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Mind Over Matter
During my stint as a consultant with McKinsey, late nights were the norm. However, after a lot of generalist work, to pursue my passion for finance, I opted for a 3-month rotation with a Corporate Finance specialist group in New York. This new...
Recent Posts
Importance of living the life
One evening in 2008, in our small two-bedroom house in New Jersey, standing on the staircase with a colorful plastic ball, my daughter asked me,...
Speed is useless, direction is important
Some of us are checking Slack/Microsoft Teams every 5 minutes to 'stay on top of things'. How about an occasional break to get to the 'bottom of...
Technique for finishing multiple tasks
Lately, I have started loving deadlines. Sounds crazy, I know. But let me tell you why. As the activity level at my startup (HabitStrong) has gone...
Hardening our mind to take decision
Whenever I go running in the morning, I face two choices - run on the road OR in a stadium. With Trivandrum’s undulating terrain, road running can...
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Focus on one thing at a time
If you have to shoot two birds in the sky, what should you do? If you try to shoot both at the same time, you will shoot in the middle and miss both. The right answer is obvious: Shoot one by one. But if you focus on one of them, won't the other...
Are you learning daily?
A McKinsey colleague once told me a funny yet sad story of this old lady working at a client company. He had to meet her a few times with some data requests. Since she used to always appear busy and overworked, he asked her what her job was. Turns...
A lesson in focus from the army
Here is a powerful lesson in focus and getting things done, from an age-old army tactic - 'bayonet-charge'. During a bayonet charge, army units are trained to scream their war cry like maniacs. Why is that? Because if they attacked silently, the...
Read this before jumping into entrepreneurship
Before you quit your job and become an entrepreneur to earn untold riches, please read this story. In the early 2000s, when I was serving as the Trivandrum Police Commissioner, my office staff one day asked me, 'Sir, can we send our office jeep to...