Have you ever stopped to acknowledge that people remember decades in the next century?
Eg: The “Roaring 20s,” the “Depressed 30s,” the “WW2 and post-war” 1940s, the “Recovery / Baby Boomer 50s,” the “Crazy 60s,” and so on.
Well, it’s now 2025 (damn), and we’re in the middle of the “20s” decade of this century.
So far in this decade, we’ve seen Covid-19 and global shutdowns, then the recovery from that, and now the rise of AI. Whether this decade will be defined by Covid or by AI, I’m not yet sure.
But for YOU (and ME), this decade will be defined by “what were you doing at that time?“
And that is a scary question to answer.
For me, so far, the 20s have seen the beginning (or you could say, the starting phase) of my journey as an entrepreneur and leader, the beginning of my 30s, my globetrotting from the USA to India and then to Japan (with a quick stop in Europe in between), and also the beginning of my self-imposed challenge to carve a place for myself on the global stage, and in this era.
That’s already a lot.
Interestingly, none of the things I actually did — such the exact businesses I started, the book I wrote or podcasts I hosted, nor any of the major events in my life — feel “noteworthy” right now, as I look at the big picture. Any and all my accomplishments / milestones feel like a footnote, a detail.
After all, we’re talking about “phases” here — the things under the surface that will eventually come to define this period of your life.
Coming back to 2025, I believe I have a decent answer to that question (“what were you doing in that decade?”). It is both a theme, a mission, a goal, and an affirmation of sorts. Thankfully, we’re only half-way in, so I still have time to live up to it:
In the 2020s, I was trying to become a legend.
I’ve always been curious about what motivates me, and which things I feel the most proud of. And I realized that the achievements that make me proudest are those that have a certain “competitive” or “distinguishing” angle to them.
In college, the only accomplishments I remember fondly are those where I distinguished myself out of everyone else — such as that one Physics end-term exam where I solved two problems that nobody did (and became the only person to get an A in that class out of 250+ kids), or that I was the first person to start taking online courses on the side, and some of the things I did in China.
Same thing after college — I only remember the things that distinguished me from either my peers or my contemporaries — doing the things that nobody else did, or nobody else did better.
I have recognized this desire to distinguish as one of the primary drivers of my life.
I’ve always wanted to be legendary at whatever I set my mind to do — or you could say, the desire to be legendary IS what set my mind to do things.
I’m a very lazy, distracted, and time-wasting guy by default. You would never believe by looking at some of my habits and natural inclinations that I would ever be a winner. I can binge watch anime or movies until the cows come home, and I can sleep until the sun gets tired of shining.
But on the flip side, I have a side that’s also more disciplined, more intense, and more ferocious than anyone. And the only thing that turns on that “switch in my head” is the decision to be legendary.
At SANPRAM, I want to surround myself with people who want to become legends in their own right, at whatever they do. The company itself wants to become legendary — I want us to eclipse the influence that SONY had back in the 70s and 80s.
Let’s build a 21st century organization and an environment where it’s a mandatory requirement to do legendary things. Just like Edison built the world’s first applied research company at Menlo Park, my goal is to build a “legend factory” unlike anything ever seen before.
