Note · June 10, 2026

I am older now. I have driven a Mercedes for cash, and I now drive a car with two hundred and twenty thousand kilometers on it. My favorite food is masoor ki daal. My pants are old. My shoes have been resoled.

The expensive things gave me pleasure. Pleasure faded. The masoor ki daal has not.

If you are early in your career, this is going to sound abstract. It will not sound abstract by the time you are forty.

Build the company. Earn the money. But do not let either become the thing that makes you feel like you are alive. The thing that makes you feel like you are alive is, almost always, the simple thing that was already there before the company started.