12/20/2023 0 Comments Random thoughts about life![]() ![]() I still remember a lesson from my early running days. Many of life’s greatest lessons have come to me on the road. Some I absorbed, and many I refused to acknowledge until that geographical move made me see the Goa lens.īut in my early running days, I was still pushing for timing and comparing myself to others. And yet, as I built up the mileage, new lenses or perspectives constantly came my way. So grit and perseverance, along with aggression and high energy, were always the lenses that I saw running through. I treated running in the same way and was always focused on my timing and the various stats that made up a runner's life. Getting things done and getting them done fast was my motto. The start of every week, each Monday, was the act of going to war on stuff that company creation needed. I walked fast, talked fast, and often pushed through all the walls that came in my way. Who knew that the metaphor of the marathon runner-who battles many “internal walls" before he is successful-would mirror my entrepreneurial journey? At that stage, a lot of "warlike" words were in my dictionary and in my behavior. I started long-distance running around the same time as I started Cequity. Others may have even been terrorized by it after all, not everyone is running that marathon! A few were inspired by this and even joined me for some running. ![]() People who built Cequity with me would have seen this trait. ![]() I began to see running through the lens of grit and perseverance. Building a company from scratch was a lot like running a marathon. At work, one also begins to use a similar approach: pacing oneself and building strength for the long haul. One gets used to working methodically on the individual components of running: lots of slow running, steadily building up strength and endurance. Running allows you to think through issues, breaking down large problems into components. ![]() So I began to see running through the lenses of audacity, grit, and perseverance. Who could have imagined that 42 kilometers could be run? But marathons teach you to pick an ambitious goal and go for it. He says, "No matter how mundane some action might appear, keep at it long enough, and it becomes contemplative, even a meditative act”. He calls it “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running”. Haruki Murakami, a Japanese novelist, has a great book about running. I was always keen to run with them, and now Alisha, at age 22, in her final year of college, registered us to run a marathon together! So a few months ago, I started my regular running again! This time with a Goa state of mind! With new lenses that allowed me to stop and smell the coffee! For more than 10 years as I ran the Mumbai marathon, my daughters Alisha & Anushka would come down to the road in front of my building to give me a hi-five as I ran! That interaction always recharged me and set me up to keep going. Sundays were spent doing long runs on the road. At least 4 to 5 months before that, we would be at Mahalaxmi Racecourse 3 to 4 times a week at unearthly times every morning to train with our running group. In my earlier life in Mumbai, the marathon was the highlight of the 3rd week of every January. ![]()
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