When someone asked me what inspires me to write

Here’s what I told them:

That’s a good question. I feel this is what everyone struggles with at some point. I know I did. There’s always going to be times when you just sit down to write and nothing comes out on the paper. And we always wonder where and what is our inspiration.

I’m gonna tell you something different here. Inspiration is not real. That one moment when you have the brilliant idea about what to write doesn’t happen in reality. Or it’s way rare than people think it is. Your only inspiration to write should be your why. Why do you wanna write? Why did you start in the first place? That’s it. It’s your why.

Let me give you an example. I started writing long time ago, but I was the most irregular writer ever. And that’s bad. I never knew if I was good or not because I was afraid to show it to anyone. And that made me not wanna continue writing and leave it as just another hobby. But then I thought why I wanna do it. And my why is because where I’m from, no one thinks you can be a writer. No one I knew for a long time ever had a book published. And I know how much of a difference few words can make in someone’s lives. So I told myself, that’s my why. And I kept writing and writing and in few years, I was able to develop this habit of doing it every day even if I don’t feel “inspired” enough.

Make it a habit. Write regularly and put it out in front of people. They decide if you’re good or not. Always. And once you start doing this, you’ll see the magic happen. You won’t need inspiration because that one poem you wrote and someone left a comment on it saying “I really needed this today. Please never stop writing.” That’ll be your lifetime inspiration.

Just show up

It’s easy.

Easy to NOT stick to a plan and be consistent.

Easy to NOT be on attack at all times.

It’s easy to complain and make excuses.

To worry too much about your losses.

It’s easy to just say,

“That’s the best I can do.”

Until you realize that you’re 100-FUCKING-% in charge of your life.

And instead of crying about the way you want it to be, you can react to the way it actually is.

You have to accept yourself and go all in on yourself.

No one else is going to do it for you. Ever.

And when you’ve done that, just show up everyday.

Show up everyday and work your ass off.

And then do it again tomorrow.

And the day after that.

And after that.

It takes nothing more, but more importantly, nothing less.

Hoping and dreaming will result in nothing.

Executing against your skills is how you get it.

Just show up.

And work.

If it’s easy

We all want easy.

We all want the same thing. The easy thing. And the greatness of doing that thing is split among everyone wanting that thing.

Until there’s no greatness left in it.

Only mediocrity.

Mediocrity is the death of human potential.

When everyone wants the same, easy thing, our stories become the same.

And when our stories become the same, we all become the same.

We lose our uniqueness.

A great story told once is amazing.

A great story told over and over again is boring as fuck.

So next time when you find yourself thinking what to do, think about your story.

Think what will happen to it if it’s easy..

I love to fail

So it’s been more than a month since Spring Break passed, and with planIt, we were expecting that many TCU students will travel using the website and get started with creating trips online.

Guess what?

That didn’t happen.

We put out great social media content for over a month, used yard signs for advertising throughout the campus, and sent out emails to signed up members. Not one person gave a single shit about it.

Clearly, we’re doing something wrong. But what is it?

After thinking (too much) about it, this is what I came up with:

First, we aren’t getting the message across clearly. People are still doubtful on what is it and how it works.

Second, let’s say you go somewhere on spring break, so you need to return back too, and that’s highly unlikely to happen since the number of users is so limited on the website as of now.

In short, we failed. But not really.

I’ll be the first one to admit, it sucks. It sucks big time when you work your ass off on something that you HOPE people are going to use and they literally say, “Screw you.” But it’s okay. Not the end of the world.

This is just a micro-failure. It is recoverable. Just one of the few micro-battles that we lost. But what’s important is that we tried it.

Personally, I love to fail. Or at least trying to fail. There’s this struggle you have to go through when you’re trying something new, and chances are, 99.99% of the times you’re going to fail. And I love that struggle. That struggle alone has taught me most of what I’ve known about anyone or anything. When you’re in that struggle phase, you deal with things you never expected to face. So you throw yourself in this unknown territory where nothing is black or white but all gray and unclear. And there you take the most practical approach available to humankind.

Try. Fail. Learn. Repeat.

People ask me how I’m good at writing being a non-writing major, or how do we win business competitions with having zero background in it. Here’s a fun fact: for my first 100 posts or so, no one gave a shit about this blog. I’d post, and one or two random people bored on the internet would read it and not even say anything about it. At that time, it looked like I failed, but what that really was just micro-failing in order to get better at writing and learning how to use different platforms to reach out to more people. Same with business competitions, or any other aspect that I’ve spent time on.

Nothing valuable comes fast.

It takes time to build something out of nothing. Whether you’re trying to make your app work, or learning how to swim, or being great at basketball, it’s not going to happen overnight. All those micro-failures will one day result in your macro-win. You just have to know where you want to be and do the dirty work to get there.

With planIt, we want to create a social transportation network, where people utilize empty seats in their cars to make traveling easier for people looking for cheap alternative to get somewhere. This comes with a lot of dirty work to be done. And a whole lot more micro-failures. But that’s fine. If not in the first round, we will win the game in second, or the last round, but we’ll keep on trying.

Even if we lose the game, it’ll definitely make one hell of a story.

What it takes to get started

Nothing.

Not a thing.

Not money.
Not an office.
Not an expensive camera.
Or the newest laptop.
Or an investor.
Or a microphone.
Or rich parents.

You just need one simple thing.

You need to start.

And then, you should never stop.
Ever. Again.

Whatever happens, never.

And if this one thing doesn’t work out, do your next thing.
And the next. And the next.

Learn your lessons. Get back up again. Dust off your shoulders.
And don’t give up.

Until one day one thing works out.
Until it all finally starts to make sense.

Until the small pieces start to make a beautiful picture.
The picture that was there all this time but you just couldn’t see it, yet.

And that’s it.

That’s all it takes.

We are (still) young

Today is the youngest you’ll ever be.

Live like it.

A woman to remember

A day to celebrate the birth of one of the world’s leading film and fashion icon, Audrey Hepburn.

Audrey Hepburn was an inspiration to many. Beyond her pretty face and acting career, she was also a humanitarian and a genuinely great person who had a lot of good advice to give.

Here’s few:

Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’!

I love people who make me laugh. I honestly think it’s the thing I like most, to laugh. It cures a multitude of ills. It’s probably the most important thing in a person.

There is more to sex appeal than just measurements. I don’t need a bedroom to prove my womanliness. I can convey just as much sex appeal picking apples off a tree or standing in the rain.

The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mole,but true beauty in a Woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she knows.

I believe in manicures. I believe in overdressing. I believe in primping at leisure and wearing lipstick. I believe in pink. I believe happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day, and… I believe in miracles.

The simple honest fact

“Find what you love and let it kill you.
Let it drain you of your all. Let it cling onto your back and weigh you down into eventual nothingness.
Let it kill you and let it devour your remains.
For all things will kill you, both slowly and fastly, but it’s much better to be killed by something you love.”

Let’s move forward

One step at a time. That’s how it’s done. That’s what I’ve been hearing all my life. Nobody told me what to do when you are stuck at one place. What are you supposed to do when you don’t know where to put the next step? I went to school for 15 years of my life. Never did anyone, and I mean not even a single person, talked about this. I still sometimes wonder why they don’t teach this stuff. I guess they themselves don’t know. Maybe they are stuck too.

But fortunately, life is a good teacher. It teaches you everything, using practical examples. Few of those still hurt. Physically and emotionally. But it goes on. Lessons are learnt. And among those lessons, I discovered something. Something Fun. Exciting. Scary. Risky. Worth it. Along my journey, I’m learning how to keep moving. Even after I’m stuck at the same place. Or with the same thing. A friend of mine told me, if you don’t get what you really want, think of it as something that happened to you which is good for you. How? Because there’s something better waiting to happen to you.

I laughed.

I asked him, what if I really want it and not the 2.0 version that’s in store for me?

Trust me, you don’t really want it. You deserve better. That’s what he replied.

Sometimes people do make sense. Not practically. But in another dimension of this mystical world. It’s hard to understand them but when you experience what they said to you a while ago, it all makes sense in a perfecto way. Same happened with me. I listened to my dear mate, and it was worth it.

We all deserve better. But we still keep on chasing things we think are best for us. If you’ve put your side of effort, and you still get nowhere, just let it go. This is not giving up. This is striving for better. As simple as that. Let it go. It might come back to you later, but the chances are that the 2.0 version is already in store for you. And when you realize it, in that exact moment, the smile on your face will say it all. You’ll be glad. And happy. Truly happy.

Different people call this by different names. Moving on. Progress. Advancement. Take off. Blah blah blah.

I like to keep it simple. Let’s keep having fun.

Adios.

 

 

Go all the way

“If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery–isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you’ll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you’re going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is.”

 

― Charles Bukowski