When I launched my current startup, HabitStrong, I decided to not go the conventional route of painting a growth story and trying to impress the VCs. Instead, here is the startup guide I followed: 1. Don’t worry about scale – instead focus on impact. 99% of the time,...

If you keep hearing that startup life is about non-stop hustle and working 16 hours a day, rarely sleeping before 2 am, let me assure you – that is total nonsense. Of course, if you choose to go that crazy, nobody can stop you. But there is absolutely no need. I have...

One fine morning in 2001, when I was heading the Trivandrum City Police, students from a particular political union in Trivandrum’s University College went on a rampage. But since we were anticipating the violence, we were ready. With a good number of police teams...

During my stint with a private equity firm, we lost hundreds of millions of dollars because of a simple reason: We could not accept the truth when it was unpleasant. One of our investments was in a tech company that was blowing up money from day one. It was impossible...

Over the years, I have discovered this recipe for simplifying life and getting rid of melodrama. Allow me to share it: 1. Don't chase goals at the cost of 'peace of mind.' 2. Your health comes first – mental and physical. Everything else comes fifth (or lower). 3....

After serving a few years in the Indian Police Service (IPS), I felt like a (very comfortable) frog in a well, missing out on so many experiences the world has to offer. So instead of living with regret, I quit IPS. What followed was a long struggle, first as a...

I would attribute half of my struggles and disappointments in my startup journey to just one factor: "Doing too many things." This may seem weird – aren’t you supposed to do a lot of things in a startup? No, no, no. Don’t do that, please. And this applies to all of...

Last Friday, I figured that 24 hrs was not enough for me – there was way too much to do. So I ran this experiment: 1. I picked a priority task (something I absolutely had to get done). 2. I told myself, ‘Let everything else wait – let me just do this one task for...

I started my MBA 10 years after completing my B Tech. And since most of my classmates were much younger, I felt a bit like a dinosaur (in a not-so-cool way). If fact, I did derive some mischievous pleasure when I found classmates even more experienced – and therefore...

At the private equity fund where I last worked, in about half the investments where we lost money, the culprit was fraud by the promoters (i.e., company owners). In some cases, the promoters blatantly stole more than a hundred crores, but shockingly, not one guy went...

For all practical purposes, my first job out of college was to head the Trivandrum City Police as its Commissioner. Prior to that, I had only undergone the IPS training and done a piddly 7 months in a field assignment. But compared to me, my ACPs were battle-hardened...

Envy is an amazing thing. I never envy the British Queen, who has inherited this massive fortune and privilege without having worked for it for even a day. Yet, if our classmates get ahead and do really well in life, we feel a tinge of envy. And the fact remains that...

When I left my last job to do a startup, a new reality hit me – no more Car Club pickups, business class flights, expensive hotels, or unlimited travel budget. On the next flight, when I walked into the economy section, it felt a bit weird. But pretty soon, I got used...

In early 2009, I attended a townhall at McKinsey. This was just a few months after Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy, and the US was still in the midst of a horrible recession. The partners running the meeting assured us that all was well – in fact, McKinsey did not lay off...

In the 2nd year of my MBA at Wharton, I asked a finance professor for advice on landing a job with a private equity fund. When he learned that I had only worked as a cop, he told me bluntly – “With your background, it will be very difficult.” I was dejected but since...