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Time-Wealth, Life Razors, and the Courage to Choose

By Nishant Mehta —

Over breakfast two weeks ago, a friend shared a season of endings and beginnings in their family. Their story wasn’t mine, but it nudged a truth I keep returning to: the only wealth that grows when you spend it is time.

I’ve built schools, led teams, launched a consultancy, and now I’m building AI frameworks that let two people do what I used to hire another five to do. Useful, sure. But the older I get, the more I optimize for time-wealth and agency over income and title. When I strip away the noise, my non-negotiables are simple:

  • Autonomy over optics.
  • Learn every day or step away.
  • Impact over reach. Scalability ≠ meaning.
  • Both/and identity. I’m Indian and American; Atlanta and Mumbai. I don’t need to pick a side—I have designed a rhythm.

Goals, Obstacles, and Golden Handcuffs

Professional life offers tidy lanes to impressive places that can, without due attention to one’s values, slip on the golden handcuffs. The comp is better and the brand shinier, but something inside goes quiet as priorities shift to others over oneself. Here’s the sentence that keeps me honest:

We are kept from our goal not by obstacles, but by a clear path to a lesser goal. - Robert Brault

When knowledge and intelligence are commodities, the human premium is wisdom—judgment, taste, context, nerve. If I can now deliver in hours what once took weeks, my value isn’t my time on task—it’s my discernment and time on relationship. That shifts what I accept and expect, how I work and team, and where I spend my attention.

Life razors

Sahil Bloom writes about time-wealth in his book, The Five Types of Wealth; his idea of a life razor resonates with me as I consider my own personal and career choices over the last two decades. A life razor is a simple rule that cuts through options so you can act:

  1. Controllable — I don’t need anyone’s permission.
  2. Contagious — It forces helpful consequences in work and relationships.
  3. Committed — I hold it long enough to let the ripples happen.

These are two examples of mine:

  • I spend at least 10-12 weeks a year in India. (I'm designing a bi-local life on purpose, not by accident.)
  • I say no to projects and relationships that are energy drainers. (Subtraction can be additive when it’s aligned with one’s own values. In recent months, I’ve scaled down Team MehtaCognition and our client list to only work with people and on projects that enable my learning and impact.)

Small on paper, huge in consequence. Set the razor; and the calendar, team and client mix, revenue model, and your own satisfaction will re-arrange themselves.

These are design choices. The point is refusing permanence of any external tactic or decision as the default. “For now” is a valid answer. “For this season” is too. An example: Every hire at MehtaCognition has heard the same refrain from me: I’m going to do this for as long as I enjoy it. The day that stops, or I find something more compelling, I will quit and close it down. 

Subtraction is a practice, not a purge

Additions are obvious; subtractions require courage and clarity. Choose now to remove one good thing that isn’t the right thing. A committee. A “quick coffee.” A client who loves the idea of change more than the work of it. It’s not dramatic. It’s maintenance—like trimming a sail before the wind shifts.

What I’m choosing (and not)

  • Keep the consultancy lean and high-margin, serving a tight slate of clients where we change systems, not just slide decks.
  • Productize judgment, not just content—“powered by” #MehtaModels that preserve voice, ethics, and data boundaries.
  • Stay people- and values-first. Outputs and clients change; principles don’t.
  • Default no to W-2 roles and hires that trade autonomy for optics.
  • Build a bi-local rhythm intentionally, not incidentally.

None of this is easy, but it’s alignment. I’m setting the guardrails so my future self doesn’t have to be braver than my present self.

Try this today (10-15 minutes)

  1. Write one life razor you can keep for 12 months. Make it controllable, contagious, committed.
  2. Name one subtraction for this Labor Day weekend. And remove it.
  3. Describe your time-wealth day in five lines. "What is a good day for you?" Then schedule at least one block of it next week.

You don’t have to blow up your life to live a truer one. You need a simple rule based in clear values and the courage to subtract. Time-wealth grows when we spend it on the people and places that give us back our own voice and agency.

If you’re wrestling with a decision and want to borrow my questions, then send me a note. I’m here to help you walk the one that’s already tugging at your sleeve.