23 lessons and the making of a happy new year.

I can’t vouch for being an exceptional advisor, so consider these reflections more as personal insights than wise counsel or a self-help guide. They’re snippets from my journey through 2023, touching on life, careers, and everything in between. Reader discretion is advised.

1. Life is a party pooper. It’s not a respecter of the good times. You could be the time of your life and you’d get a call that ruins everything. On the bright side, life is not a respecter of the bad times either.
2. Nobody ever said paying your dues was a one-off activity.
3. Nobody is bigger than being confused about what’s next.
4. You must have heard this a million times. But because you have not done anything about it, I will say it again. Stop caring too much about what people think. It’s the most wasteful use of your mental energy. The people you’re putting on a pedestal are all caught up in their own dramas and don’t have the time for you as much as you think.
5. Nobody is self-made.
6. Don’t let people be afraid to be rich around you.
7. Money doesn’t make you heartless. It makes you use your heart, less.
8. Don’t be afraid to be seen trying.
9. What will you do with a lot of money? Think about your answers and write them somewhere. One day, you will make a lot of money and this will come in handy. Because money — a lot of it — has the power to format your memory.
10. It takes a little more than talent to make a champ.
11. Remind yourself why you love the things you love.
12. The people you look up to will become the people you look sideways to. Don’t mess things up when the leveller happens.
13. There are no gatekeepers. There are only people who did not open the gate for you. Think about it. The people we call gatekeepers have opened the gate for certain people. Those people will never call them gatekeepers because their perspective is different. If the gate opens for you too, what will you do?
14. Ambition is ambition irrespective of scale. I’ll explain. Ambition is not only the burning passion to build a tower that will touch the sky. Ambition is also building a small cabin if you’ve never built anything before.
15. It’s never about the size of an opportunity, it’s how well you can discern what’s in it for you.
16. “Do it afraid” is easier said than done, but do it afraid.
17. Give yourself good things. Get used to getting good things. So that when you demand good things from others, it becomes bare minimum. If you don’t give yourself good things, people will give you things and call them good. How you treat yourself is a template for how others will treat you.
18. Know ten times what you say. There’s no trophy for the best talker.
19. Optimize for peace of mind. Let nothing take away your sleep, no matter how fancy it looks in the interim.
20. People use people. You will use people, and you will feel used. It is what it is.
21. Life rewards stubborn people. Watch what happens if you refuse to take no for an answer.
22. Build for legacy. Because you will die.
23. The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. Learn to specialize. It doesn’t take away from your multi-hyphenate abilities. But there must be one thing you know more than every other thing. People won’t pay you for the things you have an idea about. People pay you for the things you know like your first name.
24. Embrace the difference between articulating your value and bragging.
25. Don’t win an argument and lose the person.

I know I said 23 lessons, but there are no rules for architecture for a castle in the clouds. That’s number 26.

Wishing you a fantastic year ahead, full of positivity and fulfilment.