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The Secret of Confidence: Focus on What You Know
As a rookie consultant at McKinsey, before the final client presentation, I used to feel very jittery. No matter how much work I had done, there would be so many things we were not sure of -- what if the client asked about them? But the senior...
Recent Posts
Multitasking Is Not the Solution to Overload
Napoleon said, "Nothing is impossible." Well, he was wrong. Today, in the corporate world, many people are trying to solve the problem of overload...
You Can’t Pick Wins Without Accepting Losses
A friend once asked an insurance sales guy, "Don't you feel disappointed by so many rejections, every single day?" The guy said, "I have a 10% hit...
Are You a Slack Policeman or a Problem Solver?
Two decades ago, when I first saw traffic policemen at work, I did not realize that one day, entrepreneurs and business leaders would be behaving...
How to Truly Get Things Done
My favorite childhood author, Robert Louis Stevenson, reportedly burnt the first draft of his bestseller 'Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.'...
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Why Ambitious Plans Often Fail
Whenever my planning has failed, it is because I did it in "Rambo mode." During my student days, I would sometimes set ridiculous goals, e.g., "study for 18 hours a day, for the next 6 months!" But when I would start the execution, reality would...
To start a forest fire, it just takes a spark
I received this email from a young lady suffering from depression and severe weight gain, which is preventing her from socializing and living a normal life. She stays awake at night, sleeps during the day, and is addicted to junk food. She wants to...
Why Consensus Doesn’t Lead to Greatness
Long ago, during an evening stroll with a retired VC in New York (from Bessemer), I asked him, "What differentiated your best investments from the others? Could you have seen them coming?" He said, "My best investments were the ones where some team...
How Discipline Breaks Down
How does discipline break down? Answer: One exception at a time. But then, how can we be 100% consistent or never make exceptions? That it true -- we can't. However, the real problem is not the imperfection itself, but when we tell ourselves, 'This...