If you have had a toxic boss, their mere presence will make you anxious even after you have left that job. Why is that? It turns out that this anxiety is triggered by an unconscious process, which you can't control intellectually. When you go through trauma, your...

Almost every startup (including unicorns) staring at 'death-by-cash-burn' did not start off this way. Most startups were based on solid ideas and were addressing real need gaps. Even the startups that went down in flames (e.g., GoMechanic) were addressing real pain...

Multitasking doesn't work. But if you are hell-bent on it, there is ONLY one scenario in which it (sort of) works. You can multitask two actions simultaneously if one of them has become an ingrained habit. E.g., if you are a good driver, you can listen to a podcast...

During one particular year in school, I became very complacent and whiled away my time. Suddenly, one day, I woke up realizing that I had only a few months left for the exams. So I calculated the hours required to finish the syllabus and came up with a hefty target,...

To be fit, you don’t need to be David Goggins or run 100-mile ultramarathons. To build a reading habit, you don't have to read one book per day. To start meditating, you don't need to be a Buddha-like perfect meditator. It is perfectly fine to be inspired by these...

Recently, Maharashtra politicians were calling each other names by saying things like, "XYZ might need to consult a psychiatrist." Another quipped, "You need to be treated in a mental hospital." Having to consult a psychiatrist has now become an insult. Any wonder...

In my previous EdTech startup, ConceptOwl, I found one day that new videos were not showing up on our app even though we were recording dozens of them every week. Why? Manpower problem. We had too many people! I found that there were too many steps in the video...

Your mind CANNOT focus on a task if it subliminally fears that you are missing out on something more pressing. When you have that fear or anxiety, it does the following: You multitask or leave a task incomplete (e.g., a half-written email) and jump to some other task....

In 2010, at an investor event at the Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai, I was dazzled by a company called Opto Circuits. Their polished presentation, storytelling, and impressive product display left no doubt that a medical device giant was emerging from India. The founder won...

"Everything I do has to be perfect -- I can't afford to make any mistakes." -- This belief creates probably half the anxiety in the world. This is why some of us check our email ten times or spend days on a task that should take just hours. We are driven not by...

Over the years, I have discovered this recipe for simplifying life and getting rid of melodrama. Allow me to share it: Don't chase anything at the cost of 'peace of mind.' Your health comes first – mental and physical. Everything else comes fifth (or lower). Live...

The cheerleaders are quiet. When Pharmeasy acquired Thyrocare, online influencers were cheering how Indian startups have 'matured' and how a nascent startup acquiring a mature company showed their 'coming of age', whatever that meant. Just a year or two ago, all you...

In a leadership course at Wharton, the professor would ask, "What qualities should a good leader have?" Some student would say, "Vision." The professor would then parrot back, "Yes, without vision, you can't have leadership." Then another student would say,...

The biggest killer of productivity is not laziness -- it is anxiety. You can have the greatest productivity software, but if you are anxious, you can't get anything done. Here is why. To do any thoughtful work, our brain's pre-frontal cortex (PFC) has to do the...

On the D-day of a consulting engagement at McKinsey, the team thrilled the client with a proposal to cut millions of dollars in cost. But the senior partner heading the engagement told the client, "What we are doing is polishing your furniture while your house is on...