LinkedIn Posts

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...

Envy is an amazing thing. I never envy the British Queen, who has inherited this massive fortune and privilege without having worked for it for even a day. Yet, if our classmates get ahead and do really well in life, we feel a tinge of envy. And the fact remains that...

When I left my last job to do a startup, a new reality hit me – no more Car Club pickups, business class flights, expensive hotels, or unlimited travel budget. On the next flight, when I walked into the economy section, it felt a bit weird. But pretty soon, I got used...

In early 2009, I attended a townhall at McKinsey. This was just a few months after Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy, and the US was still in the midst of a horrible recession. The partners running the meeting assured us that all was well – in fact, McKinsey did not lay off...

In the 2nd year of my MBA at Wharton, I asked a finance professor for advice on landing a job with a private equity fund. When he learned that I had only worked as a cop, he told me bluntly – “With your background, it will be very difficult.” I was dejected but since...

Once, while driving in Trivandrum City, I saw a shop with a big banner: 'Margin-free shop’. Presumably, they don't keep any profit margin. On seeing that, you almost get the feeling that 'profit' is a dirty word. In fact, my daughter even asked, "What’s wrong with a...

Yesterday, I picked up a small rock lying on the road, and it is now sitting on my table. How much will you pay for it? Probably nothing. But what if you believed that someone else would pay 20 rupees for that rock? Now, you might happily shell out 10 rupees. So that...

From the many 180 degree turns I have made in my career, the one big lesson I have learned is this: Life is to be experienced, not optimized. Life has no objective function to be maximized – it is not a calculus problem. It doesn’t have a destination that we need to...

You can’t lose a game you never played. Then why do we compare ourselves with others, whose lives we never lived? When we get caught up in the comparison game, we forget – everybody has different starting points, different life constraints, and different objectives. A...

I am NOT building a high-growth startup. Instead, I am building a “high-happiness” startup – more happiness for our team, as well as for our customers. Not having to chase ‘growth at any cost’ sets you free. We get away without doing any push marketing. We never had...

Some days I feel optimistic and charged up. Other days, not so much. Does it matter? Not really. You do what has to be done. Some days, you do it with enthusiasm and flourish. Other days, it feels like drudgery, but you still do it. We can’t wait for the right mood...

Once, when I was working at McKinsey, someone said to me, “You are an introvert, right?” It was an innocuous comment but I almost felt like he was making an accusation – I could feel my defensive barriers going up. I said, “You are also an introvert, aren’t you?” He...