Devansh Jain Nawal

@IIMAhmedabad '24 | Founder, Culture Circle & The Healthy Company | This is my thought journal

[Sam Altman @sama]

one of the quotes i find most inspiring on a hard day:

"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom"

Ecclesiastes 9:10

[Devansh Jain Nawal @devanshjn]

Delivering a Rolex for an engagement: Road to a billion ep1.

In the past one year, life started moving really fast. As we scaled culture circle from 0 to 100 million dollars, all those things that once felt so big, didn’t really feel that big anymore. And that’s why we are documenting our journey from 100M to 1 billion in a raw and real manner for you to see how we got here from 0 and how we continue the road to 1 billion.

[Day in the life, vlog, entrepreneur, CEO, COO, travel, resort, business, startup, trading, info, venture, funding, founder ]

[Devansh Jain Nawal @devanshjn]

@alex_prompter Guide

[Devansh Jain Nawal @devanshjn]

All the terrible shitty things in life happen FOR you, not TO you.

[Devansh Jain Nawal @devanshjn]

Live life like it’s rigged to be in your favour.

[Devansh Jain Nawal @devanshjn]

Happiness = Expectation - Reality.

Simple. True. Timeless.

[Alex Hormozi @AlexHormozi]

The fastest way to become successful is to associate with people more successful than you. This results in some of the fastest learning and behavior change you can experience.

The problem is...they wont want anything to do with you.

So you have to find ONE thing you're more successful than them at, and give that thing freely. Not at cost. Not tit for tat. Freely. Without expectation. It's an unspoken code of people who are higher up - they're almost all givers. The easiest way to see someone who is "out of place" is to spot the taker. Spot the person always angling.

Anyways once you do actually provide value (help them do something good they couldn't do before or help them avoid something bad they used to have to deal with, or get the same outcome they're used to faster or cheaper)...they'll let you hang around.

Then you learn as much as you possibly can and try and be the best in that group at EVERYTHING. And when that happens they'll see you as a leader. You won't even have to say it. The power dynamics will just shift.

[Devansh Jain Nawal @devanshjn]

Belief comes before ability.
Self delusion is the shield that protects you from self doubt.
The most predictable way to win is not having an 'off' switch.

[Devansh Jain Nawal @devanshjn]

How to Find EARNED Secrets (the kind that give you an unfair advantage):

1/ Go where others don’t.
Niches, edge cases, and “boring” problems everyone ignores.
That’s where secrets hide.

2/ Go wider than others.
Charlie Munger famously connected dots across unrelated domains.
He saw patterns nobody else could see.

3/ Explore neglected spaces.
Old industries. Forgotten subcultures. Abandoned archetypes.
If everyone left, that’s usually where the gold is.

4/ Work on problems that feel “too hard.”
If it feels impossible, most people won’t even try. That’s your opening.

⸻

5/ Earned secrets = specific knowledge.
And specific knowledge can’t be taught in school or packaged into a course.
You only get it by doing the work.

6/ Do what others won’t.
Practice, practice, practice.
World-class doesn’t come from inspiration—it comes from obsession.

7/ Play both roles.
Be CEO and the warehouse worker.
Jeff Bezos personally packed books at Amazon in the early days.
That grunt work gave him insights that later shaped Amazon’s logistics advantage.

⸻

8/ Stay focused in the unpopular lane.
Get in before it’s “cool”:
– AI before LLMs blew up
– YouTube before being a “creator” was a career
– Online writing before mainstream adoption

The next big thing isn’t big yet.

9/ Pay attention longer.
The rarest edge today isn’t coding or capital—it’s an uncooked attention span.
If you can just stay where others get bored, you’ll see things others can’t.

⸻

10/ Discovery = paying attention longer.
David Ogilvy:
“Discovery is seeing what everyone has seen, but thinking what nobody else has thought.”

11/ Da Vinci’s edge was patience.
He watched dragonflies long enough to notice their wings moved independently of birds.
That’s how he got ahead of his time.

12/ Secrets must be tested.
You don’t “find” them by thinking—you earn them by experimenting until the world pushes back.
Reality is the only validator.

⸻

13/ Speed comes from cycles.
Secrets take a long time to earn.
The way to compress time is to run experiments faster.

14/ Failure is the tuition.
You’ll eat a dozen failed attempts before a secret reveals itself.
That’s why they’re valuable—most people quit too early.

15/ Bottom line:
– Go where others don’t.
– Do what others won’t.
– Pay attention longer.
– Run more experiments.

That’s how you earn secrets the market can’t copy.

[Devansh Jain Nawal @devanshjn]

Michhami Dukkadam is probably my favorite Jain tradition because it's humble request for forgiveness that makes one realize - in letting go of past hurt, we make space for happiness.

Forgiveness isn’t a gift for others—it’s a gift for yourself. Holding onto grudges doesn’t hurt the other person, it hurts you.

Letting go of the past doesn’t mean you forget, it means you stop letting it control you. Happiness isn’t something you achieve—it’s something you choose. And that choice starts with forgiveness.

[Devansh Jain Nawal @devanshjn]

Pain is the fixed cost of being alive.
Life's suffering is non-negotiable.
Purpose is optional.

The only choice you get—
is whether that pain compounds into meaning,
or just dissolves into nothing.

If you’re going to struggle anyway,
aim high enough to make it worth it.

[Devansh Jain Nawal @devanshjn]

If you fake bravery when you're terrified, that IS bravery.
If you fake motivation when you're unmotivated, that IS motivation.
Actions over intent. Behavior over emotions.

[Devansh Jain Nawal @devanshjn]

“You could be good today,Instead, you choose tomorrow.”
-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

The right time to do the hard thing, the courageous thing, the right thing? It’s right now. Not later. Not tomorrow. Now.

[Devansh Jain Nawal @devanshjn]

The biggest tragedy of life is that it takes away your ability to dream every passing moment.
Your optionality in life is way more limited as a 45 y/o than as a 25 y/o. And that freedom to dream is why any 75 y/o would trade everything to be 25 again.
Time softens you indiscriminately.

[Devansh Jain Nawal @devanshjn]

Great Man Theory: History is shaped by extraordinary individuals whose innate traits and leadership change the world.

History is nothing but the biography of great men. And that's because The actions of remarkable individuals, not the masses, shape history. But these great leaders are born, not made. They're wired so differently, from the outside it might appear as irrational, irresponsible and sociopathic.

[Devansh Jain Nawal @devanshjn]

Forbes 30under30 Asia: Now Cultured. From getting scammed on fake sneakers or with sky high prices to building Asia’s largest authenticated luxury marketplace—now #Forbes is taking notice.

This isn’t the destination—it’s fuel for what’s next.

Two sneakerheads with a problem. Four million monthly users with a solution. Asia's #1 Hype and Luxury App wasn’t built in a day, but we’re building it for decades.

And again, we’re just getting started.

#ForbesUnder30 #ForbesU30Asia

[Devansh Jain Nawal @devanshjn]

The obstacle is the way. Problems are opportunities in disguise. Business is nothing but a never ending collection of new problems daily.
The best businesses therefore are the most effective problem solving machines.
Because every problem that you solve for yourself can be a potential business opportunity within itself that you can solve for others.

[Devansh Jain Nawal @devanshjn]

Excellence is nothing but the ability to tolerate and persevere through mental, emotional and physical pain.

[Devansh Jain Nawal @devanshjn]

The reason to win the game is to be free of the game.
Once you know you can win it, you play the game for the sheer joy of it and the beauty in its existence.
Think hard enough and everything's ultimately a game - career, relationships, health, family, life. And that's freedom.