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When You Try Too Hard to Sleep
During a consulting project at McKinsey, every Monday morning, I had to drive 2-3 hours from New Jersey to the client's office in Connecticut. One Sunday evening, when I went to bed, I barely had 6 hours left before my wake-up time. So I tried hard...
Recent Posts
Earn the Right to Advise
In 1994, when India's ex-PM Narasimha Rao addressed the US Congress, he told this story about Mahatma Gandhi: Once a lady came to Gandhiji and asked...
Mastering Skills: Focus and Deliberate Practice
There is nothing you can't get better at. But conditions apply. For any kind of learning, be it a physical or a mental skill, our neurons have to...
Accept your life ‘as is’
The hardest thing in life is not clearing tough exams, getting big-brand jobs, making money, or earning fame. All these are hard but they aren't the...
Master Skills, Embrace Advancement
This post is written by ChatGPT. Just kidding. But how did you react to that first sentence? With horror? Nobody wants to read a post written by...
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Question Everything
During my police training, our lathi charge training routine was absurd. On the instructor's count, like dance choreography, we would all swing the baton with the right hand while covering the belt buckle with the left hand. One day, somebody asked...
Clear Communication Through Iteration
Did the McKinsey consulting experience help me in my startup journey? The answer is complicated. Yet, one aspect did -- clear communication. In consulting, when you want to think clearly, you just open a PowerPoint deck and start writing. But to...
Success is an event and so is a failure
After June 12th, when the UPSC Prelims exam results came out, I received a bunch of emails from people who did not qualify. Many were dejected and called themselves 'a failure.' But what is failure really? Here are two ways to think about failure....
Rethinking Instant Response Culture
Employees responding instantly to your Slack messages is a fantastic thing. Just as the Rolls Royce is a fantastic car. There is only one problem -- the cost. If not, would we not all be driving a Rolls Royce? What is the cost-to-company of...