Fear of Ostracism

The nail that sticks out, gets hammered down. How many times have we heard this proverb in different iterations throughout our lifetime? Probably one too many. ‘This is too risky, what would our relatives say, having a stable job is the main thing in life, buy a house, get married before you turn 30, start a family, your hobby is not going to make you money, I could go on and on, and at this point, at least one of the aforementioned points must have hit home, hard.

I want to share my personal experience here, and this is something very close to my heart. After working tirelessly for years, my father has finally retired and followed his passion for drama, art, and culture. We recently started a YouTube channel for him, where he posts content on Bengali Recitation, Story-Telling, and Bengali drama. I was lucky enough to assist him through this process, as he had no clue about how to gain traction on YouTube. Since I had the opportunity to work in the YouTube space for a while, I was able to show him the ropes, and guide him about Search Engine Optimization, Promotion Planning, Content Strategy, Data Analysis of YouTube and the general essence of getting his content viewed by the right set of audience.
It’s been a great learning journey so far, but the most important part of it has been the friendship and bond we have developed, which further strengthened our relationship. He is my mentor, he is my role model, his unconditional support and patience with me is something I had always taken for granted. Age 13–21, you look at your parents as the enemy, age 21–25 you start understanding the sacrifices they made to bring you up, and after 25, you start valuing the relationship to a much deeper level. If you’re listening to this podcast right now and staying with your family, give them a tight hug without saying anything, or just drop a message saying how much you cherish them. At the end of the day, the only unconditional supporters you would have, are your parents. In case you’re lucky enough to have friends who support you unconditionally, show them some love, cherish the people who support and love you. I didn’t do this enough, and for my people who are listening, I love you guys! Thank you for putting up with my shit all these years.

Shoubhik, why have you started a podcast though?
I’ll let you in on a secret, I am extremely lazy and resistant to change. Over the past couple of weeks, I have started forcing myself into a discipline. Be it waking up early, or just start my day with positive affirmations, and it has impacted me in the best ways possible. I had always been a physically active person but had lost my motivation over the past couple of years, and that’s something I wanted to change. The power of positivity is severely underrated in my opinion, my thoughts were always focused on the future, and the past at the same time. And due to this, I missed out on the present, with the beautiful people I spent time with, the marvellous connections I had made, and most importantly, I stopped taking care of myself. (Big red flag, big big red flag)

This podcast will serve as a medium for me to force myself into a discipline, in order to eventually form a habit. This podcast will ensure I commit to future timelines and work on myself, one day at a time to achieve them. This podcast will assist me in unlearning, relearning and educating myself about the things I am passionate about, about the amazing people who I interact with, what drives them, learn from them, because peer to peer learning for me has always been the best way to learn. I love talking, I love listening to people, and I am passionate about a lot of things. From stock markets to horology, there are many things I want to learn about my passions. I always looked at travelling as an escape, but the pandemic really changed my outlook on not just travelling, but on life and the things that are important to me. It had a profound impact on the way I think, the way I was living, and what my perception of success was. In a way, these podcasts would be a personal therapy session for me, I hope you find something that resonates with you, believe you me, the change from ‘One Day’, to ‘Day One’, is a magical experience.

This podcast will consist of two segments — The first one will be ‘My Two Cents’, where I talk about things that I am currently doing. From reading a particular book and sharing my learnings from them, understanding what the author wants to say, reading between the lines, in you may (I love overthinking, it’s my favourite pass time)

Financial literacy, what led me to unlearn about personal finances, unlearn what society had taught me about MY money, and how at the age of 27 was the first time I filed my own taxes. But hey, let’s not put the entire blame on the Indian Education system, we live in an age where if you want to learn something, there’s no one stopping you, but you.

Physical and mental wellness and the impact it has made on my life. This is something that is very close to my heart, I have always been an active person, right from my days in school. Right from cricket, football, hockey, to athletics, I was involved in pretty much everything. The curious thing here, although I am a big fan of physical sports, I never liked watching sports. No cricket, no football, no F1 for me.
Recently started getting into yoga, and it has been a fantastic learning journey for me, something I plan to continue to practise each day. Yoga for mental health, and HIIT for physical health, and home food, god I missed mom’s cooked meals during the pandemic. I had to resort to bread omelette twice a day because I am a terrible cook.

Entrepreneurship, startups and all things about growing businesses, this has always been extremely fascinating to me. How brands market their products, what are some of the greatest marketing tactics used by companies, how people who started with nothing, have built an entire empire now, and that is my source of motivation, something that whispers in my ear to keep going, keep grinding, and always be open to opportunities.

My fascination with the watch industry and the history behind some of the greatest complications in the world. I have been a ‘watch guy’ since the age of 13 when my mother bought me my first real watch, a Festina 1/100 of a second Chronograph from New York, and that sparked my interest in watches, and I started learning about the various complications that watchmakers around the world use.

Bikes & Riding — my all-time favourite topic, and something I can talk about for hours and hours on end. Bikes & Cars are something that’s in my DNA, be it design, the engine specs, new innovations, I am a complete fanboy. I worked extremely hard to purchase my first bike, the Royal Enfield GT650 at the age of 25, and have extensively ridden throughout the country, mostly on solo bike trips. There is a lot more of India I want to explore, and the only way I want to do it is on two wheels. Four wheels move the body, but two wheels move the soul. Fellow riders would resonate, one of the best feelings is cruising on highways, with music you love, and riders to watch your back.

The second segment is something I am very excited about, called ‘Mentor Me’
I have met some amazing people throughout my life, and the one thing I always admire about these people is their personal journeys, their stories, the common passions we share and the experiences from which I can learn. In this segment, I would be calling upon various guests whom I have had the fortune of meeting, offline as well as online, and learn from them. Be it about Product Management, Personal Finance, Stock Market investing, or the common passions that we share. I have always been a peer to peer learning kind of person, I feel I can learn better from people I resonate with. This would be my way to broadening my scope of learning, understanding things from a different perspective, learn new things, relearn some old things, and most importantly this would motivate me to improve myself, one day at a time.

If you want to learn, read.

If you want to remember, teach.

Through the various episodes, I will be sharing my personal journey of learning. Remember, it's one small step at a time. Each task or goal seems mountainous at first, but through these episodes I would be breaking those steps down to a granular level, taking small incremental steps on a day-to-day basis, whilst keeping the timeline for achievement for those goals definitive. The most precious commodity we possess is time.

I hope this podcast would help you, in some way or the other, and I would love to hear your feedback. Do share your reviews, I will keep working on the episodes week on week, and learn as much as I can, and share my learnings with all of you! Thank you for all the support all of you have shown me, I will forever be grateful to each and every one of you. Much love.
Signing off,

I hope you, and your loved ones are keeping safe, and healthy. Please stay indoors, and please protect yourself, the pandemic is not over yet.
This has been your friendly noob Shoubhik, and you’re listening to Mentor Me.

Podcast Link — https://open.spotify.com/show/5lLncukMt2Dk2FNbEWzeHT