Your Guide to Graduating Life!

It's going to be 10 years since I graduated High-school this July🤯

TL;DR -> So in this edition I reminisce about my days in school, explore the concept of graduation in today's ever changing world, and try and connect the dots between my experiences in school and what I'm trying to build at The Hub today!

⬇️ Let's jump right into it ⬇️

📢 Don’t fall for bait, Vote for Azaan Sait 🗳

Hahahaha, don’t worry, I’m not running for election... Just yet!

This was just a phrase my friends used for our school's student body election.

Yes! I was extra back then, as well 💅

Let me set Some Context here…

For those of you who have read my first newsletter, thank you.

For the first-timers, welcome! 🙌

I am ever so grateful for 3,216 of you (and counting!) who have joined me on this ride 🚀

I thought a monthly newsletter would give me enough time to “get to it” but it took me almost a month and a half to get to my second one! (I may have picked taking long walks on the beaches of the Maldives with my family > my ambitions of becoming a storyteller temporarily- Guilty!)

Consistency is not my strong suit- I am well aware!

But I've decided very early on that while I do value your attention and the opportunity I have to tell my story on this platform I will always #PostFromMyHeart and fight the urge to post just to feed the voracious LinkedIn algo!

👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉

That being said- allow me to make my fashionably late entrance into your midweek reading list 🚀

👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉 👉

After a lot of soul-searching, I decided to call my newsletter: re:purpose because I realized it best encapsulated the one thing I was not going to growth-hack my way into solving anytime soon!

So I invite you to come along on this journey with me as I explore my purpose on this planet and share stories of my adventures building various communities!

⬇️ Let's take a look back ⬇️

If you remember, in my last newsletter I spoke about what my mom had to say about Gen Z.

Thinking back, maybe the reason I felt so defensive about GenZ was because somewhere in my mind I was being nostalgic about my own childhood (Or… that I never truly grew up!).

You see, it just hit me that it’s been 10 YEARS since I graduated from high school this July!

So i’ve been dwelling on the concept of GRADUATION 👨 🎓 and what it means in our lives…

So, what really is graduation?

“Graduation is the awarding of a diploma to a student by an educational institution.”

Most people graduate twice, maybe three times in their lives.

Once from School, and once from College (Maybe twice from College! We all have that one friend! 🤓). Both are marked as important transitionary moments in life that mark the end of one important chapter and the beginning of another.

TBT to 2016 me ⬆️

Historically, our parents - the Boomer generation and their predecessors, got into a steady job post-graduation and stuck with it till retirement. We all know how hilarious that notion sounds in today’s gig economy world.

Our generation learns by watching reels and saves carousels instead of taking notes. We watch YouTube videos at 1 am and monetize those skills on Fiver the very next day! The ability to practice what we learn in real-time is the most valuable skill to have today 🚀

- GenZ doesn't have the time to graduate! ⏰

They know that the world is changing so fast that their skills will be outdated before the next app update kicks in 📱

We don’t have the luxury of “Graduating once in a decade” anymore 🐢

Things are way more dynamic today 🚀

and...

the feedback loop has shrunk down to minutes instead of weeks 🏃♀️ 🏃♂️ 🏃

“Technology may have made democratized access to knowledge but it also wiped out any arbitrage we once had in deploying that knowledge to creating wealth!”

- Yours Truly 🚀

So let's see:

🌎 The world has evolved.

🔨 The Labor market has evolved.

🧠 The way we consume knowledge has evolved.

📢 ++ (Shout out to our team at Barely Opinionated - and my co-founder Rohit for playing a small but instrumental part in driving this evolution in education in 🇮🇳 )

But despite all these change, somehow, the concept of graduation has still managed to remain the same 🤔

MAYBE it’s the nostalgia associated with the ceremonies, MAYBE it’s the powerful institutions that don’t want to acknowledge this shift to a world in which they no longer wield the kind of power they were once used to commanding. After all, who can blame them for trying everything to protect their highly lucrative business models!

This really got me thinking about how people often say that learning is a lifelong process.

💡 Maybe we should look at graduation like this too!

☀️ With each new day-graduating comes in small forms of grading yourself and self-assessing hundreds of micro successes and failures, not one big one project not an exam.

👆Check out this clip where we go over 5 years of Learning & Building @ The Hub 👆

I’d like to think I graduate every single day, and I hope that excitement to learn something new- and apply it- and grow- never goes away!

Perspective 👀

Sometimes I feel like I move so fast during the day that only time i truly get to reflect back on things and connect the dots is in my dreams 💤

Waking up from a dream on the other hand, is a whole other story. 🥱

Waking up reminds me of missing my school bus! 🚌

Wow this really does take me back to my school days 🤔

Ahh, well It’s been a decade since I’ve missed my school bus 🚌

10 years really does put a lot of learnings into perspective 👴

Maybe that’s why I always wanted to create an ecosystem where your only ride from your bed to your desk is an elevator. ⏰ 🛗 😉

Aditi (Who lives and works at The Hub), knows what I’m talking about 🙌

Then & Now 🔄

Today, what we do at The Hub, reminds me in so many ways of my time in school! 🏫

⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️

🔄 Playing Sports → Building a Multifaceted Team

🔄 Staying in a Hostel → Building Co-living Spaces

🔄 Attending Classes → Reimagining Co-working Spaces

🔄 Morning Assemblies → Town Halls & Team Huddles

🔄 Report Cards and Parent Teacher Day→ Social Calendars & Client Reviews

🔄 Making Friends → Networking and Building a Positive Culture

🔄 Group Projects → Collaborating with some of the best Creators & Brands

The Graduating Class of 2016

The Graduating class of 2022

Want to join our class of lifelong learners?

Here’s announcing the launch of our DISCORD COMMUNITY where you can learn and grow with us everyday 🚀

Before we go....

👇 Some milestones along my journey since the last edition:

⭐️ Closed a deal with SAP India ☁️

⭐️ Traded some of my Social Currency to create a special experience for my Mamma at Radisson Blu Resorts Maldives 🏝

⭐️ Hit 100K Barely Opinionated Thinkers on our educational community on Instagram 🧠

⭐️ Landed our first fintech client at our agency 💰

⭐️ Hosted a Creator Meet-up with Manish Pandey at The Hub 🤝

⭐️ Finally kickstarted our Youtube Channel 🍿

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Phew 😅 that’s a wrap for today- but the voice in my head isn’t done talking, there’s a lot more to be said (and done!). I’ll be back next month!

Here’s what you can expect if you stick around:

🚀 Real Stories

🚀 Real Growth Hacks

🚀 Front-row Seat with a Creator-preneur trying to find his purpose.

Packing my toolbox for the day 📦

👉 Go Subscribe to my newsletter 👈

📧 This newsletter is very proudly Made In India 🇮🇳

All ideas you read here are designed and manufactured in association with my Creative Team at The Hub of #NammaBengaluru