Highlights:
Left my full-time job at the tech consultancy
Experimented with revenues sources apart from full-time job - remote teaching at boot camps, private mentorship, nutrition biz, freelancing
Did a mini-sabbatical (2 months)
Fell in love
Did a 7 days meditation retreat
Joined Nintee as a senior product designer
Read 7 books
Traveled to 6 different places
Rescued 2 cats, and 1 pup. Sterilized, vaccinated 5+ cats
Lowlights
Didn’t work toward building income streams from info products
Shipping speed is still not at par
Hardly publish any writings
Workout momentum was weak, the gym was on and off
2022 was full of surprises. From leaving my full-time job at Nagarro as a senior UX consultant to trying a short but well-lived self-employment journey and now back to working as a senior product designer @Nintee. And oh I forget an important event… finally dating someone whom I feel at home with. Let’s go into more detail below:
Bye Full-time job, hello randomness my friend
I left my FT job in January without any plans. Covid made me realize that life is too short to work at big tech. There was hardly any growth, everything was becoming so predictable, and days were full of useless meetings.
Post leaving it, I took a break for a few weeks (now I feel I should have prolonged my sabbatical) and joined ‘being’ as a freelance designer. The team was excellent, and the product seemed interesting but one of the co-founders was toxic. I eventually decided to end the contract in about 2.5 months. In hindsight, I could see many red flags with CEO/co-founder, I should have trusted my guts and said NO to this project.
That said, this year I learned to say NO a lot, and want to make my default response. > Saying NO is one of the best productivity hacks.
But Shivam, how are you sustaining yourself in your self-employed lifestyle? Are you building a startup?
Well No! I was fortunate to learn this approach to building a portfolio of small bets. Made a detailed tweet thread explaining the philosophy of small bets, below:
The bets I took:
Freelancing/consultation projects
Teaching, workshop engagements
Building a nutrition biz with my mom
Content creation over my Twitter
And doing online courses in the areas of my interest. Courses I recommend:
Small bets (Highly recommended)
Reducing freelancing and focusing more on building products resting more :)
Around the end of the first quarter, I dramatically reduced my freelance engagements and well started *hustling* less. I used the free time for well flanuering
Went for long walks, met old friends, got more active in volunteering for social causes (dog/cat sterilization, vaccination, adoption, etc), traveled a bit, and read a lot. I feel we all should take mini sabbaticals instead of retirements in the 60s.
Falling in love and cats
This year I happened to meet someone with whom I feel at home :) Our conversation felt effortless and the first date happened when she got sick I rushed to her place with home-cooked food, and stayed there for a few days, taking care of her. It all happened randomly and seemed like the universe orchestrated this perfectly.
We traveled a lot together - Bir, Jibhi, South Goa, and old Varanasi. It’s been 7 months but seems like ages. But we should not romanticize relationships, as we do partial live-in, and arguments happen at times. It’s that we all are different at the individual level and shouldn’t try to change anyone.
What I learned is that, it’s important to communicate what you are feeling (good/bad everything) to each other in a straightforward and gentle manner. Being in a relationship can be a wonderful opportunity to understand oneself, how one reacts, what one desires, and so on and so forth. And not to mention, to care for someone is a joy indeed.
Nintee
As with most things in my life, randomness has done wonders for me. On a random day around late night in June, I was browsing Twitter. I saw Paras Chopra was looking for some design help for a project. I emailed him casually and to my surprise, he not only replied but was also keen to speak with him.
Post 1-2 discussions, we decided to give it a shot. I initially asked for a consultant/freelance role, as I didn’t want to get into the shackles of full-time employment. But post talking with Paras, it was clear to me that he knows deeply what he’s doing and he’s dedicated to it, he also wanted me full-time, and I agreed in good faith.
I did an assignment on calorie tracking UX flow, and after that, I joined as a senior Product designer. Every day, I feel grateful to be able to work with a talented team @Nintee and our north star aligns with my personal (and even Buddhist goal, Woah)
As we are in stealth mode so can’t share much detail about it. But, we are building tools for behavioral change and we are not yet another boring habit coach. We are all about high-energy performance, fun, and zest for life. Will share more soon.
P.S. - Sequoia funded us with 2.5$M pre-seed. And we are gearing toward ramen profitability by end of this year 🚀
Meditation Retreat
Post covid, I was finally able to go to a meditation retreat. I made one annual meditation retreat a habit from 2018 onwards but covid changed everything.
This was a self retreat i.e. no formal schedule, practice as per your preference. Oh and also met my wonderful zoom friends in person! Initially, 2 days were isangha meetup (our zoom group is called isangha, and we did daily meditation daily from lockdown onwards) meetup, it was hectic though. I went to Europe for the first time, Tilorien Monastery is located in Belgium. It was the most part of Europe, I used to go for long walks daily (almost walking 15-20K steps daily). Had deep conversations with my fellow Buddhist friends, it was one of my best highlights of this year.
That’s all for now. I end this reflection on what are my intentions for 2023 and a beautiful quote by Aldous Huxley
Intentions for 2023
Consume less, create more
Write more
Prioritise - Health, relationships, and hobbies over work
Sleep 8 hours
daily Tiny exercise habits Do IF (12-16 hrs) and reduce junk, processed food and sugar (hardest for me) Time box things bets
“It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one's life and finds at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than 'Try to be a little kinder.”
―Aldous Huxley, Moksha: Writings on Psychedelics & the Visionary Experience
What a year Shivam! Thank you for sharing.
Reading this, It made me reevaluate my life in a calm and focused way. This is beautiful reflection and writing.
Thanks for sharing.
And keep writing Shivam !