LinkedIn Posts

Three years ago, my startup was catastrophically burning cash. We only had cash to pay salaries for 3-4 months. To survive, we had to change the business model. But for that, we needed to survive. It was a catch-22, without a way out. Or at least, that is how I felt....

It was day 1 of Prof. Robert Verrecchia’s class at Wharton. As I gingerly entered and took a seat at the back, I saw the intimidating crowd of my ex-banker classmates around me -- this was an advanced accounting course and as an ex-cop, I could barely spell...

When I quit my job to become an entrepreneur, I was thrilled: No more office timings, no need to dread Monday mornings -- I would finally be ‘free.’ I could do whatever I wanted, whenever. Every day was Sunday -- if I chose to! Soon, I was working late nights and...

Early morning today, when I woke up, my head was buzzing with anxiety. It happens often but I was not too worried -- I knew what to do next. Within 10 minutes of commencing my meditation, I could suddenly sense my mind calming down -- it felt like an engine switching...

In sixth grade, I started wearing glasses, and then began my nightmare. While playing, I would get sweaty and the glasses would keep slipping and falling, occasionally cracking the lens. Also, I would keep crushing and twisting them inadvertently during sleep. As if...

In my first year programming course in Pascal at IIT Kanpur, I learned a few life lessons -- some of which I regretted for a long time. In the first few weeks of the course, I paid little attention to the lectures. But as the dreaded mid-semester exam approached, one...

In 2009, during my consulting days, a team member who was a former US Army officer, once casually told me that she would be running a marathon the coming weekend. Even though I had done long-distance runs, I used to think of a marathon as something extreme. Yet, here...

I have never envied anyone more than this guy I met one evening in 2008, near New York City. He was the brother-in-law of a friend, who introduced us. This guy was the textbook definition of brilliance: Undergrad from Wharton, business analyst at McKinsey, followed by...

Years ago, I was talking to a contemporary from an IIT, who was well-settled, working in a good, stable tech company, with a good salary. He didn’t mind the job even if he wasn’t madly in love with it. During our chat, he started talking about a passion that he...

A private equity fund I know, once invested in a startup led by a rockstar CEO -- or so we were told. The startup raised seed capital of $100 million on day 1 -- no kidding. Flush with money, they had a private jet parked at London’s Heathrow airport. Meanwhile, their...

When I was recruiting during my MBA at Wharton, people said that if an interviewer asks whether you have other job offers, always say ‘yes.’ The logic is that if other companies have offered you jobs, then it shows that you are a strong candidate. But I was very...

Twice in my life, I have worked 6 months or more, without a single day's break. Here is what happened. The first time, I was serving as the Trivandrum City Police Commissioner, facing a near-daily political circus, agitation, and rioting. Usually, my ‘Sunday break’...