I spent my formative years in military school in India. It wasn't a choice I made — it was a decision my parents made, and at the time, I didn't understand it. But looking back, it shaped almost everything about how I operate.
What military school teaches you
Discipline is a foundation, not a constraint. When you wake up at 5 AM every day, make your bed to inspection standards, and follow a structured schedule, discipline stops feeling like a burden. It becomes the foundation that everything else is built on.
Independence comes from necessity. When you're away from home at a young age, you learn to figure things out for yourself. You learn to solve your own problems, manage your own time, and take responsibility for your own outcomes.
Showing up matters more than talent. The students who succeeded weren't always the most talented. They were the ones who showed up consistently — who did the work even when it was hard, boring, or thankless.
Resilience is built through difficulty. You don't develop resilience by avoiding hard things. You develop it by going through hard things and coming out the other side. Military school provided plenty of those experiences.
How it shaped my worldview
Growing up in Bihar and attending military school gave me a particular lens on the world. I saw the gap between potential and opportunity. I saw how infrastructure — or the lack of it — shapes what's possible for people. And I developed a deep respect for execution, for the people who actually build things in difficult conditions.
These experiences are part of why I'm drawn to building companies in the physical world. The problems are hard, the conditions are messy, and success requires showing up every day and doing the work.
A personal note.