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Focus on Your Own Journey, Not Someone Else’s
In a high-rise office building in New York, I was once looking across the street at the next skyscraper, craning my neck. And I felt so 'low down'! But when I looked down (I was probably on the 30th floor or higher), the cars on the street looked...
Recent Posts
The Hidden Truth Behind Motivational Content Online
I was once recording a video talk for a TED-like online platform. When I was preparing the script, the organizer asked, "Can you insert some...
Learned Helplessness: Why Good People Help Us Break Free
During my policing career, when interacting with very poor people, I would often notice an attitude of helplessness and resignation. Life had...
How Elimination Reveals What Truly Matters
A partner at McKinsey once told me about a massive cost-cutting project at a company that used to operate very lavishly. For example, on every...
Why Deep Change Feels Invisible – Until It Transforms You
8 months after trying out another gym, I went back to my old gym recently. And I saw a familiar-looking guy, who used to be overweight and flabby....
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Why True Confidence Comes from Hands-On Experience
When you first hold a rifle, shooting seems so easy -- just align the gun's foresight, backsight, and the target, and pull the trigger. But there is a challenge! Your eye is like a camera that can focus only at one distance at a time. So when you...
There Is No Single Mold for Success
A few years ago, I was at IIT Kanpur to give a talk. And the speaker before me was a brilliant entrepreneur, who had built a billion-dollar company from scratch, AFTER his retirement. And while this gentleman was talking, the students started...
How to Overcome Nervousness Through Exposure
Anyone can walk on a one-foot-wide path. But if it was a beam jutting out from a building's 100th floor, you would collapse before taking even one step. Why? In some sense, the task is exactly the same. But our peripheral vision can see the steep...
The Power of Problem-Solving Under Pressure
During my consulting days, whenever we felt unclear about what to do next, my panic would start rising. And my instinct would always be to push harder and churn out a few more slides. But thankfully, we would pause, go to the whiteboard, and do a...