Tushar Khatwani is a known content creator who makes his voice heard through various channels like podcasting, content creation, and social media handles. He also provides consultancy to startups and is a web3 enthusiast.
He was born into a middle-class family who was not extremely well off and moved to Ahmedabad at a young age. As a child, he was always intrigued by businesses and the art of making money. It motivated him to try out different business ventures. Let’s take a look at his journey!
Hey Tushar! It is a pleasure having you here with us today! You have been hustling right from a young age. Do you remember where it all started?
At eleven, I learned about financial literacy. Back then, my father prompted me to research the subject, and I came across a famous book called “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”. On getting it from a thrift store (five books for twenty rupees!), I spent days trying to make sense of it.
The majority of it is about real estate, but the only thing my 11-year-old brain could grasp was that money speaks. This changed my point of view drastically, and so at the age of eleven, I began selling pirated movies around my school to earn a bit of money. There was no turning back from then on, and I kept on trying different things.
Wow! That’s quite impressive for an eleven-year-old. Considering you were doing all of this at such a young age, how did it affect your childhood?
I was an introverted kid, an outcast right from the start. I never really had friends and was bullied for various reasons back then. I failed three subjects in my first semester in 2nd grade, which was pretty embarrassing. It was a disappointment to my father, so I vowed to study harder and eventually did become good at academics. Because of this, I never really got the chance to make friends. All my classmates hated me for being the new kid with good English.
Do you think the bullying was an added motivation for your hustle?
Not really. I never really wanted to prove anyone anything. Instead, I tried to forget all about it. And perhaps that is why money and finance were a welcomed distraction.
What other ventures did you pursue throughout your childhood?
When I was fourteen, I started a T-shirt printing children’s clothing company— after trying and failing in various other ventures. Somehow I had a good turnover in one month and a decent net profit. It was a massive accomplishment for me. I genuinely thought I would be doing that for a while.
But amidst hustling and running around to take orders, one day I just fainted because of overworking myself. My father then took it upon himself to lock me up in my room for a month straight. I then realized I had completely neglected my physical and mental health to chase money, but still, there was no stopping me.
Money is an excellent motivator, but your health should always come first! Did it ever cause you to look for a stable job, or were you satisfied while working in this field?
Even though the thought of having a stable job for the sake of my mental health was almost omnipresent, I did not feel that the desire was strong enough. Though I did take up a job, I left it four months later. It really did not work out well for me.
Since you have been a part of the content creation field for some while, what do you think people should know about this particular industry that they don’t already know?
I will like to say that all that glitters is not gold. This industry is very glamorous but, at the same time, ruthless. Things usually aren’t what they seem. Of course, not everything is fabricated, but what you see is only a part of the truth. To put it simply, you only know what you are shown.
There is a very famous quote, “If you’re not paying for the product, then you are the product.” And this applies very well to this particular industry.
Even though the field is brutal, content creation has thrived even more since covid. Is there any advice you would like to give to people who want to enter this field?
My only advice will be not to learn anything beforehand. On the other hand, learn things as you move forward. Learn on the job. There is no better teacher than experience.
Also, you should know your goal before you enter this field. Knowing your goals make it easier to work specifically to attain them without getting side-tracked by flashy stuff. And when you know what you are in for, learn only what would help you achieve your goal. It’ll save you ample time.
You will also need a lot of patience if you want to enter this field. Creating content is exhausting. It requires a lot of effort to generate a single video or post. So, you must keep this in mind before trying to become a content creator.
People say that in this industry, the shelf life is very short. If you get fame, it does not last long. Doesn’t it often lead to various mental health issues? How should we tackle them?
It does lead to a truckload of mental health issues, but so does engineering, medicine, or doing a business. After all, everything comes at a price.
Mental health issues had been common lately, yet people generally stay quiet about them. It is funny how people think that asking people not to be depressed will miraculously cure their depression. We need education around this topic, and talking about mental health issues should be normalized. This is the only way how we will be able to tackle them.
Do you feel scrutinized now you are posting about your life?
See, People will judge you. That is not something under your control. What I do is prepare myself for every possible scenario. And my overthinking skills help me a ton in this regard. At the same time, I try not to get affected by what people say.
What do you think about clout in content creation? Is every content planned out?
Let me bring you in on a secret. Much of the content that seems spontaneous is thoroughly planned out, every single word, to an extent. Teams work meticulously to create that perfect tweet that is bound to go viral. All the major trends are designed knowing that they will be blindly followed.
The basic idea is that if people don’t work tooth and nail to create content, it won’t sell. And it is a busy market out there. You’ll get replaced the moment you start losing followers. As I have already said, it is really brutal out there.
Thanks for some great insights. On the lighter side, what would it be if you had a genie and could make a wish?
It is a silly wish, but wouldn’t it be fantastic if you could possess the skill to learn anything under ten seconds? It will immensely simplify my life. Imagine what all you can do in the time that would be used to learn those extra skills.
That is interesting! Are there any following milestones that you are chasing in the coming years?
If I’m alive (which I hope to be :P), I see myself experimenting in the next five years. I believe in the 3 e’s of life, as I call them—explore, experiment, experience. If you are not experimenting, you are not growing. If the growth is stagnant, you will be bored of your life in no time.
Thank you for your time! It was wonderful having you here with us today!
From reading about financial literacy to delving into business and content creation, Tushar has come a long way on this journey. His talk about content creation is an excellent insight into this world, and his own journey is a wonderful motivation to have. It tells us that we don’t have to wait for “the right time” to start hustling. All we need to do is start and tackle things as they come. Thank you, Tushar, for this amazing experience! You can check out his Twitter handle here.