The Exchanges

Q your journey to our audience. How you started HabitStrong? What triggered you? You have been a, uh, have various successful and, you know, different roles in life. You are the only person who I know has been, uh, government servant, Then worked in, you know, venture capital, private equity, and then now are an entrepreneur. So, so what are the various choices and thought process that led you to HabitStrong?

A Um, so the journey to HabitStrong was a combination of two things. One was, uh, it was just my own personal life experiences and personal habits, and I, I saw over the years, especially in my own, uh, startup journey going back a couple of years. As you can imagine, so that the, um, startup is a very, uh, it's not a predictable journey and there are lots of ups and downs. And, uh, what I discovered was that even in the toughest of moments when nothing was going well, everything was like just falling apart. Even in those moments when I had to pull myself up and find that energy and that fire to push through all of that and just make things happen. Um, the external world is what it is. You cannot change it, but I was looking for that Uh, something to really energize and, and charge me up every day. And, uh, I discovered that an early morning routine, regular work, workout, meditation, all these things as, as simple, uh, as the, as the sound when done, well done consistently and, uh, then methodically, um, it, it changed everything. So I remember this was a couple of years ago and, uh, Uh, in my startup, we were, this was a previous startup. We were burning cash, like left and right. It was, it was not a good situation. And then one day I just said, okay, I'll set my alarm early, like, I don't know, four, 34, 45. And I would be literally like the first, first person or first, firs…

AI assessment note: “the journey to HabitStrong was a combination of two things. One was, uh”

Q from inside to go ahead for the first 30 days and 60 days to build those habits which you teach and which you like. Make them practice and habit wrong. But what, once after they are off the course, right, uh, regression to the mean is very easy, right? A few ups and downs here, a few excuses here and there. What keeps people going here even after six months?

A Great question. And I think that this is a key. Um, the habits that I pursue, I don't pursue because somebody has asked me. Nobody, in fact, has asked me. I don't pursue because it looks good or, or because it's a consensus that that is what you should do. None of that. The reason I pursue these habits is I find them rewarding. As simple as that. And I think that is the key. The key is that whatever habits you want to build, if you start reaping the rewards and if you start feeling that reward, then your, your mind will say, no, let's do that. Now the only challenge I see in habit formation is that it's, it's like going up a hill and then coming down the hill. So the initial part of habit formation is like going up the hill. So it feels hard, but once you reach the point where now the intrinsic rewards, not, not the other rewards, not like, okay, when I do this, uh, maybe because it's habit strong program. So those guys are going to call me up or they will, or there is a structure around it. All those things are the initial. It's like, uh, like when you learn, Learn cycling. You have this extra wheels just to, to help you. These are training leads. Uh, but the intrinsic reward has to come out and I can say from my experience, regular working out or regular, or let's say running medium to long distances. Uh, I do it because I just love it. There's, there's no, there's no other r…

AI assessment note: “The reason I pursue these habits is I find them rewarding. As simple as that.”

Q Got it. And what's financial independence to you as a person? Because you have made certain unconventional life choices, right, which are very different. For example, you relocated from Mumbai to Trivandrum, right, which gave you more independence, right? If you can throw some light on these kind of choices, what does financial independence means for you with these kind of choices?

A Sure. Um, to me, finance, financial independence, Siddharth is, uh, to be able to pursue things that Matter to you, uh, and to not have to make serious compromises. Now everybody has different preferences. So my personal lifestyle is again without, without getting into the details, but I don't, I don't have too many things which require a lot of money. The only thing is I enjoy eating, uh, which again, like not fancy eating, like, you know, just good food, uh, which is thankfully not, it's not super expensive. I don't have any craze that I should have these, uh, Six cars and BMW seven series, God knows, like whatever. So, uh, those are, I'm not against any of that by the way, but that's not, that's not my primary consideration. So if, as long as I'm able to live comfortably, health and, and education of kids, that is well taken care of. I can take care of my parents. Well, beyond that, I am, I like keeping things pretty simple. Um, of course, if I'm traveling, I would obviously love to, love to stay in a comfortable place, et cetera. But beyond that, uh, I find that it doesn't really take that much money. You, the need to, the, the, the felt need for crores or tens of crores, hundreds of crores, it comes. When you start thinking of, okay, I am now like worth so many millions. Then I need to, I need to now travel jet class or private jet or this or that. I need to have this. If …

AI assessment note: “financial independence, Siddharth is, uh, to be able to pursue things that Matter to you”

Q And, and what keeps you going, right? Do you, do you think there's a Uh, end goal in mind because you are very, uh, on social media, uh, you know, against the normal metrics which entrepreneurs get measured on, right? Becoming a unicorn, attaining X amount of funding, or any other thing which, which are popular in the media.

A I'm not against any of that, but that's not That's not something which resonates with me that powerfully. My, so that I'll be, I'll tell you what I'm looking at. I want to, I want to offer four, five, six, maybe more. I don't know. Certain number of programs which will attack certain parts of our daily lives, which I think are going to create a massive impact. In other words, I'm seeing there are some things which are, which are really coming the way of people living their life to the fullest. And it's not money. It's not external things. All those things are internal to us. And we are looking to create those programs, which will solve for that. So as an example, right now, we are, um, we are about to relaunch our digital de-addiction program. And, uh, I'm confident, again, this is an entrepreneur's content, so we need data to validate that, but I'm confident that it'll be, if not the best, one of the best programs and the most impactful programs in the area of digital de-addiction and digital detox. And I believe that, that program, the world needs it. At least, I believe they need it. A lot of people need it. Uh, because our devices are not going to let us be at peace. They are going to, uh, poke our focus bubble and destroy our focus, like, all the time. So, While this unicorn, all those things, so that the way to think about that is, look, if Habit Strong requires some fund…

AI assessment note: “I want to offer four, five, six, maybe more... programs which will attack certain parts”

Q for example, choosing to be an entrepreneur after, uh, continuing for such a long period of time, changing cities, and you mentioned on your LinkedIn post that, you know, you're happy with, with the kind of lifestyle you live. Let's say, for example, a ten-year-old car, right? How do you drive simplicity in your life? That is one important thing which I personally want to learn. Because simplicity is difficult.

A Simplicity is difficult. Simplicity comes from two things, Siddharth. One is elimination. So what you don't require, uh, like, don't, don't keep it. Um, I wish I could do a lot more of it, but I don't have time. So as an example, in the In, in your cupboard, like your wardrobe, if you have a lot of stuff and some of the stuff you have never opened, uh, like maybe just give it to somebody. Uh, so one is just elimination, not having things. I'll give you one, one interesting example. Okay. So when I, when I went for my MBA, uh, to Wharton, we, we took an apartment at Philadelphia and, um, We did not have any furniture and this, this particular apartment, they had this, they, they had this carpeted floor and carpet was like very, very nice and soft. So it was almost like it was cushioned, right? So very, very, very, very comfortable to sit down. And, um, because I was lazy and didn't really care about the furniture for almost, I think the first year, most of the first year we had zero furniture, literally zero. Okay. Maybe we had a table. I think we had a dining table and four chairs. That's it. Nothing else. No bed, no sofa, no cushion, no futa, nothing. That's it. And, uh, and I love that house. But later on, we, we went and bought a sofa and this and that, and now it was maybe more furnished, but I enjoyed it less. So I wanted, I wanted that simplicity. So one is eliminate thin…

AI assessment note: “Simplicity comes from two things, Siddharth. One is elimination.”

Q uh, you know, Prevented the failure of your previous startup, but you were able to come back very strongly and start a new startup. So, uh, can, can you share, uh, some, uh, frameworks on it? How, how were these habits able to pull you back? Because I have been an entrepreneur. Failing is a very lonely journey, right? You are crushed, defeated. You question yourself before everybody questions you.

A Absolutely. Yeah. Um, so, so that what, uh, exactly what happened was when, um, like I said, we burned a lot of money on, which is very, very unfortunate. Um, and, uh, then COVID came and at that point in my previous startup, I figured it wasn't, um, we did not want to pursue it further given the COVID scenario. So literally you can imagine so that, um, in one week, Like the lockdown happens and it's practically over. Literally like one, no advance notice. Like nobody had a chance to imagine. And I'm sure it was not just me. A lot of people face that. So now what do you do? And I would love to say that, okay, at that point I was energized. I said, let me go and do something else. That is not the case. In fact, I was, I was feeling exactly like you said, I was feeling broken. I was feeling very, very, I don't know. It was a lot of things. I don't know what, what were the exact emotions, but it was a concoction of a lot of negative things. But then what I did was, um, I think one of my investors encouraged me, he said, look, you know, we have this time, just, uh, take this time to reflect, take, take this time to read. And I did something truly simple, like nothing staggering. I downloaded a Pomodoro timer app on my laptop and on my phone. I would just start that timer, 30 minutes, just sit and read a book and then take a break and then do it again. And then what happened was as …

AI assessment note: “I downloaded a Pomodoro timer app... just start that timer, 30 minutes, just sit and read”