How to be me - Learn, Build, and Crush it

Hey, if you are reading this blog, I'm pretty sure I shared this in your DM or just dropped it on X.

Whatever the case is, it's important that you take a pen and paper or any note-taking app so that it will be easy for you to note down things or just points you learned.

lets start with this quote always remember:

If it was easy, anyone could have done it. ~ Ram

(The quote is originally by John Hawkins but slighly modified by me)

So I'm not pretty sure where to begin, let's start with my birth. I was born in August 2005.

PHASE 1 - Love relationship with mathematics

When I was 2 or 3 years old, I started going to school because I didn't want to leave my sister alone. My mom taught me basic Hindi and math when I was 2 years old, so I skipped KV, LKG, or play school - I was directly admitted in 1st class.

Fast forward to 3rd class, my didi was in 5th class and she started going to maths tuitions. As a result, I also joined that same coaching/tuition, and the teacher also used to teach me 5th class math while I was in 3rd class. But I somehow managed to learn that, and they used to have this test series where whoever solved the test first, the teacher used to give a gift. So as a result, I also started taking part in it and after a month or so, I won my first prize.

And from there, it was the start of my competition with all those students in the coaching, and I crushed it - quite literally! I loved that phase and my love for math as well.

I spent quite a few years in the same institute/coaching till 9th class.

Won more than 50 prizes, filled tons of copies with 100% marks, and that sharpened my ability of math solving quite fast, even i learned to solve math problems in my head too.

In school, I was also pretty good - I used to score 95% or above with pretty much no effort, tbh. Homework I used to compete in school itself, and I used to be free at home. My family used to say

"beta kuch padh lo, marks hi sab nhi hota"

(English translation: son, study something, marks is not everything).

PHASE 2 - UGLY REALITY OF LIFE

After 9th class, my uncle casually asked me if I wanted to move out to Indore from my hometown and take admission in an English medium school. And I took the risk -

• Left my friends behind
• Left my comfort
• Also, I was from a Hindi medium school with decent English grammar (not spoken).

I said YES to the offer and moved out to Indore and spent my next week getting rejected from every single school in Indore (every good school).

Everyone said I'll fail and they don't want to admit someone from a Hindi medium school, especially during boards - that was a big no-no.

But somehow, one dummy school decided to let me in.

And it was not that great an experience in the school.

First day - I was sitting on the last bench and trying to avoid eye contact from everyone. The first day was quite tough. I was not even understanding a word that they were saying, neither teacher nor students. It was pretty depressing. I thought I'll not make it there.

But then the Maths lecture came, and to my surprise, I was pretty normal with it. It seemed hard, but I already knew what was going on - I was UNDERSTANDING every single thing somehow.

And I was like, "Wow, maybe I can do it."

I spent months and weeks learning English. Then there was a test after 2 weeks.

I performed so poorly in every subject besides:

• Science and Maths
• Hindi and Sanskrit

I failed in English and Social Science - like, too bad.

I got 3 marks out of 40 in Social Science. I was that bad.

So I bought Hindi and English versions of the same NCERT book and studied from them. It was hard, not that much.

Then came mid-term exams. I gave it my all, and the day arrived for the parent-teacher meeting. I was so scared that I might have failed, but to my surprise, I was the second highest scoring guy in boys and in the class too (the school used to have different timings for girls and boys & classes too).

My uncle used to have the same experience - he cared less, but I was so proud of myself (I was just passing in Social Science & English still lol, but I scored 90+ in other subjects).

My maths teacher used to teach me a lot of things in my hometown, and this one too. He suggested me some books to read, and he used to follow Sadhguru a lot.

Early on, it was boards time and COVID hit, but our exams were done. So in May, when school announced the result...

Drum roll

I was 3rd place in school with 92%! Imagine a guy who was failing in English tests and somehow got beyond expectations of everyone - even my family was expecting that I would just pass in exams.

PHASE 3 - JEE, College & Interest

So in 11th standard there was COVID going on and I, to be honest, skipped 11th all along - didn't even read a word, didn't even buy books.

But I got a phone for online classes and I used to search for how to make money online and how to freelance.

Followed all the BS advice and started doing video editing in KineMaster.

Did that for a month or so and then I quit it.

Watched another video that developers earn more but it's hard to do. And I did one of the biggest good and bad mistakes - I followed Apna College's advice of doing DSA with Java because this is what everyone was saying on the internet.

I did DSA for a month or so, learned a lot of things, but somehow I didn't like it very much so I started to hate Java & DSA and programming in short.

But then I saw a video on how to make a chatting app using Java.

I didn't have a laptop back then, so I found a website that allowed users to have a virtual desktop and also Android Studio. I spent nearly 20 days copy-pasting and building the app, solving weird errors.

I didn't even know what I was doing. If I look back now, I implemented:

• Web sockets
• Proper backend in Spring Boot
• compiled and built an app too

And at last hosted the backend and built the APK, used it for a while and eventually it was pretty slow to progress so I quit it. But I started watching more development tutorials.

I got to learn about:

• How to make drones
• Program an Arduino
• Even how to train AI models lol

I tried my luck everywhere:

• IoT → No resources (got an Arduino later on to make an RC car)
• AI/ML → Didn't know differentiation and integration so quit it
• Electrical → Was interesting but no resources so I quit
• App dev → I liked it but no laptop so I quit
• Web dev → Easy enough and can do on phone so I started learning that

Learned HTML, XML, CSS and a little bit of JS.

Didn't know anything about it.

Learned XHTML as well and started customizing Blogger (Google Sites) websites.

Built my first:

• Portfolio website
• E-commerce website
• And more bits of play

Then I quit everything - it was boards again and if you remember I skipped 11th standard so I was baseless with almost no time to prep for 12th. So I somehow managed to get 75.4% and was eligible for JEE.

I started learning for JEE, watched a lot of motivational videos with no or less work. Because my brain wanted to do more of programming or video editing than studying and I didn't study for JEE.

I was not going to any institute because for me that was a time waste when I have all content accessible online. My uncle gave me a rented flat for 3 months as well.

I was learning video editing in KineMaster than studying and in the exam I did use basic math, probability and stuff, got 79% percentile which was not enough.

I convinced my parents for private university (chose the worst possible one).

But yeah, so I took admission the day when I had my second JEE exam lol.

Because I knew for a fact if I wanna crack JEE I need to give PCM my 100% time and master it.

But that was contradictory as well because I'm going to be a software engineer, not a scientist in physics, chemistry or maths.

PHASE 4 - College and Internships

First year of college ended and I thought I had things figured out. I was editing videos, reading books, and felt pretty confident about my path of becoming a video editor. Everything was going smooth until...

During a random conversation with my friend during semester break, she mentioned her content writing internship. So I asked if I can also work with the company. She said "They pay ₹1K a month," casually.

To me, that was huge money

(I was editing 60-second videos for 50-60 rupees, spending hours on each one).

She referred me, I cracked the interview, and suddenly I was a "professional."

The excitement lasted exactly one week.

But as I was excited about work, it turned out to be pain.

The same night I got a call to make a design for a cafe. I thought I'll do it easily.

But even after 12 drafts, the senior didn't like any.

The next day I spent another 4 hours trying to make more designs, but none hit. Eventually he said to work on something else. I felt like "What is this? I can't do it maybe," but I thought let's just stick around this month.

The company turned out to be the biggest exploiter:

• 50 videos
• 200+ graphics
• Endless revisions
• All for that ₹1K

I remember staying up till 3 AM, eyes burning from the screen, churning out generic Instagram posts while my laptop fan was burning my lap.

It was painful.

I quit after realizing I was making less per hour than a street vendor.

But quitting felt like giving up. So I did what any desperate college student does - I spam-applied to 300 companies on LinkedIn.

drum rolls

I was rejected in 284 (fucking 284)

300 applications. 284 rejected. 16 shortlists. 7 interviews. 3 offers.

The decent company offered ₹8K/month for video editing and graphic design. It felt like winning the lottery. But here's where things got interesting - and complicated.

But I joined the company on the same day as my 18th birthday.

I joined expecting to edit videos, but after a month I got restless.

"Can I also work on web development?" I asked during a team meeting.

They said yes, and suddenly I was doing both graphics and coding for the same pay.

This is where my life became complete chaos.

Imagine you are first working on:

• Videos
• Graphics
• UI design
• Coding

All in just 3-4 days.

I was restless but it was fun - or maybe my ego pushing me to do something.

My daily routine:

• Waking up at 9 AM, going to college
• Working whole day there in library, during lunch, in classes (somehow), in bus - everywhere
• Coming back from college at 6 PM
• Hitting gym at 7 PM, coming back home at 9 PM
• Working throughout the night
• Sleeping 4-5 hours (big mistake - don't compromise on sleep)

My attendance was barely above the minimum. My college friends thought I'd lost my mind.

The company was teaching me more in a day than college taught in 2 years. I was building actual products, fixing real bugs, dealing with client feedback. But it was messy and terrifying.

I remember one project where the client gave a simple reference, so I thought let's just quickly get it done. But oh boy, it was a messy project.

The nightmare began:

1. The client didn't like my design - not even a bit
2. I revamped the entire website - did it again the same day
3. Then he didn't like the graphics as well - I spent a week building different things
4. At the end, I decided to give up
5. My company outsourced those graphics which the client liked
6. Then the client said to make this website multilingual and integrate Web3 wallet

But at the end, I learned a lot of things - even the Web3 wallet integration.

Then January 2024 happened. The company decided to go offline-only. I was devastated - this job had become my identity, my proof that I could actually build things. And due to my college i cannot join the offline-only job.

During December, I decided to work on my side project called NoteBuddy. It was going to be a notes sharing platform for my university because the current system had a lot of flaws and problems:

• No structured notes
• Not every prof gives notes
• I needed dark background, not light (no customization)

So I started building it. In January, college started again and our university decided to not give any notes and professors wouldn't share anything. They also removed all the content from other platforms which used to share notes as they were copyright infringement.

But luckily, I had my own model and notes from scratch - nothing from the college side - so my product rocked!

NoteBuddy achievements:

• 1,800+ users
• 100s of paid users
• 200K views
• 15K daily traffic during exams
• And a lot more learning of actually managing a product from scratch to end and hosting it

But something interesting happened. The founder DM'd me a few months later:

"Want to join us again?"

I said yes, but this time it was different. I wasn't just grateful to have a job - I was confident about what I brought to the table. The next year and six months taught me more about building systems, managing chaos, and actually enjoying the process than any course ever could.

I developed my system instead of relying on motivation - more about it later.

By the time I left in May 2025, I wasn't the same person who desperately applied to 300 companies. I had become someone who could:

• Build products from zero to deployment
• Manage multiple projects
• Keep my sanity intact

And then our stupid college forced us to do an internship with some weird criteria, which sadly my current company wasn't fulfilling.

So I started applying again, landed a job in Bangalore, worked on a ai product as a backend dev, and moved to Bangalore.

Bangalore was a mess - and as a vegetarian, a lot more.

Bangalore struggles:

• You don't like the food much there
• You cannot eat that food for long as atta is 50% maida (fucked up digestion)
• I tried a lot of places but nothing fit my needs
• I survived there somehow

The only good thing that happened in Bangalore was purchasing a MacBook Pro with my own money.

It was special buying a product (this pricey), but it was worth it. Now I don't need to dual boot and use Linux or carry my brick charger.

But none of this happened managing a side project and job also college because I was not naturally organized or had some secret productivity hack.

It happened because I had no choice but to build systems that worked, or I'd completely fall apart.

PHASE 5 - How I learned, developed & crushed it

So even though I was learning everything while being in the company, it was messy, painful, joyful and at times depressing too.

I still remember I used to skip every single thing just to deliver projects on time. I was just working, building, shipping, fixing and learning everyday.

It used to be 10-12 hours of work daily along with managing college (remember that shitty college? I had to go to class because of attendance).

Things are hard but not impossible to do. Keep that in mind!

Now let's go a little bit deeper on how I built my system so I have to depend on the system, not on motivation.

Building a system

You can use a diary, Notion, Obsidian or any todo list app.

I chose TickTick - it's a todo list app with a lot of features. Most important: stopwatch, kanban boards and reminders (also note taking).

I split my life into different sections. Example you can see below:

I built a lot of sections in this app to manage every aspect in detail.

Example: Handling projects

This is the system I have - I can track, manage, and remind myself of anything without missing the deadline.

There are a lot of things you can do.

Read this post: How do you manage everything that's the activity.

How to find things to learn

There is no straightforward method.

If you are a complete beginner, then go with roadmap.sh - it's a good website that will cover your most broader topics.

Then you can use AI to ask for more stuff in the learning progress.

Like if you are learning React, then you can ask AI about the must-learn concepts of React. It will give you a lot of stuff to read.

But if I were learning again, I would prefer to read some theory and do more code writing.

How I learn

If I'm going to learn something, I first make myself interested in it.

For example: React

I'll ask AI: "What are the cool things I can do with React.js?"

And for me that was:

• Single page websites
• Can do absolutely anything from 3D games to super-fast offline-like webapps

After that, I'll watch basic videos if available, otherwise read docs or ask AI.

Then I'll go around with a project and start coding.

Simple formula: Code → Error → Reason → New topic to learn → Repeat

How to find interest

Remember in the blog I said in Phase 3 I was trying out different things because for me, interest matters a lot more than anything (or passion - it's the same).

For you to find interest, it can differ person to person.

For me, interest/passion is:

Something that I can do daily, talk about it, and can do it for my lifetime (or at least fairly long time).

So to find interest:

1. Pick something
2. Do it for a week
3. See how you like it

How to fix distractions

You found your passion, you have your system, you have your tasks.

But you are not feeling like doing it because your brain is not ready yet - it wants to do easy things.

Let's dive a little bit into history:

Since the beginning, the human mind just wants to survive at any point.

And what is survival? → Feel safe, have food in stomach

But we have grown as humans, but our instincts haven't. That is why when you sit down and work, your brain feels uncomfortable. And uncomfortable → no survival. When the brain is following what it should be doing (which is survival), then it tries to avoid uncomfortable situations.

So what are you trying to say, Ram? We cannot work?

Technically yeah, until you know the special thing called dopamine.

It's a happy hormone/reward system for the brain when the brain takes risks to survive.

If you can control your dopamine, you can control everything in your life.

How to do dopamine detox

Let's understand this:

Dopamine is a chemical which is released when you do something meaningful such as:

• Eating food
• Doing sex or masturbation
• Sleep
• etc.

But nowadays, everything gives us dopamine - your social media, your very friendly app called Instagram and YouTube shorts.

Let's take an absurd example:

Suppose:

• 1 reel = 1 dopamine point
• 1 hour of work = 0.25 dopamine point

Now on average, you watch 150-500 reels in a day.

This habit of watching content makes you feel good, makes you feel like you are doing something productive, but you are not.

Now imagine you made a habit of hitting 200 dopamine points daily. Work obviously is not going to give that much reward, and that is the reason why you quit.

So for that, we need dopamine detox.

Simple yet hard to do things:

1. Deactivate social accounts (e.g., Instagram, Snapchat)
2. Make a new account on YouTube and subscribe to only development-related channels OR use an extension called Unhook to block YouTube
3. WhatsApp: Archive most of the people (quite literally everyone) except important ones (e.g., company or college)

I know it's hard. You will have FOMO.

Because if it was easy, anyone could have done it.

I've been there, I'm still there.

You need to detox yourself slowly for at least 6-8 months. After that, you can use social media for 10-15 days.

If everything goes well, you will delete them after a week because you will fall in love with working.

You will think about doing more work than you could ever imagine.

Even I'm writing this blog at 2:56 AM:

Because I have to - it's supposed to be published today before 10 AM, anyhow.

How to build in public (my way) & why you should do it

It's quite simple - just post what you are learning or what you are going to learn.

Do not care what anyone is saying - just work. Put your time into work.

And trust me, it will be worth it.

You will get offers from people if you:

• Build cool shit
• Just learn
• Just be consistent

At the end, it will be worth it.

Conclusion - The Journey Through Five Phases

Looking back at this entire journey, I realize how each phase shaped me into who I am today. Let me break down what each phase taught me and how they all connected to create the system I live by now.

Phase 1: The Foundation of Competitive Mindset

The mathematics phase wasn't just about numbers - it taught me the most crucial skill I use even today: pattern recognition and mental resilience.

When I was solving 5th-grade math in 3rd grade, I was unknowingly training my brain to:

• Break down complex problems into smaller parts
• Find multiple solutions to the same problem
• Develop confidence in my abilities
• Build a competitive spirit that wouldn't quit

This phase laid the foundation for everything that came after. The 50+ prizes weren't just about math - they were about building a mindset that says: "If others can do it, I can do it better."

Phase 2: Learning to Adapt Under Pressure

The Indore experience was my first real taste of being uncomfortable and pushing through anyway. This phase taught me:

• Adaptability - Going from Hindi to English medium
• Resilience - Getting rejected by every school but not giving up
• Self-reliance - Buying Hindi and English versions of the same book to bridge the gap
• Proof that hard work pays off - From 3 marks in Social Science to 3rd rank in school

This phase taught me that comfort zones are productivity killers. Every time I've grown significantly in my life, it's been when I was uncomfortable.

Phase 3: Finding My True Calling

The exploration phase was messy but essential. I tried:

• Video editing
• Java/DSA (hated it)
• App development
• IoT/Arduino
• AI/ML
• Web development

Most people see this as wasted time. I see it as expensive research that saved me years of being stuck in the wrong field.

Key lesson: You can't find your passion by thinking about it - you find it by doing different things and seeing what sticks.

This phase taught me that interest is discovered, not invented.

Phase 4: Real-World Application and Building Resilience

The internship and college phase was where theory met reality. This phase was brutal but transformative:

The ₹1K exploitation taught me:

• How to value my time properly
• That working hard in the wrong place gets you nowhere
• The importance of knowing when to quit

The 300 applications and 284 rejections taught me:

• Persistence in the face of massive rejection
• How to improve my pitch and presentation
• That rejection is just data, not a personal attack

The ₹8K job taught me:

• How to manage multiple responsibilities (college + work + gym)
• Real project management under pressure
• That learning never stops - every project teaches something new

NoteBuddy taught me:

• How to identify real problems and solve them
• Product management from scratch
• The satisfaction of creating something people actually use (1,800+ users!)

This phase was crucial because it taught me that systems beat motivation every single time.

Phase 5: The System That Changed Everything

This is where everything clicked. All the previous phases prepared me for this moment where I could systematize success instead of relying on motivation.

Building a System: The TickTick system isn't just a productivity app - it's an external brain that:

• Tracks every project and deadline
• Breaks overwhelming tasks into manageable pieces
• Provides visual progress tracking
• Eliminates decision fatigue

Learning Strategy: My learning approach evolved from random exploration to:

1. Interest-first approach - Always start with "why is this cool?"
2. Project-based learning - Code → Error → Learn → Repeat
3. AI-assisted guidance - Using AI as a personalized tutor
4. Theory + Practice balance - Just enough theory to start building

Dopamine Management: This was the game-changer. Understanding that:

• Social media was hijacking my reward system
• Real work gives delayed but deeper satisfaction
• Detox isn't about punishment - it's about rewiring for bigger wins

Building in Public: Sharing my journey wasn't just about personal branding - it was about:

• Accountability - Public commitment forces consistency
• Community building - Finding like-minded people
• Opportunity creation - Good work attracts good opportunities

The Meta-Learning from All Phases

If I had to summarize the core principles that emerged from this journey:

1. Discomfort is Growth - Every phase where I grew significantly involved being uncomfortable
2. Systems > Motivation - Motivation gets you started, systems keep you going
3. Iteration Speed Matters - The faster you can try things and get feedback, the faster you learn
4. Building > Consuming - Creating something always teaches more than just learning about it
5. Community is Everything - The right people around you can accelerate your growth 10x

Why This Journey Matters for You

If you're reading this thinking "This guy got lucky" or "I don't have the same opportunities" - you're missing the point.

The specific opportunities don't matter. What matters is the approach:

• Phase 1 mindset: Compete with yourself and celebrate small wins
• Phase 2 adaptability: Get comfortable being uncomfortable
• Phase 3 exploration: Try things quickly and cheaply to find your passion
• Phase 4 persistence: Build resilience through real-world projects
• Phase 5 systematization: Create systems that work without willpower

The Current State and What's Next

Today, I'm not the same person who was getting 3 marks in Social Science or getting rejected by 284 companies. I've built:

• A system that works without motivation
• Multiple skills that i learned mastered some and some more to go
• A network of people and professionals
• Products that people actually use and pay for
• Confidence that I can figure out almost anything given enough time
• 2000+ followers on twitter and each individual matters a lot

But here's the thing -

I'm still learning. The system works, but it's constantly evolving.

(ping me if you want to know more about me)

The curiosity that made me try IoT, AI, and web development is still there. The competitive spirit from the math competitions is still pushing me to do better.

The only difference now is that I have a proven framework for turning curiosity into skill and skill into value.

Here are some songs, quotes, books & movies that i liked -

Songs -

Quotes -

If it was easy, anyone could have done it. ~ Ram

A man who is master of patience is master of everything else. ~ George Savile

If you don't build your own dream, someone will hire you to build theirs. ~ Jim Rohn

Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is. ~ Bhagavad Gita

Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached. ~ Katha Upanishad

If the pain doesn't kill me, it will only make me stronger. ~ Sung Jin-Woo, Solo Leveling

Books -

Movies -

Final Thoughts: Your Journey Starts Now

If you've read this far, you already have something most people lack: the patience to consume long-form, detailed content. That's actually a superpower in our world of 15-second attention spans.

But reading won't change your life. Building will.

Here's what I want you to do right now:

1. Pick one thing from Phase 5 that resonated with you
2. Implement it today - not tomorrow, not next week, TODAY
3. Build something small - a simple project, a system, anything
4. Share your progress - public accountability works

Remember:

If it was easy, anyone could have done it.

Your journey won't look like mine. Your phases will be different. Your challenges will be unique. But the principles - systematic learning, building in public, managing your dopamine, and staying uncomfortable - these will work for anyone willing to put in the effort.

The question isn't whether you can do it. The question is: Will you?

The next phase of your journey starts now. Make it count.

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That's my story. What's yours going to be?