I told myself it steadied me — kept me sharp under pressure. What it actually did was quietly burn money, for decades.
It took me three attempts to finally quit. And when I sat down and did the honest arithmetic of what those cigarettes had cost me, the number stopped me cold. Had I simply redirected that daily spend into a steady investment, it would have grown past a Crore.
That one idea — the “Cigarette Fund” — became the heart of a small book I’ve just published. It isn’t a lecture. It’s the method that actually worked for me: how to break the craving, rebuild the willpower, and turn the money you were burning into the wealth you were owed.
If you’ve tried to quit and it hasn’t held — this is the approach I wish someone had handed me in 1984.
What would all those years of that daily spend have built for you?
Grab a Copy and see if you can kill Two birds with one stone. I did.
Available for Sale on Gumroad : How to Quit Smoking and Become a Millionaire https://lnkd.in/gMVT4qDw
I spent five years as an officer in the Indian Army. Then I took off the uniform and started again — from nothing.
With ₹1.5 lakh and no business background, I built what became the Chaque Jour Group: a bootstrapped, pan-India company in staffing and facility management that today turns over more than ₹150 crore and serves clients who have stayed with us for 10, 15, even 20 years.
I wasn't given any of it. I built it.
That phrase — built, not given — runs through everything I do now. After three decades of leading teams, closing deals, surviving downturns, and learning the hard way what separates the founders who last from the ones who fold, I've turned to what matters most to me at this stage of life: passing it on.
Today I mentor first-generation entrepreneurs and emerging leaders — not with theory from a textbook, but with what the Army and the market actually taught me: discipline, execution, resilience, and the composure to think clearly when everything is on fire. I also help professionals master something most leaders neglect — staying calm under pressure, through simple practices of breath and stillness.
I write for the same reason I mentor: knowledge shared is knowledge multiplied.
If you're building something — a business, a team, or a stronger version of yourself — you're in the right place. Let's build it. Not wait to be given it.
Capt. Shaji Kumar 