This post has been a few days in the making but it's because it's quite important to me. The time for my New York trip has come to a close, and I'd like to take the time to reflect back on my experiences that I've had now that I'm back home in Florida.

I was born and raised in that city. I went to school there, my entire career before I went out on my own has been there. My best friends in the whole world are there (or close enough). New York City was my whole world, and I loved it. I got married when I was living there, and I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life there. But a year or so ago, I decided to move to Miami with my wife. This was certainly not an easy decision, but it allowed me to take on a new direction in our lives. I can honestly say that life, on an aggregate basis, has been so much better since we moved there.

How? How can a person who loved every single second of being in one place fall in love with a different place entirely?

I've personally come to the conclusion that loving being there was a function of comfort rather than emotion. What I mean by that is this: it's impossible to grow without discomfort. Rogan always says that the best way to get things done is to become comfortable being uncomfortable. It's certainly not an easy thing to do, nor is it something that can happen overnight. But I have to admit that the biggest leaps I've made in life were because I chose the uncomfortable path.

There's something I've been thinking about a lot over the past few days, and that's the concept of static vs. dynamic. We're used to things being static, or still. That doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad thing: being still allows us to develop relationships, allows us to plant roots, and allows us to delve deeper into things that take time. Most importantly, though, is the fact that things that are static in life are very much able to be worked in with dynamic things. Things that are dynamic are fluid, and by definition "un-sticky". They allow for personal growth, exploration, and flexibility. But the things that are the benefits of being static are strangely the things that are the detriments of being dynamic. So how do they work together?

In my estimation, you need to pick and choose the aspects you want to be static and the aspects you want to be dynamic. I can only speak for myself here, but if we dive into the move from a completely static lifestyle in New York and choosing to up and move to Miami and travel the world, that's a huge shift. However, the "static" parts of my life in New York are still sparking a fire within me and in my life: my relationships with my family and friends, the energy of the city, the culture I grew up with, and much more are all things that I take with me. They allow me to be a hard worker, to see the value in things both economically and morally, help me judge right from wrong, and guide me like the subway maps of the city to get to the right destination.

The dynamic aspects of my life, however, are all new and undeveloped, as it were: travel, meeting new people, and experiencing new things are all untested waters for me. But my "static" aspects of life help me navigate these waters with a sense of calm and with correct vision. I am grateful for the life that I lived in New York being surrounded by those I love not least because they influence me in living life to the fullest but in the right way. It allows me to be the person I grew up to become while allowing me to grow into the person I'm yet to be.

I love New York, and I'm forever grateful for the city (no matter what my opinion is of it now, but that's a separate conversation). Thank you for all you've done for me. I hope that one day, I can repay you back in the way you've given me everything. Though the time has come for me to not be there (for now, at least), I'll always be a New Yorker at heart.

I ❤️ NY.

Let's get after it today and revisit our thoughts tomorrow.

Vivek.

Hello, and Happy New Year!

People always say the expression "new year, new me". I think the intentions behind it are solid, but there's a time component to it which allows people to put off being the "new them". Why wait for the new year in order to be the new you? You're technically a new you right now: you always have the ability to make a choice to be the best version of yourself that you didn't make a moment ago.

Last night, I was at a New Year's party with some old friends and some new. I was having conversations with many different kinds of people and all different personalities. I really love being able to have these conversations because you learn about them as well as yourself: listening to someone else really can become a journey of self discovery. In any case, one person I spoke to was quite interesting. I'd never met them before, but they were coworkers/friends with some other good friends of mine (hey, a friend of a friend can be a friend too).

I had a chance to get some one on one time with this person, and I came to the conclusion that they seemed to be one of those people who liked speaking about their issues to a crowd but didn't want to change. Blaming others, blaming their background, blaming, blaming, blaming. Mind you, this isn't a knock on their personality, but rather something I noticed in the conversations we were having. Let's put a pin in this for a second.

I was texting a buddy of mine the other day and we were talking about this "let them" theory that is being popularized by Mel Robbins. Mind you, I haven't read the book, but I think I get the concept on a very surface level: if someone wants to go down a path that doesn't align with yours, let them because it's not your problem. I understand it, and fortunately or unfortunately I'm starting to become that way with people on a certain level. In trying to become more positive, I've always been encouraging and trying to get people to do better, but nowadays if someone doesn't want to put in the effort to change, let them be. It might be a tough pill to swallow sometimes, but hey: c'est la vie.

Back to the conversation at the party. This whole "let them be" thought was crossing through my mind as this person was speaking. But something pulled me in the opposite direction every single time they would speak negatively about themselves or someone else or a situation that happened. In my head (and I could be right or wrong), if it truly did happen the way this person said the things that happened to them happened, then no one would have told them that there is a different path in life, that you can make a choice to be happy. So even though the thoughts were running through my head to let them be, I still tried to be positive and tell them that they can be the best they can ever be starting right now.

New year, new you? Nah. Right now, new you. If you want it.

Anyways, I just wanted to put that out there. As an aside, I never make New Years resolutions but I did make one this year: that I will try and sleep early and prioritize my sleep. So I'm going to go ahead to bed, get lost in the pages of a good book, and drift off to sleep.

Let's get after it today and revisit our thoughts tomorrow. Happy New Year all: let's get to it in 2026 and beyond.

Vivek.

I just finished reading the excellent book Masters of Command by Barry Strauss, about the military exploits and strategies of Alexander, Hannibal, and Caesar. I've been pondering this subject as it applies to business and my own life, not least because I've also recently finished Sun Tzu's The Art of War.

What is war? In its simplest and basic terms, it's a physically confrontational power struggle: vying for being top dog and gaining control over X resource. In today's day and age, war seems to be waged on the corporate battlefield, which is one of the reasons that The Art of War is read by so many CEOs and leaders. It's an excellent way to move forward with leadership of an organization, but I feel that this way of conducting affairs has an inherent quality that many people overlook.

In the book Masters of Command, the author wrote something tha I found to be quite profound:

Alexander the Great, Hannibal, and Julius Caesar are models and warnings. We ignore them at our peril, but we should imitate them only with caution. War will always be a sad fact of life, and they were too good at war for us not to learn from them. But a good society never lets war be guided by anything other than the public interest. What guided Alexander, Hannibal, and Caesar was their selves.

This is interesting to note because their way of warfare centered around their own egos. Ego is inherent in each of these leaders' actions, but their actions led to some of the most profound moments in history and to them becoming some of the greatest generals who ever lived.

They say that leaders have a responsibility to the people they lead. I agree, but I'd like to add an addendum to this: leaders also have a responsibility to the people they go against. This is because war (or conflict in any form) is a zero-sum game: someone will win and someone will lose. But really in any conflict those who lose are ordinary people, people whose lives are impacted by the actions of a select few. In my estimation good leaders (no, great leaders) are those who offer the people they win over to be in better positions than they were before.

Look. I get it: this can be taken as some form of "socialism is good" nonsense way. It is not, and I am a very staunch capitalist. Which is why if you find this to be objectionable, really take the time to read through this. You'll see that what I'm saying is by far the most capitalistic view because what this promotes is playing positive sum games: playing games where all parties involved are better off than they were before. This leads to fostering fertile grounds for innovation, collaboration, and further positive sum games. And that, I believe, is what led to these three men's ultimate falls: they played the wrong game. Please read the book to get more details of what I'm talking about, it's a fascinating read.

Alexander, Hannibal, and Caesar were great men who went on to become great leaders. After reading this book, I'm hoping to learn from them on how to become a good man who can go on to become a great leader. That's all I have for now. Let's get after it today and revisit our thoughts tomorrow.

Vivek.