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Escape the Urgency Trap
Conventional wisdom says: Prioritize tasks that are urgent AND important. No -- this advice isn't good enough. If something is urgent and important, it is called 'firefighting.' And firefighting destroys peace of mind. So you should be asking: How...
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Focused Work
Last Friday, I figured that 24 hrs was not enough for me – there was way too much to do. So I ran this experiment: 1. I picked a priority task...
The joy of lifelong learning
I started my MBA 10 years after completing my B Tech. And since most of my classmates were much younger, I felt a bit like a dinosaur (in a...
Poor corporate governance
At the private equity fund where I last worked, in about half the investments where we lost money, the culprit was fraud by the promoters (i.e.,...
Commitment of Leadership
For all practical purposes, my first job out of college was to head the Trivandrum City Police as its Commissioner. Prior to that, I had only...
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Overcome envy
Envy is an amazing thing. I never envy the British Queen, who has inherited this massive fortune and privilege without having worked for it for even a day. Yet, if our classmates get ahead and do really well in life, we feel a tinge of envy. And...
Freedom
When I left my last job to do a startup, a new reality hit me – no more Car Club pickups, business class flights, expensive hotels, or unlimited travel budget. On the next flight, when I walked into the economy section, it felt a bit weird. But...
Conviction
In early 2009, I attended a townhall at McKinsey. This was just a few months after Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy, and the US was still in the midst of a horrible recession. The partners running the meeting assured us that all was well – in fact,...
Conventional Wisdom
In the 2nd year of my MBA at Wharton, I asked a finance professor for advice on landing a job with a private equity fund. When he learned that I had only worked as a cop, he told me bluntly – “With your background, it will be very difficult.” I was...