My dream of pursuing a different life outside the corporate world was triggered by several casual conversations. One such stellar conversation lead me to the 1000 day rule. The way a serial entrepreneur articulated the rule went something like this: “If you are able to survive without a salary for a 1000 days and have a pipeline of clients, you are employment gravity free. If you survive for a 1000 days, you will escape the temptation to ‘chuck it’ and get back to the certainty coated rhythms of corporate life.”
I came home and quickly approximated the 1000 days to 3 years and earmarked that as my first milestone to cross. I crossed that milestone today, the 14th of April 2019. Time flies. As clear as today is, the 14th of April 2016 is vivid in my memory (I am sure it will always be). The in-between is a burr that makes me expend energy to parse and recollect events.
The richness of work across sectors across the world. The staunchness of challenges.
The intensity of the conversations.
The infusion of life in daily living.
The ambiguity of ‘income’ and restless moments.
The opportunity to work with outstanding leaders across sectors on projects that are beyond awesome.
The peeling of several layers of my own mind.
The kindness and love of various communities of practice from around the world.
Inchoate memories get trumped by a feeling of gratitude and fulfillment. The reality of tomorrow morning being a new day isn’t lost on me. I have work to do and plans to march towards.
My dad, the loving middle class man that he was, would always ask, ‘whats next?’ with a certain nonchalance about the past. A question he reserved for both the good and the bad events. That gave momentum to the next day, however spectacular the success or however morbid, the failure.
Simmering in the oven are a set of plans for the times ahead. I seek your wishes and the pleasure of a conversation! Someday, sometime.
Thank you for reading. Here are seven pieces for you. Milestones that altered the course of the world. Am harbouring a hunch that you will enjoy this. You see, I know a thing or two about hunches. The three years have taught me to trust my intuition and place some bets. I don’t win every time. But someone told me i can only get better. Tell me if my hunch worked this time around!
- Milestones in Earth’s history
- Milestones in Language
- Milestones in Learning theories
- Milestones in Computing
- Milestones in Market Capitalization
- Milestones in Artificial Intelligence
- Last min decisions that changed the world
Kavi
