Lately, I have started loving deadlines. Sounds crazy, I know. But let me tell you why. As the activity level at my startup (HabitStrong) has gone up, my to-do list has started looking scary. And when there is so much to do, we worry about ALL the things...

Whenever I go running in the morning, I face two choices - run on the road OR in a stadium. With Trivandrum’s undulating terrain, road running can be hard - the uphill stretches make you feel like your lungs are being torn apart. On the other hand, in the stadium, not...

If you have to shoot two birds in the sky, what should you do? If you try to shoot both at the same time, you will shoot in the middle and miss both. The right answer is obvious: Shoot one by one. But if you focus on one of them, won't the other one fly away. It...

A McKinsey colleague once told me a funny yet sad story of this old lady working at a client company. He had to meet her a few times with some data requests. Since she used to always appear busy and overworked, he asked her what her job was. Turns out, she used to...

Here is a powerful lesson in focus and getting things done, from an age-old army tactic - 'bayonet-charge'. During a bayonet charge, army units are trained to scream their war cry like maniacs. Why is that? Because if they attacked silently, the enemy soldiers may...

Before you quit your job and become an entrepreneur to earn untold riches, please read this story. In the early 2000s, when I was serving as the Trivandrum Police Commissioner, my office staff one day asked me, 'Sir, can we send our office jeep to police stations for...

Do you know why instead of hitting hard, our words come out limp? Because we sabotage ourselves. We dilute our speech with fillers like "Umm, Uuuu, Right, Basically, Actually, You Know." I have myself used enough fillers for one lifetime. When we are thinking about...

The guy working in a small company wants a job at Amazon. The one in Amazon doesn’t want to work at all. We all want to jump out of our current life; we want it to be somehow different. That is what creates stress. Because, while we can change our tomorrow, how can we...

Years ago, when I was a civil servant, a young IPS officer was briefly posted under me for training. A sensitive guy, he was struggling with some mental health issues. Unfortunately, his anxiety got aggravated, resulting in a near breakdown. A few days later, I...

We often hear, 'Don't pick a job just for the salary.' But if not salary, then what? Typically, the answer is - role, company culture, growth opportunities, brand, etc. And admittedly, all these things have serious merit. However, in my opinion, here is the most...

I first read the book ‘Jonathan Livingston Seagull', more than a decade ago. Since my wife was raving about the book, I got curious about all the hullabaloo. When I read the book, I found it stunningly disappointing. No storyline, no hero or villain, no suspense -...

During a leadership training at McKinsey in Chicago, we were split into teams and given a task: From cardboard kits for building toy planes, we had to build the most number of planes in a given time. We thought it was a fun team-building exercise. The plane assembly...

Today, while talking to a friend at Juniper Networks, we got talking about the company's founder, an IIT Kanpur alumnus. His profile mentions that his dad wanted him to become an IAS officer. But instead, he went for higher studies and ended up building a...

Most small goals in life are like a football match -- you can win, but you can also lose. If you are looking to crack a job interview or clear a particular exam, success is not guaranteed. But fortunately, the really big goals in life are like a different kind of...

While I was running near the Rajbhavan in Trivandrum, the streetlights went off at 6 am. It was still dark but I kept running, daydreaming in my head. Then suddenly, I was abruptly brought to my senses. In the darkness, I tripped on the uneven roadside pavement and...