Transporting you back to my nascent years of development.
I was quite a ‘schemer’ in school.
I didn't find the regular curriculum sharpening my discernment as I would like to. So, I visualized the school to be a perfect playground for me to begin my entrepreneurial journey. I harnessed it as nothing more than an obstacle course to carry out my own learning curves parallel to the unsalted confusing secular curriculum.
As a 10-year-old, I would offer my expertise in I.T. to my fellow classmates, to help them troubleshoot any issue with their PC games and also curate gaming fixes for them at a relatively affordable rate in comparison to the computer store down the street.
I also bought and sold a PlayStation at a premium after using it for 3 years, all by staying a cut above the rest and being well watered and sound in Tech, a field which was budding back then in the early 2000’s.
I used various apps online to buy and sell things I no longer needed but still had somewhat of a merit, to continually turn a profit, in my personal affairs.
Staying alert to good deals was my road to contentment at the time, the blessing to enjoy the harvest after the ploughing was another pursuit I embarked upon.
Some people are creatures of habit, while exploiting circumstances and I certainly fall in that part of the Venn diagram.
Commerce was the language I spoke alongside English as I loved the act of trade.
More than money itself, I liked the entire mechanism of inciting someone to pay you in exchange for an over-the-counter product or service.
I went on to also collude with an entrepreneurial friend who lived near my home to carpool, getting a luxurious FREE ride. Upon the cake was the cherry I'd go so far to make money on my way home with the surplus cash we collected for the final fare from these on-boarding peers.
I'm not from a business family, but I was more immersed in commerce than my contemporary buddies who came from hard-core and influential entrepreneurial families, as they didn't hold the laser-focus and second-natured mind for business that I did.
They had arrived at this complacent place called ‘comfort’. I was still hungry and continuing to reach the top of the climb.
Fast forward to degree college, I garnered great management expertise when I was elected the chairman to host my own Tech Fest.
Suddenly, a wave of responsibility hit me with continual muscle memory of turning a profit. I learnt I must set a nectar trap in all my ventures to maximize best practices and not be a schemer as I was inclined to innocently behave as before I knew the importance of ethical dealings.
I used my same evil inclination and channeled it to serve a more righteous vision. In my tech-fest I conspired to keep it interesting at the entrance of a classroom, by charting out the fixtures to incorporate FIFA as one of the headlining events. As expected, it received a ton of traction, to keep them occupied I further began distributing a 1+1 FREE donut voucher, which froze their enthusiasm at a record high level and now they were perfectly groomed to learn about my next event which was an Ethical hacking workshop and quiz.
The FIFA event, as pointless by itself, made for a beautiful doorway to spark a desire for learning. It was like dessert before the main course, and it left the overall graph of the fest to be at an instrumental and spectacular feat, to not just blindly sing a song and entertain the youth but try and prune the youth to - think differently - and be somewhat of a contributor to their growth.
At this very time, I was hired by a corporation for a leadership program, to power-up these very skills. Working under some very influential people and presenting directly to them. It was a fully sponsored trip to Thailand for half a year, and I was going face first into the corporate waters, with sharks and possibly, I don't know?, iguanas in the water.
I got to the first pitstop of the capital city of India for our induction to the company and I met my beautiful wife. I was looking for a mind vibing at the same frequency I was at, and after being enveloped in all this affluence, I learnt money is definitely not the answer.
I found 3 answers to my thirst for right-living.
1. Contentment is the mission.
Trying to maintain an equilibrium in my levels of happiness that seem to drop quite often, as entitlement and ingratitude are commonplace in our generation of oversupply and excess.
2. Family First.
The owners of my previous company were quite traditionally connected. It was an elderly Chinese man who owned the company that holds firm roots in Thailand. He dealt in seeds and now grew it to a booming conglomerate, spanning through many verticals. All these, earthy specimens of wealth meant nothing to me. But what truly impressed me and took high precedence in my mind was that his entire company was a private-limited company operated solely by his family. His dynasty was mainly distributed through his bloodlines and governance was all in the family.
The third answer was a GAME CHANGER.
It was the most crucial revelation that got us to re-strategize our entire stance and worldview. This third answer will be revealed in this blog post as we voyage through the sequence of milestones I'd like to divulge.
I learnt, I need to hold back my immaturity and tame my young blood to deny my ever-hungry desires to be disciplined and aim to grow a family.
I spent most of my time with my wife and upon feeling the nudge within my spirit, I learnt that I'd soon be transitioning to embarking on my own entrepreneurial journey. The program was a good passive, simulating, draining and controlled environment that involved a lot of adaptation, but I love going head on, into a full-blown war with my potential.
It was called the Future Leaders Program "apparently" to develop future CEO's.
My wife, my better half, ready to jump straight right into the real jungle of life was faced with many uncomfortable ultimatums by me. It was high time to make things clear.
I asked her point blank:
Are you ready to make a fool of yourself and experience possible failure?
She said yes.
I asked her this and later elaborated on the need to go full blown vulnerable in our first tenure as entrepreneurs because ‘perceived’ failures are mandatory destiny moments in every truth-seeker's life, but it's not a permanent destination.
The rough edges can be rounded, the holes in the plan can be rectified, to go more laser-focused than before. To punch the barriers straight in the head, to eventually hit the astronomical homerun.
She held great expertise in gathering very crucial detail oriented and instrumental theory, while I knew how to exploit, press forward and actualize direction in unison with the vision. Post completing the leadership program we quit this company hand in hand.
We did become CEOs post a volatile ride of ups and downs in the program, but not through the organization, as you would expect to read.
I went out on my own to anyway bring what the program had promised, yet somehow it didn't materialize from their end for undisclosed reasons.
On the brighter side we were certified "Future Leaders" now.
It was only the Most High God, Anisha and I in this together.
That gave me great confidence as it was a pretty reliable fortress.
I had my family and my Mighty God backing me to chart out His purpose for our lives.
Anisha and I became CEO’s nonetheless but of our own business independently.
After that the handholding from any organization was done, I had to sojourn through real life physically unassisted shortly.
We got back to India and began drawing up a game plan.
We bought a car, filled its trunk with all our stuff and drove it to the city of Pune, with the motive of setting up base and then setting up shop.
Packed up and ready to bounce.
We took the plunge and headed straight to the drawing board. Intending to keep everything in the family, it was me and my life partner going for the big swing, our very own concept store:
Snow in a Bowl - A Leisure Space.
The Final Reveal
An ambient dessert house where we served never-seen-before, state-of-the-art 'Snow Desserts' that melt in your mouth.
We literally sold flavored snowflakes, with a drizzle of sweet condensed milk adding a touch of gaming.
This venture was an innocent brush stroke at bringing families together, as we had a little something for every demographic.
Back in college, I drew the nectar lines around the core vision which was to get people to be technologically sound and ethical.
But in the restaurant space, I wanted our attempt at hospitality to be the glue to our customers, which were mostly families, and inculcate great values of togetherness by giving them a good time.
This intention was brought to fruition, and we touched a whopping 600-700 repeat customers in the pilot stage in 3 months, while my wife and I wore multiple hats in the venture doing all parts of the business by ourselves. We stepped up from a storefront in a walk-in shopping complex to resuming operations in a dynamic kiosk layout of a 2nd store in a more established structure which was the only mall in the entire vicinity. This venture lasted merely 6-months and outlasted other shutting stores.
Construction of the mall outlet in a series of ascending shots:
The Mall Store Reveal
Snaps of our audiences enjoying the added layer of gaming:
Our competitors businesses shut due to their lack of innovation, ours was forced shut by governmental guidelines due to covid hitting the earth.
In this tenure, there were a bunch of downtimes. The regular organic growth was seeming 2-toned in our taste for our generation that's used to expecting spiking dopamine rushes of grandeur-ups everyday.
The invisible tempter doesn't lose a moment to access our desires to take us captive in a poor deal for ourselves.
People from very influential backgrounds and banners walked into our store offering us underhanded deals that didn't have quite a clear conclusive structure. But them playing upon the strength of their credentials we almost got caught up in the deception where influential people from the past coupled with many new entities kept behaving as "human pendulums" with a hand waving deals to give us the "next big up".
They promised us the stars but we could see through the façade that they'd be the very one's pulling the ground from beneath the feet of vulnerable up and coming entrepreneurs like us.
We kept evading the barbwire of lying corporate wolves with fat cheque books, knowing that we'd never benefit at the uncapped scale of what we could grow and it wouldn't be a fair arrangement.
We used our free will and passed.
Our business was well sought after and growing and so were the people increasing who wanted to control our wills.
I thought to myself, I would like to defeat these people in their own game of logic and strategy, to pull one better, I burned the matter of conflict down, which was the business.
Covid hit, and I decided I'd shut shop till I don't find the right strategic partner who houses the vocabulary of words like, "Fair-Play, Ethics, Transparency" and I didn't buy into the air or bubble of affluence self-proclaimed entities carried themselves with.
Furthermore, I decided to make it my life's purpose to armor up with a broom or whatever it takes to cleanse the polluted business waters, as I strongly draw up my values from the Torah in all matters and business laws are one of great prominence while honoring the Creator, Most High Maker.
Proverbs 11:1 JPS Tanakh 1985
"False scales are an abomination to HASHEM; An honest weight pleases Him."
The THIRD Answer:
The third answer was getting to know the Potter to All Clay of Creation.
It was to know the Most High God from the Jewish Tanakh.
The third answer was the missing heart to the body, the centrally located missing piece to the puzzle of life without whom all math fails.
As declared in the previous blog, we decided to push a bunch of wannabe human gods aside, to pursue the One-true Eternal and Almighty God, who detests manipulated scales and lies. I girded up the sword of the Torah, to make discernment simple, and shady deals were definitely off-limits. I laughed while saying no, even when I was on the ground, I displayed immense audacity in saying NO, just to see the powerlessness in the face of the people who weren't used to the word "NO" Hahaha.
We took a deeply invested approach in the truth to discern better and leave expansion for a more mature stage of our lives.
At this point, covid hit the earth as ordained, and we decided to take things slow, bade goodbye to our car, sold it and start travelling to discover purpose and true meaning. We did not have all the answers as yet, but we had a start as we already came to understand that the Sabbath day of the Creator as stated in Genesis is an ordinance to be observed forever.
Exodus 31:13 JPS Tanakh 1985
"Speak to the Israelite people and say: Nevertheless, you must keep My sabbaths, for this is a sign between Me and you throughout the ages, that you may know that I HASHEM have consecrated you."
So, we set off.
Our contemplative covid break in Goa, the holiday destination of India.
We started observing the original Levitical Festivals mentioned in the Tanakh in Leviticus 23 and stopped associating with any other feasts not mentioned even once in the Tanakh, The Word of God. Here is the first Passover we celebrated:
Our Passover views across the table
Here, in these days of discovery, did we come to peel off the third answer. The most important one for our life.
Our ideas grew and today we have innumerable concepts jotted down, waiting to be executed. Our website curation is one of them.
The way to win in life is going
"Business as Unusual".
Be as random, unpredictable and volatile in your moves, you'll finally be victorious if the Most High wills, and then everyone can tell you how lucky you were.
But, make sure whatever you do, you do in the bounds of the Torah. I can't guarantee noteworthy progress through any other means.
There was one verse that kept me in my track throughout my good and strangling days. It is this:
Joshua 1: 7-9 JPS Tanakh 1985
"But you must be very strong and resolute to observe faithfully all the Teaching that My servant Moses enjoined upon you. Do not deviate from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Let not this Book of the Teaching cease from your lips, but recite it day and night, so that you may observe faithfully all that is written in it. Only then will you prosper in your undertakings and only then will you be successful. “I charge you: Be strong and resolute; do not be terrified or dismayed, for HASHEM your God is with you wherever you go.”
We researched and understood that the 'Law' means nothing but the Torah.
Torah in Hebrew means instruction in English, not law.
The instructions given by God through Moses to Israel, His people.
Bridges.
We began looking at life as a series of bridges to be scaled.
A consequential and progressive path that leads to organic promotions by the Creator, that no human can take credit for. Tyrants, wolves and wicked capitalists seeking to destroy unsuspecting budding youngsters can definitely not contend with the Mighty Creator.
I learnt to hit the random-access button in my mind. To do random unpredictable moves, to bring order into chaotic characters. To irk the patient, mature individuals who capitalize on the volatility of young blood to use it against ourselves.
There's an old proverb:
When a pessimist is faced with 2 bad choices, he chooses both.
I discovered to choose NONE and pursue the Truth in the Tanakh. This invariably made me connected to our Most Righteous Creator, and I decided to drop all my momentary pursuits and work for Him.
I learnt I have to serve somebody in this journey, hence, I might as well serve someone who CREATED me and someone who's known for His great splendor, His Mercy and Compassion, from of old.
Everything the human race has is because of HIS grace and compassion. His love and long-suffering nature is truly unparalleled among all human tyrants.
I'd carry this manual of the Torah while I navigate through my professional journey the second time. The initial battering and humiliating perceived failure is behind me for a bit.
Success is intoxicating but I continue to get the most wisdom hammered into my skull with the grounding phenomenon of failure.
All sovereignty and control lies in the hands of the Father. Before you jump on the deal given by someone "credible" in the world, but your gut tells you otherwise, please take your time, DO NOT BE PRESSURED OR SHORT-SIGHTED.
Money is a tool, nothing more, nothing less.
Life's not as good with money as bad as it is without it, but the Father always provides for His people, He's good to all His creation.
Don't be fleeced in your soul for some food in your bowl.
Influence Change.
If you want to pursue something, pursue influencing positive change in your sphere of influence and the purposeful required funds will show up to supplement you.
Do not make an idol of wood, stone or paper.
Do not be just another money and/or people-worshipper.
Take your time.
Parting declaration:
For those pursuing The Hebrew Scriptures (the Tanakh), while being hounded to look for a job...
You can use my response which goes:
I don't need to look for a job!
I have a job!
I work for the Most High God.
Mic drop.
Get another mic.
There are many tyrants, and they will certainly fall.
Today it's someone, tomorrow it will be someone else.
There's always a random dude, proclaiming to be 'god', trying to kill your existence. But he can never kill your life.
Because life and death is ONLY in the hands of the Creator.
Deuteronomy 32:39 JPS Tanakh 1985
"See, then, that I, I am He; There is no god beside Me. I deal death and give life; I wounded and I will heal: None can deliver from My hand."
Even the true identity of Pharaoh isn't known in the book of Exodus.
It is still debated to be one Pharaoh or the other, that's how frivolous and unimportant his identity was, though he was one of the greatest people in an earthly sense at the time.
This is because he is just the face of any tyrant.
Replace him with the tyrant in your life and you have your very own unimportant and nameless pharaoh. Congratulations.
Do you know why they'll fall?
Many shall fall because the battle is of HASHEM.
2 Chronicles 20: 15 JPS Tanakh 1985
“Give heed, all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat; thus said HASHEM to you, ‘Do not fear or be dismayed by this great multitude, for the battle is God’s, not yours."
Isaiah 54:14-15 JPS Tanakh 1985
"You shall be established through righteousness. You shall be safe from oppression, And shall have no fear; From ruin, and it shall not come near you. Surely no harm can be done Without My consent: Whoever would harm you Shall fall because of you."
And when it comes to who I'd rather serve for life?
"As for me and my House, I'll serve HASHEM. THE ONE TRUE ALMIGHTY GOD."
Cursoring through the HIGHLIGHTS.
From a scheming little boy to...
1. HEADING A TECHFEST.
2. LANDING THE DREAM JOB.
3. DOING BUSINESS AND NAVIGATING THROUGH THE REAL WORLD, THE JUNGLE OF LIFE.
THE THREE ANSWERS:
1. IN PURSUIT OF CONTENTMENT, NOT MONEY.
2. BUILDING A FAMILY.
3. THE MOST IMPORTANT, KNOWING & WORKING FOR THE CREATOR. FOLLOWING THE ONLY TRUTH - THE TORAH.
Covenant - Taking things SPIRITUAL.
To all earthly pursuits there's a limit.
From my starting point of envisaging a family by being inspired from what I saw in my corporate stint, to now being fired up by the eternal promise made by the Most High in the book of Genesis, to our patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Yaakov (Jacob), I'm continuing the climb of building my family, as part of the covenant made with my ancestors.
I have chosen the path that ancient wisdom (The Torah) is highly suggestive of.
The Path that never fails, but tests you along the way.
This is Business as Unusual.
This is True Life, in the spirit.
Dreamscape Bridges
Life's full of Bridges.
Bridges to build
Bridges to burn
Some to successfully crossover
Some to fail and to learn.
The doubt at the foot
Resists the climb much needed
The futile honking from cars around
May mask the only voice to be heeded.
Smoke screens mid-plight
Turns and curves arise
The word of the great 'I am' above
Is the decisive vision of the wise.
The other side, the other side
Is always the impatient voice inside
Keep going through the mist and the fog,
There in a couple dozen bridges hide.
(As you read through, there are details of our struggles and pains we have not highlighted. WE ARE NOT RIDING ON A RAINBOW EVERY OTHER DAY THAT WE EXIST. Bear that in mind but read our story for an uplifting and an encouraging account to yourself and note down lessons and wisdom bits and apply them to your life. Mazel Tov.)
Your Wordy Friends,