AHTSIAHM ASIF TANTRAY
I'M A HUSTLER
Yoooo!
Hey, I’m Ahtisham Asif Tantray, and I’m 16 years old.
I’m a high school student exploring multiple paths — an
entrepreneur,
stock market investor, positional trader,
blogger,
and content creator focused on finance and entrepreneurship.
I once founded Sk8Soul®, India’s first fully customizable lifestyle
brand.
It didn’t go as planned, but that experience taught me more than any book ever could. Failure
didn’t stop me;
it redirected me.
Right now, I’m working on multiple ideas, testing, failing, fixing, and trying
again.
I genuinely enjoy building things from scratch and figuring out how the world works.
My mission is ambitious: millionaire by 20, billionaire by 25,
and one day in the Forbes Top 100.
At the core of everything I do: make life easier through innovation.
That means simplifying complex topics or creating products that solve real problems.
I’m also a tech geek—I love exploring how systems work, testing new tools,
and understanding the logic behind technology.
And when the world sleeps, you’ll probably find me gaming late at night.
WORK
Things I’ve built / building, experimented with, or learned from.
Sk8Soul®
Founded India’s first fully customizable lifestyle brand that allowed users to design what they wore through hassle-free customization. The venture was eventually shut down.
- Learned about e-commerce model
- Designed user-friendly 2D customization platform
- Digested entrepreneurship is super-hard
Face2Face
Building a social platform designed to systematize debates by allowing users to post opinions and receive structured contradictions, and other users vote whose statement is valid.
- Identified flaws in current social media discourse
- Designing debate-first interaction model
- Learning product thinking & platform incentives
Eazy Wiki
Building a platform where students post what they’ve learned in simple, easy-to-grasp language. The goal is to help peers revise faster and reinforce the writer’s own understanding.
- Designing a user-friendly interface for student contributors
- Encouraging simplicity and clarity in content
- Learning content moderation, engagement, and educational product design
Kaizen Productive
Co-founded Kaizen Productive, a productivity-focused building app aimed at helping users track tasks and habits effectively. I left the project before launch due to differences with a co-founder.
- Designed core app features and user flow
- Learned early-stage startup dynamics and founder collaboration challenges
- Gained experience in product design and roadmap planning
DPS TV
Co-founded DPS TV, a student-led social media content platform covering day-to-day school affairs, informative videos, and podcasts. I later exited the project.
- Learned content creation, distribution, and audience engagement
- Discovered founding-team should be cohesive
- Experienced any idea can be launched within a week
MY PHILOSOPHY
I believe in the stuff that opposes the mainstream beliefs. My "Philosophy" is contrarian.
SCHOOLS ARE USELESS
Schools were a necessity during the Industrial Age, when society needed disciplined workers for
factories. That era effectively ended in 1989, when the Berlin Wall
fell. We now live in the Information Age, where almost anything
can
be learned freely, interactively, and at one’s own pace, making traditional schooling largely
irrelevant today.
Knowledge taught under compulsion obtains no real hold in the mind. Learning
sticks when it is interactive, hands-on, and engaging, almost like playing a game. When
curiosity
drives learning, understanding becomes natural. Schools ignore this and rely on force,
repetition, and fear inside four classroom walls.
Schools punish mistakes, even though mistakes are the foundation of real
learning. Growth never comes from getting everything right; it comes from failing,
experimenting, and correcting. Instead of nurturing this process, schools suppress it.
They push students through an assembly-line system, grade by grade, treating
humans like standardized units rather than individuals. Everyone is forced to be a
jack of all trades, instead of building a monopoly in one
skill
where real value is created. This constant competition destroys creativity instead of
encouraging it.
Peer pressure literally fucks students. It creates fear, insecurity, and the
need to fit in, rather than the courage to think independently. Curiosity is treated as a
distraction, not an asset.
Instead of teaching how to think, schools teach how to follow rules and
obey authority. That’s why one simple principle matters more than any
syllabus: don’t let your education interfere with your schooling.
FINANCIAL LITERACY MATTERS
Money buys you time, and time buys you freedom.
And freedom is what ultimately leads to a happier, more intentional life.
As society progresses, money becomes an essential part of our day-to-day lives.
The more advanced the economy gets, the more deeply money integrates into how we live,
work, learn, and make decisions.
Freedom means flexibility, the power to choose what you do, when you do it,
and with whom you do it. It allows you to walk away from situations that drain you and move
toward the ones that align with your values. That level of control over life is one of the
strongest determinants of happiness.
To do well in life, you need the currency that supports it,
and that currency is money. Ignoring money doesn’t make you virtuous,
it makes you dependent on those who understand it better than you do.
When people say “money can’t buy happiness”, be cautious.
That statement is not a universal truth, it is an opinion.
Money itself is not happiness, but it is a multiplier.
It expands choices, opportunities, and freedom. Without it, your options shrink,
and life starts being decided for you instead of by you.
The reason most people don’t even know what financial education is,
is because schools never teach it. Not even in an MBA. That’s why you’ve
certainly seen MBA graduates working as employees
rather than employers.
The difference between you and me is simple: You chase the education that everyone
follows. I chase the education that supports life.
RELIGION IS AN ILLUSION
People tend to believe whatever the public believes. As Nietzsche said,
“Madness is rare in individuals, but in groups, nations, and ages, it is the
rule.”
Individuals can think, but in groups they often react, emotionally, instinctively,
without questioning. And that’s a problem.
We are human beings. We have the ability to break any statement down into smaller
parts,
question each part independently, and reason from first principles aka
Critical Thinking.
Yet most people avoid doing this because thinking independently is
uncomfortable.
Fear of judgment, fear of being wrong keeps people aligned with the
crowd.
As a result, we often accept absurd ideas without demanding a solid
foundation of
proof.
Most religions, in fact I’d say all religions, do not encourage
scrutiny.
They place a full stop at the end of belief and tell people to stop there.
Don’t question further. That mindset directly contradicts the nature of the
human mind,
which is wired to question, explore, and understand.
I am more drawn toward physics, logic, and rational thinking
than blindly following the crowd.
I might be wrong, and I’m okay with that,
because I’m following my own reasoning, not the crowd.
To me, that is more satisfying than being “right” simply because everyone else agrees.
And this matters: no one in this world is crazy.
Every person has their own reasons for believing what they believe.
Understanding that doesn’t mean accepting everything, it means respecting
everyone's conclusions even if they differ.
What matters more is: thinking independently.
MY LEARNING STACK
Tools, frameworks, and methods I use to learn, think, and improve.
FIRST PRINCIPLES
I break problems to their fundamental truths and reason up from there instead of just scratching the surface.
MENTAL MODELS
Our brain works on models. The more models my brain has; the more powerful it becomes. I muster up fundamentals from different disciplines, and let the "lattice work of mental models" begin.
OVERCONFIDENCE
Overconfidence is the belief that anything is possible. I’m overconfident because I operate from that belief.
POWER LAW
The world is governed by Power Law — a small number of causes produce majority of the results. In life, most of the things don't matter; only a few things matter... a lot.
COMPOUNDING
Small inputs overtime produce disproportionate outputs which a human brain can't comprehend. I start small with patience, and see the magic happen.
NO ONE IS CRAZY
Every human action, belief, or opinion is not inherently wrong. Even a thief or a criminal is not crazy. I can be right from my perspective, but from someone else’s, I might be wrong.
DUE DILIGENCE
I never act blindly on someone else's suggestion. I do my due diligence i.e the homework to identify which statement is a fact, or an opinion. I act on facts, not on opinions.
SIMPLICITY
I always aim for clear, minimal, and elegant solutions instead of overcomplicating. Simplicty is the ultimate sophistication.
EXPERIMENTATION
I test ideas in small steps, learn from results, and iterate quickly without fear of failure. "Kaizen" is a japanese philosophy, which means: start imperfect, and improve over time.
WHO INSPIRES ME
People whose work, mindset, beliefs I personally like, follow, and learn from.
ELON MUSK
Elon taught me to break problems to the core, work super-hard, and aim for things most people think are impossible.
STEVE JOBS
Steve’s obsession with perfection, thinking differently, blending art with science, and keeping things radically simple are priceless lessons.
MARK ZUCKERBERG
Zuck starting Facebook from his college dorm room and turning it into something used by billions today really inspires me.
PETER THIEL
This guy is a rebel. Thiel’s zero-to-one thinking, rejection of conventional beliefs, and proof that anyone can build a next-gen company really inspires me.
ROBERT KIYOSAKI
Robert's books changed how I see money and life. Without him, I’d probably be chasing grades and stuck in the rat race.
BILL GATES
Bill Gates made computers truly personal by betting early on software and playing the long game. That long-term clarity is what I admire.
WARREN BUFFET
Warren Buffett is the living example of compounding — the 8th wonder of the world. He showed what compounding can do with both money and knowledge over time.
RITESH AGARWAL
Born middle-class, Ritesh Agarwal became India’s youngest self-made billionaire. He proved that background doesn’t decide how far you can go.
JEFF BEZOS
Jeff Bezos transformed how the world shops. His obsession with customer experience and convenience is what I commend.
SAM ALTMAN
Sam is building the infrastructure for the next computing era, and his lessons from leading Y Combinator still stick with me.
DEEPINDER GOYAL
Deepinder taught me that noticing small details and staying observant can make all the difference.
HENRY FORD
Henry Ford changed the automobile industry without ever finishing high school. He proved academic credentials don’t define your potential.
MY FAVORITES
The things I love and can’t live without.
RICH DAD POOR DAD
Rich don't work for money.
ELON MUSK
Let's conquer Mars.
WARREN BUFFET
Guru of stock market.
OpenAI + SpaceX
Both are building the future.
FINANCE + COMPUTER SCIENCE
I love understanding them.
DANCING IN THE FLAMES
Feels like entering new world.
THE WEEKND
Micheal Jackson of this era.
BILLION DOLLAR CODE
Raw entrepreneurial vibes.
SUPA STRIKAS
Power of team work.
FERN
Most underrated Youtuber.
MENTAL MODELS
Latticework of mental models.
PROGRAMMING
You become the creator.
SPEED CUBING
I solve a rubiks cube under 20 secs.
USA, CALIFORNIA
Tech-hub of the world.
MINECRAFT
Fun playing with friends.
RICH DAD POOR DAD
Rich don't work for money.
ELON MUSK
Let's conquer Mars.
WARREN BUFFET
Guru of stock market.
OpenAI + SpaceX
Both are building the future.
FINANCE + COMPUTER SCIENCE
I love understanding them.
DANCING IN THE FLAMES
Feels like entering new world.
THE WEEKND
Micheal Jackson of this era.
BILLION DOLLAR CODE
Raw entrepreneurial vibes.
SUPA STRIKAS
Power of team work.
FERN
Most underrated Youtuber.
MENTAL MODELS
Latticework of mental models.
PROGRAMMING
You become the creator.
SPEED CUBING
I solve a rubiks cube under 20 secs.
USA, CALIFORNIA
Tech-hub of the world.
MINECRAFT
Fun playing with friends.