Specialization

I would attribute half of my struggles and disappointments in my startup journey to just one factor: “Doing too many things.” This may seem weird – aren’t you supposed to do a lot of things in a startup? No, no, no. Don’t do that, please. And this applies...

Focused Work

Last Friday, I figured that 24 hrs was not enough for me – there was way too much to do. So I ran this experiment: 1. I picked a priority task (something I absolutely had to get done). 2. I told myself, ‘Let everything else wait – let me just do this one task for...

The joy of lifelong learning

I started my MBA 10 years after completing my B Tech. And since most of my classmates were much younger, I felt a bit like a dinosaur (in a not-so-cool way). If fact, I did derive some mischievous pleasure when I found classmates even more experienced – and therefore...

Poor corporate governance

At the private equity fund where I last worked, in about half the investments where we lost money, the culprit was fraud by the promoters (i.e., company owners). In some cases, the promoters blatantly stole more than a hundred crores, but shockingly, not one guy went...

Commitment of Leadership

For all practical purposes, my first job out of college was to head the Trivandrum City Police as its Commissioner. Prior to that, I had only undergone the IPS training and done a piddly 7 months in a field assignment. But compared to me, my ACPs were battle-hardened...