I want to start off this Sunday’s edition with an apology. I didn’t realize it back in February when I launched it, but I had created a cave for myself.

You see, it was in February that I introduced the very first First Principles “Quest”, a community-compiled answer to some of the most important and interesting topics.

Our very first topic was “Fitness“, a topic that I know many of us are deeply curious, interested, and invested in. Within just over a week, we had close to 400 of you write in with in-depth and meaningful suggestions and thoughts on what fitness meant for you.

I was excited at first, amazed at the depth and diversity of responses. I couldn’t wait to glean insights and connect the dots.

But as the days progressed, I started to get overwhelmed. What was exciting and promising became daunting. I had created my own cave.

That quote is attributed to the late American writer Joseph Campbell. We’ll talk about caves and moats today. 

A few weeks ago, I spent two hours shut in a soundproofed room with Manav Garg, the founder and former CEO of Eka Software, a company he started in 2004. After 20 years of building and scaling Eka, Manav sold it to a US-based private equity firm.

I often half-joke to my First Principles guests that it’s nearly impossible to spend two hours talking to someone all by yourself and not have established a somewhat trusting relationship. I said half-joke because I’m half-serious.

Think about it, when was the last time you spent two hours talking about your life, career, and work with one person, undisturbed?

Anyway, Manav and I were talking about his decision to go from being an employee to an entrepreneur.

It was the early 2000s. He was based in Singapore, earning over US$10,000 a month as a commodities trader.

Now, it’s hard for a 20-something to quit a US$120,000 per year job based out of Singapore in 2024. I’d imagine it was much harder in the early 2000s, especially for a young man from a middle-class family who was literally the first person from his village in Punjab to have even attended an engineering college.