Latest Post
Why Prestigious Jobs Still Leave So Many People Unhappy
About half of the IAS/IPS officers who reach out to me ask me about career opportunities outside the Services. Of course, there is an obvious self-selection here (why else would they reach out to an ex-Civil Servant). Yet, the number of...
Recent Posts
Stop Normalizing 14–18 Hour Workdays
To anyone who thinks it is ok to overwork people for 14-18 hours a day: In the name of God, please stop! If you want to work those long hours,...
How the Modern Grind Is Wrecking Young Professionals
I recently met a young member of my extended family who was looking overweight and out of shape, with deteriorating posture. It was a shocker...
Digital Distractions, ADHD, and the Attention Crisis
These days, every other person seems to have ADHD. I am not a psychiatrist but ADHD is a real medical condition that requires proper therapy and...
Give Bad News Early: Why Hiding Problems Backfires at Work
During my consulting days, we had project reviews every 2-3 days. And every review felt like a final exam -- you wanted to blow the audience away...
More Articles
Not All Failures Are Equal
Everybody says, "Embrace failure." Sounds such bullshit, right? But here is the thing that we don't talk about. There are two kinds of failure: Type 1 failure: This is like you jumping from a plane and the parachute fails to open -- this failure...
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...
Micromanagement Is Not What You Think It Is
When I was working with a private equity fund, some of the companies we invested in were performing poorly. So what was our response? We would start doing monthly 'performance review' calls to put pressure on the management to act faster and...
Why Staying Small Became My Biggest Advantage
When I became a first-time entrepreneur, one question I dreaded was: "How big is your team?" Because everyone was trying to size you up. And my startup was practically just me. 😬 Embarrassed, I craved the day when I would be leading a large team....