And I turn 21. 🎂
Some of my life experiences and lessons I learned
Today is 11th of March and I turn 21 today and just like past years everybody wishing me happy birthday, thank you for that. I wrote this a long time ago but I didn’t find a perfect day like today to write publish it.
The events occurred in past 2–3 years dramatically changed my life and my personality. The experiences and challenges I faced turn me upside down and taught me some great lessons. Today I am writing about them not all of them just those that had great impact on me.
Dreaming Big
I was an introvert. I loved to be alone, didn’t talk to much and kept everything to myself, didn’t share my problems and thoughts.
And this kept my thoughts very low and goals very little. As a result my achievements were very little. And I always thought why it always happen that I got less while others are getting more.
I remember it was warm sunny day of summer of 2012 and I was in my school’s science lab and one of my told me that a guy in our class has HTC wildfire phone ( back then I was crazy about phones ). I reached that guy and within 5 minutes we became friends.
After that I spent my whole school life with him. He was not good in studies like me, he was just a normal and average guy. But unlike me he was satisfied and happy for what he had, while on the other hand I was struggling to get more and to achieve more but didn’t.
I learned a lot from him, he groomed me, he built my personality and he was the one who kill me shyness and gave me confident. But one big lesson that he taught me was to think big and dream without limits.
He told me story of Apple, how two Steves started a company and other rags to riches stories. I remember he had a quotes book in which we used to read sayings about life, success and leadership and that change our perspectives.
And most of all I learned to dream big, to set lofty goals and thinking without limitations which later allowed me to achieve more because when you set lofty goals, you raise the bar and you active your sub-conscious mind to do something great.
When you want best, when you expect best and when you plan for the best your mind start moving towards excellence.
And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. — Paulo Coelho
Dreaming big gives also gives you the courage to make it true, it motivates you and also gives you the power to influence others.
Dreaming big and setting high goals allowed me to reach my goals and even if I can’t, it gives me satisfaction and feeling to move forward that at least I reach the half way to reach my goal.
A new world
So dreaming big got me into entrepreneurship, because entrepreneur is all about making dreams come true. And I started to attend events and seminars about entrepreneurship and startup. At that time their were no incubators or accelerators here and not many people aware of it.
But in just a year we saw Plan9, Nest I/O and others came forward and started forming startup ecosystem. For me those were very exciting times, I used to read about India’s and Valley’s startups on blogs and those all things were finally also happening here. And I also wanted to be part of it.
I was working on an idea and was in search for a companion, with whom I can take my idea to real world. And believe me finding a co-founder is hell of a fucking job but a crucial one, but I found myself lucky in finding the right person.
A players hire A players — Steve Jobs
I was looking for someone better than me, have more experience and most of all understand business stuff because I am a technical guy and it was very important for the startup to have a business expert.
Wajahat Karim was my friend for a long time, I met him at Founder Institute event and we became friends. He mentored me and usually gave guide me about starting the startup. I couldn’t find anyone except him fit as a co-founder. But at that time he was working on his own project. But he liked the idea and came on-board.
After that we took our startup to The Nest I/O to kick-start our business and get the support and mentor-ship of industry leaders.
Making Friends
Nest I/O was a great experience and it changed my life. And not only life, it also change the way I though, the way I observed things and they way I perceived things.
I consider myself as one of the most luckiest person in the world because I got great friends in my life. And Nest gave me chance to surround myself with great people and learn from them.
The greatest gift of life is friendship, and I have received it.
4 months of Nest I/O taught me great things and the most important thing that Nest taught was about building a community. Nest I/O is all about community because entrepreneurship is nothing but a community of great people working to make each other successful.
If you’re connected to a resourceful and helpful community of great minds then starting a business and making progress can be a lot easier.
So I made great friends, some of them are still helping me in climbing the ladder of success.
Hustling
After Nest I/O, I faced great ups and downs. For sometime I became alone and it seemed to me chances of success are not enough. But the best thing what I did, that I never give up.
Now I am working on my company Retina VR and making great progress. Currently we are seed funded by 10xC Accelerator and also working with some Planet N companies.
So here I am ending my long article about some glances of my life. I am also planning to start writing on medium and setting goal to write every week. Hope you like it.