The Opportunity Cost of Following your Dreams 👀

I think of this all the time.

What are the odds of where you grew up, what school you went to, the luxuries you got, the choices you made, good and bad. What are the odds you get to live the life you live?

My dad worked at a petrol pump growing up

My mums house didn’t have water or electricity throughout college.

Dad could’ve easily stayed at the petrol pump, my mom could’ve quit college and my life would’ve been completely different.

Comedy would likely never have been an option, you wouldn’t be reading this and we probably wouldn’t have even heard of each other.

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In Today’s Email: (Read Time: 4 mins) ✉️

• It’s costly being you: Are you really worth it?!

• [Video] I hosted by best friends wedding: Here’s a snippet of a roast…

• Comic To Watch: I’m in India and the standup comedy scene here is amazing

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It’s costly being you 👀

I’m in India this week traveling through my parents hometowns.

We ate at my dads favorite spot, walked around his 150 year old house, prayed at their 300 year old family temple and talked about life.

It’s a beautiful experience going down their memory lane, seeing the decisions they made that selfishly speaking have affected my life so much.

• His decision to move from India to Dubai for a better life

• The risk to quit his job and start a business cause he’d had enough

• My mom pursuing two BA’s studying in a home without light

• Saving every cent to make sure their kids don’t suffer a day in their lives

Even writing this brings tears to my eyes, because that is way more of a sacrifice than I could ever make. I have grown up in a life of luxury that has never required me to put someone else’s life ahead of mine. It’s always been all about me.

What do I want to do, where do I want to work, how do I want to live, who do I want to love.

To a lot each of these questions are ones that you yourself find answers to. To others these are group decisions. Each of these impacts our entire family.

Each decision towards your self could have an opportunity cost that is your family. Living without this thought is liberating. Living with it is agonizing.

Pursue your dream? Live away from your loved ones? Feel guilty for wasting time? The alternative is don’t pursue it, move closer to your family, spend quality time with them. They struggled during their youth, they deserve to be pampered now.

Tough decision. It’s a double edged sword, if you make the decision to put yourself first it lights a fire under your ass to get their faster but the opportunity cost could be invaluable. Time with your family.

I’d love to hear if you’ve been through something similar and what coping mechanisms you’ve developed, if at all?

I used to think about the opportunity cost a lot up until a couple years ago when I realized if I didn’t chose me I would be unhappy and what joy is life spent with someone unhappy. (This isn’t the only reason and it’s not as simple but we’ll unpack that some other time, I promise)

The solution? Make the most of the time I spend with my family. Enjoy, laugh, take trips, really be present. This has drastically increased the quality of my life and the time I spend with my family. Fuck the opportunity cost.

Shoulda, woulda, coulda.

Make the decision, take the chance, trust your gut and live like you’re here for a short time. Cause you are.

Everything has an opportunity cost.

The only question is how much is your dream worth?

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Video of the week

I hosted my best friends wedding last weekend and it was a blast. I love these events cause it’s a much easier audience, everyone is rooting for you to succeed. I’ve realized this after hearing dozens of half assed wedding speeches which get laughs while my comic mind is waiting for the punchline - “wait that was it?”

It went well and the whole event was a blast. Here’s a snippet of me chatting roasting on stage!

(I know I was gonna post the dance from last week’s post but we’ll get to that next week!)

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Comic of the week

I saw a comedy show in Bombay last week and it was a blast. The scene is buzzing with comics, several shows every day of the week and packed audiences who LOVE comedy. Standup Comedy is still relatively new to the country but what an exciting time to be a comic literally growing the scene.

My favorite comic from the night was also a friend of a friend, the hilarious Siddharth Dudeja. He’s been in the comedy scene for 10 years and has been blowing up and embarking on his second tour around India. If you don’t understand Hinglish, you will not understand his sets unfortunately, but if you do - please follow him. You won’t be disappointed!

That’s all I got for today! As always I love when you reply to this and we chat.

Also if you’ve made it till the end and haven’t subscribed, I think we gotta change that!

- Talk soon killers!