A few years ago, I was interviewing an expert physics teacher for my previous startup. And to any question I would ask, he would rattle off formulas like a machine gun. But I was not getting a sense that he really understood things. So I asked him, "Can you explain...

How do you achieve meditative focus? The answer lies with a neurotransmitter called norepinephrine, which controls the level of your brain arousal or alertness. At very low levels of norepinephrine, you feel drowsy or sleepy but at very high levels, you get agitated...

I have cracked the 'immortality serum' and you can take a sip. But there is a catch -- once you drink it, you HAVE to live forever. No matter how much you love or hate your life, you will have to continue living -- no escape. People around you will grow old, and one...

A few years ago, my Indian Police Service training boss, Shri Atul Karwal, told me the story of his commando training with India's elite National Security Guards (aka black cat commandos). When he, along with another batchmate of his, reported for the training, the...

Believe it or not, hard work can be counterproductive. And staying busy can be like morphine -- it numbs the pain of not knowing what to do in life or career. When we want to escape that pain of feeling lost, doing inconsequential things is very tempting. Alas, when...

Napoleon said, "Nothing is impossible." Well, he was wrong. Today, in the corporate world, many people are trying to solve the problem of overload by multitasking, because monotasking, apparently, isn't fast enough to get things done. Fair point. But if a plane won't...

A friend once asked an insurance sales guy, "Don't you feel disappointed by so many rejections, every single day?" The guy said, "I have a 10% hit rate. So every time I call someone and get rejected, I count it towards the 9 rejections I need to get to the 10th guy...

Two decades ago, when I first saw traffic policemen at work, I did not realize that one day, entrepreneurs and business leaders would be behaving exactly like them. Here is how. A traffic policeman’s job entails the following: 1. He has to be perpetually busy and if...

My favorite childhood author, Robert Louis Stevenson, reportedly burnt the first draft of his bestseller 'Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.' Here is why. When he showed the first draft to his wife, instead of showering praise, she was quite critical of it. It...

Whenever my planning has failed, it is because I did it in "Rambo mode." During my student days, I would sometimes set ridiculous goals, e.g., "study for 18 hours a day, for the next 6 months!" But when I would start the execution, reality would hit me and I would...

I received this email from a young lady suffering from depression and severe weight gain, which is preventing her from socializing and living a normal life. She stays awake at night, sleeps during the day, and is addicted to junk food. She wants to get out of this rut...

Long ago, during an evening stroll with a retired VC in New York (from Bessemer), I asked him, "What differentiated your best investments from the others? Could you have seen them coming?" He said, "My best investments were the ones where some team members disagreed,...

How does discipline break down? Answer: One exception at a time. But then, how can we be 100% consistent or never make exceptions? That it true -- we can't. However, the real problem is not the imperfection itself, but when we tell ourselves, 'This time, it is ok' --...

Last year, I lost three friends who passed away unexpectedly, including an ex-boss I was close to, whose passing made national news. When you lose friends, it is hard to accept that it is all over. With one of them (Amarnath Raja), I am still unable to accept that he...

As a consultant, I have helped companies cut costs. But 3-5 years later, many of these costs come right back up. In fact, most company initiatives work well for a while, and then, regress. The same thing happens to us individually -- we build new habits (e.g., start...