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Beyond Exam Charades
During the compulsory military training in Taiwan, recruits are seemingly trained with a singular objective – to pass the exams. When practicing the bayonet drill, you practice a chant for each movement, which is what they will test for in the...
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Learn to respect, not to fear
One day during a finance class of Prof David Wessels at Wharton, suddenly, the classroom door flew open and a hefty guy entered with a cardboard box...
Change your beliefs
Two decades ago, I was sitting with a good friend and college senior who had recently relocated to Trivandrum after a PhD in the US. He was talking...
90% of the battle
I don’t need the motivation to run 10km — I need just enough to put on my running shoes. 90% of the battle is getting started. Yet, sometimes, even...
Mothers
Growing up, when I was facing my life’s first major exam (IITJEE), I was virtually biting my nails. I would often ponder, “What if I don’t make it?...
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Recognize excellence beyond academic
My de-facto co-founder at HabitStrong, Nisha Salim, is brilliant but often runs into a problem -- she does not have a degree from any tier-1 college. She has been way better than any pedigreed folks we have hired from IIT/IIM etc., but investors...
Small steps for lasting change
When starting my MBA at Wharton, I kept telling myself, “Don’t ruin it again. This is the last chance.” Earlier, I had ruined my 4 years at IIT -- bunking classes, always falling behind, cramming before exams to barely get a passing grade. But this...
Micromanagement
It was my most amazing project at McKinsey. And yet, just when things were looking great, they went downhill. Here is what happened. This was the kind of project consulting firms talk about in their advertisement brochures -- we were advising the...
Be your best
On the National Police Academy parade ground, our assistant drill instructor, head constable Ram Singh, would bark at us like he was General Patton. And even a millisecond delay in obeying his command would invite his rage, and the drill sequence...