Rajan’s Linkedin posts

One Small Action at a Time

Nobody gets up one day and says, "Let me become a drug addict." Nobody decides one day, "Let me start eating junk food, and become obese and unhealthy." Nor does anyone decide to become a chronic procrastinator, Netflix binge-watcher, or a smartphone addict. And yet,...

The Myth of Perfection

In my last startup, ConceptOwl, a friend once told me about another learning startup that was growing like crazy by selling through schools. He asked, "Why don't you also do that?" When I heard that, my heart sank. We had tried the same approach and failed miserably....

Beyond the Business Card

If you throw away your business card, whatever you have left, is truly yours, because nobody can take it away. We all derive identity and pride from our jobs, and it is perfectly logical. But it is worth remembering that our worth as a professional is derived from two...

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Rajan shares insights from his own life journey to help you build better habits in yours.

    Donkey + Donkey = Horse?

    In my days as a private equity investor, I learned some interesting lessons about ‘synergies’, horses, and donkeys -- here they are 🙂 Every fund has the usual mix of investments, some good, others not so much. Most investments that do badly, do so for deep underlying...

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    Punctuality is the key

    During my early days in the Indian Police Service, I was once accompanying a senior officer to a police station for an inspection. While on the way, in the car, this officer was talking about the importance of discipline and timeliness. But ironically, while we were...

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    Real tragedies

    In 2008, working in New York, every week I would hear about my friends losing their jobs. In the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, every US bank was dead or tottering. Lakhs of people had lost their jobs, houses, and bulk of their savings. I thought I...

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    Hardship as a Training Ground

    During my training in the Indian Police Service, we had to do a long route march in scorching sun, with a rifle and backpack. What was the point of that? Similarly, if you go for any hardcore military training such as for commandos, they won’t give you a precision...

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    Unsung Heroes

    When I joined the Indian Police Service, my seniors told me about a Rambo-like officer, who would be out patrolling at night, catching criminals. They told me, ‘He should be your role model.’ After all, that is the kind of officer one gets to see in movies. But years...

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    Zig-Zag to Success

    Once, while heading to lunch with a Wharton classmate who was a sailing expert, I asked her, 'If a boat needs to sail DIRECTLY against the wind, how would it do that?' She explained the trick: You can't sail directly against the wind. But you can sail up to 45 degrees...

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    How to create real value

    During my stint with the Indian Police Service, I once got an assignment with barely an hour of work daily. It was a welcome breather after a long back-breaking assignment. Naturally, I would leave the office at 6 pm. My boss, on the other hand, would sit in the...

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    The value of deep work and focused effort

    A few years ago, a friend volunteered to help me for a few days with my startup. He showed up at my office and after a long discussion, offered to create a detailed execution plan for me. He then left, promising to reconnect in a bit. For the next few hrs, I was...

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    Defending your time and attention

    When my wife was the District Collector, Trivandrum, she was heading 200 odd committees. If the average committee met twice a year, you end up with 400 meetings -- i.e., approx two meetings per working day. Yikes! And this does not even count all the other meetings...

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    Improving systems from the inside out

    During my stint with the Indian Police Service, a top police official once said this to me with immense pride: 'I only travel to countries where I am not frisked at the airport. I go to Dubai because I am not frisked, but I won't go to the US or Europe.' Apparently,...

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    The Power of Social Contagion

    A few years ago, I was attending a dreadfully boring conference, where we were listlessly sitting around a table. During a break, out of sheer boredom, I picked up a bottle of water to drink. As soon as I did that, 2-3 other people on the table also picked up the...

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    Fix your day

    Two years ago, one evening, a team member called me and said, “Today, we are going to work the whole night.” He was leading a team of 5-6 people and intended to work overnight to fix a problem. Here was the problem: Our startup had created thousands of science/math...

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    Aim before you shoot

    Once a renowned fund manager told me that for two years, he made no investments at all. The US markets were overpriced and good deals were hard to come by. For those two years, every day, he would dress up in the morning and go to office. He would sit and read...

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    Rajan shares insights from his own life journey to help you build better habits in yours.