At APPNA I had a grand plan to talk to a lot of people about HER Heard and to reconnect with alumni of my medical school Aga Khan University in senior positions. Instead, I ended up spending more time with early career professionals, went to bed early on Friday instead of the alumni dinner, had a 5-hour 1:1 lunch on Saturday instead of the alumni picnic outside (in July D.C. heat), then had an impromptu tech strategy meeting Sunday morning. Now am going to go for a walk along the harbor before heading to dinner with some Pakistani Massachusetts Institute of Technology alums, some of whom are my dad's age. By choosing some stillness, deep reflective conversation, focus, time with youth (who remind me how much I have to be grateful for) and time with elders (whose conversation tends to be slower, deeper, more thoughtful) - despite the opportunity cost of things I did not do - my mind and body are in better shape. My fellow alums can be met with the next APPNA or gathering. There are times I am in that #CEO network network network mode and I get exhausted and scattered. #Founderlife is an experience of needing to reach the next goal and the next goal and the next. You don't build something from scratch nor build a scaling venture by complacency - you have to have an insatiable problem-solving drive. The need to solve whatever problem you are solving becomes like breathing. You can't not do it. That obsessive focus can exhaust and burn out. There are always trade offs. There is #FOMO of what if I made the wrong choice (with how I spent my time)? But, in fact, good choices are made from a sound mind and body, which sometimes requires doing less to do more. A few weeks ago when I bounced between MIT MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), to Microsoft Nerd center talk, to MIT Sloan Fellows MBA Program pass the torch ceremony, to Emma Willard School reunion near Albany, to #Dallas, then back to Boston and a conference at Northeastern University, doing 16-hour days starting at 6 a.m. with a dying computer (which then fully died), I had depleted my tank. The way I recharged was taking a few long walks where I stopped to observe the water (the Charles). Everything started to make more sense and my motivation, energy, and optimism came back after that. Also, from the networking and pitching, people joined the team and took up a work stream or took on the work of organizing our to dos into chunks. #Team matters. I could think about the many "shoulds" that I did not do. Instead, I know I did what filled my cup. I followed intuition more than a "must do" or rigid plan. How I spent the last few days reminded me of how my having had time to reflect during my MIT Sloan School of Management #MBA was transformative. The insights I've been able to surface, from within myself and by synthesizing learning from others, allows me to have an overflowing cup from which I can pour into others and can water and grow a new #venture.
On a mission to become a better writer, thinker, and entrepreneur • Ex-dentist, now building an internet business (at ~$500k/year)
I used to struggle massively with overthinking. Terrible sleep, constant racing thoughts, anxiety. I thought it was productive, part of the parcel of pursuing success. But it was only after working on being calm did I start making much better decisions (in life and business). These habits helped most:
