By Kunwer Sachdev
I don’t know your name. But I know your heart.
You feel things too deeply. Your brain never stops. You get bored in class even when you try to pay attention. You have been called “sensitive,” “intense,” or simply “too much.”
Let me tell you something I wish someone had told me at your age: Nothing is wrong with you.
I was that child. I failed to memorize history. I got 49% in 12th standard. I repeated the year. Teachers told me I would become nothing. And yet — I built a company called Su-Kam. I taught myself electronics. I am learning AI at 63.
Here is what I want you to know.
1. Your sensitivity is not a weakness. It is your superpower.
You notice what others miss. You feel the mood of a room. You know when something is wrong before anyone says it. Sometimes — and this is hard to explain — you sense what will happen next.
For years, I hid my sensitivity. I built a mask. I acted like a daredevil who was afraid of nothing. But the sensitivity never left. It was always there, whispering the truth.
Now I know: that sensitivity is my intuition. It has saved me, guided me, and helped me see opportunities that others walked past.
Do not hide your soft heart. Protect it, yes. But do not be ashamed of it. It is your gift
2. Your hunger to learn will take you everywhere.
If you don’t learn something new and you feel empty — that is not a problem. That is your engine.
I used to hate history in school. Now I watch YouTube history series for hours. I read about World War 2. I study religious texts. Not because I have to — because I want to. At 63, I am learning about AI, studying new engines like Claude, and reading psychology to understand human behaviour.
My family thinks I am crazy. Maybe I am. But this hunger has given me everything. It made me teach myself electronics. It made me build a company from nothing. It made me the Inverter Man of India.
Feed your curiosity. Read what interests you, not just what is in the textbook. Follow the questions that keep you awake at night. That path will lead you to places no classroom can.
3. School grades do not measure your worth.
I was an average student. I failed to memorize dates and formulas. I got 49% when I needed 50% for medical college. That one percentage point changed my life.
For years, I carried shame. I thought the marks defined me.
They did not.
I cleared the toughest medical entrance exam easily — my rank was in the first 20s. The problem was not my intelligence. The problem was that no one told me I could apply for revaluation. I did not know the system. I was a government school boy with no guidance.
Do not let a number on a report card tell you who you are. You are not your percentage. You are your curiosity, your kindness, your stubbornness to keep going when the world says no.
4. You will find your people. They are looking for you too.
I used to hate parties. I would stand in a room full of people and feel completely alone — until I found someone like me. Someone who thinks deeply. Who asks real questions. Who does not just talk about the weather.
In school, I found Micky. In RSS, I found Rajiv and Arun. In college, I found Sanjeev. These friendships saved me. Their mothers fed me, welcomed me, treated me like I belonged.
You will find your people. They exist. Do not settle for shallow connections just to fit in. One deep conversation is worth a hundred empty ones.
5. You will never be fully satisfied with your work — and that is okay.
I have built a company. Created products that changed an industry. Trained thousands of people. And still — deep inside — I always feel I could have done better.
When I finish something, I don’t just see the result. I see the ghost of a better result. The version I almost reached. The improvement I noticed two minutes too late.
To others, it is excellent. To me, it is 70%.
This is not ingratitude. I am grateful for everything. But my mind always sees the gap between what I did and what I could have done.
Learning to live with that gap has been one of the hardest lessons of my life. My advice to you: celebrate completion. Say “this is good enough for now.” And then, if you want, reach for more tomorrow. But do not let the perfect become the enemy of the done.
6. Your brain that never stops — learn to live with it, not fight it.
I don’t know how to turn off my mind. Physical work does not help. Walking does not stop the thoughts. My brain keeps spinning, especially at night.
If I start thinking about something painful, I spiral. The same fear, the same memory, the same worry — over and over.
But when I am positive, I am very positive. I can work for hours, days, weeks on something I believe in. My energy is endless.
This intensity is not a disorder. It is giftedness. The same engine that exhausts you is the engine that creates, innovates, and sees what others miss.
You will not learn to “switch off.” But you can learn to redirect. Feed your mind with good things. Give it problems worth solving. And when the spiral comes, ride it out. It will pass.
7. Protect your heart from those who would use it.
Here is something no one told me about giftedness: you are easy to manipulate.
Because you are a problem-solver, you see every difficulty as something to fix. Including difficult people. You think: “If I just explain better, love harder, try more — they will understand.”
I learned this the hard way. I spent twenty years trying to fix someone who was not confused. She was strategic. And my trusting, problem-solving brain was her favorite target.
If you are in a relationship where you are always explaining, always defending, always tired — please consider that you are not the problem. You are not “too much.” You may simply be a gifted person trying to solve something that cannot be solved.
You deserve relationships that feel safe. Where you do not have to walk on eggshells. Where your sensitivity is honoured, not exploited.
8. You will fail. And you will get back up.
I have failed many times. The 49% that broke my heart. The medical college dream that died. Twenty years in a toxic marriage. A bankruptcy that crushed me.
After every defeat, I thought: This is the end.
But after every defeat, something better came. Not immediately. Not easily. But it came.
I do not know why. I call it God. You may call it luck, or fate, or simply the stubbornness to keep going. Whatever you call it — it is real.
Do not be afraid to fall. Be afraid of not getting back up.
One Last Thing
You are not broken. You are not “too much.” You are wired differently — and that difference is a gift.
The world will not always understand you. Your teachers may not see you. Your parents may not recognise your talent. Your friends may call you intense.
But you must understand yourself.
Be kind to your restless mind. Honor your sensitive heart. Follow your hunger for knowledge. Protect your softness without hardening into someone you are not.
And when you feel alone — remember that I was once that child too. The one who took apart radios to see where the songs came from. The one who won a drawing prize that no one celebrated. The one who was beaten for being curious.
I turned out okay. So will you.
With warmth and hope,
Kunwer Sachdev
Founder of Su-Kam & Su-Vastika | Lifelong learner | Gifted grown-up
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