Coffee Can Make You Superhuman. But Conditions Apply.
Home Is More Than Just A Place—It’s the People. Control the Inputs And Get Feedback From The Outcomes.
Life is awesome, irrespective of the cards you’ve been dealt by circumstances. I build businesses with people I like to pursue a rich emotional and financial life. I share lessons I learn along the way.
Here are this weeks insights:
Home Is More Than Just A Place—It’s the People
Coffee Can Make You Superhuman. But Conditions Apply.
Control the Inputs. Get Feedback From The Outcomes.
You can access previous editions of my weekly emails here. Let’s dive in!
(1) Home Is More Than Just A Place—It’s The People
For a period of 10 years I lived on my own in Delhi. For five of these years I rented a 1-BHK from Mrs. Malhotra. And for the next five I rented a 1-BHK from the Khuranas. They both were walking distance from each other in Defence Colony.
They became my home away from home 🏠. I looked after their place as if it were my own. I was their tenant but they treated me more like their child. I'd go over to have a cup of tea ☕, eat some aloo parathas, and talk about how my life and career was evolving. They were always so happy to see me and spend time with me.
After I moved out, I stayed in touch with them. They are beautiful simple people whose memories I want to keep. At the end of the day, all we have are these fleeting moments to reminisce.
I dropped by to meet them last week. They were as happy as ever to see me. And I was so happy that I made the time to go meet them. 🙂 They are well into their 80s and 90s. I really don't know how many more memories I can create with them. So I try to create as many as I can.
Home is more than just a place; it’s the people!
(2) Coffee Can Make You Superhuman. But Conditions Apply.
Last week, I experienced the incredible and the not-so-great effects of coffee.
Let’s start with the incredible.
I have realized that coffee unlocks an elevated level of performance, if I am in the right headspace. Anything hard becomes easier. Any downer turns into an upper. The struggle to convince myself to hit the gym transforms into an explosive workout. Hours of business problem-solving turns into assiduous deep work. And my lack of practice in Cricket? Turns out it doesn’t matter! I suddenly start playing like a pro.
Case in point: last week I smashed 37 off 21 balls in a tournament final and in the following game I went on to score 110 off just 62 balls, despite hardly playing over the past two months due to work and travel.
The best part? My 100 got recorded with commentary! Here is a 1-minute clip :)
Of course, coffee wasn’t the only factor. Three other things played a role in this extra-ordinary performance:
Scarcity: “You don’t know when you will get to play next so just make the most of this opportunity.”
Positive self-talk: “I know you haven’t played much, but you are damn good Harsh. You can do this!”
Focus: “Harsh forget about what the result will be. Watch the ball. Hit the ball. Reset every ball. That’s all you can control.”
Now, for the negatives
Caffeine supercharges focus but doesn’t differentiate between productive and unproductive tasks. If you start obsessing over something, like social media, coffee might trap you in that loop. It enhances dopamine, the neurotransmitter responsible for motivation, reward, and habit formation. Social media already feeds on dopamine, and caffeine amplifies that effect, making it harder to pull away.
Sometimes, coffee makes me too wired. This is great for a workout but terrible if I don’t have a hard assignment in front of me. That antsy, restless feeling can make it difficult to focus, as my brain scrambles to find an outlet for all that excess energy.
So I have started regulating how charged up I get. I bought L-Theanine capsules (a naturally occurring amino acid primarily found in green tea) to smooth out the caffeine rush, and I am now using caffeine more strategically, reserving it for deep work and physical activity instead of letting it dictate my attention.
Coffee can make you superhuman. But conditions apply.
(3) Control the Inputs. Get Feedback From The Outcomes.
At the end of the day, the only thing that truly matters is knowing who you are. If you stay anchored in yourself, act with a clean conscience, and are clear about what you’ve done and what you haven’t; let people say what they want. We can’t live our lives constantly seeking approval. Do the right thing. And do the thing right.
That doesn’t mean the path will be smooth. Mistakes are inevitable, but decisions must not stop.
One of the lessons that stuck with me from Elon Musk’s biography is how he approached this. He knew he would make mistakes; but he also knew that the cost of indecision was far greater than the cost of making the wrong call. So, he made dozens of decisions every day.
I remind myself of this when I make mistakes. I take note of them, learn from them, and make sure I don’t repeat them. But I don’t let them slow me down. Because mistakes cannot be stopped, and progress cannot wait.
In this process, there are weeks and months where you put in the work, and nothing happens. And then there are days when weeks and months happen.
We can’t predict when the breakthrough will come. We can’t control the outcomes. But we can control the inputs.
Our job is simple: show up every day, do the work, and enjoy the process.
But don’t try to do it all alone.
You need to lean on others, and let others lean on you. That’s how the impossible gets done. That’s how you find a shoulder to lean on when things get tough.
Thank you for reading. If you’re curious about the businesses I build, here they are:
Ideals VDR - We help professionals to collaborate over sensitive data and run critical business transactions, such as M&A, smoothly.
Happy Ratio - Delicious, nutritious foods and drinks designed for busy lives. No fuss, just health made simple.
Marcellus Investment Managers - Where my personal investments grow. Their philosophy of investing in clean, honest, cash flow-positive businesses aligns with my approach.
Harsh Batra (LinkedIn)