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When Bad Luck Turns Out to Be a Blessing
In the 2008 financial crisis, most of my MBA classmates working in Wall Street lost their jobs. The rout started with Bear Stearns going bankrupt and ended with Lehman Brothers' collapse. When the first set of layoffs happened, we felt terrible for...
Recent Posts
How Morning Routines Shape Your Day
Many of us live by default -- not by choice. After waking up, we all default to some behaviors, e.g., hanging out with a cup of coffee, going to the...
How to Stay Calm in a Crisis
The first time I fired a 9mm Browning pistol was at Mussoorie's Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy. The instructor lined up five of us, 10 yards from the...
The Real Struggle Is in the Mind, Not the Body
I came across a video of the Indian Army special forces training, in which the soldiers have to run 100 km, with a 17 kg load. I thought it was...
Why “Retire Early” Is an Empty Fantasy
When I launched my first startup, on the way to my rented office in Mumbai's Bandra, I would see a house where two retired-looking men would be...
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The Most Overlooked Learning Tool: Note-Taking
The most effective tool for learning is also the most overlooked -- taking notes. We often assume that we should take notes so we can refer to them later. That is NOT the best reason, especially in today's age when ChatGPT can summarize things and...
Why People Struggle Without Mentoring
During my MBA program, I became a student consultant for local businesses in Pennsylvania, as part of a University-run initiative. And like most of my fellow student consultants, I was pretty useless. Here is why. The program implicitly assumed...
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...
The Power of Focus and Prioritization
Every day, you have 8 to 10 hours to play with. If you spend all your time on emails, ad-hoc meetings, and distracted work, you create value X. If you cut down some distractions, say no to a few random meetings, and do some focused work, the value...