Imaginary Conversations w/ Adi

It's been three years since I've been writing on LinkedIn.

From when I first used it to find a job, a lot has changed.

It has grown to be a hobby, then an interest. Then it became a habit.

Then it became my bread and butter.

Eventually, it became the obsession it is today.

And over the past 3 years working with clients across the world from over 25 industries and 18 countries, and building a team of 20 to help me with it, and then co-founding more startups in the LinkedIn consulting space-

I've tested well over 30 content formats on LinkedIn.

And I've watched with laid-back interest at LinkedIn Pulse. Constantly evolving.

After the addition of the Newsletter feature (for those of you who aren't familiar with this- you can create a series of long-form posts on LinkedIn via LinkedIn Articles and users will be able to subscribe and be notified of your content using the Newsletter feature.)

I decided to seriously consider a unique content format for Newsletter. And this is the best I've come up with.

From this day, every day forward, I will be posting a new format of my usual experiential stories- some intense conversations around life, work and ofcourse, on my brutally minimal experience on love. All these conversations are imaginary, born from my own somewhat introverted worldview and imagination, but as you will find out- most of them are based on experiences in my life.

I think we as a world need to have deeper conversations. Even as an introvert, I can see that.

This is my attempt at humanizing these deeper conversations on LinkedIn.

So that we connect better.

Isn't that what this platform is about?

So here's the first one.

1. The last relationship.

This conversation is imaginary. But some of it is fact.

As they sat on the terrace, she turned to him lighting a cigarette.

"Are you even trying Adi? Or am I the only girl you've ever shown an interest to?"

He took a puff and smiled.

"hmm. I genuinely wish I talked to more girls. But in between trying to achieve that dream of starting up, and balancing family and my personality disorders on the side, I didn't prioritize it as much as I should have."

"You don't have any personality disorders Adi. You think too lowly of yourself."

"Ha- atleast in that way I'm an entrepreneur. We're never satisfied with ourselves."

"So you've literally never dated a girl?"

"I have. College. It took me a year to finally confess to her that I never really loved her. I was too embarassed to tell her that I was a kid educated in the Middle East, having zero female interaction, and then thrown into a world with them."

She smiled.

"Where's she now?"

"Married. With kids. And I promised myself that I'd never consider a relatonship again until I was sure I was in love."

"And the next one saw me as the eager smart guy at the office- not very good looking, but works hard and was fun to be around with. She passed me a love note.

I should have said yes to that. Maybe. But then I wanted to move fast in life. I felt she'd weigh me down.

I should have tried though.

And then the startup happened and I literally put a pause to the whole dating and relationship thing.

Until one fine day years later when I realized that I'd fallen for someone. Obviously, at the office again. Ha- where else would I even meet anyone?

But she seemed too far out of my reach. And the young city of Bangalore made sure that there were enough reminders of what I was missing out on.

My confidence kept dimnishing day by day. And with each passing day, I had lesser and lesser courage to tell her. Eventually, I just let it be.

I should never have let it go. I should have told her. Now it's too late.

And as days pass by, I feel that I'm stuck with the one girl who has been a constant in my life."

She looked rather intently at him.

"The one who takes up most of my time, who feeds me, talks & listens to me-

the partner who has been with me for the past 3 years- the one who interests me the most.

LinkedIn."

And he sighed, smiled and took another sip from the cigarette, which had now burnt halfway.

As I end the very first conversation, I'm hoping that the LinkedIn Creator and Editorial teams pay more attention to this feature filled with beautiful possibilities.