Do Epic Shit

Ankur Warikoo is an Indian YouTuber, Internet entrepreneur and an author. He is the former CEO of Groupon India, co-founder & former CEO of Nearbuy. In 2021, he published his first book – Do Epic Shit

My ViewPoint

You open any page of this book at random and you’ll find something interesting to gain from it. There is no beginning and end to this book. Every page speaks for itself.

I will divide my Key Takeaways from this book into 3 sections:

1. PHILOSOPHICAL
2. TEAM BUILDING
3. RELATIONSHIPS

KEY TAKEAWAYS

PHILOSOPHICAL

• Time goes away an leaves us with only one of these two things: regret or results
• You are what you do, not what you say you do.
• If you worry about what other people think of you, you will often end up doing what people want you to do.
• The best form of writing is the one that is written neither out of fear nor with the willingness to share.
• Thoughts are powerful when they are converted into actions.
• Who you spend time with will define the stories you hear, the stories you hear will define the stories in you head, the stories in your head will define you. Choose who you spend time with, wisely.
• Knowing when to say NO and saying it is a life skill.
• You know, You act , You learn. You know better. and You continue.
• If you don’t ask, the answer is always NO.
• When You Realise what you are doing doesn’t work for you anymore you have two options:
  • Continue with it, because “ I have spent so much time doing it “
  • Continue what lies ahead.
• The real problem was never the real problem, the real problem was the compound interest of complaining.
• We are not the average of the five people around us, we are the average of the five thoughts we spend the most time with and all those thoughts need not come from people in our life. Our thoughts come from people we follow on social media, books, podcasts, anything we consume. We aren’t with people, we are with thoughts, ideas and identities.

TEAM BUILDING

• Build a team so strong that someone from outside doesn’t know who the boss is.
• Do you admit your mistakes?
• Do you allow your team to make mistakes?
• Do you ask questions instead of giving prescription?
• Do you give them the autonomy instead of micromanaging the team?
• It is easy for anyone to start a company, but it is super difficult to build a place where would love to come to work, where they are respected for who they are, where people grow at work and as individuals.

RELATIONSHIPS

• Pick your partner consciously because they are the one who will decide your free time, work, finances, and most importantly, your happiness. This one decision will influence almost all of your decisions in life

• Your true friends are those who are TRULY happy for you when you succeed.
• Most people say true friends are the ones who are there for us during tough times. That’s wrong.
• Anyone can be there for us in our tough times. What we truly want is to have friends who are never jealous of what we have achieved, rather celebrate us for that.

Conclusion

This book is an easy read. The author has touched upon some minute aspects of life and work in general, which we often tend to ignore. I highly recommend Ankur’s Do Epic Shit to everyone and I assure you’ll be far more aware about certain aspects of life and work after reading this book.