Hi there,
Last week, I sat at a table with people who could make one phone call and change everything.
To my left, the founding member of Cognizant.
To my right, two founders who took exits.
Across from me, someone who closed a 1.5 Million Dollar sales deal.
And me? I was there to write my first check as an angel investor.
I'll be honest. Walking into that room felt surreal.
These weren't just successful people. They were people who understood something I was just beginning to grasp.
The company we were investing in builds robots. Educational robots for schools.
During the meeting, the founder mentioned their plan to move into the CBSE syllabus.
Before he could even finish the sentence, one of the other founders interrupted.
"I can get you a meeting with the CBSE Board Member. Let me make a call."
Just like that.
Then another person spoke up.
"If you need to set up a meeting with anyone in San Francisco, California, I'm going there next month. I'll get it done."
No hesitation. No "let me think about it." Just immediate action.
Later that day, they mentioned meeting Sridhar Vembu.
Again, through the network.
Someone knew someone who knew someone.
And that's when it hit me.
For this company, the money we're putting in? That's just the entry ticket.
The real value these investors bring is access.
Access to people. Access to opportunities. Access to rooms that would otherwise stay locked.
This made me think about my own life.
How many of us contain ourselves to the same 3 friends we've known for years?
Don't get me wrong. Old friends are gold.
But if your circle never expands, your world stays the same size.
I realized I've been doing the same thing.
Comfortable. Safe. Familiar.
But sitting in that room showed me what's possible when you step beyond comfort.
The interesting part? I'm not just learning about investment by getting something.
I'm learning by giving.
By being on the other side of the table.
By putting my money where my curiosity is.
This feels like a privilege I didn't expect.
Most people learn about investing by reading books or taking courses.
I'm learning by actually doing it.
By watching how these experienced people think. How they ask questions. How they evaluate opportunities.
Every meeting is a masterclass I never signed up for but desperately needed.
While this was happening in my investor life, something else was brewing in my content world.
I had to shut down my old Instagram account.
Not going to get into the reasons here, but it happened.
My previous content? Mostly in Tamil.
My audience? Mostly from Tamil Nadu.
Nothing wrong with that. I'm proud of it.
But I always had this quiet dream of going global.
Of creating content that could reach someone in Chile. Or someone in California. Or someone in Singapore.
The old account kept me comfortable.
The new account? It's pushing me into the uncomfortable.
I'm creating content in English now.
Not perfect English. Not fancy English.
Growth happens outside the comfort zone.
If you haven't seen it yet, check out my recent video. It's different from anything I've done before.
The goal isn't just to rebuild numbers.
The goal is to build a global audience for whatever I'm creating next.
And I'm treating this like an experiment.
What works? What doesn't? What resonates across cultures?
Only one way to find out.
Speaking of experiments, I've been doing something for the past 12 days.
I've been tracking everything I do.
Every single thing.
From the time I wake up to the time I sleep.
What I eat. What I work on. Who I meet. How I feel.
Everything goes into a simple document.
Because I wanted to see if there were patterns I was missing.
It showed me patterns I didn't even know existed.
Like how I'm most creative in sometime.
These aren't life changing insights on their own.
But together? They're giving me a roadmap for next week.
I know exactly when to schedule deep work.
I know exactly when to take breaks.
It's like having a conversation with myself from the future.
So here's where I am right now.
Learning about investment by giving, not getting.
Building a global audience by stepping out of my comfort zone.
Understanding myself better by tracking everything.
These three things feel disconnected.
But they're not.
They're all about the same thing.
Expansion.
Expanding my network. Expanding my reach. Expanding my self awareness.
And the more I expand, the more I realize how small my world was before.
If you take one thing from this, let it be this:
Your world is only as big as the circles you draw around yourself.
See you next week.
-Agnel John D