Rajan’s Linkedin posts

User engagement

Here is an easy way to destroy your life. Start the day by checking WhatsApp, and then get sucked into a vortex of endlessly checking Facebook, Instagram, online news, Twitter, whatever... Keep repeating the cycle, and by evening, you will be a worn-out, empty shell....

Excitement is rare and overhyped

Very few professions that look glamorous or exciting, are actually that. During my MBA, I thought McKinsey would be very glamorous. Big clients, global travel and fancy hotels, advising CEOs, yada yada. So here is a reality check. At 11 pm one night, one of my buddies...

Five Keystone Habits

If you ever find yourself stuck in a rut of laziness, low energy, and lack of direction, these five keystone habits will help you smash through it: 1) Regular workout: More than for physical fitness, exercise is a great medicine for mental well-being. Study after...

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Embrace Unsettled Paths

When I graduated from IIT in 1995, I was expecting to soon figure out my life and my career, and quickly 'settle down'. I then joined the Indian Police Service, the ultimate platform for 'settling down'. It was such a stable and predictable job that I knew the exact...

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Start with one habit

Recently, I was talking to a friend in the gym, who looks fabulously fit, having shed 12 kgs of flab. And here is what he said: ‘Earlier, I really struggled to eat healthy. But now that I have started working out, I automatically eat healthier and drink more water –...

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We live only once

I had a boss in the Indian Police Service, who played safe all his life – he never took a bold stand, nor did he ever uphold any principles. His only goal was to please his bosses and take the easy way out. Nobody respected him – I certainly did not. Years ago, when I...

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Your Job Isn’t Fixing People

Everywhere in life, you will come across these negative people – the excuse-makers, the fault finders, the folks who see something bad in everyone/everything and pick up fights. They believe that everything wrong in their life is someone else’s fault. So how do you...

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Improve your self

There is a lot of nonsense out there about self-improvement. You will hear pseudo-scientific things like ‘manifestation’, ‘law of attraction’, and stuff like that. Just a reminder – we don’t need any pseudo-science when we can just as easily change our life the normal...

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Our actions determines our destiny

A few years ago, in my previous startup (ConceptOwl), at one point, our app was practically unusable – it was that slow! We did not have a proper CTO and no matter how hard the tech team tried, they couldn’t fix the problem. I then asked my co-founder to learn coding...

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Life is all about setting expectations

On day 1 of a project at McKinsey, during the kick-off team meeting, one guy said, “I will not touch my laptop on weekends.” He explained that he was divorced and got custody of his daughter only on weekends. So work was out of bounds as he wanted to fully spend that...

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Build focus and Reclaim your time

Here is an easy tip for building focus and reclaiming your time. Whenever you are working, keep your phone outside your arm’s reach. To grab your phone, you should have to get up. Here is why this works. We check our apps to escape boredom and frustration. And when we...

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Zero-sum mindset

During my MBA, I saw some people who would go to any length to hide which companies they were interviewing with for a job. Their fear was that others would also apply for the same job and wreck their chances. Of course, one could probably argue that since the number...

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Trust

Last year, during one of our bootcamps, a participant shared that her company had installed a software on the company laptop to track whether they were actively working or not. Apparently, if they did not move the mouse every few minutes, the software would assume...

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Build Trust

During my training at the National Police Academy, I noticed these photos of National Security Guard commandos (‘black cat ’ commandos) shooting at small circular cardboard targets held by their colleagues. If they missed their aim even by a few inches, the bullet...

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Every experience is unique

I joined my first job (Indian Police Service) in my early twenties and was among the younger officers. I joined my second job (McKinsey) in my mid-thirties and was among the older lot in my batch. Does it mean I was successful the first time and a failure the second...

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The Best Articulation

A guest speaker at Wharton told us – ‘Every time you open your mouth, your earn or burn market share.’ In today’s world, articulation is like oxygen – you need it to survive. - Persuading your boss to give you a raise is articulation. - The debates and discussions at...

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The Real Genius

When preparing for my Civil Services interview, I did so many mock interviews that when I went for the real one, it was a cakewalk – there was no curveball the interviewers could throw that I was not prepared for. And I aced that interview. Similarly, when I prepared...

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