Starting in 2018, I have been writing nearly every day, for almost 1,000 days (on Linkedin, Quora, HabitStrong blog). Writing per se was not the hard part. The challenge was to keep writing DESPITE the ups and downs, and the thousand different moods one goes through....

My most terrifying moment at McKinsey was not handling some really tough client, but the invite I got to attend the New Year’s ball, a fancy black-tie event on some island near New York. For most people, these lavish events are the compensation for the year-round...

Every once in a while, an old back injury of mine flares up with excruciating pain, wrecking my workout routine for a week or two. And once the routine is broken, the momentum is gone. With every passing day, you feel even more like a failure, and your strength...

When I first decided to write the Civil Services exam, I was horrified at: 1. How sub-par the syllabus was. 2. How random the marking was. 3. How unbelievably opaque the system was. For my optional subjects (Maths & Physics), supposedly at B.Sc Honours level, the...

Whenever I struggle to persevere while doing something hard, here is what I tell myself: Slowing down is an option. Taking a break is an option. Modifying your goals is an option. Reprioritizing is an option. But if you really care about something -- quitting can’t be...

During my stint as a consultant with McKinsey, late nights were the norm. However, after a lot of generalist work, to pursue my passion for finance, I opted for a 3-month rotation with a Corporate Finance specialist group in New York. This new group I was with, did...

Before joining the Indian Police Service, the most physically intense thing I had done in a few years was climbing the stairs of PK Kelkar Library at IIT Kanpur. Naturally, the upcoming 10-month training at the National Police Academy was making me sweat bullets. And...

The first time I did pistol shooting, in Mussoorie’s IAS training academy, our pistols all malfunctioned - or so it seemed. Five of us, barely 15 m from the targets, fired a volley of shots, and yet, the targets were practically untouched. Scratching my head, I asked...

At a typical IITJEE coaching center in Andhra, a student wakes up at 6 am and studies till 10 pm. For 16 hours, 6 days a week, they slog, with a few short breaks to freshen up, eat, etc. And they do this for years. Time for sports = 0 Time for extracurriculars and...

Once I was talking to a friend whose extended family had built a pharma business from scratch to worth tens of thousands of crores. Now, here is the most interesting thing -- In 40 years, they become multi-billionaires. But in the first 30 years, by comparison, they...

The startup world has today become a circus. Once, ‘startup’ meant innovation. Today it has become this drama of VC funding, valuation, unicorn, week-over-week growth, blitzscaling, and pursuit of the next billion/trillion/quadrillion. Now, there is NOTHING...

I have been working out regularly for more than a decade but it took years of struggle to make meditation a daily habit. Without guidance, it was really hard - every time, I would try but give up after a few days. But once I started reading some of the Buddhist texts...

In 2003, I was facing a potentially career-ending crisis. A group of tribals from northern Kerala landed in Trivandrum and started agitating. As the City Police chief, I had to ensure that there was no violence or obstruction. Since these were impoverished tribals, we...

In investment banking and Wall Street jobs, the ‘bonus day’ is an interesting one -- everybody gets a cash windfall. Naturally, they should all be thrilled, right? Yet, NOT everyone is happy. Why? Did they not just get more money? Here are the two reasons: 1. Though...

When I joined the Indian Police Service, I was in for a big disappointment -- I was assigned to serve in the Kerala cadre for the rest of my life. Folklore says that for the Civil Services, the north Indian states are ‘good cadres’ -- good facilities, nice houses, and...