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A Negotiation Win That Didn’t Feel Like Victory
In my 'Negotiations' course at Wharton, we had a live negotiation exercise, where I had to sell a boat (or something like that) to another student. And while the 'boat sale' was fake, the impact on your grades was real since your performance on the...
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You Can’t Pick Wins Without Accepting Losses
A friend once asked an insurance sales guy, "Don't you feel disappointed by so many rejections, every single day?" The guy said, "I have a 10% hit...
Are You a Slack Policeman or a Problem Solver?
Two decades ago, when I first saw traffic policemen at work, I did not realize that one day, entrepreneurs and business leaders would be behaving...
How to Truly Get Things Done
My favorite childhood author, Robert Louis Stevenson, reportedly burnt the first draft of his bestseller 'Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.'...
Why Ambitious Plans Often Fail
Whenever my planning has failed, it is because I did it in "Rambo mode." During my student days, I would sometimes set ridiculous goals, e.g.,...
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To start a forest fire, it just takes a spark
I received this email from a young lady suffering from depression and severe weight gain, which is preventing her from socializing and living a normal life. She stays awake at night, sleeps during the day, and is addicted to junk food. She wants to...
Why Consensus Doesn’t Lead to Greatness
Long ago, during an evening stroll with a retired VC in New York (from Bessemer), I asked him, "What differentiated your best investments from the others? Could you have seen them coming?" He said, "My best investments were the ones where some team...
How Discipline Breaks Down
How does discipline break down? Answer: One exception at a time. But then, how can we be 100% consistent or never make exceptions? That it true -- we can't. However, the real problem is not the imperfection itself, but when we tell ourselves, 'This...
Life Is Finite – Don’t Wait to Live It
Last year, I lost three friends who passed away unexpectedly, including an ex-boss I was close to, whose passing made national news. When you lose friends, it is hard to accept that it is all over. With one of them (Amarnath Raja), I am still...