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Embrace Mistakes, But Only Once
"A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way." -- Mark Twain. We should learn from others' mistakes. So in theory, we should be making very few mistakes, if any. But humans are humans. Sometimes, the only way...
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Life changing habit
Here is a simple life-changing habit -- sleep an hour before you normally do, and then see what happens. Not convinced? For a few days, log what you...
Less is More
During my IPS training, we were attached to a CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) unit that was fighting militancy in Tripura. In this remote CRPF...
Leadership
During a training program at McKinsey, we were split into groups of 4-5 people and given a task – we had to build paper planes using a kit given to...
Life is short
As a fresh consultant at McKinsey, for the first time in my life, I had to go around seeking time for meetings with clients or senior leaders at the...
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Prioritizing Thoughtful Work
When I was serving as the Trivandrum Police Commissioner, I once skipped a useless meeting called by a senior government official. The next week, when my assistant shared my weekly timesheet, she showed an internal meeting that I had never...
How to build a startup?
Conventional wisdom (some of which I also fell for): - Leave your job. - Chase VC funding. - Spend all the money on ads and a huge team. - Pray for the next round of funding. A better way: - Don’t leave your jobs until much later — start by working...
Value your time
An email you almost never get: I need your money. An email you often get: I need your time -- can we jump on to a call? Is your time less valuable than your money? Of course, not. If you clutter your calendar with calls and meetings, you can say...
Focus on Today
In my previous startup, we once reached a point where only had cash left to survive three months. Even worse, we had huge expenses coming up over the next 8 months – the office rental itself would kill us. I personally did not have the money to...