Iceland: The Land of Fire and Ice / January 2, 2018 by Aanarav Sareen

As Iceland continues to rise in popularity, there are no shortage of photos and videos that show you the stunning beauty of this nation of 300,000 people.

Having spent the last week in Iceland, I can only say this: I cannot wait to go back. It’s a country that is so beautiful that it feels out of this world.

After traveling to 30+ countries across 5 continents, I have yet to experience and capture anything similar to the magic of Iceland. It’s the land of delicious food, happy people, breathtaking landscapes, stunning auroras and incredible adventure.

We spent 6 nights in all different places driving from Reykjavik through Vik and to Jokulsarlon. Everyday was a different adventure and a new battle with the cold. But we left the country in pure awe of its raw beauty. One of the few reminders of what it feels like to experience this planet at its finest.

50 Hours on Airplanes / April 11, 2016 by Aanarav Sareen

It’s that time in my family - where people start getting married and move on to the next stage of their lives.

In March, one of my cousins was getting married in India. She lives in Singapore and flew there a week before the wedding. Her younger sister, was flying from Singapore on the same day that I was scheduled to land from New York.

In the interest of making the week as memorable as possible, I decided to do something crazy - swap my tickets that took me from New York to Abu Dhabi to Mumbai - a mere 16 hours on a plane to a ticket that had me flying from New York to San Fransisco to Tokyo to Hong Kong to Singapore and then finally to India - a trip that kept me in transit for nearly 50 hours, just so that I could surprise her on board.

Here’s the thing - I loved every second of it.

I’ve been flying for well over 25 years. Flights between New York to Los Angeles are second nature and 14 hour flights feel extremely familiar.

It helps to know the ins and outs of airline operations. It helps flying in first-class. It helps being comfortable in unknown surroundings.

Commercial aviation has become incredibly comfortable and for someone who still glares out the window for every take off and landing, it remains one of the very few places that is awe inspiring.

Climb on.

The Leap of Faith Principle / January 7, 2016 by Aanarav Sareen

Holidays are a great time to reflect on the past 12 months and anxiously plan for the next year. And if you're lucky enough to be in New York for the holidays, you realize how many people come to this city primarily to find a job or to visit. And then they leave - leaving the city beautifully empty and eerily different.

I was having drinks with a colleague of mine this week and we were discussing how our social networks consist of people who - when committed to an idea - follow through with immense passion and intense dedication. Everything around them not related to the idea fades away and they're focused on making it - the idea - a reality.

On the other hand, when we talk about this pursuit with outsiders, they're terrified of pursuing their ideas or in awe when others are courageous enough to follow through.

Taking this leap of faith is not easy by any means, but once you do it enough times, it becomes easier every subsequent time.

And despite the strenuous process of turning an idea to a product and then taking a company to market liquidity - it is the absolute core of how financial markets operate.

Whether you’re reading this on an iPhone, an iPad or even a computer - the device that you’re reading on is built by people who took that leap of faith. No one really needed computers back in the day and not too long ago, using a touch screen as your primary device was a crazy idea.

Same thing about launching a service that could only communicate in 140 characters or somehow finding all the world’s information via a simple text box.

All of those are created by people who took the leap of faith and changed the path of humanity.

It is that leap of faith that drives entrepreneurs and separates *billions* of people from chasing a dream.