Rajan’s Linkedin posts

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 focus your eyes on...

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 clapping -- not because...

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 fall awaiting us. So...

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Stop planning, start doing

I have seen people adopt two distinct approaches when they want to start meditating: Approach 1: Sit down and meditate. Approach 2: Research lots and lots of meditation techniques (and do nothing). In fact, this holds for everything in life. If you want to do...

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Tips to regulate social media usage

You don't have to quit all social media, though some people I admire (e.g., Cal Newport) are big proponents of that. In the last few years, almost all my new friends, running buddies, and connections have come from LinkedIn. Without that, I would have missed out on...

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Victory is born in our mind, so is defeat

You must have heard a lot of wisdom along the lines of, "Here is what you should do in your 20s." Often, one hears things like: Learn aggressively, try things you are scared of, make mistakes Build relationships and network Explore ideas that seem interesting Have fun...

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The power of simple finance

A Wharton professor, who taught us valuation, once told this story of Merton Miller, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics for his work on the Miller-Modigliani theorem. At that time, our professor was a student at the University of Chicago, where Miller was also...

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Have a beginner’s mind

I once was interviewing a professional investor who invests in power plants and infrastructure. But when I asked him "What is 1 kilowatt-hour?" he had no idea. Many people swim in the shallows. They make do by talking about high-level stuff, without really...

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Do what will give you peace of mind

We hear two extreme philosophies of life. One says, "Spend less, own less, and be minimalistic. The other says, "Live it up, enjoy the luxuries, and have fun." So what should you do? While there can't be a prescriptive answer, let me lay out a framework to think about...

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Train your people to build focus

In this deafening clamor of notifications, pings, and rings, do you know the one thing nobody cares about? You. And your attention, your well-being. Nobody cares about your attention because you can always work late nights and get work done. Then why bother? We have...

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How to rise up the leadership ladder

If you want to rapidly rise up the leadership ladder, these are the things to do: Don’t wait for people to tell you what to do. Identify problems or areas where can you contribute and then offer specific help. Take responsibility, even if small ones – and deliver....

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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 even when we know...

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Job-Hopping vs. Staying Long-Term

At an investment fund I worked with, one of my bosses (Victor Menezes) did something remarkable — after graduating from MIT’s MBA program, he never changed jobs. He worked at the same firm (Citi) all his life, becoming the global CEO of Citibank, and retiring as a...

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Choose a job that aligns with your life

When I decided to leave consulting and join private equity, my biggest consideration was not money — instead, I wanted my life back. I wanted to rediscover my health and peace of mind. I wanted to see the sunset and sunrise, at least on some days. I wanted to feel...

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Rajan shares insights from his own life journey to help you build better habits in yours.