Hi everyone, I’m Hritik.
I’m 25 years old. I graduated from one of the IITs in India back in ‘22 and soon after joined a startup as a software engineer. It’s going to be 3 years in the industry in the next few months, and I’m starting to feel this unease inside me. I come from a very remote town, born into a lower middle-class family. So, I had a basic aspiration: to land a decent-paying job — which I did through college placements (~$20k/yr. I know it might seem little, but it’s actually quite good if your yearly expense is just ~$7–10k). I felt good. Then I switched to another remote, California-based startup where I’m working now (~$35k/yr). Naturally, my lifestyle also upgraded a bit — say, to $12–15k in expenses. But the only real change I felt was a bit more security. My plan was to simply climb till I hit $100-120k.
Now, the unease I mentioned, it’s basically a story I related to in a book (The Great Rat Race Escape ) which described the vague feeling I had about my 9-to-5 and next coming years in much deeper colors. I’ve read a few books before Rich Dad, Makeover, Psychology etc — but this one hit hard. I never really liked the idea of getting rich slowly over multiple decades. This book gave me clarity (I am still halfway btw). It definitely increased my awareness around words like scale, leverage, and freedom. But more than anything, it gave words to that quiet dissatisfaction — the daily, unescapable grind on one side and the weekend splurges on the other. The dissonance was killing me.
I loved the author’s (MJ DeMarco) way of looking at money, which I deeply resonated with. And here I am — to keep the osmosis running. I have no clue apart from this one goal: I know I’m going to build a profitable business in the next 2 years, earn my yearly pay in a month, and buy some actual freedom. That’s it. Thanks for reading.
I’m 25 years old. I graduated from one of the IITs in India back in ‘22 and soon after joined a startup as a software engineer. It’s going to be 3 years in the industry in the next few months, and I’m starting to feel this unease inside me. I come from a very remote town, born into a lower middle-class family. So, I had a basic aspiration: to land a decent-paying job — which I did through college placements (~$20k/yr. I know it might seem little, but it’s actually quite good if your yearly expense is just ~$7–10k). I felt good. Then I switched to another remote, California-based startup where I’m working now (~$35k/yr). Naturally, my lifestyle also upgraded a bit — say, to $12–15k in expenses. But the only real change I felt was a bit more security. My plan was to simply climb till I hit $100-120k.
Now, the unease I mentioned, it’s basically a story I related to in a book (The Great Rat Race Escape ) which described the vague feeling I had about my 9-to-5 and next coming years in much deeper colors. I’ve read a few books before Rich Dad, Makeover, Psychology etc — but this one hit hard. I never really liked the idea of getting rich slowly over multiple decades. This book gave me clarity (I am still halfway btw). It definitely increased my awareness around words like scale, leverage, and freedom. But more than anything, it gave words to that quiet dissatisfaction — the daily, unescapable grind on one side and the weekend splurges on the other. The dissonance was killing me.
I loved the author’s (MJ DeMarco) way of looking at money, which I deeply resonated with. And here I am — to keep the osmosis running. I have no clue apart from this one goal: I know I’m going to build a profitable business in the next 2 years, earn my yearly pay in a month, and buy some actual freedom. That’s it. Thanks for reading.
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