Let Me Actually Introduce Myself

Welcome to Issue 007 of Decoded. Six issues in, and it occurred to me that most of you have only met one version of me - whichever account the algorithm handed you first. I just pinned a reel called My Story to the top of my Instagram grid that tries to close that gap in ninety seconds. If you haven’t seen it, go take the minute and a half. If you have, think of this as the longer cut - the version with room to explain it properly.

My story

Cricket wasn’t a hobby growing up - it was the entire plan. I was playing professionally for the UAE during my teens, and I moved to England on a scholarship as a teenager, close enough to a county academy contract at eighteen that I could feel it. I went to Loughborough University next for my undergraduate degree, still chasing it at the highest level university cricket offers. Then, at twenty, visa restrictions closed the door for good. Not a loss of form or talent - just paperwork that didn’t care how hard I’d worked. I didn’t know who I was without it for a while.

So I did the sensible next thing - a master’s at Ivey Business School in Canada, then management consulting at a Big 4 in Toronto. I want to be honest about that move: it was never the destination. I knew from day one it wasn’t my future. I just needed to understand how business actually worked before building something of my own.

Somewhere in those two years I picked up ‘The Art of Winning’ by my favourite Rugby player Dan Carter - a man who’d retired from rugby at the very top and admitted he felt completely lost afterwards too. That’s where the obsession properly started, not with rugby, but with how elite performers actually think, on the way up and long after the trophies stop coming.

Decoding Wisdom went live on the 7th of February 2025. By September, I’d left corporate after an amazing two years - no safety net, just belief this was the real thing. Not long after, my episode with IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe crossed 71,000 views, and I knew it was real. Since then I’ve sat across from Marcus Ericsson and Conor Daly, and gotten back to training like a professional again - talking about performance from the sidelines was never going to be enough for me.

Where you’ll find me

Most of you found me through one door, so here’s the full house. @sach.jha is high performance from lived experience - training, mindset, the honest behind-the-scenes of building this out. Decoding Wisdom is the long-form conversations - athletes, founders, and thinkers who’ve actually done the thing, talking properly about how. And @sachinthef1guy is F1 and IndyCar - race strategy and culture, explained by someone who knows the sport, not just recaps it.

If you haven’t watched My Story yet, it’s pinned at the top of @sach.jha - go take the ninety seconds. And if this newsletter is where you’re starting with me, welcome. There’s a lot more coming, starting next Tuesday.

That’s Issue 007 of Decoded. Glad you’re here for it.

If this landed, forward it to one person who needs to hear it. That’s how this grows - one reader at a time.

See you next Tuesday.

Cheers, Sachin.