The Lie of Average Life (And How 90 Days in Hell Set Me Free)

Backstory: From Grand Resolutions to Rock Bottom

I started 2025 with great resolutions: a portfolio of X amount with this much bitcoin, this much gold, and this much equity. I would have a startup that would build multiple web applications. I would have a lean body with good muscle mass, a 10 SGPA in my 6th semester of university, and a great remote job if the startup route didn’t work out. A good personal brand with 20k X followers and 20k LinkedIn followers so that I could promote my products.

The whole year went by, and till September, my two biggest wins were only that I got a 2-month internship at a big MNC and I won 2nd place in a hackathon. I scored 9.17 in that sixth semester and got some viral posts here and there on both X and LinkedIn.

Now this may still sound like an average win, but here’s what you don’t know about.

I was pretty much depressed like every uni student. I gave multiple interviews so that I could get an offer and stop my father from asking what was happening with my employment and future. I was ready to just get any offer to stop questions from everyone about why I was still unemployed.

My college friends and environment were also really bad when it reached the placement season. The backstabbing, the wins, the jealousy, the losses, and the time waste. I wanted to leave that fucking place immediately. I hated it every second of that average misery.

The thing was that I loved to build products, and I hated big MNCs because I was afraid of being lost in a big firm and living a mediocre life in it trying to switch companies or just going through the industry standard route of 10-30% increments, living till 60-70, and then after retirement wondering where all of my time went.

Now you might think that I want to escape the matrix, lmao.

But let me tell you that I am aware that I might not achieve my goals, which are bigger than one can comprehend. I don’t want to tell them yet until I reach that point and get leverage to build my dream brick by brick.

So October came, and I saw that multiple people were starting what’s called “Winter Arc.” I knew about this term since 2020, and I had locked in multiple times in previous years. And I realized that I still had not reached my goals of the year, and I should lock tf in again.

So I fucking did, but the issue was that it took me a month to convince myself and accept that being perceived as weird is okay for my life to get the growth that I deserved.

I wrote an article when it wasn’t mainstream on X. Basically, I made a better, non-sloppy version of Winter Arc:

https://x.com/TanayVasishtha/status/1984332332300714405?s=20

You will get my mindset here in more details.

The 90 Days in Hell: Pushing Through the Fire

There is a quote by Winston Churchill:

“If you are going through hell, keep going. Why would you stop in hell?”

He was a bad, ruthless mfer, but still gave this gem of a thought.

I took this quote to heart and worked towards achieving more than what I could think of.

Yes, this was the main idea of my challenge: challenging myself to think that I can do whatever the fuck I want, I can achieve whatever the fuck I want, and there is no one stopping me.

My goals were simple: run 5km every day, building and launching SaaS, studying 8 hours every day, leaving all the vices, getting out of a mediocre environment and making a new environment my bitch, doubling my portfolio, and investing aggressively in S&P and then investing aggressively in S&Me.

Everything was intertwined with each other to my body, my soul, my goals, and my survival.

And it’s crazy that I almost did everything.

But these 90 days were nothing more than hell. I got fever. I got in fights. I got in truces. I got again in addiction cycles of vices and much more.

You know, the thing is that when you force yourself to not do multiple things at once, you also need that much willpower to stop yourself from doing those things.

Let’s say you want to leave multiple bad addictions at once you will need double the willpower to do so.

Every vice and every bad situation in your life is connected to each other.

You may not realize this, but when you do one bad thing, let’s say eating chips, then the probability becomes even higher that you might drink Coke as well.

That’s why it’s difficult to leave vices. It was the hardest part of my journey.

Another part was leaving the city in which I spent my 4 years of university life. You leave everything behind for the unsure future. It’s scary af.

But it was necessary because I was walking on the wrong path of being the best in the average. I don’t want that.

I got my shit together and applied to great startup companies where there is less corporate culture shit, good pay, remote option, etc. After multiple attempts, I got one, and I thank myself for going through that because it propelled me forward in an insane manner.

In December, in just one fucking month, I had a job offer. In one month, I was ahead because of this challenge. In one month, I left my vices. In one month, I ran 155kms. I built some extensions, got some users, posted articles, started my Medium and Substack.

But then I was again at my lowest because I was leaving my comfort zone a new city, a new house, and leaving behind countless memories and experiences with an uncertain future.

After two months, on January 1, I got my first paycheck. I was happy again. I enjoyed. I posted. I gifted some to my parents and my gf, but then I got in despair again.

I am always in search of a big win, but as usual, a paycheck this big. I mean, some dream of this paycheck but I was not happy.

You know why?

Because I realized that I was again going into a comfort zone. Because of my job, I forgot my dream of building something of my fucking own. The job gave me temporary satisfaction, but I don’t need satisfaction I need peace with my future self, which is thanking me for taking risks and taking asymmetric bets.

NO, STUPID, I DIDN’T LEAVE MY JOB.

I got my shit together and crafted my 2026 year resolutions.

In December, I gave my 7th semester main exams, and in January, I got a 10 SGPA which checked one more of my 2025 resolutions. And then, with one paycheck and some more sources of income, I doubled my portfolio.

Key Realizations: Escaping the Trap of Average

I believe that life should be all about taking asymmetric risks.

I was afraid of being average so much that I was in constant fear of failure.

And this failure, which was all imaginary, clouded my judgment and my mind.

Everything you’ve been told about being average has been a lie.

I realized that you can be average (for some time), but if you take asymmetric risks which have low loss and huge upside, it can propel you forward.

Society teaches fear of being average but never defines what “average” actually means.

A stable job, a partner, one kid, and maybe a pet.

But here’s the real truth I learned through my own fucking hell:

That checklist society gives you? The Tates of the world, the gurus of the world give you?

It’s a goddamn trap.

I had the job offer, the paycheck, the 10 SGPA, doubled portfolio, viral posts, new city, new environment. Most people would kill for that by 22. But I was still miserable because I realized something terrifying

I was building someone else’s version of success while my real dreams were dying on the backburner.

The fear of being average isn’t about the stable job or the paycheck.

It’s about waking up at 35, 45, 55 realizing you spent your prime years playing it safe instead of betting on yourself.

It’s about having the skills to build but taking the safe corporate increment instead.

It’s about having the discipline to run 155km in a month but using that same discipline to climb someone else’s ladder instead of your own empire.

My 2026 isn’t about checking boxes. It’s about stacking asymmetric bets.

The real winter arc isn’t 90 days of grind. It’s 90 days of calculated recklessness.

It’s applying to startups while hating corporate culture. It’s building SaaS while taking internship interviews. It’s posting your failures on X while everyone is chasing viral wins. It’s keeping the safety net while sawing through it.

I escaped being the best in average by embracing being average at the things that don’t matter to me.

Average isn’t the enemy. Comfort disguised as progress is.

That first paycheck felt like winning until I realized it was just buying me time to stay comfortable. The 10 SGPA felt like victory until I saw it was just validation from a system I want to escape.

So here’s my real resolution for 2026:

Every single month, I will take ONE asymmetric bet that scares the shit out of me.

For example: One bet where the downside is losing 20 hours and $200, but the upside is $10k MRR.

One bet where I risk looking stupid to my followers but gain clarity on what actually moves the needle.

Because here’s the secret no one tells you:

The people who escape average aren’t fearless.

They’re just willing to be disappointed 99 times to get that 1 insane win.

They’re not living without fear, they’re living IN SPITE of fear.

And that’s the difference between satisfaction and the peace that comes from knowing you bet on yourself.

You can have the job, the paycheck, the grades, the followers. But if you’re not taking the bets that could 100x your life, you’re just cosplaying as someone who’s winning.

I’m done cosplaying. 2026 is for building the escape velocity.

Everything you’ve been told about being average was a lie. But everything you’ve been told about escaping it through safe incremental progress? That’s an even bigger lie.

The only way out is asymmetric bets. The only way to peace is betting on the vision only you can see.

Watch me build it. Or watch me fail trying. Either way, I won’t wake up at 40 wondering “what if.”

Thanks for changing my life for the best.

Thanks to all for being with me for 90 days straight. You were with me when no one believed me and thought that I would most certainly fail.

~ Tanay Vasishtha