Life is about living

I was recently terminated at my job out of nowhere --- probably because my way of doing things didn't align with how other people operated.

It honestly felt like a slap on the face. It happened right as I was coming out of vacation, without any indication, warning, or notice and while I was out of the country (US). I was employed on a H1B visa.

So what am I supposed to do now? Any normal person will decide to go back, hoping to sort things out, right?

And that needs you entering the country, hoping that you aren't denied entry. Entering the US on terminated status is technically a gray area. Yes, probably nobody will check, and mostly you should be able to get into the country but the fear of denial of entry will always will be in the back of your mind.

After being a part of, and thinking deeply about the US immigration system, that's what I realized about it. It is designed to keep you in constant fear. It is designed in a way that your employer and the country always have power over you. It is designed in a way to make you submit to the system.

It is designed in a way that, if you for any reason, make your employer unhappy, they can choose to throw you off the boat, and have you scramble to find a new one (60 days for H1B). In my case I also had to scramble my way to entering the country. But then I chose not to.

The US is the largest economy in the world, SF is the heart of the tech industry, and a place you would find the most ambitious and entrepreneurial people in the world. That's also what drew me towards US and San Francisco.

Ever since graduating college, I had been trying to reach SF. Here is my list of attempts:

1. 2019 -- Landed an internship in SF, tried applying for a J1 visa, but gave up due to excessive wait times
2. 2019 -- Convinced my employer to let me visit the SF office on a B1 visa: Visa application rejected after interview
3. 2020 -- Applied for H1B; didn't make the lottery
4. 2021 -- Applied for H1B; didn't make the lottery
5. 2021 -- Booked flights to visit the US on a B1 visa (trip cancelled due to covid)
6. 2022 -- Applied for H1B; finally made it through lottery
7. Got a 221g (request for more documents) after my dropbox appt, and the got through after a re-interview

Even while entering the US for the first time, I was partially interrogated by immigration officers (for no good reason)

But I never cared. Because of the American dream, of making way more money than possible in any other country in existence. For getting a chance to work at the heart of the tech industry.

But now that I have grown older, and been part of the system for some time, I have come to value freedom more and more.

After being terminated, I fell shock, probably for 3 seconds, and it was followed by quick relief. That I can finally do whatever I want.

I realized I didn't really want to go back and start applying for jobs and negotiating salaries. I just want to do whatever I want -- freedom is what I really care about.

As a first generation Indian immigrant in the US, you always have a concern of supporting your family in dire times. And to reach your family, you must take a 20 hour flight, and hope your employer is fine with you being out of the country while you do so. That's a lot of pressure, especially if you are dealing with a family emergency. Why go through that?

Getting a green card is hard, moving your parents to the US harder, making them adjust even harder.

What is your life even about, if you can't support the people that built you up. Why go through all of this? To increase a number (bank balance), that eventually nobody will care about?

The best thing you can do with the money probably, is play more status games and end up hanging out with even more insufferable people than you. There is no other use to it. The most important things in life are cheap/free.

Help the Universe and the Universe pays you back

The world works in very simple ways, until we choose to complicate it

Wealth generation is simple. You need to create value in this world -- and convince the world to pay you back. That's all there is to it.

You can do that as a Barista, as an Author, as a Dancer, as a Chef, as an Engineer. It doesn't really matter.

You can do it by building communities, working for companies, or building your own startup / business. It doesn't really matter.

In this simple world, I just asked myself, what do I really want.

And I had a simple answer to this simple question -- I want freedom, to do whatever I want every single day.

The next question is how do I maximize this freedom, and let me come to that.

Maximizing freedom

Almost everything in the world comes with strings.

1. Parenting comes with an expectation of supporting family later on (at-least in asian communities).
2. Salary comes with an expectation of you showing up at work every week.
3. VC funding comes with an expectation of you constantly growing the company.

And these strings in some ways make the fabric of society, and they are definitely necessary.

But what if I can pay everyone back at the same time, and owe nothing to the Universe? If I can do that, all strings will be gone, and I will be a free man. Is that possible? -- Yes it is.

I want to create a lot of value for this world, convince it that I have created value and make sure it doesn't have the courage to question me. The world must set me free.

The solution is to bootstrap revenue streams while delegating operations or automating them through AI -- and that's what the Universe to me is about. I will achieve this by leveraging my unique understanding of the Universe and the people in it and my understanding of AI. And more details to come later.