Latest Post
Bird by Bird
When you are overwhelmed, what do you do? Read this quote from Anne Lamott's book 'Bird by Bird.' "Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to...
Recent Posts
Responsibility is the price of freedom
After my father dropped me off at the IIT Kanpur hostel, for the next 4 years, my parents did not even once ask about my grades. Nor did they bother...
Stop wasting your life being busy
Early in my tenure at McKinsey, I once committed a terrifying blunder. In those days, every BlackBerry notification would make us stop all work and...
Success is the result of consistent hard work, not just luck
I was racing a 2:30 am deadline to submit my Wharton MBA application in Round 1. Post midnight, in the frantic rush, as I was giving the final...
Breaking the limits
On the top floor of my building, lived my friend and junior from IPS and IIT - Sunil Asnani. In the evenings, we would often hang out on the...
More Articles
Overcoming language barriers
For most of my life, I went to English-medium schools where nobody spoke English. However, from grades 1-4, I attended a government school in Bangalore where kids used English even for social conversations. That is the only real exposure I had to...
The key to success lies in focus
In the first semester at IIT Kanpur, I noticed this guy whose class notes would just be half a page of tiny scrawl, scribbled with a ball-point refill. In the hostel, he would usually be playing cricket or doing bull sessions with friends. Clearly,...
Finding meaning beyond luxury
I realized the beauty as well as the futility of luxury during my job at a private equity fund. In that company, every few months, we had offsites at the most exclusive luxury resorts in India, some of which had suites costing a few lacs a night....
Start every day as a beginner
At an investors’ conference in Mumbai, I once asked a guy, “So, what do you do?” He was so stunned that for a few seconds he was speechless. Then, he turned to others and said, “You know, once, everyone knew me. Now I am asked what I do!” Realizing...