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The Sleep Deprivation
I fear that lack of sleep is killing people. We lost a security guard at our apartment, who died of a heart attack. Barely 52, he was very gentle and friendly, and looked fairly healthy. While there could be many reasons for a heart attack, one...
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Finding Joy in the Journey
In my 2nd year at IIT, I started learning Taekwondo. I somehow took fancy to the idea of becoming a black-belt. Maybe, I saw too many martial arts...
The Impact of a Strong Beginning
In my life, the only major career goal for which I had to truly struggle was getting into IIT. IIT made getting into Civil Services so much more...
The Rewards of Sacrifice
In my last job as a private equity investor, I came across many Indian entrepreneurs whose parents set up the business from scratch. I remember one...
The value of being at the bottom
The most valuable lesson I learned at McKinsey was NOT making presentations or structured thinking, as valuable as they were. The best lesson was...
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What is meaningful writing?
I was once talking to a lawyer, who was a partner at a law firm in London. I asked him, 'How challenging is it to be a good lawyer?' He said, 'Anybody can write a contract or a legal document but writing a really good one is very hard. A good...
The power of communication beyond accents
During my MBA, McKinsey once visited our campus for a pre-placement talk. One of their consultants who addressed us was a South American with a very heavy Spanish accent. He joked saying, "Whenever people tell me that I don't have an American...
Flow and happiness through work
3 years ago, I experienced one of the happiest days of my life. And in case you are wondering what life-changing thing happened that day, the answer is -- nothing. All I was doing was teaching finance to a new class of investment bankers at...
Never underestimate any task
During my stint with the Indian Police Service, I handled a ton of riots, violent mobs, and civil disturbances. When you keep doing that day-in and day-out, naturally, the whole routine becomes quite familiar. Despite that, I would try to never...