I found true liberation when I stopped caring what people think.
And I don’t say that lightly. It changed everything about how I live, how I speak, how I react, how I show up. There is a freedom in it that I cannot fully put into words, but once you feel it, you cannot unfeel it.
We spend so much of our lives consumed by it. What will they think? Will they misunderstand me? Will they think I am rude? Too much? Not enough? And all of that noise, all of that second-guessing quietly shrinks you. It keeps you performing a version of yourself for an audience that isn’t even paying as much attention as you think.
Here is what I know now. If you know your intentions, if you know who you are at your core, and you are not guilty of doing anything wrong, there is nothing to defend. Nothing to explain. Nothing to shrink for.
I won’t pretend it is easy. It took me 36 years to get here. And sometimes I think if I had realised this earlier, how much I would have done differently? But then I remember the journey is what got me here. Every part of it.
This life is yours to create. Yours to build into exactly what you want it to be. Yes, circumstance matters. Access matters. The birth lottery is real. But don’t start by looking at what others have. Start with what you have. And from there climb. It might take longer. But your days will be happier. I truly believe that.
I have been happiest building what I love and spending my days with the people I actually want to be around.
That is it. That is the whole thing.
How did I get to not caring?
These are the things that actually moved the needle for me
Reading more
Reading truly changed my life. The more I read, the more I understood myself. The more I understood the world. The more I stopped needing external validation to feel grounded in who I am.
The book Let Them by Mel Robbins
This one was crucial. The first time I read it, it liberated me. It validated something I had been feeling but didn’t have the words for yet. If you haven’t read it, read it.
Changing my circle
As I started creating distance from people who were bringing me down, people who made me question myself, people who drained my energy without adding anything back, everything shifted. You don’t realise how much weight you are carrying until you put it down.
Discipline and working out
When you commit to something hard, when you show up for yourself physically, consistently, it changes what you believe you are capable of. That belief bleeds into everything else. You stop doubting yourself as much. You start trusting yourself more.
And one more thing — this one might surprise you.
I used AI to generate an image of the future I am building. The life I am working toward. And seeing myself there visually, concretely, became one of the biggest sources of motivation I have ever had. Everything else starts to become noise when you can actually see where you are going.
What I’m Reading
The Cold Start Problem - Andrew Chen(Currently Reading)
Explores why platforms like Uber, Airbnb, Tinder, and Facebook struggled in their earliest days and how they overcame the challenge of building network effects from zero. The book offers a practical framework for entrepreneurs on how to create momentum, reach critical mass, and turn a small community into a thriving network.
Crush It - Gary Vee (Reading)
I want to use this as a guide for building.
What Else Dropped This Week
Off Script
Identity, Nuance, and Building the Media Company South Asians Deserve | Hiba Irshad
The Startup Lawyer Breaking Every Rule, and Writing Better Ones - Aravinda Seshadri
Under the Hood
How Three Startups Broke Three Different Monopolies
Note to Self
You are not performing for anyone.
You know your intentions. You know who you are at your core. That is enough. You don’t owe anyone an explanation for how you live, what you choose, or who you are becoming.
Stop shrinking for rooms that were never built for the fullest version of you.
The people who are meant to understand you will.
The ones who don’t — let them.
This life is yours. Build it accordingly.
Be bold. Be real. Be Anomalous.
— Sai Menon
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