I’m 46. If You’re In Your 20s or 30s, Read This.

My 7 biggest life and business lessons

Jun 21, 2026

The other week, it was my 46th birthday.

So I thought I’d share my 7 biggest life and business lessons from building 2 billion dollar businesses, working at Goldman Sachs, and most importantly:

Having a beautiful family with my wife and two kids…

1. The world will give you whatever you want. You just have to ask it intelligently.

One of the questions I constantly ask myself and my team is, “What would need to be true for this to happen?” The answer to this is exactly what you need to do to get it.

2. Not giving up is the most heroic thing you can do.

When I first came to America from India, I was 17 and had next to no money. At one point, I was eating out of a dumpster on my college campus just to survive.

But two decades later, I came back to the college as the commencement speaker.

And glued to that same dumpster was a sticker of Aquaman with the quote “Not giving up is the most heroic thing you can do.” I still live by this quote today.

3. You only have to get rich once.

I’ve watched the smartest people get rich, lose everything, and spend years rebuilding from zero again. But the fact is, the skill that gets you rich doesn’t disappear even if the money does.

Because if you can learn it, it’s a skill. If it’s a skill, you can teach it.

4. Everything in life has a playbook. You just have to learn it.

When something sounds technical, I get excited. Because the more technical something is, there’s nearly always a playbook for you to follow and learn it.

5. It’s not about the exit. It’s about the options.

Most founders start their business without ever considering an exit. And it’s understandable.

They built their business for themselves, and maybe they don’t ever want to sell.

But here’s the thing: building your business for an exit isn’t about the exit itself. It’s the options it gives you, should you ever want to sell.

At the end of the day, nobody knows how they will feel in 10 years’ time.

6. Small companies get small multiples. Big companies get big multiples.

Smaller companies look fragile to investors. So the bigger you build, the more you buy, the bigger the empire and the more value you’ll get from potential buyers.

This is why you want to build big if you’re going for the exit.

7. Moat = Massive effort on the front end. Money = an elegant business model on the backend.

This isn’t some secret strategy… it’s just doing the work. Massive effort on the front end is the Moat because most people will never make the effort.

So on the backend, now the business becomes elegant and simple to run.

Let me give you an example:

Your Moat on the front end could be creating 3 pieces of content every day across all social platforms. And your backend could simply be your email list, where you sell your products.

I’m not sure what these 7 lessons will look like in 20 years time. But if there’s only one lesson I’d ask you to take away, it’s this:

“Not giving up is the most heroic thing you can do.”

Whenever I get stuck, I just remind myself of it.

And every single time, it’s given me a breakthrough.

If you liked this post, I talk about the number one way to actually master wealth creation in this next one: