What Is The Most Valuable Thing In Life ?
Until Dec 2022, I was on a stellar career trajectory earning in maybe top 0.1% of India, working as Tech Lead at Google. Maybe 5 more years of job would have put me in the 1M dollar club if Google continues to stay on their strong business trajectory. But I left all of it to save the most valuable thing our life can give to us.
I strongly feel and many of you will agree that money is not the most valuable thing in our life. I am not talking about the case where one does not have enough money to get by their daily lives comfortably. But after your basic needs are fulfilled, it is your time that is the most important thing you can have in your life.
Let me explain with an example. Say you are 60 years old, and have a billion dollars in your bank account. No amount of money or effort can allow you to enjoy trekking the high mountains. The health and energy you have in your 20s or 30s can never be brought back with even infinite money. So money can never buy back your present youthful time where you have all the energy in the world with a healthy body.
Working for 10 years in the software industry, I saved enough to be able to survive for the next few years without cutting down on my lifestyle. So I gave 5 years to myself to do whatever I like and build some steady source of income in parallel. I truly want to do some innovation which is useful for people out there. I want to use my existing skills to create value for people. I have a strong belief that money is just a way to exchange values. If I can create enough value for people out there, money will automatically follow, and I have 5 years to do the same.
It has been 6 months, and I have already started 3 potential sources of income. One of them is an AI based product called Buzzing AI. The other in this newsletter to help aspiring software engineers build a successful career. There is another initiative which I have been working on for the past 3 years and want to continue working on it in a silent mode. I am in the process of starting a 4th source of income which relates to e-commerce business. I strongly believe in creating multiple potential sources of income with unlimited upside and limited downside. All I need is one of these sources to work in the next 5 years.
Last 6 months have been a mixture of self doubt and happiness of freedom. But I strongly feel that this is the right path to follow, because my time is the most valuable thing in life for me, and I do not wish to trade it for a salary which can never help me bring back my current age, youth or energy.