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Why Even the Smartest People End Up Doing Meaningless Work
An ex-colleague of mine once worked for one of the world's best known private equity funds as an analyst after graduating from Harvard. His job was to make financial models for billion-dollar acquisitions that the fund would typically do. For one...
Recent Posts
Everyone Feels Fear – Face It Anyway
Everybody feels scared: -- On the first day of a job. -- During a job interview. -- Before closing a big sales deal. -- Before the performance...
How to Know If Your Idea Is Real
Early in my startup days, I used to sometimes wonder -- am I doing something real or am I just fiddling around, fooling myself? How do I know this...
The Secret of Confidence: Focus on What You Know
As a rookie consultant at McKinsey, before the final client presentation, I used to feel very jittery. No matter how much work I had done, there...
In Investing and Life, Patience Beats Luck
My friend Vinod Thomas and I have together been investing in public equities for the last one year. So are you ready for some investing wisdom?...
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When Focus Feels Like a Battle, Step Back
Yesterday, when I was doing some focused work, after some time, I felt so agitated and restless that I desperately wanted an escape -- check the news, open LinkedIn, do anything. When the task is hard or tedious, this 'escape impulse' comes to me...
Life Comes Without a Map – And That’s Okay
I often hear 25-year-olds say, "I don't know what I want to do with my life." Heck, I am so much older, and even I don't know that! But one thing I do know -- I don't want to waste my life doing meaningless stuff. If something doesn't make sense, I...
Why Staying Up Late Doesn’t Mean You’re Working Hard
On day 1 of my last job with a private equity fund, I wanted to know whether they worked late nights routinely or followed reasonable work hours. But how could I ask? In prestigious post-MBA jobs like consulting, banking, and investing, talking...
How to Survive the Avalanche of Advice
I am afraid you will become a victim. Not a victim of some scam, but of all the well-intentioned advice, frameworks, and exhortations you will find on LinkedIn, blogs, podcasts, and videos (some of it coming from me 😊). The problem is not that the...