If Sunil Chhetri and Tom Brady had to grind, you have to grind too

India’s reliance on western tech is worrying. And the pain of working out.

I build businesses to pursue a rich life. I share lessons I learn along the way.

Here are this weeks insights:

1. If Sunil Chhetri and Tom Brady had to grind, you have to grind too

2. India’s reliance on western tech is worrying

3. The reason I work out is because the pain of not exercising is higher than the pain of exercising

You can access previous editions of my weekly emails here. Let’s begin!

(1) If Sunil Chhetri and Tom Brady had to grind, you have to grind too

Sunil Chhetri got demoted to the B-team when he went to play for Sporting Club Lisbon. Tom Brady kept on getting overlooked by his coaches throughout the earlier part of his career even when he performed.

Sunil Chhetri ended up becoming one of the greatest Indian footballer ever. Tom Brady became one of the best players ever in the NFL.

Despite one being Indian and one being American. And despite them playing two totally different sports, the lessons that you will hear from the two are quite similar.

Let’s read what Sunil Chhetri said about failure:

“When I went from playing in the I-League in India to playing for Sporting Lisbon in the European league, the jump was too high for me. To give you an analogy, I was learning things at age 25, that kids had learnt there at the age of 12. The difference was exponential. I could not bridge the gap.

It was so bad for me because in India I was really someone. It was so difficult to digest. It was really tough.

The sad part was I couldn’t call back home and tell them what was happening because there were so many expectations.

“Ah we are so happy. You are doing so good for the Country.”

How do I tell them that “I am not doing well. I am suffering here. It is difficult. I am not in the main team. I have to go to the B-team.”

After everything you realize that you don’t have a choice but to improve. And still there is no guarantee of success. But at least later you won’t regret that you didn’t give it your best.

And if you don’t give your best, then when the opportunity does come, you won’t be ready.

Let's read what Tom Brady said about failure:

“You got to find ways to dig deep, because the reality of your business and your careers is overcoming adversity.

And the only way to do that is to FAIL.

And the only way to fail is to put yourself in uncomfortable situations. Because if you're always in your comfort zone, you're not going to fail.

So if you fail, and you figure out a solution to overcome the failure, you gain a lot of self confidence.

And if you gain self confidence you get the next opportunity to succeed.

To me, failure is amazing. It forces you to look inside yourself on what you need to do better. It is always inward facing about what “I” can do, not what others did:

• I got to do a better job...

• I got to communicate better...

• I got to work harder...

• We got to overcome together...

• We got to practice harder...

• We got to do more of the right things...

Always point it back at yourself, "what do I need to do to help us be more successful".

Here is a video of Sunil Chhetri talking about his failure in Lisbon.

And here is a video of Tom Brady sharing why failure is a must if you want to be achieve anything in life.

(2) India’s reliance on Western Tech is worrying

Jayant Mundra has become a source of awareness and learning for me. To churn out the quality and quantity of content he does, he must be reading countless hours a day. What he publishes is not only interesting but it also forces you to see companies, countries and politics from a different and sometimes contrarian view. I find him a great filter to biased news.

Here is one of his posts that made me feel concerned about India’s reliance on foreign tech:

Any patriot should worry how India is one by one increasing its reliance on Western tech 🙏🙏

First, it was the internet search (Yahoo, Google, Bing). Then email platforms (Hotmail, Outlook, Gmail). Then social media (FB, IG, Twitter, Youtube, WhatsApp).

The latest being LLMs (Chat GPT, Gemini, Grok, Perplexity, Claude etc).

And as if all of that was not enough, satellite internet’s gonna be next.

..

The US has two major players in the sat internet: SpaceX’s Starlink & Amazon's Project Kuiper.

-> And, for all the things I mentioned above, while India does not have any alternative, China has at least one competitive rival of its own

-> When it comes to LLMs and generative AI too, China’s AI TIGERs are neck-to-neck with American giants (just that we don’t hear about Chinese stars like Baichuan, Zhipu AI, Moonshot AI and MiniMax)

-> Likewise, in sat internet space, China has 4 state-backed players to compete globally with Starlink and Project Kuiper

Meanwhile, India, as usual, has none 🙏🙏

..

Blame it on China being authoritative or tech-thief or whatever.

-> In the end, they are not reliant on the West, and we are

-> And they are way ahead on tech in such frontier areas. We are not

..

Coming back to sat broadband.

-> Starlink, Project Kuiper and Europe’s Eutelsat OneWeb are lobbying for a license in India

-> Only Indian rival is Jio. But, it’s using a Luxembourg-based older generation sat-internet provider’s service whose costs are way higher

-> And, obviously, allowing Chinese players is an obvious no-go

Thus, we’re bound to rely on Western tech for broadband from space 🙏🙏

..

Many counter that Bharti Airtel’s Sunil Mittal owns 23.8% stake in European player Eutelsat OneWeb.

However, with 76%+ of that being foreign-owned, India's strategic control via Mittal is minimal. And, from the geopolitical standpoint, control over LEO satellites means control over data routes, surveillance, and even military communications.

Without our own assets, India's strategic autonomy is compromised.

..

Remember how the US denied us GPS data during the Kargil War?

-> We have handed the US even more of such strategic holds over our strategic autonomy. And sat internet will be one more hold

-> This is rarely discussed, yet it's pivotal for India's future in a world where space is the next frontier for power and commerce

I’m sure some would even read this advocacy for a truly Indian alternative as an act of spreading negativity about India’s story 🙏🙏

Please know, that it’s an act of building awareness on where we REALLY stand. Because, unaware we may live in a la la land, but we are only falling behind and growing dependent.

(3) The reason I work out is because the pain of not exercising is higher than the pain of exercising.

Physically, if I don't have movement in my daily life my back starts hurting. That disrupts my sleep. And then my mood, work and relationships suffer.

A lot of my friends don't exercise because the pain of turning up is higher than the pain of not turning up. They will eventually be forced to exercise when the pain of not doing it is greater than the pain of doing it.

Mentally, if I don't turn up, my self-image suffers. I see myself as someone who is in the top percentile for my age group. My actions reinforce this identity.

At the most fundamental level it is all about how you see yourself. That self-image you have of yourself leads to the actions you take everyday which eventually manifests into the identity you hold. If you don't see yourself as disciplined, then you won't do the work needed to be disciplined. If you don't see yourself as strong, then you won't do the work required to be strong.

There is no shortcut to turning up and doing the work. And when you do the work, the feeling of accomplishment is rewarding.

Harsh Batra (LinkedIn)

Thank you for reading. Writing helps me learn, reflect, and share—it’s how I grow and connect with purpose. If you’re curious about the businesses I build as part of pursuing a rich life, here they are:

1. iDeals VDR - If you are running M&A transactions, planning an IPO, or sharing anything confidential online, you won’t find a better Virtual Data Room partner than us. Here is a 90 second video of iDeals. Companies like Pfizer, Mercedes and Tata trust us. Thousands of investment bankers, lawyers and insolvency professionals use us everyday to run their due diligence processes. If you have a need to share anything sensitive online, send me an email on harsh@idealscorp.com. I’d love to work with you.

2. Happy Ratio - I founded Happy Ratio because I am immensely passionate about health. To get the most out of life you need to be healthy. To be healthy you need to eat the right foods and drink the right beverages. But this is not always possible or easy. Happy Ratio provides clean, tasty and healthy foods and drinks. Check out our menu on Zomato and Swiggy. Or visit us at our quick service restaurant at CyberHub in Gurgaon. We serve employees from Deloitte and Marks & Spencers and do events for companies like Samsung and Oppo. If you want us to do an event for you reach out to us at ops@happyratio.com.

3. Marcellus Investment Managers - I am a Marcellus client because their investment philosophy resonates with how I think about investing. Their approach to investing in clean, honest and cash flow positive businesses can yield stupendous results over time. I trust them with my savings and evangelize their approach. Investing comes with inherent risks so please do your own due diligence before deciding where to put your money. I am also an Independent Financial Advisor with Marcellus.