In 2009, when I quit McKinsey, I was at my unhealthiest. For the previous 10 years, through various jobs and my MBA, I had worked long back-breaking hours and had stopped exercising. On top of that, I was chronically sleep-deprived. I was so unfit then that I couldn't...

One of my best friends had joined the 5-year MSc Physics program at IIT Kanpur. He loved physics but his parents were very unhappy with his decision. They considered a science degree sub-par even though the physics program at IITK was highly coveted. They wanted their...

I am not always excited about building my startup. But does that mean I am not motivated? Of course, I am. Motivation is not the same as excitement. Excitement is a temporary feeling that changes hour to hour. Motivation is the steady, underlying desire to achieve a...

How to overcome stress: 1. Whatever be the reason behind the stress, it manifests in your body by activating your Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS). 2. Once your SNS is activated, blood is diverted from the peripheral parts of the body to your big muscle groups (e.g.,...

During a taxi ride back from my office in New York City, the driver asked me, “So what do you do?” When I told him that I was a consultant, he asked, “IT consultant?” I hastily corrected him, “No, no… I am a strategy consultant.” In those days, IT or technology was...

In a marketing class, our business school professor once told us – "The world doesn’t owe you anything just because you went to Wharton." This is one lesson I have always cherished – we are not entitled to anything regardless of which college we went to or what job we...

A few years ago, in a South Bombay office complex, I saw a notice on a door – “Salesmen and interns not allowed.” It left me wondering, why are we so hostile to salesmen and interns? Why do we treat them as a nuisance? One thing to remember is that we all have been...

When I was in the police force, the best leaders I worked with had one common quality – they were not bossy at all. Usually, when we think of ‘good leaders’, we imagine charismatic people with magnetic personalities. But the leaders I cherish were the ones who were...

During my days as a consultant, I often found the first few days of a client engagement mortifying. In the initial meetings, the clients would bombard us with jargon and technical details that I struggled to understand. But I was too scared to clarify because I did...

During our college placement season, many of us were fixated on the salaries. If a company offered even Rs 2,000 more, it felt infinitely more attractive. But looking back, the initial salary had practically zero correlation with how well people did in life. Some who...

When I was working with a private equity firm, in the middle of our office was a gigantic TV screen that could raise your anxiety within a minute. This TV was always tuned to CNBC, which would constantly stream the latest market news and the Sensex level, by the...

The past is a prison, but its door is unlocked. Then why don't we just walk out? Because our mind wants to renegotiate the past and make it better. We know it is pointless but our mind still can't resist it. So is there an escape from this prison? Is there any...

In late 2020, when I launched HabitStrong, we had little money, no tech team, and zero marketing people. There were just four of us. Since we could not afford a tech team, for the first few months we did not even have a website. Heck, we did not even have the...

During my training with the Indian Police Service, we were attached to an elite army unit in Nagaland for exposure. So a few days after we landed, we went for a patrol in full combat gear – we had to wear a metallic flak jacket and a bulletproof headgear that was so...