“I’m a millionaire and I don’t know what to do with my life”: a millionaire is looking for ideas because money hasn’t brought him happiness

Some people think that you just need to have a checking account with a balance like a phone number to be happy. This is a fact confirmed by science. Others, on the other hand, cannot be happy with all the money in the world.

This is the case of Vinay Hiremath, a 34-year-old engineer of Indian origin based in the United States, who became a millionaire in a short time, but who does not know what to do with his life to be happy. So he didn’t hesitate to make his personal website public to see if anyone could give him ideas on what he could do with his life. “I know. This is an absolutely extraordinary situation“, wrote the millionaire.

A millionaire who has plenty of time

Vinay Hiremath co-founded the startup Loom in 2015 with Shahed Khan and Joe Thomas. The company has developed software for taking screenshots and videos in third-party applications. At its peak, the pandemic meant we all suddenly needed to record meetings and take screenshots of video calls, and the company’s valuation soared.

In 2023, Atlassian bought the company he founded for $975 million, of which $60 million will be paid to Vinay Hiremath as salary compensation for his departure.

After making the purchase official, the young millionaire finds himself with a fortune in his pocket and all the time in the world to spend it on things that make him happy. This is the first disappointment. “I have infinite freedom, but I don’t know what to do with itand honestly, I’m not the most optimistic person about life” Vinay Hiremath said on his blog.

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He spent the first few weeks meeting with entrepreneurs and robotics experts hoping to find an exciting idea to partner with and help it grow, as he had done with his own company a few years ago. earlier. In vain, because none of the proposals inspired him. “I started to realize that what I really wanted was to look like Elon [Musk]and it’s incredibly embarrassing. It pains me to write this“admitted the billionaire.

Since he didn’t know what to do with his money, he thought it would be a good idea to give a good portion of his fortune to his parents so they could retire early. He also tried to have fun by traveling the world, which he did with his girlfriend for six months. Unfortunately, that didn’t work either, and not only did it not bring meaning to Vinay Hiremath’s life, but he ended up breaking up with his girlfriend afterward.”two years of unconditional love“. “We started arguing frequently and I knew it wasn’t his fault, it was mine.“, he clarified.

What matters is not what you have, but what you do

After his breakup, the millionaire realized that nothing he did would make him feel fulfilled without an exercise in introspection: he had to “look each other in the face“.

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Starting the business had fulfilled him, and suddenly finding himself aimless disoriented him and deprived him of a life goal to pursue. Hoping to find himself, he went climbing in the Himalayas without prior preparation or experience. On the verge of hypoxia from lack of oxygen, he decided that his “inner self” would definitely not be found on the peaks of the Himalayas, so he came to his senses and returned home, but not before to have climbed two of the peaks of the Himalayas.

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I completed the two summits I had planned and I realized once again how important it is for me to do difficult things. It’s the heart of my life and I don’t 100% understand why, but it probably has something to do with the fact that I didn’t have the best childhood“, wrote the millionaire.

When he returned home and told his friends about the conclusions he had reached while hanging from a rappelling rope in the Himalayas, his friends joked that “I should work for Elon and Vivek to DOGE and help the United States emerge from the current crisis and default on its own debt. So I contacted a few people and they accepted me.

For a month, the billionaire spoke with the army of candidates to join the new “extra-governmental” department headed by Elon Musk. “I learned the power of urgency and having an undeniable mission. I didn’t read it somewhere, I lived it“.

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However, the millionaire also realized that he was not going to settle for this battle. “After four intense and exhilarating weeks, I canceled my plans to move to Washington and embarked on a journey to save our government with some of the smartest people I’ve ever met. And I only booked one ticket to Hawaii” said Mr. Hiremath.

Today, the millionaire has found a purpose: “lay the foundation of my fundamental principles and be able to create a business that makes real things“. After a journey into the wilds of the human condition, the engineer “learned to accept that I am happy to learn physics“It is not the one who has the most who is the richest, but the one who needs the least.

Article written in collaboration with our colleagues from Xataka.

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