Plans, Anchors, and Creating Opportunities
"Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face" - Mike Tyson
Inspired by Lyle McKeany’s insightful way of sharing personal anecdotes and stories, I wanted to share four themes and lessons from my trip around the sun in 2020.
This will be short and sweet so you can resume your NYE plans.
Be okay with grand plans falling apart
In January 2019 the possibility of graduating early and backpacking solo for five months was in sight, and I carefully plotted a plan. I stacked my final two semesters with full course loads and an intensive summer course, hedged my career bets between a small startup I was working for and an internship at a huge tech company like Indeed.com, and sought a six-month lease to avoid financial loss so I could cleanly leave Austin without any obligations.
The plan worked. I thought I was a genius.
I completed the necessary coursework to graduate in December 2019, signed my full-time offer with VMware, and seamlessly moved out of my apartment without any financial loss. All while having the best fourteen-week stretch of my life surrounded by my close friends and making unforgettable memories in my last semester at UT Austin.
All of those checkmarks allowed me to freely solo travel across India for 11 weeks just as I imagined. It was a dream come true.
But then COVID happened in week ten of my journey across India. What became a casual joke or source of fear-mongering from WhatsApp groups and Reddit threads became a full-fledged reality.
I stayed up all night while in Rajasthan figuring out how bad COVID really was. The reports were still questionable but Europe began closing its borders. Italy was getting decimated with deaths and cases. Spain was starting to getting pummeled by COVID tragedies.
Our world was going to be shutting down for who knew how long.
My parents back home in the States began furiously calling me, telling me to book my flight back to the States ASAP. Within 24 hours, I had gone from spending the night in a desert thirteen kilometers away from Pakistan’s border with ten other foreigners to being rushed away to Mumbai International Airport with my uncle as we frantically bought one of the last tickets before India closed its borders.
Just like that, I was unexpectedly back on a flight home, two months before my trip was set to end.
Usually, I occupy myself with movies and readings on long flights, but I could do nothing. I was just in awe of how everything played out. I couldn’t help but go between laughs and tears as I thought about what the future held for all of us.
I laughed at how I thought my plan was bullet-proof and perfectly executed, and teared up at the thought of what humanity was about to go through.
So what did I tell that story for?
I had a plan. I did everything to execute it. Yet, a black swan event happened to take place right in the middle of my trip. The ‘what-if’ game is endless. What if I had one more month in India? Would I have wanted to move there and find work in the lively startup scene in Bangalore? What if I met yet another person from San Fransisco who would open doors for me? What if.
But it’s an important lesson in how I can evaluate decision-making and understand the limits of planning.
It was a good decision, with lots of upside and it resulted in a great outcome for eleven weeks. No downside except for a hilariously overpriced one-way ticket from Mumbai International to DFW before America's borders closed for good (so not really overpriced, just supply and demand at work).
The funny thing about plans is that they could be the most well-crafted, contingency-proof assortment of tiny premade decisions you have for yourself. But when they break, which they inevitably do most of the time, all you can do is adjust. Think fast, move swiftly, and play the hand you’re dealt.
Besides, life would be really boring if every plan worked 100% of the time.
Lesson: Make plans but don’t be married to them, laugh at yourself when you think you’re a genius, and become comfortable adjusting on the fly.
When all else fails, go back to your anchors
After I got back home in Fort Worth, Texas from India, I enjoyed the modern pleasures of clean bathrooms, savory home-cooked meals from my mom, and the comforts of a reliable internet connection.
But it got old. Fast. Like most people between the initial lockdowns (end of March) to mid-May, I was going nuts after the first four weeks. I've never been a homebody and had become so accustomed to constantly being surrounded by people thanks to university life and solo traveling that I just... couldn't.
How can you fill that void of human interaction, exchanged laughter, and lively conversations?
Short answer: you can't.
So I retreated into the tunnel of my curiosity. I let it take me away.
I read and read and read.
I dove into learning the basics of personal finance/investing, evolution, and autobiographies/biographies of larger-than-life personalities like Bob Iger, Ed Snowden, and Elon Musk.
Although physically unable to travel, I vicariously traveled through great works of fiction like Shantaram, Beneath a Scarlet Sky, and The Kite Runner.
I downed myself in podcasts of high-performing business and technology people. The Pomp Podcast taught me about Bitcoin/crypto, The All-In Podcast allowed me to be a fly on the wall of what nuanced, intellectual discussions around technology and policy look like, The Bill Simmons Pod upped my bank of historical basketball knowledge, and The Tim Ferriss Show gave me insights into the lives of successful people across many domains.
After all of this listening, learning, and reading, I asked myself the question - why can’t I create content and ship meaningful work? From my high school days, I always gravitated towards writing. A group of friends and I started a media company and I managed the blog while maintaining my own.
It was time to get back to it.
So, I began synthesizing these ideas and lessons.
I began writing again. First for myself in my Notion, then on my Medium, and for the past four months on my Substack, where I've had incredible conversations with you readers who are nice enough to engage in my writing.
Lesson: Be open to change, follow your curiosity, and double down on producing instead of consuming.
Your relationships carry you
In turbulent times when uncertainty is high and spirits are low, it's so easy to hang your head.
But when push came to shove and we all had no choice but to remotely connect with our loved ones, we did. Whether it was Zoom, FaceTimes, or playing online games with your friends, we all made it work.
I’m one of those people who can feel their soul slowly lose life the more days I go without being surrounded by others. Being an only child, I learned to connect with others fast. Friends became my sibling replacements.
I deeply value friendships because they filled that void of not having similarly aged people around me in my household. So these nine months have been tough for me as it has been for most people around the world.
Being home with my parents for this quarantine period has been better than I ever could have imagined. After reading the Tail End I learned how after graduating from high school and moving to another city for college, “I had already used up 93% of my in-person parent time.” Meaning, barring unforeseen events, I would most likely be living in different cities than them, in different homes. And that means mathematically, of their average remaining lifespan, I would only be seeing them 7% of those days. Crazy numbers, I know.
But this pandemic gave me back some of that time. I will forever cherish it.
As down as I felt at random spurts of this year feeling isolated, lonely, and away from society, I was uplifted by my friends and family whose energy and conversations breathed the oxygen of joy back into my soul. Every long phone call and text exchange mattered more than ever this year, and I couldn’t be more grateful for those who I’m lucky to call my friends and family.
Lesson: Lean on your friends and family through hard times, go above and beyond for those you care about, love fully.
Activity creates opportunity
Sitting idle or daydreaming about where you'd rather be does nothing. Action is everything.
By simply committing to writing online, scheduling meetings with people inside of VMware, and sending cold emails/direct messages, I've yet again experienced the positive-sum relationship between action and results.
My day job of sales at VMware currently consists of prospecting new business. This means indulging in cold calling and cold emailing businesses across America.
This is exactly why I love sales - nothing gets done unless you put in the work and understand exactly what ‘success’ looks like for your customer. There’s no hiding or faking it.
Efficient, organized activity leads to potential opportunities that can end in a closed deal. But nothing is promised and everything is meticulous. It’s a larger metaphor to life - do all that you can that is in your control, and allow circumstances to take care of the rest.
A funny series of actions led to me seeing On Deck on my Twitter timeline, being pushed by my friend to apply to their Writer Fellowship, and having an interview a few weeks later.
Things worked out and I was off to the races.
I was in the same Zoom room as people I looked up to like Sahil, founder of Gumroad & Dave, founder of Bleacher Report. I was part of a writing workshop with talented thinkers and writers. I connected with ridiculously skilled people all over the world who were working on exciting projects.
Thanks to actionable writing techniques and tactics, I polished up what it means to effectively write online and share ideas. All of my 1:1’s with other On Deck Writing Fellows led to new insights and project undertakings heading into 2021.
Following an article I wrote over an EdTech company, I serendipitously got in contact with the founder through an On Deck Writing fellow who just happened to be a mutual friend.
It was wild, but it reminded me how your life is a series of deliberate actions until you catch that one break that can change everything and add jet fuel to your personal + professional ambitions.
The universe is kind to those who relentlessly act. There’s no substitute for good ‘ole fashion sweat equity and effort. The Law of Attraction is real.
Lesson: Go hard and fast, get your hands dirty, and put your name out there. Never know who’s looking favorably upon you.
Experience is the greatest teacher, and the present is all you have. - Vinit Shah, 12/31/20
That's all I got for you. Thank you for reading - wishing everyone a fulfilling 2021 and a recharged personal battery for all that lies ahead of us. Cheers!
"The universe is kind to those who relentlessly act." An entire word. What a year you've had and what beautiful lessons that have unfolded. Can't wait to see what's in store for you in 2021.