Two days ago, at the breakfast table, my mother told me somewhat gleefully that she had walked for 1 hour and 10 minutes that morning. It was apparently her personal best 🙂 My mother is a bit overweight and not in the best of health. And when she first started...

While working with McKinsey, I worked with two types of managers: Type 1: They wanted you to just solve the problem as best as you could. Type 2: They wanted your output (PPT slides) to look exactly like they would have done it. But the problem with the 2nd type was...

If you feel you don't have enough time, ask yourself: If your day had four extra hours, would it be enough? Be honest. I think the answer is pretty obvious. If 24 hours feel insufficient, 28 hours will feel no better. It is not the number of hours that matter -- it is...

I have had three pretty different careers, but every single time I realised one thing -- there is no free lunch. In my first job with the civil services, everything was secure and predictable. The government gave me all the resources, legal authority, firepower, and...

A few weeks ago, I called a former boss of mine (the then Director General of Police, Kerala) to wish him a happy new year -- he is nearing 80 and is not keeping very good health. This officer was the most draconian disciplinarian to have headed Kerala police. In his...

In my startup journey, I learned more from one particular 5-minute video than from dozens of books and podcasts -- this video is that of Dropbox's founder Drew Houston. When Drew was fundraising for Dropbox, he met a VC, who asked, "There are already 50 startups doing...

A colleague of mine at McKinsey used to once work at Capital One, an extremely data-driven company. It was understandable that a fintech company would love data but even their senior management took decisions off spreadsheets. And sometimes, it led them in the wrong...

One of the common procrastination tactics is to become busy doing something else – we want to do anything other than the task we are trying to avoid. Here is a tactic to handle such procrastination. First, assign some time to work on the task. Second, resolve that if...

We often ask people for advice on what to do with our lives. But how would they know? You know who you are and what makes you tick. You know your fears and dreams. You know how hard you can push and what makes you give up. Figuring out your life can’t be outsourced....

When you are young and inexperienced, you don't know what is possible or what your limits are. You don't understand how the world works. So you try crazy things. Often, it is a disaster. But once in a while, you succeed. And when you do succeed, you succeed...

Many have asked me to watch the movie '12th Fail' -- people are raving about this wonderful movie. Manoj's story (who battled extreme adversity to become an IPS officer) is inspiring beyond words -- and I am so happy for him! But we tend to forget that for every...

If you are trying to prove yourself, there is bad news -- this game has no endpoint. There is no finish line at which you will feel, "Finally, I have proved myself -- I can now rest easy." Because no matter how much 'proof' you have accumulated, there will always be...

In a high-rise office building in New York, I was once looking across the street at the next skyscraper, craning my neck. And I felt so 'low down'! But when I looked down (I was probably on the 30th floor or higher), the cars on the street looked like small toy cars....

Why are intelligent people often not rich? Because they want to make money only using their intellect. For example, if a "non-intelligent" money-making opportunity shows up (say, wholesale rice trading), they wouldn't be interested. Further, I suspect that some smart...

Everybody feels scared: -- On the first day of a job. -- During a job interview. -- Before closing a big sales deal. -- Before the performance review. Fear is nothing to be ashamed of. It is not a personal weakness. Fear is universal -- what varies is its degree, how...