Core Philosophy
These are not ethical beliefs. They are survival mechanisms derived from 15+ years of my experience across Large Organisations, Startups and my business (Security & Manpower) where I learnt how to manage low-margin, high-friction operations
Survivability > Elegance
The Principle
My primary goal isn’t to be a “unicorn”; it is to stay in the game. If the business survives, I can fix any problem. If we run out of cash, the game ends.
The Reality
I often face dilemmas where a client demands premium service on a budget that barely covers costs.
- The Hard Line: I refuse to over-promise. If a client wants “Champagne service on a Beer budget,” I say no.
- The Trade-off: I will accept a temporary hit to cash flow (short-term pain) to avoid a structural risk that compromises our independence (long-term death). I focus on “non-failure” rather than “maximum success.”
Revenue Quality > Revenue Size
The Principle
Not all money is green. Some revenue is toxic. A large contract with bad terms is just a liability disguised as growth.
The Scar (2021)
I walked away from a contract that represented 25% of my total revenue.
- The Trap: Post-COVID, the client wanted to extend payment terms from 30 to 60 days and slash my service fee from 5% to 3%.
- The Math: On paper, losing 25% of revenue looked like suicide. In reality, the P&L analysis showed the profit impact was negligible.
- The Outcome: We didn’t fire a single employee. We absorbed the revenue drop, but our cash flow health improved immediately. I learned that “Top Line” is vanity; “Bottom Line” is sanity.
Systems Fail, People Don’t
The Principle
When operations break, blaming “lazy employees” is avoiding responsibility. It is almost always a design flaw.
The Warehouse Paradox
Imagine a warehouse with 5 gates. If I only budget for enough guards to man 3 gates at night, theft is inevitable.
- If a theft happens at an unmanned gate, that isn’t a “discipline” problem.
- It is a physics problem. The system (5 gates, 3 guards) incentivized the breach.
My Failure Hierarchy:
- Bad System (Did we leave the gate open?)
- Bad Incentive (Did we pay them to look the other way?)
- Bad Timing (Was it unavoidable?)
- Bad People (Only if 1-3 are cleared).
Consistency Compounds, Genius Burns
The Principle
I don’t have the energy to be a genius every day. I aim to be “average” for a very long time.
The Index Fund Strategy
I treat my business same as how one invests via SIP (Systematic Investment Plan) to build my investment portfolio.
- The Observation: For 15+ years, my index funds have returned “average” market rates. Yet, I am ahead of 90% of people who tried to “beat the market” with clever stock picks.
- The Application: Most competitors burn out trying to find a “hack” or a “pivot.” I win simply by not quitting and improving my average slightly year over year.
Luck is a Variable, Preparation is the Constant
The Principle
Execution buys you a ticket to the lottery. Luck picks the winner.
Context
We often misunderstand probability. If there is a 10% chance of success, it doesn’t mean you will succeed exactly on the 10th try.
- You might succeed on the 1st try (Luck).
- You might succeed on the 18th try (Persistence).
- The Goal: My job is to ensure the business is robust enough to survive the 17 failures so we are still standing when luck finally strikes on the 18th.
The “Sudden Scale” Warning
The Principle
Fast growth is often just fast cancer. Systems need time to harden.
The Scar
I once served a client whose business exploded from ₹5L to ₹50L per month in just 60 days.
- The High: We scrambled, hired, and celebrated the “growth.”
- The Crash: 5 months later, they dropped back to ₹6L. Their growth was artificial, fueled by a VC-backed startup that ran out of cash.
- The Lesson: I now audit the source of the money. If my client’s growth is fueled by burn, not profit, I treat it as a risk, not a win.
Tools Reduce Error, Not Judgment
The Principle
I don’t use AI or software because it’s “cool.” I use it to remove the “Single Point of Failure.”
The Invoice Shift
My dad developed his invoicing system in Excel. It took 4-5 days and depended entirely on one person knowing the “structure” of the sheet.
- The Shift: We moved to Zoho Books. Invoicing now takes 1-2 days.
- The Real Win: It’s not just speed. It’s that anyone can do it. The tool removed the dependency on a specific human’s memory, allowing the team to focus on correctness (Line Items) rather than formatting.
Independence is the Only Asset
The Principle
I define “Enough” by my ability to say “No,” not by the zeros in my bank account.
The Car Analogy
Driving the Top Variant of a Mid-Market Brand is far better than the Entry-Level variant of a Luxury Brand.
- Luxury Entry-Level: You pay for the Badge (Status/Perception), but you get a stripped-down feature set.
- Mid-Market Top-End: You pay for the Experience (Features/Comfort).
- The Life Rule: I optimize for my internal experience (freedom/comfort), not for external validation. If a deal brings money but steals my time, I walk away.
Execution > Ideas (The Map is Not the Terrain)
The Principle
A business plan is just a guess. The terrain changes, and the map must change with it.
The Context
- Indiaplaza vs. Flipkart: Indiaplaza had the e-commerce idea first. Flipkart had the timing (funding readiness). The idea was the same; the reality was different.
- My Own Pivot: Three years ago, I bought payroll software. Today, I am building my own ERP using AI. The “best practice” of 2021 is the “obsolete practice” of 2024. I hold my beliefs loosely so I can drop them when reality shifts.
The Empiricism Rule (All Frameworks Are Approximations)
The Principle
Every business model, framework, or principle—including the ones on this page—is just an empirical snapshot of reality at a single moment in time.
The Reality
Contexts change. Constraints shift. What worked in 2020 might be suicide in 2025.
- The Approach: I treat all concepts as provisional.
- The Job: My job is not to defend my past ideas. My job is to update them when reality disagrees.
The Expiration Date (A Final Constraint)
The Warning
I do not assume these principles will hold a year from now.
The AI Shift
AI is the ultimate reminder of how quickly “immutable constraints” can collapse.
- Yesterday: Building an ERP required an expensive engineering team and 6 months.
- Today: It requires a resourceful operator and few weeks of effort
- The Result: Entire assumptions about “moats” and “complexity” collapse quietly overnight. This page exists so I can notice when my own thinking becomes obsolete.
How to Read This Page
1. These are Operating Constraints, Not Advice. “Advice” implies I know your context. I don’t. These are the constraints I use to survive my specific reality (bootstrapped, high-volume, operations-heavy).
2. The Filter.
- Take what fits your specific siege.
- Ignore the rest.
3. The Goal. This page is not here to tell you how to succeed. It is here to show you how I avoid failure long enough for luck to find me.