For more than a year, I have been wanting to learn AI and how LLMs work. But no matter how much I tried, nothing seemed to work. I would keep starting and stopping. But one day, I took a totally new approach, and within a few days, everything started making sense....
Category
2025
Categories
Why time management is dead (for high performers)
Imagine you are N. Chandrasekaran, Chairman of Tata Sons, tasked with doubling the value of a $300+ billion business empire. What’s your next move? Where would you even begin? Most certainly, your answer wouldn’t be to simply work 2 extra hours a day, going from 12...
Ice cream at midnight, dopamine all day – and why life is getting harder
When I was at IIT, our superhuman willpower was tested every day – in the dining halls of our mess. Every afternoon, the mess workers would clang down these giant vessels of rice on the table. Inside would be sitting big lumps of rice that had to be hammered with a...
I lost nearly all in my first startup, CourseBrew. But what I did next, cost me even more.
When I started my first startup, I thought I was being bold and visionary. And here was my plan: We would build a differentiated learning platform, raise a seed round in 6 months, and take off like a rocket ship. But three months later, the product wasn’t ready. Six...
1 McKinsey project, 2 weeks, and a life-long lesson
During my 1st year at McKinsey, I got staffed on a weird project. Our client, a New Jersey-based healthcare company, wanted to figure out whether to enter a seemingly attractive new line of business. And here was the funny thing – two senior folks from the company...
When deep focus becomes your quiet advantage
In 1994-95, during the placement season at IIT Kanpur, I desperately wanted a job at a company called Hughes Software Systems. Today, hardly anyone has heard of the company, but back then, it was a leader in computer networking -- a red hot area (almost like what AI...
Can stress help you achieve peak productivity?
In Aug 2009, when I quit McKinsey, I was on the verge of collapsing with stress. I needed a break, and hence, I joined an investment fund where life was completely chill. Suddenly, I had no more daily deadlines or hourly deliverables. I could finally breathe. I felt...
How I broke free from a 10-year rut (use it to change your life in 2025)
My 10 years of darkness In 2007, when I joined McKinsey as a consultant, outwardly, this was the peak of my life professionally. I had just gotten a job in New York that was a dream for most MBAs. Yet, I was struggling and literally in pain. My health was in shambles...
Subscribe to the HabitStrong newsletter
Rajan shares insights from his own life journey to help you build better habits in yours.