps.

Need cheese? Need ice cream?
10 minutes.

Need PS5?
10 minutes.

Household items?
10 minutes.

It felt futuristic in America.

Ironically, some parts of India feel more convenient than America.

Yet at the same time, some things are much harder.

Most homes don’t have central air conditioning (HVAC) like in the US. Sometimes only one room has AC.

You suddenly become aware of energy usage, airflow, and even which room you spend time in.

Comfort becomes intentional.

The Dust Nobody Talks About

One thing that surprised me wasn’t the traffic or noise.

It was the dust.

In America, I almost never thought about cleaning floors daily.

In India?

You may need wet mopping every single day.
Sometimes twice a day.

Dust becomes part of your routine.

At first, this sounds annoying.

But then you realize something deeper:

Every country optimizes for different problems.

America optimizes for convenience and personal space.
India optimizes for adaptability and resilience.

Neither is perfect.

Both teach you something.

The Hardest Working People I’ve Ever Seen

One thing became obvious almost immediately:

People in India work incredibly hard.

Delivery workers bring packages in brutal heat without complaint.
Laborers work outdoors in temperatures that would shut down parts of other countries.
Small shop owners stay open long hours every single day.

It changed the way I look at “hard work.”

Many of us sitting behind laptops talk endlessly about hustle culture.

But real hard work often looks very different.

It looks like survival. It is survival.

The Salary Difference That Broke My Brain

The biggest mental adjustment hasn’t been weather.

It’s economics.

For example, household help here may cost around $10 per MONTH for washing dishes every day.

In America, similar work could cost $10 per HOUR.

That’s nearly a 30x difference.

Same human effort.
Same hour.
Completely different value assigned by geography.

Even in tech, the pattern repeats itself.

Same company.
Same role.
Same responsibilities.

But salaries in the US can be dramatically higher than salaries in India.

For years, I accepted this as “normal.”

But once you live in both countries, you start questioning everything.

Why does location determine human value so heavily?

I understand cost of living, currency conversion, and global economics all play a role.

But seeing it firsthand makes you realize how unequal and complicated the world really is.

That sentence feels very real after moving countries.

Subscribe now

Why I Actually Left America

Most people assume moving away from the US means something failed.

But sometimes leaving is not failure.

Sometimes it’s clarity.

The real reason I moved back was simple:

I wanted to spend time with my parents while I still can.

As parents grow older, time starts moving differently.

You begin realizing there are only so many conversations left.
Only so many dinners left.
Only so many ordinary moments left.

And one day, those moments disappear forever.

Modern society teaches us to optimize for:

Income.
Status.
Productivity.
Career growth.

But very few people teach us to optimize for presence.

That realization changed me.

The Lie We’re All Quietly Told

We live in a world that constantly tells us:

Make more money first.
Spend time with family later.

Build the career first.
Enjoy life later.

Sacrifice now.
Live later.

But “later” is never guaranteed.

I’ve seen people become financially successful while emotionally disconnected from everyone they love.

I’ve seen people spend decades chasing promotions only to realize they missed their children growing up.

And I’ve noticed something else:

At the end of life, nobody wishes they attended more meetings.

They wish they had more time.

More conversations.
More memories.
More ordinary moments with people they loved.

Success Means Different Things at Different Stages of Life

Maybe success in your 20s is ambition.

Maybe success in your 30s is stability.

Maybe success later becomes peace.

Right now, my definition of success is changing.

Yes, moving back may affect my income.
Yes, it may slow down parts of my career.
Yes, my lifestyle will be different.

But I’m willing to make that trade.

Because some things are more valuable than maximizing earnings.

Presence is one of them.

Health is one of them.

Family is definitely one of them.

Final Thought

Living in both America and India has shown me something important:

A higher salary doesn’t automatically create a better life.

Sometimes the richest moments are the simplest ones:

Eating dinner with parents.
Having tea with family.
Being physically present for people you love.

Money matters.

Career matters.

But eventually, life asks a deeper question:

Who were you there for?

And that answer can’t be outsourced, automated, or delayed forever.

I send out Master Mentee 🎓 weekly with curiosity and a passion for growth. If you’re enjoying it, I’d be grateful if you shared it with a friend who’d appreciate it too.

Share

Not subscribed yet? Join the growing mentee squad of curious minds.

✨ Get the next issue in your inbox:

Subscribe now

💚 If this resonated, tap the 💚—it’s free for you, but it supports my work and helps Master Mentee reach more amazing people like you.

Imagine you’re driving a luxury car down a perfectly paved highway. The AC is crisp, the music is perfect, and the GPS says you’re heading toward “The Dream.” But as you look out the window, you realize every other car is exactly like yours. Everyone is driving at the same speed, toward the same destination, with the same look of quiet exhaustion behind their eyes.

You want to take the next exit but the dirt road that leads to the unknown. Your hand freezes on the steering wheel. A voice in your head whispers, “Don’t. It’s safe here. Just one more mile.”

I recently held the “golden ticket” to stay on that highway forever. And then, I did the unthinkable: I took the exit.

The Gold-Plated Cage

I finally realized why so many people feel “stuck” in a life that no longer fulfills them: they struggle to find the courage to take non-average actions.

But the moment you decide to forge your own path, the same crowd starts to whisper.

The “Comfortable” Trap

Recently, I was selected in the H1B lottery. For many (myself included, a few years ago), this is the ultimate dream. It’s the permission slip to stay in the “Land of the Free” and stack U.S. dollars until your bank account looks like a phone number.

However, I am moving back to India. Since then, I’ve been met with a constant barrage of warnings. People tell me it’s the “worst decision” I could make. They point to:

• The USD Income: The sheer math of earning in dollars is hard to walk away from.

• First-World Convenience: Pristine roads, clean air, and organized systems.

• The “Kids’ Future”: The perceived responsibility of providing a “world-class” education.

• The Social Reset: The fear that your social circle will evaporate or change beyond recognition.

• Falling Behind: The internal panic that you are going “backwards” in life.

• Status Anxiety: Losing the prestige that comes with “living abroad.”

Subscribe now

The Elephant and the Rope Story

There is a famous story about a circus elephant.

As a baby elephant, it is tied to a small wooden stake with a thick rope. The baby elephant pulls and tugs, but it isn’t strong enough to break free.
Eventually, it gives up.
Years later, that elephant is a five-ton beast that could easily uproot a tree, yet it stays tied to that same small wooden stake. Why? Because it believes it is still stuck.

It has forgotten what it is truly capable of.

Many H1B holders are like that elephant. It’s not a lack of courage; it’s that they have been conditioned by the system for so long that they’ve forgotten their own power.

The Invisible Weight of the H1B

Nobody tells you what the H1B actually does to your psyche. It’s not just the 60-day grace period; it’s how it changes the way you carry yourself.

• Year one: You’re just excited to be here.

• Year two: You start noticing you word things differently in meetings.

• Year three: You realize you haven’t disagreed with your manager once.

Not because they are always right, but because the “visa math” doesn’t favor the bold. You watch a friend with Canadian PR quit their job to take a three-month sabbatical, and while you call it “amazing,” you don’t mention that you haven’t taken more than five days off in two years.

You make great money. Life looks perfect on Instagram. But there is a low hum of anxiety running in the background of your mind - a constant, vibrating frequency of “what if” that becomes your new normal. You forget what it feels like to be truly relaxed.

The “One More Year” Syndrome

The cycle is predictable. You work hard to get to the U.S., you get the H1B, you adapt to the culture, and you start a family. Your social circle becomes a mirror of your own life. Everyone has the same background, the same fears, and the same visa constraints.

You think about moving home, but you delay.

“I’ll move back in March 2028,” you say.

But 2028 arrives, and things got changed so suddenly it’s “just one more year.” Before you know it, 11 years have passed. You are now in a Green Card backlog that will take 50 years to clear. The “usual logic” takes over: “It’s stressful, but the pay makes it worth it.”

Escape the Average

This isn’t just an H1B story. It’s a human story.

Most people never take the exit and stay in their “cages” because they are gold-plated. They stay because the crowd is staying on highway. But to live a life that is truly yours, you must be willing to do what the average person won’t: Listen to your own intuition over the collective fear.

As Buddha said:

“Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own unguarded thoughts.”

If your thoughts are constantly guarded by the fear of losing what you’ve built, you aren’t living; you are merely “maintaining.”

True security doesn’t come from a document, a title, or a location - it comes from the realization that you are the one who built your success, and you can build it again anywhere.

Ask yourself this: “Are you staying on the highway by choice, or because you’ve forgotten you’re strong enough to take the exit?”

I send out Master Mentee 🎓 weekly with curiosity and a passion for growth. If you’re enjoying it, I’d be grateful if you shared it with a friend who’d appreciate it too.

Share

Not subscribed yet? Join the growing mentee squad of curious minds.

✨ Get the next issue in your inbox:

Subscribe now

💚 If this resonated, tap the 💚—it’s free for you, but it supports my work and helps Master Mentee reach more amazing people like you.

I opened an email from immigration.

I was selected in the H1B lottery.

For most people in the world, this is the Super Bowl. The Olympics. The Golden Ticket to the “American Dream.”

This was my fifth attempt. For four years, I asked the universe for this email. I checked my inbox with a shaking hand, hoping a computer algorithm would finally validate my existence.

But this year was different.

I’d already booked my flight to India. I’d already secured my internal transfer. I was ready to go.

Then luck threw a 100mph fastball at my head.

The Luck Trap

The H1B isn’t about skill. It’s not about your “impact” or your fancy job title.

It’s a casino.

The house usually wins. But this time, the slot machine hit triple cherries right as I was walking out the exit door.

Most people would turn around. They’d see the flashing lights and stay for one more round. They’d let a random number generator decide the next few years of their life.

Not me.

The Power of Agency

Here is the mental shift that changed everything:

Before today, my story was: “I’m leaving the U.S. because of visa issues.” It was a story of a victim. A story of someone being forced out by “the system.”

Now? The story is: “I’m leaving because I want to.”

That is a 10x more powerful narrative. When you move from having to do something to choosing to do it, you reclaim your soul.

I’m not staying for the “Golden Ticket.” I’m going back to India because that’s where the high-quality version of myself lives.

The Noise of the “Standard Path”

My friends think I’ve lost my mind.

My family is worried.

In India, social comparison is a national sport. People look at the U.S. visa as the ultimate trophy. One relative told me indirectly, “Only a fool would lose this opportunity. People work hard just to get a foot in the door, and you’re walking away?”

But here’s what they don’t get: Market value is not the same as personal fulfillment.

They are looking at my life through a spreadsheet. I’m looking at it through my heart.

The Fear of “What If”

The hardest part isn’t the move. It’s the “unknown.”

We stay in mediocre situations because we are terrified of future regret.

• What if this decision is a mistake?

• What if I miss the dollar salary?

But we never ask the real question: What if I stay and live someone else’s dream for the next ten years?

That is the true risk.

The Common Ground Rule

I’ve started living by a new rule: Spend your energy where it helps everyone.

Focus on the spaces where nobody argues. Nobody argues with giving to charity. Nobody argues with being a better human.

I want to be in a place where my growth isn’t a debate or a point of comparison. I want to be in a place where I can contribute.

The lottery result gave me a choice.

And I am sticking with my initial plan.

Have you ever walked away from a "perfect" opportunity because it wasn't your opportunity? Tell me your story in the comments. Let’s break the silence of social comparison together.

Leave a comment

I send out Master Mentee 🎓 weekly with curiosity and a passion for growth. If you’re enjoying it, I’d be grateful if you shared it with a friend who’d appreciate it too.

Share

Not subscribed yet? Join the growing mentee squad of curious minds.

✨ Get the next issue in your inbox:

Subscribe now

💚 If this resonated, tap the 💚—it’s free for you, but it supports my work and helps Master Mentee reach more amazing people like you.

They pick a job, then try to squeeze a life into the gaps between Zoom calls and spreadsheets. It’s a slow death. That’s how you end up in your 70s, staring at a wall, wondering where the time went.

I was living the same. But I’m done with it.

I’ve officially booked a one-way ticket to India which I covered under “The Unwritten Roadmap”. I decided where my soul wanted to be first. My career? It can follow me there or get out of the way.

The Jeff Bezos Regret Minimization Framework

Success isn’t about how much you make. It’s about how much you don’t regret.

I work at Amazon. My “grand-boss,” Jeff Bezos, is the king of this philosophy. When Jeff wanted to quit his high-paying hedge fund job to sell books in a garage, his manager took him for a long walk in Central Park. His manager told him:

“This sounds like a great idea, but it would be an even better idea for a person who didn’t already have a good job.”

Jeff didn’t look at his bank account. He used a Regret Minimization Framework. He imagined himself at 80 years old. He knew he wouldn’t regret trying and failing at a startup, but he would forever be haunted by the “what if” of never trying.

He chose “adventure and service” over “ease and comfort.” He chose to advance humanity.

Subscribe now

The Prison of the ‘Golden Handcuffs’

The “Golden Handcuffs” are a psychological cage.

When you have a steady, high-paying job, you become addicted to the “Ease.” You start to believe that “starting over” is a loss. This is the Sunk Cost Fallacy in action.

We focus on the years of effort we’ve invested in one place (job or career or resources) and fear “burning it to the ground.”

But here is the blunt truth: You have to experience an “ego death” to reinvent yourself. You have to be willing to lose the title to find the purpose.

Life is Not a Spreadsheet

My manager recently left Amazon to return to his own home country. We were in the same boat. His exact words regarding making this big decision: “Life is not all about money and status.”

Those aren’t just words; they are a lifeline.

After booking the flight ticket, I’ve interviewed multiple internal teams for job transfer. The interviews are done. Finally, I submitted my application for an international transfer to India. Team, hiring manager and I have shaken hands.

I’m not just changing offices; I’m reclaiming my time.

I refuse to leave a legacy of “I’ll go home next year.” I’m going home now. I’m going to have quality time with my father and mother while they are still here to enjoy it.

Adventure over comfort. Service over ease. Presence over status.

Thanks to God and every person who pushed me toward this cliff. I’m jumping, and I’ve never felt more alive.

I send out Master Mentee 🎓 weekly with curiosity and a passion for growth. If you’re enjoying it, I’d be grateful if you shared it with a friend who’d appreciate it too.

Share

Not subscribed yet? Join the growing mentee squad of curious minds.

✨ Get the next issue in your inbox:

Subscribe now

💚 If this resonated, tap the 💚—it’s free for you, but it supports my work and helps Master Mentee reach more amazing people like you.

Recently, a viral Substack essay titled “THE 2028 GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE CRISIS” painted a vivid scenario where the global economy is upended by the rapid rise of AI (or AGI). This kind of discourse doesn’t just stay in tech circles; it’s all over my family WhatsApp chats and group get-together.

Even the markets are feeling the tension. When Jack Dorsey, CEO of Block, announced a 40% reduction in workforce, a move many saw as a shift toward AI-driven productivity replacing traditional white-collar roles.

While these narratives focus on what we might lose, very few people are talking about what we stand to gain. I am deeply optimistic. We are the first generation to hold advanced intelligence (AI) in our hands to shape the future. Here is why.

When Machines Replaced Muscle

To understand where we are going, we have to look back at the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries. Before this era, most work relied on human muscle, with limited mechanical power.

Fact Check - To give you an idea of the scale: During the mid-1800s, a single steam-powered excavator (like the Otis Shovel) could move as much earth in one day as 50 to 100 men working with hand shovels.

In the construction of early railroads, what used to take a crew of 100 men several weeks to clear could suddenly be done by one operator and a machine in a fraction of the time.

At the time, people were terrified. If one machine could do the work of 100 men, the math seemed simple: 99 people would be out of a job. This fear led to widespread protests. In the early 19th century, groups like the Luddites famously smashed textile machinery, fearing that automated looms would destroy their livelihoods.

If I had been living in that era, I probably would have been right there with them. If your entire life is built on a specific physical skill and a machine suddenly does it better, fear is a natural response.

But looking back, we don’t regret the “loss” of back-breaking manual labor. We appreciate the convenience of the modern world that those machines built.

History shows that every technological leap triggers fear before its benefits become clear. We are watching that same cycle play out again today.

The Modern Resistance - Cones and Cabs

We see this same pattern today with autonomous vehicles. Self-driving cars have become one of the most protested technologies in recent years.

In San Francisco, activist groups like “Safe Street Rebel” began a campaign of “coning”, placing traffic cones on the hoods of Waymo and Cruise vehicles to “brick” them and shut them down. Organized labor unions and taxi associations joined the fray, arguing that the expansion of autonomous vehicle permits would lead to mass unemployment for low-income workers and drivers.

Whenever a technology directly impacts a person’s safety or their immediate paycheck, it leads to a battle. AI is no different; it’s just the newest front in a very old war.

The Shift from Physical Muscle to Mental Might

What makes humans unique is our combination of physical and mental ability. For the last two centuries, we used technology to automate our physical limitations. We stopped using our backs to lift rocks and started using engines. We liked the convenience, even if we feared the change.

Now, it is the “mental muscle’s” turn.

Today, the most high-paying jobs require deep, specific knowledge and the ability to make complex decisions. Because of AI, machines can now analyze vast amounts of data and make those decisions in a fraction of a second. This is why it feels so personal this time, it’s affecting “mentally exhaustive” jobs, including my own as a Software Development Engineer.

At Amazon, I see this every day. Tools that we use for software development can now complete tasks in minutes that used to take me two full days of coding and debugging. Our “speed to delivery” is getting faster, much like that steam shovel lifting rocks.

A Gift for the Year 2125

Our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren will be thankful that we had the courage to launch this technology. We are moving toward a world where human potential isn’t spent on repetitive mental tasks, but on higher levels of creativity and connection.

If you’d like to hear my thoughts on what the world will actually look like in the year 2125, leave a comment below and I’ll dive into that in my next post.

Leave a comment

I send out Master Mentee 🎓 weekly with curiosity and a passion for growth. If you’re enjoying it, I’d be grateful if you shared it with a friend who’d appreciate it too.

Share

Not subscribed yet? Join the growing mentee squad of curious minds.

✨ Get the next issue in your inbox:

Subscribe now

💚 If this resonated, tap the 💚—it’s free for you, but it supports my work and helps Master Mentee reach more amazing people like you.

I became a father to a baby boy.

For a software engineer used to the comfort of logic and the reliability of predictable code, the chaos of new parenthood was a wake-up call I wasn't "totally" prepared for.

The Addiction We Don’t Talk About

In the hospital, things got complicated.

I remember the suffocating silence before my son’s first cry. When it finally happened, the relief was more intense than resolving a production-breaking bug after days of struggle.

But that’s when the “addiction” started which I noticed to myself.

We usually think of addiction as drugs, alcohol, or the dopamine hit of social media. For me, it was my newborn.

I found myself checking his breathing every few minutes. I was obsessed with his safety, paralyzed by the fear of the unknown.

In the world of dev-ops, we call this “over-monitoring.” In fatherhood, it’s just the raw, terrifying reality of love.

The Physics of Sleep Deprivation

Because of the birth complications, I stayed awake for 48 hours straight. I maybe managed two hours of shallow rest.

When I finally lay down, my entire body started to vibrate.

It felt like a different kind of intoxication. It turns out, that’s because it is.

The Research: Science shows that staying awake for 24 hours straight impairs your cognitive performance as much as a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.10%. That is well above the legal limit for driving.

For programmers and managers who brag about “the grind,” let this be a warning. You aren’t being productive; you’re just drunk on exhaustion.

A Fracturing Corporate World

While I was navigating fatherhood, the corporate world was fracturing.

I survived two rounds of tech layoffs at Amazon. The uncertainty was a ghost that followed me down every hallway.

I still have my job, but the “Amazonian” spirit feels different now.

I’ve always believed that change is the only certainty in life. If you can’t get comfortable with change, you won’t survive in this industry.

But the recent shifts in Big Tech culture don’t feel same.

The Decision to Walk Away

I’m about to make a decision that would make most career-driven professionals sweat.

I’m moving back to India.

I have no certain plans. I have no “next move” lined up on LinkedIn.

For a person who usually craves a roadmap, this is deeply uncomfortable. But comfort is often the enemy of growth.

The career will always be there. This time with my son and my family won’t.

Stay tuned. The next chapter is unwritten.

I send out Master Mentee 🎓 weekly with curiosity and a passion for growth. If you’re enjoying it, I’d be grateful if you shared it with a friend who’d appreciate it too.

Share

Not subscribed yet? Join the growing mentee squad of curious minds.

✨ Get the next issue in your inbox:

Subscribe now

💚 If this resonated, tap the 💚—it’s free for you, but it supports my work and helps Master Mentee reach more amazing people like you.

It got me thinking. What's the real juice? What did I actually learn from watching it, again and again?

You Can't Connect the Dots Forward (So Stop Trying)

Jobs started with the truth bomb: trying to predict the future is a fool's errand. Seriously, how often do your "master plans" actually play out?

But here's the kicker: it's ridiculously easy to connect the dots backward. Think about it.

My job at Amazon right now? Not some grand vision from 2014. It's just the messy, beautiful result of a bunch of tiny past decisions. I was in India, doing my Bachelor's. Made a friend. He came to the US for his Master's. I was in the same boat. Different universities, different internships.

He landed Amazon internship. I was at ABB. My dream was a FAANG company, sure. But when he got that offer? That's when it fueled my own ambition to crack the interview.

And yeah, I got in. We even became roommates. Back in 2014, sitting in India, surrounded by millions of other students, thinking I'd work for Amazon in the US? Impossible. Utterly insane.

But looking back, every single small activity – even just making that one friend – pushed me here. The lesson? You can only connect the dots backward. Always.

So, How Do You Live Life Forward? Trust the Damn Process.

Here's the flip side. I started writing online in October 2024. Did I have a grand plan? Nope. Do I know how it'll help me in 2035? Still no clue. I'm just… doing it.

But here's my promise: I will have the answer in 2035. You, reading this right now? You don't know how it's gonna help you. But let me tell you this: your reading habit? It's benefiting you. Guaranteed.

So, here's the deal. Trust something bigger. God, destiny, karma, reincarnation – whatever your flavor. It's the only way to navigate this crazy ride called life.

Death is Life's Best Invention (Seriously)

You know that thought: "Today's my last day." One day, you'll be 100 percent right about it.

And the thought of death, suddenly, all the fear? Gone. External expectations? Who cares. Becoming successful? Nah. More money? Irrelevant. FAANG company? Promotion? Impressing colleagues? Delivering the best presentation ever? All that noise just melts away.

I've felt it. That moment when all your worries vanish. I even wrote about it in this post.

Just the thought of death can flip your entire day upside down. The trick is to use that power for something meaningful.

We avoid so much. Speaking up to that Senior SDE or your boss. Chasing money when you should be chasing purpose. Obsessing over what other people think.

Ask yourself one question, right then and there: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do?"

That question? That's your biggest life decision maker.

I send out Master Mentee 🎓 weekly with curiosity and a passion for growth. If you're enjoying it, I'd be grateful if you shared it with a friend who’d appreciate it too.

Share

Not subscribed yet? Join the growing mentee squad of curious minds.

✨ Get the next issue in your inbox:

Subscribe now

If this resonated, tap the like 💚—it's free for you, but it supports my work and helps Master Mentee reach more amazing people like you.

Imagine waking up every day with a headache that isn't physical, but a mental burden. That was my reality during my time at Amazon. Finding no pleasure in anything, yet continuing on as if there's no escape. Your mind is constantly fatigued, and you can even feel the exhaustion in your body.

A Mind on Overload

The worries quickly piled up: health, relationships, upcoming meetings, current projects, colleagues, future career, finances, politics, and even laws. The list became endless. You feel perpetually on the verge of being exposed as an impostor, and every meeting brings a chill.

Your heart pounds loudly, and you experience moments of black vision, like a scene from a movie. Your mind can go completely blank, a sensation you've never known before. One moment you might feel on top of the world, but most often, you're utterly helpless.

The Weight of Decisions

Simple choices, like what to eat, felt as monumental as farming in a desert. Even after ordering from a restaurant, you'd second-guess the decision. You become so mentally drained that it's hard to recover. Regret over past choices weighs heavily.

Your mind races at an uncontrollable speed, like a falling star. It's impossible to stop; it's just out of control.

During these times, you perceive life in a way others don't. You can't share your thoughts with friends, fearing they'll think you're crazy. While they enjoy Netflix or sports, you find it all a complete waste of time. Eventually, you learn new words to describe what you're feeling: anxiety and depression.

The Grip of Anxiety

Anxiety is at its peak in this state, making you easily irritated. Even a small mishap, like wasting toothpaste, can lead to intense self-punishment. If you wake up in the middle of the night, you just want to start working.

After many nights of this, sleep itself becomes an incredibly difficult task. Sometimes, you just don't want to go to bed, feeling a relentless restlessness.

You can't even sit still for more than a few minutes. Whether it's the middle of the night or during lunch with friends, your thoughts jump to distant future events, like the year 2055, with little or no reason for concern.

The Rabbit Hole

After many days, you just beg for a single minute of peace from your thoughts. But it never stops. Your mind becomes consumed with negative outcomes, pulling you deeper into a rabbit hole of endless "what if" scenarios.

Even when you consider taking time off, an internal critic whispers that you're running away from your problems. It calls you names: coward, not smart, fearful, weak, stupid. You begin to believe you're misusing PTO and taking benefits unfairly. Anxiety then convinces you that your misuse will be discovered.

Both your inner and outer worlds suggest you're using a "sympathy card" instead of solving the real problem. So you keep repeating what you’ve been doing.

Finding the Good

While these experiences are incredibly challenging, they also have a silver lining. This period taught me profound lessons that one adult could never learn in a normal life. I began questioning everything, like a child, including unanswerable and answerable questions.

I asked myself:

• "What am I doing with my life?"

• "Why am I not making progress?"

• "Am I living up to expectations or letting others down?"

• "Am I going in circles?"

• And critically, "What is the purpose of life?"

• "Why do we exist on Earth?"

In this state, you learn at the speed of a child, finding answers that most people never even conceive, as they are too caught up in the rat race.

At the time, you may not understand what you're fighting or how severe it is. However, later in life, you'll share this entire journey with your spouse, friends, parents, or children.

The Power of Support

The only thing that truly helped me was a supportive team, especially my manager. Managers are human too, and my manager was able to sympathize with me. This is a testament to true managerial skill, and it highlights the difference between a manager and a leader.

Every leader can be a manager, but not every manager can be a leader. My manager, in this instance, was a true leader. You, too, will find someone who stands by you and has your back. You'll never forget that feeling. These types of connections will be deeply real and last a lifetime.

A New Beginning

Ultimately, the universe wanted you to learn and change. I emerged as a new person with new values from that time. One value I want to share today is a deep desire to help humanity, without any expectation in return. This value is incredibly challenging, but I will strive to uphold it consistently.

I learned to truly listen to my inner voice, something I'd always ignored before. The relentless 'what ifs' eventually forced me to confront my deepest fears and redefine success on my own terms.

Finally, remember this:

This means you are strong enough to create this mental-state and trying to navigate even the most challenging states, just like a resilient child.

From what I’ve come to understand, anxiety and depression come from feeling mentally stuck. It’s like mind keeps replaying the SAME problem over and over, trying to solve it but never quite getting anywhere. The longer it loops, the heavier everything starts to feel starting from low mood.

If you're reading this and feeling lost, remember that even in the darkest moments, there's always a path towards understanding and healing. You're not alone.

I send out Master Mentee 🎓 weekly with curiosity and a passion for growth. If you're enjoying it, I'd be grateful if you shared it with a friend who’d appreciate it too.

Share

Not subscribed yet? Join the growing mentee squad of curious minds.

✨ Get the next issue in your inbox:

Subscribe now

If this resonated, tap the like 💚—it's free for you, but it supports my work and helps Master Mentee reach more amazing people like you.

I shared it with my family. They hit me with a very real question:
"What about all your stuff?"

My answer, at the time, was simple:
"I'll just use storage services."

We laughed, moved on. I forgot about it. Life, as it does, got in the way. Job, promotion, marriage – the usual beautiful chaos. The dream gathered dust.

When Life Throws Balls, You Learn to Catch (and Store)

Then, something wild happened. Not "travel the world" wild, but something that unexpectedly connected to that old dream:
I needed storage. For the first time ever.

That fleeting thought from years ago, about using a storage service, came back. I didn’t overthink it. I went to the storage service website, booked a unit, and dropped off my things the next day. It was seamless.

I remember stepping out of that storage unit, keys in hand, and breathing in the early evening air. It smelled like dust and summer—familiar, but also oddly freeing. Something inside me shifted. That old dream? Maybe it hadn’t died after all. I am almost free to pursue that dream that I had years ago.

That simple act of using a self-storage unit wasn't just about moving boxes. It was a vivid reminder: those "wild thoughts" you have? They're rarely just wild. They're often whispers of your future, blueprints for your resilience.

Life will throw balls at you. Some will be small, glancing blows you barely notice. Others will be massive, gut-punching impacts that leave you reeling. You’ll get injured. It’ll hurt. For a while. But here’s the kicker, the profound lesson I’ve learned: you will recover.

It might take time. A lot of time for the big ones. But over time, the weight redistributes. What feels unbearable today might become the very thing that makes you stronger tomorrow (or you will laugh about it).

How Worry Fuels Overthinking

And that brought me to a different realization—one that’s less about action and more about what happens in the mind.

This journey of unexpected connections and resilience also shed light on another pervasive challenge: overthinking. Why do we do it? Because we worry.

It’s almost never about the present. You don't worry about the breath you're taking right now.

Worry is the mind’s anxious dance with the future (anxiety) OR
the regretful replay of the past (regret).
It’s the "what if" game. And it’s exhausting.

So, the next time those "wild thoughts" surface, don't dismiss them. Maybe they're just life's way of setting the stage for something bigger. And when life throws those inevitable curveballs, remember: you’ve got this.

The Unshakeable Belief in Your Path

The secret to all of this? It’s not complex.

It’s about belief.
Believe in your God, your karma, your soul, your destiny—whatever it is.
Lean into it.

Trust that bedrock.
And then, keep taking action.

That's it.
Simple, profound, and utterly necessary.

So, what’s one “wild thought” that’s quietly followed you for years? Maybe it’s not so wild after all. I’d love to hear it.

Leave a comment

I send out Master Mentee 🎓 weekly with curiosity and a passion for growth. If you're enjoying it, I'd be grateful if you shared it with a friend who’d appreciate it too.

Share

Not subscribed yet? Join the growing mentee squad of curious minds.

✨ Get the next issue in your inbox:

Subscribe now

If this resonated, tap the like 💚—it's free for you, but it supports my work and helps Master Mentee reach more amazing people like you.

It wasn't just a physical presence; it was a psychological invasion. My carefully constructed world, built on routines and future plans, crumbled.

Subscribe now

The Echo Chamber of Fear

The fear of death, they say, is the deepest. All other fears feel like small bubbles against it, popping instantly when that primal dread hits. But for me, in that moment, it was the fear for my loved ones that truly suffocated me.

My own mortality felt distant, almost an afterthought, compared to the crushing weight of imagining a world without the people who anchor my soul. My mind, a notorious overthinker, became an echo chamber of worst-case scenarios.

Director meetings?
Presentations?
Performance reviews?
Deadlines?
They vanished into the ether.

All that remained was a primal urge to be with my parents, to feel the safety of their presence, even as a grown adult.

It’s crazy how a primal fear can make your brain go to the most absurd places. My mind even spiraled into worrying about estate tax.

Yes, you read that right.

My life felt like it was crumbling, and my brain decided that was the opportune time to contemplate how much the government would take from my hypothetical savings. The absurdity of it almost made me laugh, a dark, hollow sound, amidst the quiet terror.

I found myself battling an internal urge to make wildly emotional decisions, yet somehow, a tiny voice of sanity—or maybe just sheer stubbornness—prevailed.

Holding On: Sanity in the Chaos

There's an ancient wisdom I cling to:

This became my mantra. My work, my daily tasks, meetings, chores—they weren't just obligations; they were lifelines.

They were the tangible anchors that prevented me from drifting entirely into the abyss of anxiety. For brief moments, anxiety made me think it was me against the universe.

In a world that suddenly felt utterly alien and threatening, the mundane became miraculous. It was the simple act of putting one foot in front of the other, of focusing on a spreadsheet or a deadline, that kept me tethered to reality.

Angels in a Stranger World

And then, there were the angels: my friends. Moving into their home felt like shedding a physical weight I hadn’t realized I was carrying.

The air in their space felt different, lighter, cleaner. It wasn't just a roof over my head; it was a sanctuary. It was the quiet comfort of knowing I wasn't alone in this terrifying, unpredictable journey.

They didn't just offer me a room; they offered me peace of mind, a sense of safety that had been ripped away. It truly felt like walking into a luxurious hotel after a long, harrowing journey—except this hotel was filled with the unconditional love of friendship. I'm profoundly, eternally grateful for them.

The Inevitable Embrace of Change

At the end, my so-called created world completely destroyed, but a new one began to build. My daily schedule, routine, and comfort will require adjustment. But now I know from experience and believe in the saying:

This experience, as terrifying as it was, became a stark reminder of what truly matters: not material possessions or future anxieties, but the human connections that pull us back from the brink.

It was a terrifying, beautiful lesson in vulnerability, resilience, and the quiet power of simply showing up for one another.

I send out Master Mentee 🎓 weekly with curiosity and a passion for growth. If you're enjoying it, I'd be grateful if you shared it with a friend who’d appreciate it too.

Share

Not subscribed yet? Join the growing mentee squad of curious minds.

✨ Get the next issue in your inbox:

Subscribe now

If this resonated, tap the like 💚—it's free for you, but it supports my work and helps Master Mentee reach more amazing people like you.

Then, life intervened, as always. A personal shift. Suddenly, my focus wasn't on deliverables, but on dividends, stock markets, bonds, global trade, macroeconomics—anything but my job. For three weeks, my workday became a classroom for everything else.

The Unseen Hand of Reward

The reason for this sudden shift became starkly clear: I wasn't seeing any immediate reward from the work itself. This wasn't about the paycheck; it was about the intrinsic payoff.

Perhaps it's the nature of hyper-growth environments. At Amazon, team churn is the norm. People come and go. Finding a five-year veteran on the same team is like spotting a unicorn.
It begs the question: why invest deeply when the landscape is constantly shifting?

Yet, Amazon thrives. For 25 years, it's navigated this constant flux, outmaneuvering competitors. So, the system works. But for the individual, the question persists: "What's the benefit of relentless effort?" If I know my team will likely change, what's the long-term play?

The Mind's Deception

This internal debate led to a profound apathy. Showing up felt like an act.

Meetings became pointless.
Conversations with colleagues seemed artificial.
My work, uninspired.
The hard-working professional felt, to themself, poor in spirit.
Every minute felt like an uphill battle.

It became impossible to escape the feeling of disinterest. Then, the jolt: Is my mind playing tricks on me? This was the "Big Tech" dream, the one I’d chased. How could it now feel so… empty?

I believe we're all guilty of it. Once we have something—a healthy body, a sharp mind, a loving family—we take it for granted.

We don't apply the same intensity as someone striving for it. Our minds, it seems, are perpetually seeking the next thing. Even if I built my own company, the novelty might fade.

Beyond the Milestone

The true revelation hit me: My dream wasn't to work for big technology company FOREVER. My dream was to see myself at FAANG, but never thought about whole life.

It was a milestone, a destination, not the life journey. And there's no shame in that. My dream wasn't wrong; it was the fuel that brought me here. Without it, none of this would exist.

This echoes a concept I've explored before: the arbitrary nature of success. Define it wisely. My personal definition remains: "I’m at peace with who I am, and I’m proud of what I’m doing."

This insight immediately answered my mind's persistent question about the "benefit of hard work."

The effort I pour in today isn't for an immediate, tangible reward. It's an investment. The true reward will manifest in the future. So, I choose to be proud of what I'm doing now. I trust myself, finding peace, knowing I'm doing what's best for everyone involved.

Even on days when motivation is elusive, I persist. It’s tempting to overthink, to enact drastic change. But sometimes, the hardest, most rewarding path is simply to accept the present and lean into the work.

“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

Do you agree?

Leave a comment

I send out Master Mentee 🎓 weekly with curiosity and a passion for growth. If you're enjoying it, I'd be grateful if you shared it with a friend who’d appreciate it too.

Share

Not subscribed yet? Join the growing mentee squad of curious minds.

✨ Get the next issue in your inbox:

Subscribe now

If this resonated, tap the like 💚—it's free for you, but it supports my work and helps Master Mentee reach more amazing people like you.

Is it some magical skill they're born with?
A golden ticket called luck?
Or maybe just the right last name?

Deception. Seriously. Talk to anyone who's clawed their way to the top – the self-made ones, the grinders – and that fairytale crumbles fast. Those shiny labels we slap on them? 'lucky,' 'smart,' 'skillful'? They're just snapshots.

The Illusion of Overnight Rockstar

We see the highlight reel – the Ted Talk, the IPO, the bestselling book – and call them 'lucky.'
We hear them speak eloquently and think, 'Wow, so smart!'
We witness their expertise and marvel at their 'skill.'

But here's the cold, hard truth: that 'overnight success' was probably a decade-long slog in the dark.
You know it, I know it.

Now, I hear you. You're thinking, 'Hey, I also do the hard work!'
And you're damn right. Plenty of hardworking people don't reach that pinnacle we call success. So, what's the damn difference?

Showing Up When It’s Hard

It boils down to this uncomfortable truth: successful people keep showing up, even when every fiber of their being screams no.

Every profession, no matter how prestigious, comes with its share of less-than-glamorous tasks.

University professors need to tirelessly pursue funding opportunities.
Supreme Court justices handle tedious administrative duties.
CEOs of major corporations must navigate board member approvals.
Even the President of a large nation faces the constant scrutiny of the media.

Many of these tasks might seem unappealing, yet successful people consistently give them their best effort.

I believe this willingness to tackle the less desirable aspects is what ultimately makes them appear 'lucky,' 'smart,' and 'skillful' in their respective fields.

They lean into the discomfort while the rest of us find excuses to bail. The average person might simply stop or avoid these crucial tasks.

The Power of "Peace" and the Art of Saying "No"

Here's the kicker: this relentless drive doesn't come from forcing yourself into a miserable existence.

Remember that 'peace' and 'pride' I talked about in my last article? That's the fuel.

When you're genuinely aligned with what you're doing, when you feel a sense of purpose, the hard work doesn't feel like a soul-crushing burden.

Without this internal alignment, the risk of burnout becomes significant.

This inner compass also gives them the strength to say 'no.'
They're not chasing every shiny object or pleasing every person.
They guard their time and energy fiercely, focusing on the tasks that genuinely move the needle towards their vision of success.

It's a tough lesson for us people-pleasers, right?

Leave a comment

The Bottom Line

It's About Relentless Forward Motion on the Right Things. Forget the magic formulas and the overnight miracles.

True success isn't about innate talent or random chance.

It's about the gritty, unyielding commitment to doing the necessary, often unexciting, work that propels you forward.
It's about knowing what to push through, even when it feels like pushing through treacle, because it aligns with your bigger game.
It’s about saying 'no' to shiny things or objects to protect your time while pushing through unexciting work.

That's the real secret sauce. Now go out there and grind – “Strategically”.

I send out Master Mentee 🎓 weekly with curiosity and a passion for growth. If you're enjoying it, I'd be grateful if you shared it with a friend who’d appreciate it too.

Share

Not subscribed yet? Join the growing mentee squad of curious minds.

✨ Get the next issue in your inbox for free:

Subscribe now

If this resonated, tap the like 💚—it's free for you, but it supports my work and helps Master Mentee reach more amazing people like you.

We chase it, post about it, obsess over it — but rarely stop to ask if we even understand it.

Is success the number in your bank account?
Is it the followers you rack up?
The blue checkmark on your profile?
Is it the high paying job?
Or maybe it’s something quieter... something you can’t flex on Instagram.

Success is a moving target.

Just when you think you’ve caught it, it evolves.

The Dream: Big Tech and Six Figures

When I was younger, my idea of success was crystal clear:
Work at a Big Tech company.
Earn a six-figure salary.
Make it in the U.S.

Simple.

I even had a ritual: anytime I felt low, I’d rewatch The Social Network.
Watching Mark Zuckerberg build Facebook gave me the emotional fuel to keep going.

At times, I compared myself to him — the young tech prodigy.
That comparison became my motivation.

Like so many Computer Science students, I thought reaching that dream would be the final stamp of having 'made it,' and that I would be successful for life.

The Sacrifices No One Talks About

I left my family, my friends, and the life I had known for a couple of decades for that dream.

It didn’t feel like a sacrifice at the time.
It felt like a step — a necessary step — toward the success story I was writing in my head.

Eventually, I started living the life I had once only dreamt about.
I even told myself, "I’ll never feel unsuccessful again."

Spoiler: I was wrong.

The Day Success Slipped Away

Nothing dramatic happened.

No job loss.
No major life event.

But this week, that feeling of "I am successful" quietly slipped away.
Self-doubt crept in.
Disappointment followed.

It made me ask: Why?

Why did I lose my sense of success when nothing major had changed?

Success Is a Feeling, Not a Finish Line

Here's the brutal truth:
Success isn’t a permanent status you unlock.

It’s a feeling.
It’s personal.
It shifts with time.

No high-paying job can lock it in.
No title can guarantee it forever.

Success is simply how you see yourself at a particular moment.

But the real definition of success should be:

A Final Thought from an Unlikely Source

Ironically, I stumbled upon a Brooklyn Nine-Nine episode that captured it perfectly.

It said:

Life is chaos, success is completely arbitrary, and confidence is everything.

Turns out, real success isn't chasing a finish line.
It's learning to be okay with where you are — even if the world doesn’t clap for you.

I send out Master Mentee 🎓 weekly with curiosity and a passion for growth. If you're enjoying it, I'd be grateful if you shared it with a friend who’d appreciate it too.

Share

Not subscribed yet? Join the growing mentee squad of curious minds.

✨ Get the next issue in your inbox:

Subscribe now

If this resonated, tap the like 💚—it's free for you, but it supports my work and helps Master Mentee reach more amazing people like you.

Perfection is the enemy of progress.

This quote has been stuck in my mind lately, especially in light of recent global developments.

It’s simple yet profound—and it's something that hits home for many of us. Let me explain.

Disclaimer: This article reflects personal opinions and observations. It is not intended as financial, political, or professional advice.

How Perfectionism Held Developer Back

As a software developer, Developer takes pride in writing clean, efficient, and scalable code. But sometimes, the pursuit of perfection becomes a silent productivity killer.

Developer has spent countless hours chasing the “right” way to do things.

In those moments, progress quietly dies.

Not because they’re lazy, but because they’re trying to protect themselves—from judgment, from failure, from releasing something that’s less than ideal.

That endless loop of ideation often leads to analysis paralysis.

Each week, there’s a need to write code to build new features—both small and large. And for every task, there are always multiple ways to solve the same problem and write the code.

Instead of shipping code and iterating quickly, Developer often falls into the trap of overanalyzing every approach.

This habit has slowed progress far more than any bug ever has.

What Trade Wars Taught Me About Decisions

Now, zoom out with me for a second.

Look at what’s happening around the world.

The U.S. wants to bring manufacturing jobs back. A noble goal. Jobs have been declining since 1979.

Why? Because manufacturing elsewhere is cheaper.

Not just due to wages, but because of macroeconomic forces like currency strength.

The U.S. Dollar is strong. So strong that paying in USD makes domestic production expensive.

Since the U.S. Dollar (USD) is the global reserve currency, it tends to have higher value compared to most other currencies. That makes it more expensive for companies to manufacture domestically.

It makes outsourcing an obvious business decision. To maximize profit, businesses often shift manufacturing to countries with less expensive currencies. High profit, lower cost.

Some nations even intentionally devalue their currency to stay competitive in global markets.

Overall, It’s a brutal game of chess—one where the pieces are people’s livelihoods.

The Tariff Dilemma

One approach the U.S. government has taken to counteract this trend is tariffs—making imported goods more expensive to encourage domestic production.

However, this strategy is controversial. Some support it, others oppose it.

Like many of you, I don’t have all the answers. I’m not an economist or a policymaker. But I believe it's a complex issue with no one-size-fits-all solution.

There’s no perfect solution.

Have thoughts? I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments.

Leave a comment

Lessons From the Code Review Process

In my time at Amazon, I learned a powerful lesson: Don't get stuck chasing perfection.

When writing code, I now pick a strong solution, implement it, and submit it for review.

My team can suggest improvements or highlight flaws—and that’s okay. That’s how we evolve as developers.

The same applies to system design. I lay out multiple options, propose a recommended architecture, and invite feedback.

This collaboration accelerates innovation and avoids decision paralysis.

Nature Is the Only Perfect System

Here’s the truth no one tells you:

There’s no perfect version of anything you’ll ever build.

In reality—perfection doesn’t exist in software, business, or the world at large. Only nature seems to come close.

So if you have an idea, build it. Ship it. Learn from how people respond. Most things—like writing code—are reversible. You can always refactor, redesign, or rework later.

Final Takeaway

Most people are stuck in analysis paralysis.

Still waiting for the perfect time.
Still polishing the idea.
Still researching tools.

You? You’re different.

If you take one thing from this article, let it be this:
Start now. Build. Iterate. Improve.

Your product. Your code. Your blog post. Your new business idea.
None of them need to be perfect. They just need to exist.

You’ll be miles ahead of those still stuck debating the “perfect” way to begin.

Build first. Perfect later.

I send out Master Mentee 🎓 weekly with curiosity and a passion for growth. If you're enjoying it, I'd be grateful if you shared it with a friend who’d appreciate it too.

Share

Not subscribed yet? Join the growing mentee squad of curious minds.

✨ Get the next issue in your inbox:

Subscribe now

💚 If this resonated, tap the 💚—it's free for you, but it supports my work and helps Master Mentee reach more amazing people like you.

Have you really gone after the ones that scare the hell out of you?

I’m talking about the big, messy dreams. The ones that make your heart race at 2 a.m. The ones that come with a price tag: your time, your comfort, your safety net. The kind that spit in the face of certainty and ask, “How bad do you want this?”

Most people run from those dreams and others run for it. But here's the truth—those are the only dreams that matter.

My Dream

My dream? It wasn’t just a dream. It was an obsession.

I wanted to go abroad. Simple to say. Very hard to do.

See, some people are born with a passport that opens doors easily. I wasn’t one of them. The idea of leaving my home country felt like trying to launch a rocket with no fuel. But I was stubborn. And hungry.

Between 2013 and 2018, I devoured everything about the U.S.—tech blogs, YouTube rabbit holes, garage-to-giant startup stories. I studied Steve Jobs like he was a religion. I watched Mark Zuckerburg build empires from dorm rooms. I didn’t just admire them—I wanted to join them.

That’s when the dream stopped being fantasy and started becoming fuel. I didn’t just want to visit the U.S. I wanted to build something that mattered.

2019 changed everything. I packed my life into a suitcase and flew across the world to chase a Master’s degree in Computer Science.

Today, I work at Amazon—one of the big tech companies I once read about in restless sleep. Back then, it was a fantasy. Now, it's a line on my resume.

But let’s be clear—this isn’t about flexing. It’s about what’s possible when you decide your dream isn’t up for negotiation.

Living the Dream Isn’t Always a Dream

I left home and moved abroad to chase a dream.

But living abroad isn’t the dreamy highlight reel you see on Instagram. It’s stunning at times—but also lonely, challenging, and raw.

Nobody tells you this part.

You don’t just pack a suitcase. You pack your entire identity. You leave behind home-cooked meals, language that feels like a hug, and people who’ve known your soul since you were a kid.

You trade comfort for potential. Familiarity for growth. Community for solitude.

There’s a quote that hits different when you’re living it:

Honestly, I didn’t know the giving part.
But I feel it now—in the airport goodbyes, in the birthdays you miss, in the silence of an unfamiliar city.

Everyone sees the wins. Few talk about the cost.

But make no mistake—this is where growth lives.

The Hardest Part

The hardest part? It wasn’t the visa. Wasn’t the different education system. Wasn’t the job hunt. Wasn’t the food or the culture shock.

It’s missing my family and friends.

I grew up in a close Indian household where love wasn’t spoken but it was shown. Through small daily check-ins. A hot meal waiting. A hand on your shoulder when life felt heavy.

My parents weren’t just my safety net. They were the whole damn parachute.
They backed every wild dream I had—even the ones that meant losing me to another country.

Back then, a quick call could reset my world. Their voices were my grounding wire. My reminder of where I came from.

But distance has a cruel way of rearranging relationships.

Sometimes I miss a call because I’m drowning in deadlines. Sometimes I forget to reply because life gets loud. But that silence? It cuts deeper for them than I ever intended.

It’s not about being dramatic. It’s about being human.

They’re getting older. Many-time they don’t say it out loud, but I hear it in their pauses. Their health dips. Their energy fades. And all I can do is watch through a screen, gazillion miles away.

This is the side of chasing dreams nobody writes about.

You don’t just pay in money.
You pay in moments you’ll never get back.

Success Comes With Sacrifice

There’s no version of success that doesn’t ask for something in return.
No dream that comes without a price tag.

Just like there’s no sunshine without a little rain—there’s no big win without a loss.

Yes, I’m living the dream now. I made it to the other side.
But let’s not pretend it didn’t come at a cost.

I left behind comfort. Familiarity. Family.
The moments I’ll never get back.

And that’s the real truth about chasing something big:
You gain a new life—but somewhere along the way, you quietly bury parts of your old one.

Because in the silence of that sacrifice... is where you truly meet yourself.

A Final Thought

Maybe you skimmed this article. Maybe you didn’t. Either way, if there’s one truth I hope you carry with you, it’s this:

If you’re lucky enough to sit at the same dinner table as your family…
If your best friend is just a drive away…
If your people are close enough to hug—don’t wait.

Smile at them. Hug them a little tighter. Tell them you love them.

Because one day, you’ll realize that wasn’t “normal life”— That was privilege in disguise.

The biggest luxury isn’t chasing the dream.
It’s having your people beside you while you chase it.

Don’t forget that.

I send out Master Mentee 🎓 weekly with curiosity and a passion for growth. If you're enjoying it, I'd be grateful if you shared it with a friend who’d appreciate it too.

Share

Not subscribed yet? Join the growing mentee squad of curious minds.

✨ Get the next issue in your inbox:

💚 If this resonated, tap the 💚—it's free for you, but it supports my work and helps Master Mentee reach more amazing people like you.

But have you ever paused and asked: What does “wiped out” actually mean? I got curious. If that much money disappeared, where did it go? Into crypto? Gold? Offshore accounts? Foreign markets? Nobody talks about it!

To my surprise, I found the answer was—nowhere. Because that money wasn’t real—it was just paper dressed as value.

Let’s dive into what really happens when the market “loses” trillions.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not financial, investment, legal, or tax advice. Always consult with a certified professional before making any decisions involving money.

Real Money vs. Paper Money

To understand how money can "disappear," we need to grasp the difference between two types of value:

• Real Money: The currency issued by governments — what you withdraw from an ATM or hold in your wallet.

• Paper Money: Not actual currency, but market valuation based on perception, demand, and sentiment.

This paper money isn’t printed or stored anywhere. It’s created by how we, as a society, value assets like stocks, houses, or cryptocurrencies at any given moment.

Analogy: Real Estate

Let’s say you bought a house today for $100,000.

Over time, due to high demand and limited supply, prices shoot up. A real estate agent tells you your home is now worth $500,000. You feel rich on paper — but you never actually sold it.

A few months later, the market cools. That same agent now estimates your house at $300,000. Suddenly, the media reports, “$200,000 wiped from local housing market!”

But in reality, you didn’t lose actual money — you still own the house, and your bank account remains unchanged. The loss is unrealized.

The Same Concept Applies to the Stock Market

Stock market valuation is mostly perceived value.

Let’s take a fictional company — Master Mentee 🎓 — as an example.

Master Mentee launches an IPO and issues 1 million shares at $10 each. Investors (maybe even you) pay $10 million in real cash. That money goes to the company. Real money.

The company does well in 1st year post-IPO. Stock prices climb to $100 per share. Now, Master Mentee’s market cap is $100 million.

But here’s the catch: If no one sells, that extra $90 million is just on paper. You (Investors) haven’t received that money — it’s an unrealized gain.

Market Crash and "Lost" Millions

Now, say something happens — bad leadership (You can blame me), poor earnings, a market panic — and the stock drops back to $10.

Boom! $90 million wiped out from market cap. Sounds bad, right?

But if you never sold your shares, and bought them originally at $10, you haven’t lost a cent. The money didn’t vanish — it was never real to begin with.

Only those who bought at $100 and sold lower have realized losses. Everyone else just saw their paper value drop.

So Where Did the $6 Trillion Go?

Now let’s apply this to the broader market.

In the last couple of days, $6 trillion in perceived value was wiped out. But unless people sold at a loss, no real cash was lost.

Unless someone shorted the market or had leveraged positions, no one gained that money either. It's a recalibration of perception.

TL;DR: Market Loss ≠ Money Gone

• Stock market “losses” are often unrealized.

• The “money wiped out” never existed in your bank account.

• Most of it is valuation based on emotion, demand, news, and speculation.

• Only realized gains or losses affect your actual wealth.

So next time you hear about trillions vanishing, remember — it’s not that money flew away, it’s that our collective perception of value changed.

I send out Master Mentee 🎓 weekly with curiosity and a passion for growth. If you're enjoying it, I'd be grateful if you shared it with a friend who’d appreciate it too.

Share

Not subscribed yet? Join the growing mentee squad of curious minds.

✨ Get the next issue in your inbox:

Subscribe now

💚 If this resonated, tap the 💚—it's free for you, but it supports my work and helps Master Mentee reach more amazing people like you.