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Welcome to the Fiction Emailer: A newsletter that aims to make sense of our chaotic world through the lens of ‘Speculative Journalism & Fiction’ by rayaan_writer. Find here long-form essays and interviews that will help you think clearer, read sharper, write better, and look forward to an optimistic future. Visit my site to know more.
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Quick Note on Today’s Edition: This essay is about a 6-minute YouTube video titled "I Interviewed 500 Millionaire Founders. These 3 Traits Matter". Watching this, I remembered four mentors who helped me without keeping score. It's also the honest story behind why I’m finally building a lead magnet for this newsletter.
In Chamber of Secrets, Albus Dumbledore tells Harry Potter: "Help shall always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it." This is a quote my brothers and I often tell each other; asking for help from the right person with a sense of grace and humility, and hoping you give it back to someone else in return, in time. Looking at the larger picture now as a writer, I think often about what seeking and offering help means, and how it can function as a northern star as I build my newsletter and ghostwriting business.
The Right Way To Offer Time & Mind?
I came across a Hampton Founders' YouTube video by entrepreneur Sam Parr, titled "I Interviewed 500 Millionaire Founders. These 3 Traits Matter". The 6-minute explainer categorises the types of people on how they ask or offer help.
Matchers keep a scorecard. They help you based on how much you've helped them.
Takers take as much as they can and don't offer anything in return.
Givers come in two sub-categories. The first type struggle to say no. They say yes to everything and get burned out by offering help to takers, who thrive on taking and being pessimistic. Then there are the successful Givers, who give generously but carry a sharp sense of judgment about who actually deserves their time and attention. My take is that these are people with a heightened virtue system: strong integrity, discipline, and optimism, who are often looking at leaving a legacy.
The Friends and Mentors Who Grow by Giving
In my work life, I have been lucky to know people who lead by helping. They have a strong instinct for where their time belongs, and a genuine willingness to share what they know, asking for nothing in return. This has shaped how I think about giving and building.
H R Venkatesh, now working with IJNet, told me that protecting his energy is what makes it possible to give it so freely. He is deliberate about where he shows up, and when he does, he is fully present. I always bombard Venkatesh with a million messages via WhatsApp about everything under the sun: journalism, writing, entrepreneurship, business ideas, relationships, and more, and he always gets back.
Alan Soon and Rishad Patel of Splice Media: When I got into the Young India Fellowship at Ashoka, I was still short of 30 per cent of my funding. Alan and Rishad offered this financial support without hesitation and without expectation. The Splice community is proof of what that culture quietly accumulates into over time: a network of media entrepreneurs who help each other because this was modelled by the founders. Their Slack group is a testament too as I often see members from all over the world sharing and helping in whatever way they can.
Jeremy Caplan, Director of Teaching at the Craig Newmark J-School: Jeremy runs the Wonder Tools newsletter and has consistently shared tools, tips, and resources with me. I have been lucky to attend some of his workshops too, and have had the privilege of sound-boarding newsletter ideas and more across dozens of conversations over the years.
Why I Decided to Bring Out Seven Years of Writing Wisdom in This Lead Magnet
When I watched the Hampton Founders' video, I immediately thought of these people. Venkatesh, Alan, Rishad, and Jeremy. All of them fit the ‘Giver’ archetype Sam Parr describes: warmly available but never hasty with where they show up.
I noticed the same pattern in the online writers and newsletter creators whose work I'd followed for years: Nicolas Cole, David Perell, Dickie Bush, Pat Walls, to name a few. They share an enormous amount of their content for free because that is genuinely how they think about building. It made sense why they're successful. Giving (generosity), done with judgment and discipline, compounds.
After nearly three years in Delhi, I returned to Chennai a few months ago and quickly found myself back in conversation with former friends. Many of them have been asking about writing for different medium: Newsletters and LinkedIn. Sharing what I learned at Ashoka and through the people I met along the way has felt natural and genuinely exciting. That energy is what pushed me to finally start building: a lead magnet.
As a mechanical engineering student who pivoted to writing, I grew up reading free resources by creators I admire on how to build a career as a writer.
Just as Dumbledore said, "Help shall always be given to those who ask for it", I am keeping my lead magnet a curated reading list for anyone who wants to write their way to a better work life.
I tested an early version as a small workshop with friends from Ashoka, and the response was enough to convince me it was worth making properly.
Watch this space as I tweak, tinker, and sculpt the lead magnet so that it finds exactly the right person it should help. Stay tuned!
And that’s all for today!
Did you like reading this edition? Should I do better? Please don’t hesitate to offer me your feedback. I am open to ideas and suggestions.
Feel free to reach me at [email protected] or you can simply reply to this email or comment below. See you soon! 😊❤️
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