20 Quantum Cheat Codes That I Wish I Knew In My 20’s

I'm going to share with you the 20 cheat codes that took me from being homeless in Mumbai to a monk, to an MIT grad, to a multi millionaire entrepreneur. I've been the CEO, the chief operating officer and senior executive at tech companies that created over $60 billion of value. Nowadays, I advise startups, billion dollar companies, private equity firms. And I've learned that succeeding in life is actually quite simple. Right? No, it's not. Who are we kidding? Winning. That's why we need cheat codes. So let's just get into it. My first cheat code. Saving is not investing. Investing can seem hard and complicated, but it doesn't have to be. Here's the power of investing early. If you put just $5,000 into an S&P 500 index every year starting in your 20s, by the time you retire in your 60s, you'll have $1.4 million. That is the magic of compound growth. The trick is, you have to stay in the market. Don't panic when the market starts throwing a tantrum. And I learned it the hard way. In 2008, you remember during the financial crisis, the world was on the brink of collapse. The S&P 5,000 dropped almost 50%. I lost 30% of my investment and I panicked and I pulled the rest of it out of the market. But when the market started bouncing back, just after a year or two, I refused to go back in. If I had done absolutely nothing and stayed in the market, my net worth today would be 40% higher. So two things. Don't try to time the market and don't try to beat the market. Don't chase crypto and meme stocks and single stocks and options and derivatives. A lot of fancy stuff that doesn't work for retail investors. Just stick to two rules. Number one, put it in an index fund. And number two, and this is the hard part, stay in the market. Touch nothing. My second cheat code is the most controversial. Stop following your passion. Passion doesn't lead to success. It works the other way around. A study at a Canadian university found that only 4% of students could make money following their passion. 96% of us can't turn our passion into a real career. That raises a powerful question though, right? What happened to all that do what you love stuff? Well, they say you never work a day in your life if you do what you love. When I talk to young professionals, many of them believe that if you follow your passion, money will come. But here's the truth. People are passionate about creative things like art, music, photography, painting. And those things don't pay the bills. Don't focus on finding your passion, on building it by being great at something. Passion will follow you. Next up is three secrets to success. Practice, practice, practice. Do you know why Taylor Swift and Kobe Bryant succeeded when others failed? Because persistence always pays. I know countless musicians from Berklee School of Music, and these are some of the most talented people on the planet. And yet they still put in eight to 10 hours every single day practicing the hard stuff. Stuff that makes their fingers bleed and their bodies ache. Excellence doesn't come naturally. It is built through practice. I'll tell you one thing that I do well. I can sit still for hours and hours and be focused on deep work without distraction, without boredom, without eating, without. Without drinking. Now that's my way. That's my superpower. Yours will be different, but the key is to find it. Because banking on talent alone is like having a Ferrari with no engine. Beautiful to look at, but it's not going anywhere. So ask yourself, what skills can you practice and hone that are monetizable? Now, you might be in school or you might be working at a job without any unique or marketable skills, but that's okay. So start today and commit to becoming amazing at something. That brings us to cheat code number four. You need to treat your career like an investment portfolio. A collection of skills and connections that compound over time. If you're working a corporate job in your 20s, this is why they're treating you so bad. I started at the bottom of the bottom. My first job in Boston was a help desk guy at a 600 people Systems consulting firm. And picture this. A small, dark room, no windows. Everything is crammed with cables and spare parts and servers. And there are three other employees with me. And all four of us, we smelled bad and we got yelled at a lot. But you know what? I was having the time of my life. Why? Because I was getting paid to learn everything about technology. So I would work for 14, 15 hours a day, and I'll go home and I'll still work. I'll work weekends. I wanted to know everything about operating systems, about networking protocols. Not just hard skills, but soft skills like communications, collaboration. And I wasn't just building skills. I was building connections. I would take extra projects, and by the end of those five years, I think I put in like 15,000 hours in building skills and connections. And it paid off. I was promoted to be the program manager and I got my own office. In less than 20 years from my first promotion, I became the CEO of an epic tech company. Now, if you're starting out, you won't have autonomy. You will be mistreated, you will be micromanaged, but treated like a gift. Be a learning chameleon. Soak up everything you can. Because if you want to make more money than others, then you have to offer more value than others. My next Cheat code Move where the opportunities are. If you want to grow your career, then you need to move where the action is. I made that mistake when I was young. I moved to New York City way too late after being in Boston for 16 years. And of course, the moment I moved to New York, that was a game changer for me. And still to date, I question whether I should have moved to San Francisco when I had the opportunity in the early 2000s. I think that was a lack of foresight on my part. Here's the thing. You can't grow your network and your career by sitting on zoom calls in your pajamas. Of course there are certain jobs where being remote is okay, like legal or software engineering or field sales. But even in those roles, if you are ambitious and you want to grow, you have to show up. You got to be seen. Because the exposure you get by being in the office, collaborating with others, solving problems together, resolving conflict face to face, will teach you skills that remote work will not. Next up is number six, understand the difference between equity and salary. The top 1% don't chase salaries, they chase equity. I always say, salary buys you furniture, equity buys you future. Equity is exponential. You own an unlimited upside. And of course, listen, nine out of ten times you'll swing and you'll miss. Happened to me so many times. I had stock options in every company that I joined. Some of them failed, some of them did well. But that didn't move my needle. But I kept swinging. And when I hit it, that was a rain making event. It changed my life. And there is another hidden benefit. When you own equity, no matter how small, you start thinking like an owner. And that shift changes the way you approach your career, how you approach your work. Real wealth won't come from chasing paychecks. So have an ownership mindset and try to get some equity whenever you can. Cheat code number seven humble yourself and get a mentor. I waited until 40 to get a mentor. Don't make the same mistake. Yes, I waited too long before I got real career and business mentors. Until then, it was like trying to navigate the career minefield blindfolded. I didn't know what I was doing. Once I found the right mentors, my career took off. 10 years. Just 10 years after I started getting mentored by one of the most amazing CEOs, I became the CEO and I got to work alongside some of the most brilliant people on the planet. And do I think that was just a mere coincidence? No, not at all. Having a mentor is like having the ultimate cheat code for the game of life. And by the way, don't fall for those executive coaches that charge you for advice. They're all fake. Find real mentors who are invested in you. Read a great book. It's called Trillion Dollar Coach. It's about Bill Campbell. And it's amazing and it's inspiring. Cheat code number eight is to have an emergency fund so you're ready for whatever life throws at you. If you got laid off this year and didn't have an emergency fund, you're probably struggling to pay your bills. And that's so common. A few months ago, a friend of mine was driving home from work and suddenly he felt like the right side of his face was went numb and he pulled over, he called 911, they rushed him to the hospital, they did all the tests, and then they found it. He had a brain tumor and it was so heartbreaking. He's in his mid-40s and he has a lovely family. There was no warning, no rhyme, no reason could happen to any of us, right? And you have to expect the unexpected, like medical bills or losing our jobs. So try to save three to six months of your expenses in an emergency fund. And please don't touch it unless and until you have an emergency. Cheat code number nine is called forming your own FBI. This framework has saved me hundreds of thousands of dollars last year. In our case, FBI is our financial Bureau of investigation. First, where is your money going? If you don't know where your money is going, how can you control it? Second, categorize your cash into four buckets. I call them four emergency essentials. Equity and enjoyment. Emergency fund. Savings for a rainy day. Your safety net. Essentials, the everyday expense, like electricity, gas, rent. Equity is your investments. How you will build long term wealth and enjoyment. Well, that's the fun stuff. Vacations, hobbies, entertainment. But here's the catch. You only fund the fourth bucket after the first three are covered. Now, the easiest way to build your FBI is to use apps like Mint or Good Budget. But they help you track and categorize your expenses. Next up is cheat code number 10. Forget the American dream unless you want American debt. Stop chasing status symbols like designer clothes. It makes you look broke. I was 36 when we bought our first home. My wife and I were dinks. Double income, no kids. And we made sure that our annual mortgage was about 22% of our annual expenses. And we knew that we could comfortably manage the mortgage. Now home buying is the biggest debt that you don't need when you're in your 20s. And same goes for the credit card debt. So many of us spend so much on designer brands using credit cards. In the US the average credit card interest rate is 22%. Sometimes it's even 28%. So say no to designer sneakers and status symbols. Don't let brands define you. So the cheat code is simple. Wealth isn't about what you buy, it's about what you keep. My 11th cheat code is to get financially literate. Einstein called compound interest the eighth wonder of the world. There are two books on finance that I highly recommend. One is Psychology of Money and the other is Algebra of Wealth. These books aren't the get rich quick nonsense that you get peddled every day. They focus on your mindset, on the discipline and the long term financial principles. Now why does that matter? It matters because financial literacy is the best investment you can make in yourself. It's the shield that protects you from bad decisions and financial traps. So start with three things. Learn how compounding works. Convince yourself that it is really magic. Two, learn how credit scores work. Remember, your credit profile matters more than your dating profile. And number three, how taxes work. Stay out of trouble. Trust me, prison food doesn't taste great. Cheat code number 12. Automate every financial transaction you have. If you hate saving money, this one thing will make it so much easier. When I was in my 20s, I wish I had done things differently. I wish I had let technology take care of my finance. You can learn from my mistakes and do three things. First, automate savings and investment. Do that before your paycheck hits your hands. I regret not investing in my 20s. I regret not letting the idea of compounding work its magic. Second, automate your bills. Set up automatic payments for everything. Utilities, credit cards, subscriptions. That way you'll never miss a payment or get hit by a late fee. Third, automate your spending control. Use technology to put guardrails around your discretionary spending. That brings us to number 13. Go analog. Doom scrolling is killing your critical thinking skills. In the 1970s, about 40% of high school seniors read at least six books a year. And 12% of them didn't read any. Today, those numbers have flipped. No one wants to read anything. We are a distracted generation. But there is hope. A 2017 study found that even a one week detox from social media can improve your attention span and cognitive function. That's because deep reading and immersion helps you think critically, engage in complex ideas, and even expand your vocabulary. In a world where everybody is distracted, your ability to be focused will be your superpower. Cheat code number 14 is to think of failure as your friend. I know I sound like a Hallmark card, but it is so true. The most successful people we know are the people that fail the most. Take me, for example. I have been fired not once, not twice, but three times in my career. And it wasn't pretty. Each time, it was on the spot, firing, no warning. I didn't even see it coming. And it was brutal. They would say, we're letting you go. We'll send your stuff in boxes later. Go spend time with your family. And I was like, I don't want to go. And my family is the last thing I want to see when I get fired. And being fired is tough. Each time I was unemployed, it lasted for more than six months. And every day felt like a struggle. Reaching into my network or talking to recruiters, even talk to my friends. It was hard. I felt embarrassed. I felt like I was a failure. But here's what I've learned. Failure is not our tormentor, it's our teacher. If you learn from it, it will prepare you for success. Cheat code number 15 is a hard one. Don't be afraid to ask for help. There's a reason they call success a team sport. Fear was my biggest kryptonite for years. It was like this invisible force field that trapped me into mediocrity. I was so fearful of rejection, I was paralyzed. And now, of course, I'm old and I'm shameless. And I embraced the idea that I will be rejected. Ed Sheeran was rejected by every single record label. They thought he was too ginger or too acoustic or too nerdy looking. He faced rejections even while performing. He'd get booed and hackled, but now he's selling out stadiums and singing with Beyonce. So someone doesn't like you. So what? Keep moving until someone does like you. Find your tribe. Surround yourself with people who inspire you, who support you, who challenge you. As Dumbledore said, help will always be given to those who ask for it. Next up is number 16. Don't play the victim card. This is why I'm friends with the people who fired me. I have stayed in touch with some of the bosses who let me go. A few of them are still good friends. We've even served as references for each other, supported each other's careers, and even had a few laughs about the day I got fired. And it's the same the other way around. In my career. I had to let go a lot of people and I've tried to stay connected with them. Why? Because business is never personal. When you play the victim card, the only person you hurt is yourself. World keeps moving on and you stay stuck. Remember, world is not interested in being fair to us. Life is too short to hold grudges. My 17th cheat code is the most important decision you will make is who you go home to every day. If you end up with the wrong partner, you will be emotionally bankrupt. This is the one thing that I feel I got right in my early 20s. I dated a lot and when I found the right person then we both took it slow. We spent six to seven years together living together before deciding to get married. And I was in my 30s then. And by then we understood how we both thought about life, how we would have tough conversations, how would we resolve conflicts with love and respect. And today she is still my best friend. That one decision has made my life richer in every way possible. Now here's something to remember. Our brain operates using two types of thinking systems. System one is a fast emotional gut reaction. This is what takes over when we're infatuated, when we fall for someone attractive. It's immediate, it's exciting, it's romantic, but it's not deep. System two, on the other hand, is the slow rational thinker. It's the part of your brain that evaluates the long term compatibility and weighs what really matters in your partner. And when it comes to falling in love, most of us use system 1. Cheat code 18 is to forgive yourself for your past. Forgiveness is not about them. It's about you. I had a troubling childhood. Terrifying in fact. My father was physically abusive. I don't think our family has ever talked about it. But growing up I remember being afraid. Every evening I would look at the clock, I'd be watching it and it would be 8pm and the doorbell would ring and I would have a panic attack because I knew my dad was home. And over the years he told me so many things like I was ugly or I was stupid and I was worthless and I believed it. I didn't have any confidence and to be fair, I don't know what kind of depression and mental health issues my dad was suffering through. Anyway, I left home when I was a teenager. I ran away for a while. I was homeless, sleeping on train station benches in Mumbai. Later I joined an ashram and decided to become a monk. And I'm sharing all of this. This because I know I'm not alone when it comes to daddy issues. And you are not alone either. We all share struggles. Tony Stark had daddy issues. Luke Skywalker had daddy issues. Even Britney Spears has daddy issues. All of us carry this cross. Our past is like a bag of bricks and we can decide to put it down. Please forgive yourself for the way you let your past define you. My 19th cheat code is True value is about what you bring to others. Your success is the echo of the lives you improve. There is a profound Native American saying that I love you. Live only as long as the last person who remembers you dies. Think about it. Our lives, our careers, our legacy, all of it boils down to just one thing. The impact we make on other people's lives. As I get older, I now know that everything that matters is about others. I didn't know that when I was young because it's about the whispers, the stories people will tell about your kindness, your generosity, your love, your impact long after you're gone. That brings us to the last cheat code number 20. Your happiness is connected to what you own and what you desire. The secret of happiness is just one simple equation. When I was at the monk Training Center, a senior monk shared with me something that changed my perspective forever. He was actually a physician by training. A very successful man who became a monk, gave up everything. He's probably in his 80s now, but still as wise and insightful as ever. He had a simple equation. H is equal to O divided by D. Happiness is equal to what you own. O divided by what you desire. D. If you own more than you desire, the top number will get larger than the bottom number and your happiness will increase. But if your desires exceed what you own, your happiness will diminish. Our desires can be infinite, but the things we can own are always going to be finite. Even for the richest man on this planet, that is a fact. And so the key is to manage your desires. If your desires are exactly equal to what you own, then you will find that perfect unity of joy and happiness. I think it's a brilliant equation and I will leave you with my favorite part. When your desires approach zero, your happiness goes to infinity. If you like this video, please subscribe to my channel for more content like this. I'll be posting every week.