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The Real Reason My First EdTech Startup Failed
I expected my first EdTech startup to crash but for not for the reasons it did -- here is what happened. In the early days, my biggest worry was -- what if so many users show up that the website crashes? I had endless discussions about technology...
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Your Achievements Don’t Need to Compete With Anyone Else’s
Two days ago, at the breakfast table, my mother told me somewhat gleefully that she had walked for 1 hour and 10 minutes that morning. It was...
Great Managers Don’t Create Clones
While working with McKinsey, I worked with two types of managers: Type 1: They wanted you to just solve the problem as best as you could. Type 2:...
Why 24 Hours Is Always Enough
If you feel you don't have enough time, ask yourself: If your day had four extra hours, would it be enough? Be honest. I think the answer is pretty...
There’s No Free Lunch in Life
I have had three pretty different careers, but every single time I realised one thing -- there is no free lunch. In my first job with the civil...
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Earning Respect That Lasts a Lifetime
A few weeks ago, I called a former boss of mine (the then Director General of Police, Kerala) to wish him a happy new year -- he is nearing 80 and is not keeping very good health. This officer was the most draconian disciplinarian to have headed...
Focus on the Problem, Not the Competition
In my startup journey, I learned more from one particular 5-minute video than from dozens of books and podcasts -- this video is that of Dropbox's founder Drew Houston. When Drew was fundraising for Dropbox, he met a VC, who asked, "There are...
Leadership Means Deciding Without Complete Data
A colleague of mine at McKinsey used to once work at Capital One, an extremely data-driven company. It was understandable that a fintech company would love data but even their senior management took decisions off spreadsheets. And sometimes, it led...
Confront Procrastination by Facing Resistance
One of the common procrastination tactics is to become busy doing something else – we want to do anything other than the task we are trying to avoid. Here is a tactic to handle such procrastination. First, assign some time to work on the task....