Mohamed Zubair - Life Sucks. Get Used To It.: NOT a Self-Help Book. But Might Change your Life.

Notion Press

Old No. 38, New No. 6

McNichols Road, Chetpet

Chennai - 600 031

First Published by Notion Press 2019

Copyright Mohamed Zubair 2019

All Rights Reserved.

eISBN 978-1-64650-582-1

This book has been published with all efforts taken to make the material error-free after the consent of the author. However, the author and the publisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause.

While every effort has been made to avoid any mistake or omission, this publication is being sold on the condition and understanding that neither the author nor the publishers or printers would be liable in any manner to any person by reason of any mistake or omission in this publication or for any action taken or omitted to be taken or advice rendered or accepted on the basis of this work. For any defect in printing or binding the publishers will be liable only to replace the defective copy by another copy of this work then available.

Dedication

Dedicated to the most important person in my life: Myself.

(Because self-love is the best kind of love.)

Acknowledgements

Thank you, Dad , for being the first to understand my struggles with mental health & helping me in my journey towards a better place, mentally.

Thank you, Mom , for always believing in me, especially on the days I did not believe in myself.

Thank you to my sister , for being the most badass woman I know and for always having my back.

Thank you Sanna Monga , my constant friend, for being there for me, when Im difficult to be around.

Thank you to the Indian Education System for turning me into a sarcastic idiot with a questionable sense of humour.

Table of Contents

Preface

The only things my father ever bought me without saying, well think about it for the first 7 times, were books.

Its a trait very often found in Desi parents. Buying a Playstation or a new phone is out of question, but spending beyond means on books and educational courses is definitely on the cards.

Fiction was my literary material of choice, but in typical self-proclaimed parental wisdom , my father would advise me to buy a fair share of self-help books in the hope that I would find some fucking direction in life.

By the time I was 15, I had read over 500 books, and a significant number of them were in the self-help genre. But even after a thorough introspection and several attempts at putting theory into action, I found myself back to square one. Most self-help books work as a concept, but the moment you try to put these concepts to work, youll realise its easier said than done.

In the age of social media and eBooks, self-help gurus or, as I like to call them- Peddlers of false hope, have found a much larger outlet to coax an even larger audience into believing a false narrative!

Here are some titbits of fortune cookie wisdom you might have read in self-help books:

If you visualise your success, youll eventually achieve it.

You only need to work 4 hours a week to achieve financial freedom.

Or my favourite lie of them all:

Happiness can be permanently achieved if you only tweak the way you think.

Most of these are half-truths, quarter-truths or even, blatant lies. The job of a self-help guru is to sell their ideology.

Ask yourself this: does a salesman ever lie to sell his/her product?

The answer, as you may already know, is, more often than not, they do.

Look, I dont have a problem with motivational speakers, self-help writers or life coaching gurus. If you are having issues in your life, by all means, consult somebody or go see a therapist . In fact, I highly recommend that you do. Find someone with more experience than you, and ask them to help yourself set achievable goals (kind of like a life coach but minus the false hope crap).

My issue is with the bullshit that is automatically associated with the narrative of a good life and how modest changes can lead to a happily ever after.

You see, the easiest thing to sell in this world is hope.

Every year, one of the largest lotteries in the world called the Powerball takes place in America.

In 2019, a Powerball winner named Manuel Franco won a massive $768.4 million in prize money from the Powerball Jackpot. Absolutely insane!

Imagine winning $768 million!

Or actually, you know what?

Dont imagine it , because your chances of winning the Powerball Jackpot are only 1 in 292 million.

Read that again: 1 in two hundred and ninety-two million!

Here is a list of things more likely to happen than you winning the lottery

Youre literally much more likely to be killed by an asteroid falling from the sky than winning the Powerball Jackpot. But, does that stop people from hoping to win?

Absolutely not. Nearly 371 million Powerball tickets were sold in 2016 for the biggest draw!

Its not a bad thing to live with hope. In fact, as I will discuss later in this book, hope is one of the prime emotions that drives human beings in their daily lives. But, we must learn to manage expectations, and more importantly, we must not believe things, just because theyre tempting you to believe . You cannot live without hope, but false hope has never saved a life.

The first step to solving any problem is admitting that there is one. Hence, my goal with this book is 3 fold:

One final thing before you start: you might be wondering, what qualifies me to write a book of this nature?

My promise to you for this entire book is singular that I will not lie to you one bit. This will be an absolutely honest, sometimes brutal, and debatably cynical outlook of my experiences.

I do not have all the answers. Fuck, no ! If I did, my life would be close to perfect, which it definitely is not.

But I want to put across a culmination of all the knowledge Ive picked up from years of reading and research (searching for the RIGHT MATERIAL & talking to the right people), my experiences as an investor while trying to achieve financial freedom, conclusions from my time spent in the corporate world, and my understanding of human psychology, derived from real-world incidents.

Its time to give rise to a new breed of self-help gurus and a new breed of self-help literature . One that is not afraid to tell the truth. The readers who serve as the audience have matured enough to accept the real story, and as a writer, I feel we owe it to them.

The best way to read this book would be to take your time in finishing it. Often, we read things for the sake of reading them. Give yourself a while, let the thoughts in this book resonate with you. Take a breather, have a walk, and feel free to discuss what youve read here with the people who matter to you.