You don’t have to give up doing great work to live a life that feels enjoyable.
I coach high performers on creating a life of ease, without sacrificing ambition.
Testimonials
My clients include people building startups backed by YC, a16z, Khosla Ventures, +more, and working at OpenAI, Tesla, McKinsey +more.
“Ambition amplifies everything: your drive, your dreams, and your breaking points. I was at one before I met Aatik. I ended up dealing with a lot of anxiety and clinical depression as I struggled to continue managing a team. I tried seeking support from mentors, therapists, and resources, but none came close to what Aatik has been able to do for me. Aatik has taught me how to live with uncertainty, to ask questions not out of anxiety but out of curiosity. I am back to building, with the same possibilities and ambition that once overwhelmed me now keeping me excited and feeling alive. I could list countless reasons why Aatik’s coaching is worth engaging in, but perhaps the most powerful praise is this simple truth: I have never walked away from talking to Aatik without (1) understanding myself better and (2) feeling more excited about life. That’s all I could ever ask for.“
— Mason W. (Founder & CTO)
“Aatik helped me develop my self-awareness from scratch by asking precise questions getting to the root of my struggle. He has a deep level of care, intentionality and curiosity in me and my journey that I’ve never experienced with other coaches. Coming out of our engagement, I underwent a substantial career transformation, this time rooted in my own definition of success.“
— Ankur B. (Founder & Engineer)
“Aatik has not only helped me become the best version of myself but also guided me to uncover my true values and align them with my career goals. Aatik helped me realize my over-optimization in my career was counterproductive. This changed everything for me. Since embracing this newfound clarity, I’ve been living every day with enjoyment, and I’ve been extremely productive as a result. It’s an incredible feeling.“
— Alec N. (Software Engineer)
“With Aatik’s guidance, I reclaimed my energy and channelled it into the projects I care about but have been putting off for years. Unlike most people, I felt like he was able to see through my lens. He genuinely listens and asks pinpoint questions that trigger reflection. My career which used to make me feel lost and anxious, feels exciting again. All this without compromising on my performance.”
— Shaan M. (Management Consultant)
“I was introduced to Aatik during a point in my life where I was facing major crossroads. Aatik helped me question myself and understand what my priorities are and what I want my focus to be. My mind was filled with extra noise like doubt and anxiety in me he helped cut through which gave me the clarity I needed. His insight and wisdom were transformative for me.”
— Isra K. (Academia)
“I found myself with an excitement for my sessions with Aatik and felt compelled to take action afterwards. He has a depth of experience as a meditator, which shows with how he created space for all the fear I was resisting or unaware of to rise to the surface. I was finally able to make big decisions in my career that used to feel confusing. Getting clear on what I need and want is an invaluable investment I would do over again. For now, I’m busy living fully, thanks to my work with Aatik.“
— Luke M. (Founder)
Engagement Structure
We begin with an intro call to test out what it might look like to work together, and to decide on the frequency of sessions and duration of our engagement.
I have a standard rate of $1,000/month, but am flexible based on your honest financial situation.
A coaching engagement includes:
- Coaching sessions;
- Asynchronous coaching between sessions.
Asynchronous coaching is entirely client-led; some clients engage frequently between sessions, others don’t use the async support and focus all their energy into our sessions.
The Coaching Practice
Thesis
Great work done with ease is achieved by subtraction, not addition.
When you simplify your life and remove the noise, your thoughts become clear.
When your thoughts become clear, the right experiments reveal themselves.
When you run high-leverage experiments with full self-awareness, reflection creates iteration, and iteration creates momentum.
A flywheel takes place:
Less noise → clearer thinking → stronger experiments → deeper understanding → more enjoyable life.
Approach
- I create an environment that brings your wisest self to the surface of our conversations together in order to provide you with the answers that already reside within you.
- I show up with equal parts compassion and intensity. I care to deeply understand you while simultaneously holding you to the high standard you set for yourself.
- My coaching serves a “third door” to most coaching offerings which exist in extremes: either solely maximizing career performance, or recovering from the damage of pursuing work one-dimensionally. I offer an approach that doesn’t involve brute force nor escape, and instead integrates the various parts of yourself, producing value greater than the sum of its parts.
Core Principles
My work is rooted in the following principles, which have emerged directly from my work with clients:
Addition by Subtraction.
The path becomes obvious when the unnecessary is removed. By stripping away noise, obligation, and excess ambition, you create the conditions for clarity, ease, and high-leverage action.
The Answers You Seek Reside in the Present.
True insight comes from what you feel and observe now, not from projections or imagined futures. Presence reveals information the intellect alone cannot access.
Excitement Is the Compass.
Your energy knows before your mind does. What feels genuinely exciting points toward alignment, authenticity, and the actions most likely to compound.
There Is No Problem.
Most “problems” dissolve when you stop resisting reality. When seen clearly, obstacles become data, guidance, or irrelevant altogether.
Believe in What Enables You.
Your beliefs are levers that expand or restrict your agency. Choose interpretations that increase possibility rather than reinforce limitation.
There Is No Ground Truth.
Searching for the correct answer or right path to take leads one astray and stuck in inaction. The best option is contextual and subjective. Focus on what is true to you.
It Is Selfless to Be Selfish.
By honoring your own needs, boundaries, and desires, you become more grounded, more honest, and more available for others. Clean self-regard creates cleaner relationships.
Purity of Motivation.
Actions rooted in fear or compensation distort outcomes. Actions rooted in desire, clarity, and truth compound into integrity and impact.
Life Is a Series of Experimentation & Iteration.
Progress comes from running small, meaningful tests and learning quickly from what each one reveals. Certainty is earned through iteration, not prediction.
Identity Is Dynamic.
You are not a fixed personality but an evolving system. Letting your identity update allows you to respond with flexibility, accuracy, and honesty as circumstances change.
The Ego Is Not the Enemy, It Is a (Dumb) Friend.
The ego tries to protect you with outdated logic. Instead of suppressing it, guide it. Teach it to support who you’re becoming rather than who you used to be.
Why Aatik?
I honour each unique chapter in my life, proven by my track record of intentional pivots over the past decade.
I’ve left high-status careers to focus on one that makes me the best version of myself, to maximize joy but also to maximize my service for others. I’ve taken pay cuts to teach in public schools and coach incarcerated Indigenous people to reintegrate into society. I then took my craft to the highest level, only to take an 8-month sabbatical once my first child was born to focus on the most important thing.
I embody what I share in my coaching.
I first unlearn self-limiting beliefs and stories through meditation. Then I formulate hypotheses based on my attunement to what’s going on inside of me and what reality is demanding of me in this current chapter. I run experiments (take actions) and iterate (gather insights) on each experiment, leading me to a life that is authentic to m and is aligned to my current circumstances.
I’ve dedicated my past decade to cultivating the most precious resource of our time: attention.
As any good student does, I’ve not only studied meditation and philosophy for the last ten years, I’ve applied my knowledge every single day: original Stoic texts (mostly Seneca), tons of East Asian philosophy (Krishnamurti, Buddha, Suzuki, Trungpa), and integrated modern teachers’ tools from the likes of Tim Ferriss, Byron Katie, and Julia Cameron, among others. I’m now here to share what I’ve painstakingly curated during my adulthood thus far.