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Build focus and Reclaim your time
Here is an easy tip for building focus and reclaiming your time. Whenever you are working, keep your phone outside your arm’s reach. To grab your phone, you should have to get up. Here is why this works. We check our apps to escape boredom and...
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Motivation
Motivation is never the problem -- ever. The problem is something else. And here is how I know. When I was determined to clear the Civil Services, I...
Unicorns
Last month, I had a traumatic experience -- I tried to book a cab. I was in this unfamiliar city of Rajkot, and who wants to talk to a taxi company...
Risk of failure
The best book has not been written. The best ad campaign has not been created. The best painting has not been painted. But who will write the next...
Ego
One of the most humiliating moments of my life came in 2008, on a day when nobody humiliated me -- I did it to myself. At that time, I was working...
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Catastrophize
In 2004, I walked into Mumbai’s Oberoi Hotel for my Wharton MBA admissions interview. I was nervous but once the interview started I got into flow. The interview was smooth, and I had no idea how time flew by until the interviewer thanked me,...
Rewrite the story
In 2004, I realized that my life-story was going wrong. I had joined the Indian Police Service expecting massive challenge and excitement. And the first five years delivered exactly that -- it was like a dream, despite the ups and downs. Yet, after...
Leadership
During my Civil Services training in Mussoorie, an IAS officer conducting a class once asked us, “What are officer-like qualities?” Soon we rattled off a barrage of heroic qualities: Integrity, courage, vision, persuasion, eloquence, teamwork......
Determination
The MBA at Wharton turned my life into a one-pointed quest: Find a summer internship. At any cost. When you are an international student with zero bank balance, do you really have a choice? Further, two things made my desperation worse: 1. Nobody...