40th Birthday Reflections: 4 Orbit Shifting Lessons

On my 40th birthday, first and foremost, I am grateful to be alive and in the best health. Most often, we neglect this wealth, but honestly, being fit and pain-free is the foremost aspect of life.

I want to put on record 10 orbit-shifting lessons which I believe are universal in nature, and it took me 40 orbits around the sun to be able to understand them.

Hope these 4 Orbit defining lessons, hope they resonate with you too:

4. The world gives results from your external behavior, but the universe gives results from internal behavior.

This is something I have seen happening again and again, and once I have been able to see it, it's so obvious. On one hand, we have all the learnings: dress well, speak politely, work hard, do the things told to you, behave properly, be on time. From school to adult life, all we teach is how to have external behavior right so that we get the right results. From grades in school to the right job and acceptance in an elite group, everything is about your external behavior. However, the universe, god, or the power you believe in gives you results based on your internal behavior.

"It's what you do when no one is watching that makes all the difference."

And know that results from external behavior are 1X, but results from internal behavior start at 10X.

Real life: By controlling my food cravings and being disciplined—exercising, moving more—I made more impact on my overall health and wealth than anything else. It's the internal behavior that gave me 10X results.

3. Results matter, but so does the means to achieve them, equally.

As a CXO, I get to see the results of the work I do and what others do. In the early part of my career, I thought it was the hard work I put in, the hours one burns towards the goal, that's important. Then over time, I realized that it's the results that matter. For a long time, I believed and lived with this thought as fact that results and results alone matter.

Especially in the business world, results are critical, and we are judged by the sales we do, the businesses we build, and the output we get. However, this is all short-term tactics. Yes, in a world where we are only seeing the business we generate or the output we get, eventually, you will realize that the means are equally important, and it becomes evident again and again.

You build a business by giving cashback; eventually, you realize if the product and process are not right, you will fail. You make a sale by one trick only to realize that eventually, people figure out that they have been played, and this leads to long-term deterioration.

Results matter, but so do the means you use to achieve them.

Eventually, you will have to pay for the means you use to get results.

This is true in health: from taking Ozempic or fat loss pills to lose weight, or taking steroids to build body. It is true in Wealth, It is true everywhere.

2. Companies and people fail due to a lack of executing the agreed strategy. Strategy is more about "No" than about "Yes."

Strategy is more important than execution; yes, you can have all the strategy in the world, but without execution, it will fall flat. But the truth be told, strategy is the holy grail. Companies don't scale because they lack resources, money, talent, etc. They fail because they lack the will to: A. Make the strategy, B. Agree on strategy, C. Execute the agreed strategy.

Strategy is the compass, not the map. Yes, many people and companies believe strategy is what they should make; there are endless strategies that we make; however, the tougher part is staying committed to delivering that strategy.

1. You are the story you tell yourself in the short 30k days you have on this planet.

Average life, 80 years ≈ 29,200 days. That's all we have got. And whether you like it or not, bad things happen to good people. I have realized that this happens so that you get to improve and do more good. In between all this, you get a short chance to tell your story to the world. And how can you tell this story? By telling yourself the right story.

Eventually, it's the story you tell yourself that determines the way you end up thinking; that thinking leads to your feelings, and those feelings eventually lead you to opportunities.

Pro Tip: Want to grow bigger? Tell yourself the right story. Work on making that story true.

As I prepare for the next 4 decades, I wish to be a person who builds relationships, lives upto his words and is able to say No faster to be able to keep saying Yes more to things that bring me joy.