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Rethinking the Billionaire Race
A while ago, I was talking to a friend who once led a top-tier Indian university. One day, a psychologically distressed student came to him and somberly said, "I am 25. At my age, Mark Zuckerberg was already a billionaire. And what have I achieved?...
Recent Posts
The time to live is now
When I was in school, I believed that the ‘real life’ would start in college – school was just a prep for it. But during college, I felt that real...
Note-taking technique
I discovered the effectiveness of this note-taking technique during my Civil Services exam preparation. At that time, I barely had 1.5 months for...
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...
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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 us. To win, you had to build the most number of planes in the given time. Naturally, all the groups...
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 Firm. Prior to that, while serving as the Police Commissioner, if I wanted to speak with someone, I...
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...