When Everything Goes Wrong (And Why That’s Okay)

Welcome to the Letters of Wonder, where I explore insights on wealth, fulfillment, growth, and mastery—sharing lessons and reflections to help you live a life filled with purpose.

This Week’s Learning:

• Story: Last week I released a newsletter referencing Greek mythology. As I was writing that newsletter, I thought of interesting stories and puns to include in it. As soon as I published it, I felt like it was one of the best newsletters I had ever written.

  Then, it all came crashing down. Within moments, I had people email me that I had mixed up Atlas for Sisyphus. My two reactions were, “I wonder how many times I’ve already messed up.” and “I knew I was a bum at Greek Mythology”.

  Just as I replied, “That is very embarrassing 😢 I butchered that,” a friend responded with an email that hit me hard.

  

• Insight: There will be lots of moments when I mess up and feel embarrassed. I try to keep these to a minimum, but I know that it’s human. Because of this mistake, I've been working on embracing the idea of not always knowing everything.I realized this newsletter isn’t a way for me to seem perfect, but a way for me to share my thoughts and document my journey. And sometimes, that journey may not be perfect.

  I want to take a moment to thank those who pointed out my mistake. It might seem super small, but your correction was a reminder that growth comes from these moments of learning.

An Idea I’m Trying Out:

• Idea: I was listening to Rob Dyrdek on MFM and he referenced his personal operating manual. Basically, Rob tracks every second of his time and sees how his energy is at any given point. Based on these insights (to my understanding), he and his assistant built his personal operating manual. In the manual, Rob has a system for every area of his life. This ranges from how he likes to schedule his day to how he likes to attend birthday parties. The idea is that he can systemize as many areas of his life as possible so he can focus his finite time on the things that matter most to him in his life.

• The Result: I decided to give it a shot and took the first step to building my own operating manual. The first step was to start tracking my time and seeing how I like to do things. Turns out, I spend a lot of time doing random stuff that Rob probably wouldn’t be too proud of. But it’s still a work in progress. Just the act of tracking my time and measuring energy levels has been a game changer.

  Here are some main takeaways from tracking my time/energy for about 3 weeks:

  1. Feel more present and at ease in any given moment.

  2. Started focusing on more aligned activities which increase energy.

  3. Negative thoughts have almost entirely disappeared.

  4. Gained a deeper respect for time, recognizing how quickly days become months and years.

  5. Everything feels significantly more fulfilling.

  6. Significantly cut down on watching random Telugu movie memes.

What Inspired Me:

• Had a great conversation this week with a friend in the sauna. He asked me how I was doing, to which I instinctively responded “good”. Then, he repeated the question. “No Srikar, how are you actually doing?”. This startled me. I thought for a bit and responded with a more honest answer. I decided to hit him back with the question. He went on to share things he was going through and we exchanged many ideas and learnings together. By the end of it, I felt I learned so much.

• Being this open may not always be easy, but it shows that our greatest learnings often come from moments of vulnerability.

Quote of the Week:

Engagement Question:

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Thanks for reading!