2025

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...