The Journey of Aspirations…

Here’s a thing that only a few people realize…

To live a life of comfort, you must first live a life of discomfort. 

Success requires failure. Period.

I was born in the small rural city of Agra, in an impecunious lower-middle-class household where even the little sachets of shampoo had to be used in a way that they could last a whole week.

With all their blood, sweat, and tears, my parents had managed to enroll me into a fairly classy Catholic school. The atmosphere and people in my school were at direct contrast with the atmosphere and people at my home: everyone held a new school bag or a new lunchbox, they showed off their stylish pens and pencils and rode to school in their fancy cars. They held their head high, refusing to look down.

So, what was the starting point? The match that started my fire? I started asking, “why not me?”

If the world was supposed to be all about equality and abundance, why was I facing disparity?

Eventually, I did get the answer to my question:

Success isn’t complicated at all. It’s actually ridiculously easy. It leaves clues and an easy trail of breadcrumbs to follow. 

Then what is the problem? It’s that most people aren’t going to do it. Because the price of success and ease isn’t worth the cost in their minds.

The universe has plenty of riches and luxury and comfort, and there is more than enough for every single one of us, it just depends on person to person; whether you are willing to make it yours. If you have what it takes to follow onto that bold pursuit to get it for yourself. Most simply won’t, they’ll back out because of what it costs to attain that life of opulence: sacrifices, passion, nights without sleep, no food to feed yourself or your family, risks, failures…you get the gist.

The majority of poor people have a ‘fixed mindset’—i.e. they view success, skill, and talent as natural attributes that you either have or don’t. They do not believe that success can be won via perseverance and determination. They argue that you either got ‘it’ or you don’t. They’re also absurdly wrong. Most of the self-made millionaires I know never went to college. Some never even finished high school. The only thing that helped them rise to where they are today is that they were committed to SELF EDUCATION and knew that they could learn the skills required to be wealthy if they put in the time.

I knew from a young age that this way of life, the low-class mediocre life, is not what I wanted. I wanted to do things that people in that time could only dream of, or wonder how it is even possible. I decided I wanted to do this, and I will do this. And so, I laid the first brick of this foundation at the age of 16. And after that, it was one brick a day. Every action and decision was thought over multiple times, the consequences, the costs, values and worthiness. Time was spent thinking about how much do I need to earn? How much do I need to save? How do I earn? When people were thinking about government jobs, I was thinking about how to start my own business. When people were hesitant about going outside of their state, I was preparing to go out of the country. 

And today—after all the times I buried my wants in the depth of my mind because I knew there was something better waiting, all the taunts and unasked ‘key to life’ advice from the society, all the vision—the fruit of 30 years of hard work is the sweetest. 

I’m not saying that everyone can become a millionaire or a billionaire, but everyone has it in their power to live a better life than they are living today. But to get to that point, you have to suffer and endure tremendous amounts of pain and discomfort. You have to be disgusted with your current situation and refuse to settle for less than total success. Once you know WHAT you need to do, you must sell yourself on WHY you need to do it.

This is a story of my journey from Tajmahal to Windsor Palace :). There were multiple hurdles in my journey, which I’ll be sharing in the future, but as for today, if my story can inspire even a single person to get out of that 9-to-5 and do what they need to do to reach their goal in life, then that will be the biggest achievement in my life.