There is clear scientific evidence that the people you surround yourself with determine your outcomes. The Pygmalion Effect is the name of the behavioral phenomenon where we rise to the level of expectations of those around us. So, if you surround yourself with people who push you to think bigger, who believe you are capable of more, you will rise to the level of those expectations. But conversely, if you surround yourself with people who tell you to be realistic, who belittle your ambitions, you will fall to the level of those expectations. Be deliberate about the people to whom you gift your precious time, energy, and attention. Your environment determines your outcomes. Choose wisely.

I just turned 35. Every year, I use my birthday as a day to reflect on what I've learned along the way. Here are 35 life lessons from my 35 years... 1. You can reinvent yourself whenever you want. You’re never stuck. You’re allowed to change. New habits. New mindsets. New standards. New people. New career. There are no fixed timelines for reinvention. No age restrictions. No maximum limit. You can reinvent yourself today, tomorrow, and as many times as you need to create the life you want. 2. Tolerance for uncertainty is the most valuable human trait. It’s easy to show up when the path is clear. It’s hard to show up when it’s anything but. The most dangerous person in the world is the one who shows up every single day even when the rewards are uncertain. The one who can tolerate the most uncertainty is the one who will eventually win. 3. Energy is the most attractive human trait. Not looks, wealth, or status. Energy. Walk into rooms with genuine enthusiasm, curiosity, and interest. You'll become a magnet for the highest quality people. Energy is contagious. Spread the kind you’d want to catch. 4. Nobody cares. My entire life changed when I realized nobody cares. When you’re winning, nobody cares. When you’re losing, nobody cares. It doesn’t mean nobody loves you, it just means nobody cares about your life as much as you do. That thing you’ve always wanted to do? Nobody cares. So, go do it. 5. Always get your dopamine from action. Dopamine from information gathering is a dangerous drug. The real goal is to have a razor-thin gap between information and action. Your entire life will change when you stop gathering information and start acting on the information you already have. 6. Your professional success is proportional to your ability to figure it out. You’ll constantly be handed tasks you have no idea how to complete. There's nothing more valuable than someone who can just figure it out. Do some work. Ask the key questions. Get it done. If you do that, people will fight over you. 7. Never let your head outsmart your gut. My grandfather once told me: The worst decisions in life are made when you allow your head to talk you into something when your gut already said no. It took me a lot of painful experiences to realize just how true it really is. Your gut is earned intuition—a refined, elevated biological protection mechanism. My rule: If your gut says no, the answer is no. 8. Showing up is the key to life. Show up when it’s hard. Show up when it’s messy. Show up when no one’s watching. Show up when you don't feel like it. Just show up. You can never bet against the person who just keeps showing up. 9. Fear comes from inexperience, not incapability. You're afraid because you haven't done it yet, not because you can't do it. Inexperience is the problem to be solved—and it's only solved through having the courage to act in the face of it. 10. Learn to work without validation. Quiet progress creates loud results. Write when nobody’s reading. Build when nobody’s watching. Train when nobody’s cheering. It doesn’t take talent. Just desire. Just care. Those willing to work in the dark will eventually shine in the light. 11. Anything above zero compounds. Ambitious people allow optimal to get in the way of beneficial. The truth is that showing up consistently matters more than showing up perfectly. Small things become big things. 12. Take pride in finishing things. The world is full of half-written books, half-built businesses, half-pursued passions, and half-kept promises. You stand out by closing loops. By stepping into the arena. By doing what you said you’d do. Anyone can start, but few have the doggedness to finish. 13. Life improves when you embrace your inner extremes. My entire life changed when I made peace with the paradoxes living inside me. Deeply emotional in peace, deeply rational in war. Creative wandering at times, rigid structure at others. Quiet writer, aggressive lifter. Extroverted introvert. You’re taught to avoid extremes, but leaning into them is how you find your flow. 14. The most important things take a long time to build. The worst mistakes in life are made when you try to do fast what’s meant to be done slow. Real, durable things take a long time to build. Careers. Businesses. Relationships. Health. There are no hacks or shortcuts—and chasing them leads you into peril. The long way is the right way. 15. Be unapologetically yourself. When you edit your personality, you attract relationships that need constant maintenance. Stop filtering who you are to be liked. The right ones will stick. The wrong ones will walk. That’s a blessing, whether you realize it or not. 16. Do what most people avoid. Wake up early. Focus deeply. Move your body. Eat real foods. Obsess over one thing. Read old books. Be present. Have difficult conversations. The recipe for a good life is found by running towards what most people run from. 17. Life will test you with the same challenge until you learn the lesson. The same fight in every relationship. The same burnout in every job. The same plateau in every pursuit. The same regret in every missed chance. Until you do the inner work, the outer world won’t change. 18. Your standards decide your future. Every time you let something slide just this once, you train yourself to accept less than what you deserve. That's how principles slip. That’s how goals erode. That’s how a vision deteriorates. Set your standards, then hold the line. Even when it’s hard. Especially when it’s hard. 19. Choose a partner you actually like being around. I'm convinced that 99% of a successful marriage is just genuinely enjoying each other’s company. People make these long lists of values and traits they want to find in a partner, but so much of life just comes down to being kind and pleasant to be around. And if you’re going to make a long list of values and traits you want to find in another, make sure you’re embodying them yourself. 20. If you want people to believe in you, start carrying yourself like someone worth believing in. Do the old fashioned things well. Stand tall. Move deliberately. Make eye contact. Take care of your body and mind. Listen. Speak with intention. If you do that, you’ll start believing in yourself, and the world will have no choice but to follow suit. 21. Don’t wait. Just start. Take that crazy leap of faith. Say the words now. Tell people you love them. Apologize when you should. Forgive. Everything in life has an expiration date. Opportunities don’t wait until you’re ready. Miss them now and you miss them forever. 22. Confidence isn’t about knowing you’ll win. Confidence is about knowing you’ll bounce back even if you don’t. Real confidence is built on resilience. Adaptability. Tolerance for uncertainty. Fear loses when you embrace that failure is never final. 23. Stress and anxiety feed on idleness. You feel stressed and anxious because you’re not doing anything. When you take action, you starve them of the oxygen they need to survive. The answer is found in the action. 24. Working out will rewire your brain. There’s no such thing as a loser who wakes up at 5am and works out. It creates evidence that you have the power to take an action and achieve a desired outcome. That you have agency over your own journey. That you are at the wheel. That has ripple effects into every area of life. 25. Energy fuels growth. Give your energy to stress, complaints, and negative people, they will grow. Give your energy to ambitions, gratitude, and positive people, they will grow. Choose wisely. 26. Nobody is thinking about you. You aren’t afraid of failure. You’re afraid of what other people will think of you if you fail. Well, guess what? Nobody is thinking about you. They’re too busy thinking about themselves. So, go do the damn thing. 27. You have to know when to stop. Stop arguing with people who don’t listen. Stop chasing people who run away. Stop forcing relationships that drain you. Stop grinding on things that don’t matter. Stop saying yes when you mean no. Stopping isn’t weakness, it’s wisdom. 28. Do hard things every single day. There’s nothing better than a hard-earned win. Nothing. The pain. The struggle. The resilience. The grit. And then, the reward. The thrill of knowing that you paid the cost of entry for the thing you wanted to achieve. Hard things are good for the soul. 29. Reliability is more important than talent. My grandfather once said: You’ll achieve much more by being consistently reliable than by being occasionally extraordinary. He was right. You can get pretty damn far in life by just being someone people can count on to do the work. Stop overcomplicating success. Say what you’ll do. Do it. Repeat. 30. Don’t complain about anything. If it’s within your control, go do something about it. If it’s not, you’re just wasting energy thinking about it. Complaining gives too much power to the thing. Take back that power. 31. Emotional control is the ultimate sign of personal growth. The ability to remain unshaken by the little collisions and inconveniences of life. To avoid assigning false narratives to everyday slights. That’s when you take control of your own life. 32. You can just do things. We live in a permissionless world. In 2025, I published a New York Times bestselling book and launched a natural skincare business. Nobody told me I could do that. I just wanted to do it. So, I did it. Technology has cracked the walls of credentialism. Opportunity is more freely accessible than ever before. You don’t need a stamp of approval. You just need to create things of value. You just need to go do things. 33. You’re going to miss this. Every single thing you do today is something that your 90-year-old self will wish they could go back and do. Slow down. The good old days are happening right now. 34. Nobody is coming to save you. Nobody will fix your problems. Nobody will change your mindsets. Nobody will set your boundaries. Nobody will hand you the things you want in life. It's just you. It's all on you. You are in control. There’s a power in that. 35. You're one year of focus away from people calling you lucky. Most people overestimate what they can do in a day and underestimate what they can do in a year. Your entire life can change in one year. One year of focused, daily effort. One year of showing up with intention and clarity. The transformation won't be easy, but it is possible. And once you do it, everyone will call you lucky. I hope you saw yourself in one or more of these lessons—and I hope they spark a positive ripple in your life. Cheers to a beautiful, hard, growth-filled year ahead! - Sahil