My Decade Resolution | Vedant Lohbare

So I watched this video of Ryan Serhant – He said he doesn’t have a yearly resolution but a decade resolution. Another thing that piqued my interest was he said the last 10 years was just his laying foundation phase. THIS IS A MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR REAL ESTATE AGENT with TV SHOWS and YT channel famous all over the world and 10 years ago he hadn’t even started in real estate. You have already built it, what is the next thing.
He is ambitious and proud about his goals which are not limited to the next year but the next decade!Well, Let’s try this –

Where was I 10 years ago?

I was preparing for my board exams, thinking of how puberty hit me and well not much, right? I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I probably only read goosebumps by that age. I was good at studies and bad at sports. I was a good student, happy and had lots of friends. Even then I hardly liked to go out with friends – only occasionally.

What did I do in the past 10 years?

I passed my boards and joined an IIT coaching – a big mistake. Then cracked my 12th.
Though I’m grown up enough to go to another city for my engineering – another mistake.
Moved back to my hometown and joined another engineering college.
Spent my first year stupidly wasting. Spent my second year wasting too, and yep fell for a girl in my class – third mistake. You can probably see a pattern here. I also started playing football regularly this time around, starting to lose the pounds I had gained all these years since the decade started.

Third-year – 2015 already. Half a decade is gone.
I joined Make A Difference- an NGO, I probably speak too much about MAD but that’s probably only because the amount of impact it had on me.

In 2015, I also made a lot of great friends. I still am talking to one of them as I’m typing this.
I started teaching as a volunteer in MAD, just barely starting to get out my shell. Started reading books seriously at this point too. Before this period I had hardly read books.

This is when I started to interact with people I had no chance of meeting if it had not been for MAD.

Wow, I just realised, I can probably write the summary of an entire year, in a single line. My whole life can then be written in 100 sentences or less. That is how fleeting life is really. Basically, there is no point in overthinking.

Moving on.
2016, I moved to a new shelter home in MAD. I joined MBA Coaching classes and I organised an event in the city.
I met tons of people. Started a blog as well. This blog actually.
Also continued my reading habits.
By the year-end, I was also selected for a leadership role in another event called Dream Camp. A role I was grossly unqualified for, which I later realised.

This was like someone holding a mirror to my face. I realised I had too many things to improve on.

2017 was when my college was about to end. I had cracked my CAT satisfactorily and was decided on going to a business school. As things turned out I didn’t get into the top B-schools of the country, but the process of interviews was yet another eye-opener.

My interviews were scheduled in Mumbai, my first solo trip if that counts as one. I also had to read a lot of news, which is when I got acquainted with ideas of politics and GDP and I also had to work on my speaking skills.
Like I said, even after a decent round of interviews I did not get the college I desired. I still was offered seats in prestigious colleges so there was still some doubt in my mind.
A friend asked me to come along for a trek in the Himalayas. And I am glad I said yes. I don’t even remember my thought process at that time, but that was definitely one of the greatest experiences of my life.

Once I came back from the trip, I knew I wasn’t going for an MBA this year. So I began my search for a job.
I joined a company that sold insurance. At that time, I felt that was beneath me so I basically just ghosted them from the second day onwards.
Later I joined a logistics company and went there for a week. Not seeing how this job can help me, I started to look for a better job.
Like they say, third time’s the charm. I found Homzhub through LinkedIn, a prop-tech startup. So, I scheduled an interview with the founder of the company. I finished my workday early and met with him at his office. A home really, with two developers sitting at one end figuring some coding stuff I guess. Not ideal start. But after my conversation with Harish, the founder, I knew this was really a no-brainer.

I joined Homzhub in the summer of 2017 and then rest is a bit of long story for this blog. But after MAD, Homzhub was the organisation that has taught me some of the most important things about life.

At the end of 2017, I also appeared for CAT again. I received interview calls from the best B-schools this time. But I decided that my time at Homzhub would teach me a lot more than an MBA education, at least at that point in my life.

In the summer of 2018, I also chose to level up in my MAD journey and decided to apply for a Leadership role. I did get selected and it was one heck of a roller coaster journey.
I was now making connections with people out of my city and out of my age group. I learned so much from that one single experience, that I will forever be in debt of Make A Difference. At this point, I am sure the people reading this article would feel that I joined MAD purely for selfish reasons, however, at the time I was associated with MAD, all these things I talk about always were considered as a by product, our main focus was always the children whose lives we were trying to affect.

2018 ended with a bang, a holiday trip with my close friends. Unfortunately, I can’t discuss the specifics of the trip here. A year after that trip and even yesterday night I was discussing events from that eventful few days with my friends.

This year, 2019 was a year of moving out of my comfort zone.
A few highlights from this year –

I travelled to Delhi for a business meeting
I became the lead facilitator for Dream Camp – a role of high responsibility and yet another great learning experience
I started cycling – a sport I would like to continue for a long time
I took my first steps towards learning to code – something that should have been done a long time ago
I moved to a more product and marketing related role – leaving operations
I did Vipassana – ~~more on this too~~
I took up a side job as a teacher to other CAT students
I also moved to Pune – if you’ve been reading carefully, I ran away from this city at the start of the decade.
Made investments in the market
Bought a MacBook
Had an operation
Fell in love.

So a lot happened this year, But I am only getting started.

What are my goals for this decade then?

Ahh. I’ll be 34 then! Shit.

I definitely want to start my own company or at least grow Homzhub to a level where it can be considered as a market leader.
Invest in real estate myself/ or better mediums.
Build a few good apps – side projects
Work on improving my mental and emotional self
Become independent – I mean at 34 obviously.
Get married, ~~start a family.~~
Solidify my relationship with my family and all my friends.
Write a book
Speak at events – share knowledge/ gain respect
Own a home/car
Become a kinder and a more empathetic human being
Compete in at least one sporting event – cycling or something else
Follow a better diet
Post more regularly on the blog
Become financially independent.

I know this is a very bad list. Bad in the sense not a very well thought off the list.
But the whole point was to make sure I look at the big picture, see how far I’ve come and how far I have to appetite to go.
I wouldn’t update this list but at least the exercise is complete. I’ll mark a thing done in my to do.
On to the next one.