To Do or To Undo
ctrl
z why limit the window of opportunity
command z eve took the apple
did we learn from it fruitfully is that
sinning
because to me reliving is the opposite
of winning
there’s always more boundaries for me to
cross in my next inning
more rules to learn or to simply not
follow
but losing continues to be the hardest
thing to swallow but why erase your
mistakes
when you can embrace these bittersweet
lessons but not in distaste
because to replace the past would be
simply untrue
so my only question today is why to undo
and now that you’ve met shah rule i’d
like you to meet
rahu nam to sono hoga
so for those of you who don’t know who i
am
i’m the guy at the end of galliboy who
lost
to ranveer singh in the rap battle i
heard that
now you see what i do
i’m a rapper i’m a music producer an
audio engineer
a foodie a nomad and a romantic
i was born in hong kong grew up in
moscow russia studied in london and for
the last five years
i’ve lived in mumbai chasing the dream a
dream that i’ve had from the age of 13
to be able to record and perform my own
original music
professionally at the highest level now
living in a modern day digital world
where the control z
and command z button is our go to safety
net
i feel that our real life undo buttons
hides within our perfectionist
tendencies be it our need to take
extra precautions when making any little
decision
and when a mistake is made or wrong is
done we beat ourselves up
endlessly desperately wishing we could
undo
what’s already in the past now
i’m a perfect example of having these
qualities trying to be a superman within
my workspace
micromanaging every part of the way and
when one part
falls short i put myself in the hot seat
to blame
however i’ve had multiple moments of
magic
within my journey which have taught me
the benefits of having what i call
the no undo rule so 2015 i’m in london
i’m one year out of a degree in audio
engineering
and by then i had eight years worth of
recording and performing experience
under my belt
young and still infatuated with my
dreams
from the age of 13. i was quickly hit
with thoughts of giving up
after facing tons
of denial and an oversaturated market
of audio engineers which was my backup
and knocking on an unpenetratable
music industry door so
i had to find other ways of making money
through music tutoring
and music production you could find me
in the back of an advertisement as an
extra sometimes
but my parents who had always been a
very supportive
factor in my career and journey they
always encouraged me to try things out
in bollywood
now i ignorantly shut down every
conversation
because i had this magic belief that one
day i would make it in the western world
and things would just go off you know
but in the back of my mind i knew my
chances were slim
so i gave myself an ultimatum one album
six months all in nothing full
power for six months i wrote
recorded mixed mastered produced
shot a music video planned a launch
party
and because i wanted my music to be
heard at the highest level
i found a way to get my music video on
two of the biggest hip-hop platforms at
the time
world star hip-hop in the us and link up
tv in the uk
so come release day which i conveniently
planned to be on my birthday
my birthday present was a hard-hitting
tidal wave
of hateful and racist comments
and at the time i was already dealing
with depression
and now fell lower than ever
what i’d realized is that i was ignoring
the fact that maybe
my music wasn’t good enough or the fact
that maybe my music
didn’t fit that specific market the
western market
so i had to ask myself all these
questions but i realized one thing
even though i’d given myself an
ultimatum me asking myself these
questions
meant i wasn’t ready to give up so i
accepted my failure in that moment
the video was done except in my failure
but i didn’t take it as career defeat
and i took the advice of my parents
and decided to try a different market in
mumbai
bollywood and i can proudly say
it was definitely the best decision i’ve
ever made in my life and without that
very brief
dark moment in my life i wouldn’t be
standing here
in front of you today now i want to talk
about the
the main factors of the no undo rule
that brought me to this point
one i was fearless from the moment i
started that album
all the way through to me getting those
results
i was fearless two i made myself aware
what were the factors that led me to
such results
and i made myself aware what were the
solutions
what’s next and third
have i had fortitude now for those of
you who don’t know what 42 means
it means to have to be courageous during
difficult times
so i was courageous enough to make a
life-changing decision despite me
feeling ashamed or being in a moment of
embarrassment and in darkness
i was able to build the courage and make
a life-changing decision
now a person a big famous figure in my
life
within music who’s inspired me endlessly
is mr kanye west and
kanye west also i know to be the most
fearless man
within the music industry also as a
phrase
which i live by now after these moments
memories have to be our most painful
blessing
now what i didn’t realize that very dark
period in my life the most
embarrassing moment within my music
journey in london
ended up being my most painful blessing
and in life it’s very important to
cherish
these painful blessings and stamp them
in your memory
for lessons of the future
so what i’ve come to realize in recent
years
there is actually one undo button
at a leisure but it is one that is very
hard to push
now since my name is shah ru and i make
the rules
no really i make the rules and don’t
worry you won’t find that i’ve undo
that from the internet my next rule
completely opposite from the no undo
rule
if you haven’t guessed it yet it’s
called the undo rule
now the undo rule stems from reaching
any level of success
and once you reach this level of success
it’s a very high chance
you can get comfortable and your drive
can hit a little plateau
and the only way to move forward and
grow is to
undo certain ways of thinking which
might be holding you back
now i’m sure you’ve all heard this in
the form of nothing great comes from
staying within your comfort zone
so 2016 june brace yourself for another
amazing gemini season story i’m exactly
one year
away from my most painful blessing from
london
and i’m now eight months into living in
mumbai
my entitled nri ac hopping attitude has
fully wore
off by now and by then i realized
besides the commercial mainstream
monster that is bollywood
i realized there was a huge independent
music scene all over india
which also included an up-and-coming rap
community
now i took all measures of my no undo
rule
to get to work i was networking and
being seen in every event
i made friends and uh convinced
every promoter and every dj to give them
give me the mic no matter
what the setting was and as a branding
plus
i was around my nani my grandmother so
much i found my inner cindy senses fully
bloomed
that every time i left the house i was
covered in more gold chains
the liberace buppy larry and mr t
combined
but they were linking road quality i was
an up and coming rapper
i’ve upgraded since
so you could say i was genuinely happy
with where my life was heading
and career and i got a little taste of
recognition in mumbai
and my drive hit a little plateau
so one day i get a call from a dj friend
of mine
he’s like yo yo sharu what’s up that’s
the way he talks
yo shahru what’s up tonight
i’m performing at anil kapoor’s
daughter’s birthday party
do you want to come hang out with me at
the dj booth
and let’s party and right away the
comfort zone devil on my shoulder
spoke to me no
there’s no way you’re gonna go to this
party
especially not being invited or
personally hired to perform at
because by then by now you’ve performed
at every live music venue in the three
mile radius of bandra
for free so i had an ego for no reason
at all
and last minute my no under rule kicked
in
and i decided let’s be fearless i
decided you know what let’s go to this
party
not to just enjoy the open bar which i
did of course
but i grabbed my microphone i grabbed my
usb
filled it up with some commercial
hip-hop medleys
that i could perform at the party and i
headed to the party
with hopes of using this as an
opportunity to wow the a-listers
of b-town so i reached the party to a
few familiar faces
but i get an unwanted stare from
okay maybe i shouldn’t say her full name
but her name starts with
r and ends with ia kapoor
and it was her sister’s birthday and i
was technically crashing
so fast forward a few hours into the
party everyone’s lit
everyone’s going in and i found my
moment i take my mic
i convinced my friend let me take over
the music for a little bit
i plug in and within moments i got the
place turning up
and by 12 o’clock i was singing happy
birthday
to sonam kapoor with her standing next
to me
and every camera phone in the room was
taking a video of us
now you don’t have to clap yes it gets
better
so the next day i wake up
and i find myself on every bollywood
blog every major bollywood blog
maybe my name wasn’t there but i was in
the video
so when i look back at that night in
retrospect
i don’t look at it as a major stepping
stone in my career
it didn’t do much like opportunity-wise
i didn’t started touring at all the
celebrity birthday parties
but the lesson that i learned
to undo the negative thoughts which hang
on the imaginary comfort zone walls
to break them down and tackle any
kind of opportunity and reach
some moment of magic sometimes
opportunities
might end up with nothing but you never
know if you don’t try
so another person that i look up to
and has brought up brought a lot of
wisdom and guidance to my life
is mr tony robbins and a quote that he
has
that is based off a belief from
generations
is that the meeting of preparation
with opportunity generates the offspring
we call luck
now in that specific birthday party of
sonam kapoor’s
i was presented with the opportunity to
attend even though i made myself feel
like i was crashing
i came prepared with my usb and my
microphone and then i got lucky
now if i did if i did listen to the
comfort zone devil on my shoulder
that one time who knows how many other
moments of luck
i would have missed out on and i would
have continued
to stay within the imaginary walls of my
comfort zone
and i would have not grown because that
same lesson
has helped me break down barriers
and turn the smallest of opportunities
into a career
now a big moment in my career recently
made me realize
the aftermath of both success and
failure
can be very short-lived now
there was a grueling one-year waiting
time between me being onset with ranveer
singh
and the actual release of gully boy now
in that time i had to be patient of
course
but i worked like crazy to make sure i
had enough mileage
so that when the movie came out i had
some sort of name
so come release date amazing reviews
great box office numbers but just weeks
later i find myself asking
what next now this is the same question
i asked myself
in 2015 when my video had failed in
london
what next because win or lose
you have to move on with life a big loss
may have you starting from a lower point
but a big win may have you starting and
feeling
internally obligated to aim higher and
win bigger every time
because no matter what in life you’re
only as good as your last performance
now to sum up the few key experiences
that i’ve shared with you today and a
few thoughts
the one thing that i feel
that can get you through both highs and
lows in your life
is having gratitude and having gratitude
is probably one thing that every
successful person on the globe swears by
it’s not something you can turn on or
order off amazon prime
it’s an internal gratitude muscle that
you have to build every day
and train yourself
to be fully grateful for every moment
and thankful for every lesson now on
that note
my next thought which i’m very grateful
for which i know my
generation z and fellow millennials will
love
is to listen to your parents and elders
as much as possible
now your parents and elders may not
fully understand
what you’re going through and you may
not understand what they’re saying
half the time but your parents and
elders are
are have lived hundreds of more moments
of wanting to undo
than you have had now i know we live in
the most connected
and informative time of the human race
but there are just some answers you
can’t get from google
and your parents and elders are sitting
on a gold mine
worth of knowledge and experience dig
through their thoughts and advice
because it just might help you shine and
i’m very grateful
that it helped me shine lastly
i think we can leave the control z and
command z thought process
in the digital world where it belongs at
our fingertips
and in real life we can adopt a control
s
a control save thought process
so we can stamp in our most painful
blessings
and keep them so we can use them as
references
down the line whenever we need them in
the future
so we can ultimately save our lessons
save our mistakes because one day they
can truly become your savior
thank you very much my name is shah rule