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Beyond the Hype
When I was running my previous startup, ConceptOwl, I heard of another EdTech startup that was growing rapidly using strategies that were not working for us. People would ask us -- 'Hey, that startup is making it work. Why can't you do that?' We...
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Are 24 hours enough?
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...
When you are learning, there is no senior or junior.
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...
What is holding our country back?
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.,...
Leadership is not a ticket to comfort and luxury.
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...
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Life is not a zero-sum game
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...
What freedom feels like
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...
What makes us special is our convictions
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,...
Don’t let other people’s judgement decide your life
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...