Do Epic Shit is a book by Ankur Warikoo published in 2021. The book focuses on personal development and offers advice on how to achieve success in life. It is divided into six parts: Find Your Calling, Money, Failure, Success, Habits, and Growth.
The book encourages readers to take risks, push boundaries, and think differently in order to reach their goals.
Ankur Warikoo writes about all the failures and successes he had in his life. He also reflects on the lessons he has learned the hard way to help us be aware of those situations. You will find valuable lessons in this book that you can use in your life.
Don’t live for pleasing others
Don’t try to live life pleasing people. It’s the worst way to live life. When you do so and live for external validation, you are giving control of your life to other people.
Make money, a lot of money. Not to buy stuff, but to buy freedom. The biggest privilege that money can buy is freedom.
If you are in your 20s, use it to discover yourself. Meet as many people as you can. Go to as many places as you can. Do as many jobs as you can. Find out what you are good at and what makes you happy. Then use your 30s to do that.
Be a leader. Don’t think everyone wants to lead. 99% of people want to be led. They want to be told what to do. Led them.
More advice on relationships
- Don’t be around people who are not willing to heal themselves, those who are not okay with their situations and do nothing to change it.
- Most of us do not have love, fulfillment, happiness, or fitness in our life, because it requires effort.
- True friends are very rare. Those are the ones who will be truly happy for you when you succeed.
- How you treat others is a reflection of how we treat ourselves. The inner world is what drives the outer world.
Don’t choose entrepreneurship if your primary goal is to make money, if you hate your job or if you think it’s cool because everyone else is doing it.
Habits
- Habits will open doors of opportunities for you. They are what build you.
- Don’t try to wake up early. Sleep early. The secret is to be energized, happy and productive in the morning.
- Be curious. It’s what creates opportunities more than hard work ever will.
The most important skills today are Humour, storytelling, managing money, human psychology, and cold emailing.
You have to have a plan but without action they are nothing.
Follow the right set of people on social media and you’ll see more opportunities. You become like the people you spend the most time with- both online and offline.
Habits of Ankur Warikoo
- Always carries a notebook
- Documents everything
- Puts everything on the calendar
- Schedules email to himself, for future
- Uses technology for everything possible
- Has a self- WhatsApp group
- Takes an afternoon nap
- Sets the right environment for every task
Do Epic Shit: Key Points
- Passion is not something you find. It’s something you grow.
- Don’t think everyone wants to lead. 99% of people want to be led. They want to be told what to do. Led them.
- Be curious. It’s what creates opportunities more than hard work ever will.
- We procrastinate not because of laziness but because of fear.
- Be busy in finding yourself instead of being busy in the rate race and never knowing yourself.
- Respect is greater than sympathy and empathy.
Success and failure
- Success means different things to different people. You have to give your definition of success and stay true to that. Don’t let the world define your rules for success and failure.
- Everyone is running a different race. In fact, we are not even in a race. We’re on our own paths. Some walk. Some run.
- When you planned to do five things in the morning, but you end up doing more, that joy and emotion is a true achievement.
- You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do. If you commit to something and don’t deliver on the promise, it means nothing.
- Luck happens to those who make things happen.
Be curious
We are born with the innate quality to ask questions. But we are forced to stop asking questions by our parents and our teachers. You are curious by nature. It’s okay to ask questions that might sound dumb.
Don’t numb yourself. Nurturing your curiosity is the coolest thing in a world where people are scared of being called dumb.
Neither success nor failure matters. What matters is what you become through that process.
Most people are scared of being themselves. But it is one of the coolest ways to get attention.
There is discomfort in doing the unconventional but there is permanent discomfort in living life as a template.
Tough decisions
Here are the best mental models for taking tough decisions in life:
- Ask yourself: What’s the worst thing that can happen?
- Close your eyes and vividly imagine if happening
- Then ask, ‘Will I be okay- mentally, socially, financially, physically, emotionally?
- Assume that the decisions you take are reversible and you will start to act differently. Most decisions are reversible, not carved in stone.
- Be aware, execute and repeat your decisions.
- Be busy in finding yourself instead of being busy in the rate race and never knowing yourself.
- Don’t compare yourself to others. It’s the biggest waste of time.
Addictions come from the feeling that doing something generates. We are not addicted to things. We are addicted to the emotions that these things generate.
Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is hard.
- Most people lack intent, not the capability to do something. When your intent is sharp and clear, you are more likely to be a success.
- Entrepreneurship is 90% about understanding and 10% about execution. 90% about empathy and 10% autocracy. And 100% patience.
- It’s not a profession. It’s a state of mind. When you work beyond your job description to solve the right problems.
- If you treat your job like a business, you are an entrepreneur. If you change the status quo for the better, you are an entrepreneur.
- As an entrepreneur, your success depends on how close you are able to getting people to their solutions.
- Somebody out there is already working on the idea you have. Don’t over-index the idea. Find what is they don’t know.
- It’s easy to build a company but hard to build a place where people would love to come to work.
Being calm and aware
- Being aware and mindful of every action you take is a vital skill. Although it’s simple, most people don’t exercise it.
- Don’t let your feelings of what others will say determine your actions.
- We procrastinate not because of laziness but because of fear. The fear of failure, success. Fear of rejection. We procrastinate because we don’t find security in our achievements.
- Instead of chasing people’s meaning of success, seek satisfaction in your own journey.
- Being calm even in the harshest situations is a superpower. Calmness doesn’t mean you don’t lack drive. It means having the power to turn that drive into actions. The calm itself is the fire.
Stay away from social media. Because the smartest minds are working 24/7 to keep you hooked.
Money
The greatest use of money is to buy freedom and it is the ultimate privilege.
Mistakes you should avoid with money:
- Don’t take loans to buy the real estate
- Don’t increase your lifestyle with the increase in your income
- Don’t invest in the hope of making money fast.
- Always take taxes into consideration
- Compounding rests on time. Give it time. Don’t interrupt it.
- Invest in places where you can withdraw cash whenever you need it.
- Double down on what’s working rather than pursuing diversification.
- Take risks early on and don’t worry about the short-term ups and downs
Relationships
- Relationships are the places where we thrive. They are also the places where we are challenged the most.
- All problems in the world have their roots in miscommunication. All relationships thrive on communication.
- The best way to be taught is to teach others. Break down what you already know and teach it to others.
- Being kind is powerful. Not all will reciprocate but its always the right thing to do.
Life your life
- You’ve got just one life. Don’t live it being one person. You can be whoever you want and have as many identities as you can. Be an entrepreneur, and also an athlete, and also a person who creates content.
- Explore things. Don’t just sit at a place. Move out of where you are in life.
- If you can be tough mentally, you can win the world. The inner world is what drives the outer world.
- Passion is not something you find. It’s something you grow. Do many things and eventually, you will find one that sticks with you. Nurture it, be patient and let it lead your life.
- You don’t find passion. You grow it.
