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Is Consulting the Best Training Ground for Future CEOs?
Is consulting the best training ground for future CEOs? I think the answer is complicated. Consultants are very good at getting to quick first-cut answers, without boiling the ocean. And that's an incredibly valuable skill for any business leader,...
Recent Posts
The Highest ROI I Ever Got From Writing One Page
When I applied for my MBA, my monthly government salary was comparable to one day's cost of my MBA. But thankfully, that year, Wharton constituted a...
Why Most Business Problems Are Not Analytical Problems
Before my MBA, I used to think that business "problem solving" was about analytical thinking. But during my consulting days, and then as an...
Why Entrepreneurship Makes No Financial Sense
In a VC finance course at Wharton, our professor said, "On a risk-adjusted basis, becoming an entrepreneur does not make financial sense -- you are...
The Costly Startup Lesson That No MBA Teaches
When I launched my first startup, we urgently needed some cash to keep the company alive. So I roped in a world-renowned expert to conduct a pretty...
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The Real Meaning of Consistency in Habit Building
If you fail in building habits, the most likely culprit will be a misunderstanding of what consistency really is. We think that consistency is like a mathematical straight line -- for the next 50 years, you should do the same thing in precisely the...
The Invisible Currency That Makes Teams—and Markets—Work
When I was first exposed to the trading floor of a global bank (as a consultant), I learned about a curious phenomenon. Traders would sell or buy very complex securities worth tens of millions over a phone call and there was no proof of the deal...
Don’t Let 3 AM Donkeys Define Your Work Ethic
When I started my policing career, a fellow officer heading another police unit started working in office till 3 am! He would come home, have dinner, and then again push off to work. Whenever we had review meetings with our boss, he would flaunt...
The Conspiracy of Silence Around High-Paying but Torturous Jobs
After my MBA, whenever I met my classmates in New York, the way they described their jobs (especially in investment banking), it sounded like a house of horrors. Some were getting 24 hours of sleep -- per week! And when people around you are so...