One sunny afternoon, when he wasn’t feeling well, ‪#Jobs‬ sat in the garden behind his house and reflected on death. He talked about his experiences in India almost four decades earlier, his study of Buddhism, and his views on reincarnation and spiritual transcendence. “I’m about fifty-fifty on believing in God,” he said. “For most of my life, I’ve felt that there must be more to our existence than meets the eyes.”
He admitted that, as he faced death, he might be overestimating the odds out of a desire to believe in afterlife. “I like to think that something survives after you die,” he said. “It’s strange to think that you accumulate all this experience, and maybe a little wisdom, and it just goes away. So I really want to believe that something survives, that maybe your consciousness endures.
He fell silent for a very long time. “But on the other hand, perhaps it’s like an on-off switch,” he said. “Click! And you’re gone.”
Then he paused again and smiled slightly. “Maybe that’s why I never liked to put on-off switches on Apple’s devices.
Excerpt from Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson

10 things that will make you successful in life

I am about to turn 24. I am currently in the process of reinventing myself by reading a lot of books and blogs.

I have read a lot of pots on Life Advice and I wanted to consolidate the most mentioned advices in a single post. I have just started to incorporate these principles in my life and I am already witnessing the benefits.

1. Read  

Reading a good book  helps you a lot. It teaches you something in a few days which an expert has figured out in years.  Reading opens up your mind to new dimensions. It enhances your creativity and gives you an entirely different perspective on various issues. It expands your vocabulary and ability to understand complex topics. 


Try to finish at least one book in a month. Take advantage of the speed reading techniques. Read anything you find interesting. It can be fiction, non fiction, blog posts, news supplements or Quora answers. 

2. Travel

I recently went on a trek to Himalayas with my friends. The experience I had on that trek changed my entire perception about life. Exploring new places is the best way to learn about the world. When you connect with people of different culture and understand their values, your views about the world change.



I know you  have heard the “Travel when you are young” advice multiple times. You  have made a lot of travel plans in your dreams and  are waiting for the perfect day to come. But that day never comes. Your responsibilities keep on increasing and your enthusiasm keeps on diminishing as you grow older. Don’t invest your time and money on things, invest them in experiences.

3. Learn

In this age of MOOC’s it has become so much easier to learn about anything. We are lucky to live in a age where knowledge is available at our fingerprints. We must make most of this opportunity and keep learning something new each day. 



Learn about different topics not particularly related to your own field. That will broaden your mind. I am a Software Engineer but the Coursera courses I enjoyed the most were in finance and psychology .Once you stop learning, you start to stagnate. So never stop learning.

4. Connect

This is the best time to form lifelong connections. Networking is very important to succeed in your personal as well as professional life. The more likable you are in a group, the more are your chances to influence the people.


Do not limit yourself to a particular group of friends. Network like crazy with interesting and reputed people. You never know - some of these people may provide jumps in your career that you would not have anticipated otherwise.

5. Create

Nothing is more satisfying in life than looking at your imaginations come to life. Creativity is essential not only for success but also for inner satisfaction. Some of the happiest moments in my life have been when I have created something out of nothing.


Make yourself an idea machine. Think of two to three ideas each day and note them down in a diary. Some of these ideas may give your life a direction which you would not have imagined otherwise.

6. Share 

You can be the most successful person on the earth. But if there is no one to share your happiness, you can never be happy. All of us  have some life experiences or learnings that can help others. But most of us limit those experiences to ourselves. 



Think about all the people who are well known in an industry. Are they only experts of a particular field? Are they the most talented people? Sometimes but most often it is not true. These are the people who keep their work in front of others. They are not afraid to share their knowledge and learnings with others. They are very vocal about their ideas and opinions. They are all around us writing great blog posts and amazing books. You can continue to do great work in you jobs but unless you share that knowledge you will never be known.

7. Stay Healthy

Your health must be your first priority in life. Do not ignore it as it will come to bite you in the future. Take proper sleep. Do not keep sitting the whole day. Pick up a sport you love and play it daily. Exercise and meditate everyday.


Junk food will slowly kill you heart. So stay away from fast food joints. Do not give in to bad habits like smoking or drinking. This is the best time to keep yourself in shape without much effort. As you grow older it will become increasingly difficult.

8. Learn about money.

We are not taught anything about money or finance in our schools. That can prove to be a big hindrance in your dreams to become rich. We are taught in schools to  get educated in a particular skill and use that skill to get a good job. Once you have a good job you would not have to care much about money. But that is not entirely true. Having a good job never solves all your money problems. If you are not financially educated you open yourself to a lot of liabilities like loans, credit cards. These liabilities diminishes your savings and you begin to look for promotions or raises.



You must read the book Rich Dad Poor Dad in which the author tells us about how rich people make money work for themselves and how middle class and poor people work for money their entire lives. You must educate yourself well about money if you aim to become rich in life. 

9. Find a Mentor.

A lot of people believe that they can figure our everything in life on their own. You can read books, watch inspiring movies or listen to experts to figure out what is best for you in life. But all of these alone wont help you to achieve everything. You will need a mentor who can guide you at the crucial points in life. Your mentor should be someone whom you respect a lot. He/She should  preferably  be experienced in things in which you want to seek advice. You can have more than one mentor as well. Whenever you face a tough decision in life you can ask your mentor for advice as he might have faced the same decision at some point in his life as well. 


For example when I was in college I had a senior as mentor. He guided my on what courses to take, what internships to apply for and many other things. I don’t think I would have been able to achieve what I did in my college without his help . I have also got a mentor now to help me succeed in my corporate life. The advantages of having a mentor are that you can use his/her experience to learn what things you should incorporate in life to achieve success.

10. Stop Procrastinating

Most of the people in the world procrastinate from time to time. Sometimes it is for small things like cleaning the house, buying grocery, washing clothes etc. But most of the times it is for things that are very important for life like going to the gym, completing the exam preparation or  paying your bills.


Procrastination is mainly due to overestimating your own abilities and underestimating the time required to do a piece of work. Procrastination can prove to be a major hindrance in our development as an individual. We must stop this habit right now as it will hurt us a lot in the long run. I have written an answer that lists down  ways to stop this habit. 

Nikant Vohra’s answer to How do I get over my bad habit of procrastinating?

Five simple ways to get over the habit of procrastination

Before listing down the ways to stop procrastination, let us understand why do we procrastinate.

Most of the people in the world procrastinate from time to time. Sometimes it is for small things like cleaning the house, buying grocery, washing clothes etc. But most of the times it is for things that are very important for life like going to the gym, completing the exam preparation or  paying your bills. Let us look at some of the reasons responsible for procrastination.

1. Overestimating our own  abilities

A lot of us overestimate our own abilities of completing a piece of work on time. Not only this, we overestimate that how motivated we will be in the future to complete the work at hand. We assume that we will be in the right frame of mind in the future to complete this task. We all have done this at some point in life. Remember the time when you thought that the project could be completed in a day, while it took others a week to complete.

We all come up with a lot of excuses to avoid  work. Like too busy. Too tired. Too broke. Some times these excuses make sense. But most of the times they are like a safety blanket to protect you from doing some real work.

2. Too many distractions

In this advanced age of technology, we have a lot of distractions in life which do not allow us to do real work. How can a person prepare for an exam when he has 30 pending requests of Candy Crush Saga on his facebook page? How can he go to gym when he has to answer hundreds of emails?



Most of us have become slaves to these distractions. We prefer to look at our useless phone notifications then talking face to face with our friends. These distractions have become a part of our life. We have stopped looking at them as distractions and this has contributed a lot towards our procrastination.

3. Self Doubt and Fear

Self doubt can also be a major factor. When we are unsure of how to tackle a project or insecure in our abilities, we might find ourselves putting it off in favor of working on other tasks.


We tell ourselves that ‘one day’ we will be ready to make a change, or take a chance; that ‘one day’ the timing will be better, our confidence stronger, our circumstances easier. But that one day never comes. Our self doubt and fear keeps on increasing as the day to submit the work comes nearer. 

Lets look at some of the strategies you can apply to get over procrastination.

1. Visualize what you want in the future

We underestimate the power of visualization. It can be a great tool to incorporate a lot of good habits. Ask yourself what will be your future like if you keep on procrastinating and not completing the work at hand. 



Picture yourself in a place where you have accomplished everything you wanted in life. Your future success can be a huge motivating factor to not give up your present work.

2. Free yourself from distractions

Remove all the social networking apps from your smartphone . They do nothing except killing your productivity. The constant feed of push notifications will never allow you to focus on your work. Install an extension in your browser that blocks these social networking sites.


You will not lose any friends or miss out on something important in life. If something is really important, its news will reach you. 

3. Get a buddy

I know it is very difficult to remain accountable to yourself. But if you have a companion the whole process will become a lot more fun. Share your goals with your buddy. Both of you will be accountable for each other goals. Make sure to discuss the status of your goals with each other on a timely basis. A buddy can become a constant source of motivation and help you get over procrastination.

4. Reward good work

Rewards and Incentives are an amazing way to give up bad habits. Reward yourself if you complete a work before the deadline or if you are able to continue gym for a month.The rewards can be anything like some fun activity with your friends, a good movie or eating your favorite ice cream. 


These rewards will keep on motivating you to do good work in the future. But you must use them judiciously. Do not give rewards for a little effort as it can defeat their purpose.

5. Organize your time 

This point may sound trivial, yet this is one of the most important things required not only to give up procrastination but to do anything worthwhile in life.



There are hundreds of ToDo lists and Apps out there that help you to manage your time. Choose whatever best fits your need. It is very important to assign priority to different tasks in a day. 

Do not over burden yourself with only tasks related to work. Allocate proper time for other activities like playing your favorite sport or going out on a walk. Do not give up sleep as it will come to bite you in the future and make you less productive.  If you become good at organizing your time everything else will fall into place.

We all have been procrastinating for a lot of time now. Procrastination has become a part of our lifestyle and most of us do not even see it as a problem. 

I love this quote by Michael McCarthy.

Procrastination is like masturbation, in the beginning it feels good, but in the end, you’re just f***ing yourself!

It will be difficult to give up this habit. But that is true for most bad habits. You will have to make a lot of effort in the beginning. Just keep going. A voice from you head will constantly urge you to stop. Don’t stop.

I have procrastinated a lot before coming up with this post. Hope it helps you to come out of this habit.

People have this vision of being the CEO of a company they started and being on top of the pyramid. Some people are motivated by that, but that’s not at all what it’s like.
What it’s really like: everyone else is your boss – all of your employees, customers, partners, users, media are your boss. I’ve never had more bosses and needed to account for more people today.
The life of most CEOs is reporting to everyone else, at least that’s what it feels like to me and most CEOs I know. If you want to exercise power and authority over people, join the military or go into politics. Don’t be an entrepreneur.
Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote