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Overcoming perfectionism
Procrastination is NOT laziness. And unless we understand this, we can't fix our procrastination problem. We procrastinate when we don't know how to handle the negative emotions generated by a task (e.g., anxiety). We then avoid working on a task...
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Reality and Ego
Years ago, I was at an evening get-together at the house of a senior IPS officer. At that time, as a relatively junior IPS officer, I was heading a...
Healthy body
Every time I go for a run, the uphill stretches of Trivandrum roads remind me what raw agony feels like 🙂 Yet, when I see people taking a gentle...
Shifting Priorities
Earlier, the headlines grabbing our eyeballs would be, “ABC topped the IITJEE” or “XYZ topped the IAS exam.” Nowadays, the more popular headline is,...
Magic inside you
Three years ago, I met this ex-software engineer who returned from the US to take up a nondescript admin job at a private college in Karnataka. He...
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Realities of life
Years ago, I hired a journalist (a sub-editor) from India’s top-notch English newspaper to write blog articles for a startup I was then running. That newspaper was so reputed that I did not even test his knowledge of writing -- that would have been...
Lost in Jargon
During my stint with a private equity fund, I once got into a hot debate with a colleague about a loss-making company we owned. He was suggesting that this company launch a new product line. I asked him, “Why launch one more product line when the...
Micromanaging
Once a good friend of mine at McKinsey was assigned a young analyst for his team. For some reason, my friend was quite unhappy with the analyst’s performance. One day, while I was sitting in his room, I overheard him giving feedback to the analyst....
Trigonometry and Honesty
Today I am going to give you two examinations, one in Trigonometry and another on Honesty. I hope you will pass them both, but if you must fail one, let it be Trigonometry, for there are many good people in this world today who cannot pass an...