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The Hidden Cost of Recurring Meetings
My last project at McKinsey was a very high-profile one -- the client was a vertical CXO at a large global bank. The goal was to flesh out their overall corporate strategy. So naturally, many bigwigs were involved and because of our collective...
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Simple things that really work
Whatever little goodness I have in my life, I owe it to simple, straightforward habits. All the fancy-sounding self-help formulas, often using terms...
Pace Yourself for Depth
Many years ago, a fund manager met me to discuss a company I happened to be familiar with. Before the meeting, he told me, “I am a little slow....
Fitness and Health
During the offsite at the private equity firm I worked with, there was this German guy who was kicking the football like a rocket. Trying to catch...
Perfectionism Hinders Progress
You don’t quit building good habits because you are inconsistent or weak-willed – more likely, you quit because of perfectionism. When you are...
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Keep Learning
I have made plenty of career transitions and here is my biggest learning – if you are fearless and keep learning, you can catch up with anyone, even in a new field. When I went from studying engineering to becoming a police officer it felt like a...
Avoid Willpower Battles
Here is how I maximize my willpower – I use it sparingly. I don’t touch alcohol because if I start liking it, I will have to fight a battle within myself to moderate it. So I avoid the battle altogether. If I have ice cream in the fridge, chances...
Well-being and Happiness
During my student days, one morning, when clearing up my hostel almirah, I found a copy of Michael Crichton’s book ‘Congo.’ I casually opened the book to see what it was about and when I closed it, I had finished the book. About 8 hrs had gone by,...
Learning Without Limits
During a video interview, the interviewer asked me this question: What would I do if I did not have any college degrees or any pedigree? Here is my answer: Even if I had nothing else, I would still have Coursera. There was a time when to get a good...