The HyperFocus Manifesto

You know how everyone keeps saying “We all have the same 24 hours as Beyoncé”? Well, they’re not wrong. The difference is what we do with them. Let me tell you my story and what I’ve learned about making these hours count.

The Family Business Advantage

Let’s get real for a minute. If you’re blessed with a family business, listen up. I’ve seen too many friends ignore their family’s legacy, chasing corporate jobs because it seems “cooler.” But here’s the thing.
While they’re grinding through entry-level positions, they could’ve been expanding their family’s business. Your parents have already laid the foundation; your job is to build the skyscraper.

Think about it.

Do you want your children to go through the same pain you went through?

Why can’t they continue from where you left off? This isn’t nepotism; this is how old India worked, and it worked well. Knowledge transfer happened directly from an expert (your parent) to you, giving you a head start. That’s invaluable.

Starting from Scratch

Now, for most of us (myself included) who weren’t born with a silver spoon up our ass, here’s the game plan. Get that job first — yes, the same corporate one I just told the family business kids to avoid. Why? Because you need that safety net.

Here’s my formula:

Calculate your monthly expenses, multiply it by 36 (3 years), and that’s your target savings before you jump ship.

I thought having six months of savings was enough to start a business. Boy, was I wrong! Looking at people struggle on Twitter, changed my mind. Pontypants, developer of Punch a Bunch game, shares his video about this. The market takes time to warm up to you, clients take time to trust you, and your savings disappear faster than free food at college hackathon.

Do Everything (But Smart)

During college, I tried everything — and I mean EVERYTHING. Competitive programming? Check. App development? Done that. Web development? Of course. Even tried non-tech events, where I quickly discovered that wasn’t my strongest suit.

The point isn’t just to do everything; it’s to do everything that adds value to your growth.

You have to experience it once, and if you feel it will not add value to you quit it. Example, I felt College Committees would not add any value to me, and doing personal low level projects instead will help me learn better, for me time to knowledge Saraho was the decision factor, like I already spend 4 hours just traveling back and forth to college. Add committee work and event management on top of that? No thanks. That time is way better spent building something meaningful.

The Value Equation: Actual vs. Perceived

One crucial concept that often goes unnoticed is the balance between actual value (AV)—your skills—and perceived value (PV)—how others view your capabilities. Ideally, both align. But in reality, they often don’t.

When your perceived value is lower than your actual value, you risk being overlooked despite your skills—this is when you need to market yourself better. When AV equals PV, you’re accurately recognized for your abilities—but you still need to consistently showcase your value.

However, the most interesting dynamic occurs when perceived value exceeds actual value. This isn’t about faking expertise—it’s about demonstrating potential. When people believe you can deliver, and you commit to learning and following through, you open doors to new opportunities.

Here’s a breakdown of how actual value and perceived value interact:

Scenario	Actual Value (AV)	Perceived Value (PV)	Outcome
AV < PV	Skills are still developing	Seen as highly capable and adaptable	Opens doors to opportunities; must work hard to deliver
AV = PV	Skills and abilities match the perception	Seen accurately for what you bring	Steady progress; requires continuous visibility and effort
AV > PV	Highly skilled and competent	Undervalued or underestimated	Missed opportunities unless you improve self-presentation

PV > AV is good and should be aimed for—when people perceive you as capable, you gain access to more opportunities. However, PV >>>>> AV can become risky if the gap is too large—eventually, people will expect you to deliver at the level they perceive.

Consider a hypothetical example: Sarah (definitely not a real person). She wasn’t a coder by training, but she excelled at presenting herself. During internship season, both of us aimed for the same company. While I—despite having stronger coding skills—couldn’t secure an interview, Sarah landed a tech internship.

Why? Perceived value.

Sarah networked confidently, asked insightful questions, and radiated a “fast learner, eager contributor” attitude. Even though her technical skills were still developing, she made the interviewers believe she could grow into the role—and then worked hard to deliver on that promise.

Here’s how our value equation compared:

Person	Actual Value (AV)	Perceived Value (PV)	Result
Me	Strong coding skills	Limited—struggled to showcase them	Couldn’t land an interview
Sarah	Basic coding knowledge, strong presentation	High—networked, asked smart questions	Secured a tech internship through confidence and potential

The takeaway? When you align perceived potential with actual effort, you create room for growth and opportunity. By understanding and managing this equation, you can open doors that skill alone might not unlock.

The GitHub Graveyard

Let me take you through my GitHub journey. 100+ repositories — and let me ask you something: how many have you actually cloned and run?
One? Two? I bet the number is a big fat zero. Why does it matter? Someone might see these projects as complete, but here a fact. Most are incomplete, but they’re not just any projects. Take Coda, for example — a programming language I built in C++. Is it complete? No. Is it usable? Absolutely.

Each project taught me something valuable, whether finished or not. The lesson here is: start it, learn from it, and build until you have something to show.

The ML Love Story

I used to HATE machine learning.
Thought it was just math nerds playing with numbers. Then came this project — I had to build a model to predict habitability of exo-planets.
Initially, I procrastinated hard. Something clicked. Working with real data, watching patterns emerge, it felt like solving a puzzle. I ended up building a model with 99% accuracy.

Do I still prefer game development? Yes. Do I still hate ML? Absolutely. But not as much as I did a few months back. The point? Try everything before you trash it, so when you do trash it, you can provide a 10 page documentation on why that particular thing is garbage for you.

The Art of Juggling Projects

Let me be clear:

“If it’s not due date, it’s not do date” is BULLSHIT.

Pure BULLSHIT. That procrastination mantra, championed by the devil of delay, only keeps you in a state of constant, nagging stress. Step out. I know what it’s like to have work hanging over your head, making it impossible even to enjoy scrolling through reels.

My secret? I treat every task as if it were due tomorrow. It sounds intense, but the result is freedom. When you finish things ahead of time, your brain is clear — free to take walks, brainstorm new ideas, or simply chill without that constant pressure.

Building Your Brand

Here’s where it gets tricky. When you start putting yourself out there as a focused, value-driven person, something interesting happens. People start seeing you as “that serious person” and assign the word “value” to your name.

There are some negatives. Your Instagram DMs might shrink, you might not get called for every college party. But guess what? When someone needs professional help or has a work opportunity, you’re the first person they think of.

Here is what I felt.
People will consider you as a solution provider, and others will have hard time seeing you as a chill guy or a person to be in a relationship with. But as a student you might want this exactly, keeping away from any and every distractions.

In a world where jobs are fluid and even the person who hired you might be replaced by AI, building your personal brand is the smartest investment you can make.

Get Help, Set Help

Being a generalist who helps specialists is incredibly rewarding.

Take few months back.
Maya from Economics background needed to get some data for research. She required some code to extract the data from source. It took me just 15 minutes to write the script and around 1 hour to clean everything up.
She got her data and finished her paper.

But what did I get?
I learnt about a new dataset that somehow was missed from my radar, and now it became my go to source of certain type of data.

But it goes deeper.
The other day, I was frustrated with my ML model showing an MSE in the 10e4 range. I reached out to Pari. She introduced me to the concept of normalizing values within a comfortable range. That breakthrough not only fixed my model but also for some other project got me selected for an ML competition at IIT Banaras — and remember, I’m not even a ML guy!

Asking for help teaches you a lot. For you it is better to ask for help from peers. Peers, who can distill down the content just for you. They know you and your mindset. Not just asking for help, but, helping others teaches you a lot of things too. Helping specialists pushes you out of your comfort zone and unlocks doors to new opportunities, transforming every act of assistance into a step toward bigger growth.

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This isn’t just about working hard — it’s about working smart and building real value. Whether you’re expanding a family legacy or starting from scratch, the key is to hyper-focus on what truly matters and ignore all the noise.

Remember, in this rapidly changing world, jobs are becoming more fluid. The person who hired you might be replaced by AI in a few years. But. If you’ve built your own value, your own business, your own brand? That’s something no AI can replicate.

Now, stop reading and start doing.

Those 24 hours aren’t going to optimize themselves!

I am not a god, I wish I was, so take everything with a grain of salt. Do your research.