In the summer of 2006, in Colorado, I saw this lone rock-climber high up there, hanging from a massive rock formation. I had no idea how he got there or would climb down. Any mistake would have been his last. Why do people seek out such extreme danger? They seem...

We know of Stephen Hawking probably not because of his science but more because he wrote ‘The Brief History of Time.’ To illustrate -- how many of us know Andre Geim Konstantin, a Nobel laureate who is no less brilliant? Hawking gained a fan-following primarily...

During my days with a private equity fund, on a car ride, a senior colleague turned around to the Managing Partner and said, “You know, all our bad luck is because of Vaastu. I had told you long back that our office is not facing the right direction.” My jaw dropped....

‘Passive income’ seems to be a rage these days. Don’t fall for it -- it is mostly a click-bait. Here is why. Investing smartly is supposed to be one popular source of ‘passive income.’ If true, Warren Buffet should be the ultimate passive income guy. Yet, he works...

Today, after days of rain-enforced break, my hour-long run felt like meditation. And those 60 mins flipped a switch -- I felt calm, focused, and in control. We can start our day in two ways: Either start by checking WhatsApp, Instagram, and the like, unleashing...

"At 60 miles an hour, the loudest noise in the new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock" In 1958, David Ogilvy wrote the above ad headline. To date, nobody has written a better automobile ad. How much time did it take to write these 17 words? Three weeks. Yep,...

Last week, I jokingly asked my colleague, Nisha, “Does it bother you that we are not chasing the unicorn tag at HabitStrong?” She said, “Even if my neighbor built a unicorn, I couldn’t care less. What matters to me is that I look forward to our work -- it should not...

When I was writing my MBA application essays for US B-Schools, I found myself in a fix. Throughout school and college, I hadn’t written even one page of half-decent prose. How would I write these highly demanding essays? Fortunately, Vinod Thomas, my friend and IPS...

All you have is 30,000 hours. That’s it. Today, there is a new 'gold' in town -- no, it is not bitcoin. It is not oil. That is what Instagram, Facebook, and others are fighting for -- our time and attention. Only we have the gold they need. Only we can make them rich,...

One day during a finance class of Prof David Wessels at Wharton, suddenly, the classroom door flew open and a hefty guy entered with a cardboard box in his hand. The interrupted class sat in stunned silence -- we were all staring at that guy. But without missing a...

Two decades ago, I was sitting with a good friend and college senior who had recently relocated to Trivandrum after a PhD in the US. He was talking about how much he missed running and how moving back to India had disrupted that habit. I asked him, “Why not restart?...

I don’t need the motivation to run 10km — I need just enough to put on my running shoes. 90% of the battle is getting started. Yet, sometimes, even putting on the shoes feels hard. Here is my favorite hack, but before that, we need to know some neuroscience. Think of...

Growing up, when I was facing my life’s first major exam (IITJEE), I was virtually biting my nails. I would often ponder, “What if I don’t make it? Would I have any future?” We were not an affluent family. Nobody in our family had been to college -- my sister and I...

My de-facto co-founder at HabitStrong, Nisha Salim, is brilliant but often runs into a problem -- she does not have a degree from any tier-1 college. She has been way better than any pedigreed folks we have hired from IIT/IIM etc., but investors have often been...

When starting my MBA at Wharton, I kept telling myself, “Don’t ruin it again. This is the last chance.” Earlier, I had ruined my 4 years at IIT -- bunking classes, always falling behind, cramming before exams to barely get a passing grade. But this time, the stakes...