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Why Short-Format Videos Hijack Your Brain
During one of my travels, sitting next to me was a college youngster who furiously swiped through hundreds of short format videos in a very short time -- I am surprised his thumb did not break! Of course, there is nothing wrong with some...
Recent Posts
Leadership: Learn by Doing
In a leadership course at Wharton, the professor would ask, "What qualities should a good leader have?" Some student would say, "Vision." The...
Anxiety: The Silent Productivity Killer
The biggest killer of productivity is not laziness -- it is anxiety. You can have the greatest productivity software, but if you are anxious, you...
Focus on What Matters: Don’t Just Polish Furniture
On the D-day of a consulting engagement at McKinsey, the team thrilled the client with a proposal to cut millions of dollars in cost. But the senior...
Don’t Wait for the Lottery
We think we want money. But what we really want is for our days to be happy and joyful. We want to love the work we do. We want good relationships....
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Doing vs. Telling
Most professors teaching leadership in B-schools have never been in the hot seat or held leadership roles. Most consultants advising companies have never worked in business roles (I was one of them). Most people mentoring startups have never done...
Expertise Behind the Ease
Years ago, I was involved in organizing the National Games in Trivandrum, where two people did a skydiving demo for the opening ceremony. In this insanely dangerous stunt, these parajumpers were to land in a stadium, inside a busy city. And once...
Patience and Readiness
In 2008, I had a lunch-cum-job interview with a very successful New York-based fund manager, who had made hundreds of millions of dollars from investing. I asked him, "What has been the hardest part of your job?" He said, "There was a time when for...
Rethinking Deadlines: Prioritize Quality, Not Urgency
A friend of mine was once interning with a major Wall Street bank. One day, on a Friday evening, his boss asked him to make a presentation and share it by Sunday, ensuring that his weekend was ruined. My friend did not understand the urgency but...