Rajan’s Linkedin posts

Don’t Freeze, Keep Moving

Long ago, a friend who took the NDA/military career route was telling me about the bayonet charge routine in the army. In a bayonet charge, you run towards and attack an enemy bunker typically defended by a machine gun firing 10 bullets per second. What are the odds...

Why Consultants Always Have ‘Three Things’

Whenever consultants want to say something, they always have 'three things.' And we mock them for that 🙂 But if you want to communicate well, there is some real science here -- the science of working memory. It turns out that our working memory can hold about 7...

Simple Diet, Strong Health

A former McKinsey colleague of mine from Australia once said that his father would claim insulin from the Australian Health System and give it to their dog. But how did the dog become diabetic? Aren't animals supposed to be naturally healthy? Actually, we are all...

Subscribe to the HabitStrong newsletter

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

Just play your cards well

Think of someone you really, really envy. It could be anyone -- a billionaire, a film star, a Nobel laureate, or even a Buddhist monk. Have you thought of a person? Now, would you swap your life for theirs? If yes, here is the deal: You get all they have, including...

read more

The trap of external validation

I know an ex-civil servant, who joined three political parties with diametrically opposite ideologies, to end up in one of the highest positions in government. So why do people do that? Do their political convictions change so fast? Are they so desperate ‘to serve the...

read more

Stop planning, start doing

I have seen people adopt two distinct approaches when they want to start meditating: Approach 1: Sit down and meditate. Approach 2: Research lots and lots of meditation techniques (and do nothing). In fact, this holds for everything in life. If you want to do...

read more

Tips to regulate social media usage

You don't have to quit all social media, though some people I admire (e.g., Cal Newport) are big proponents of that. In the last few years, almost all my new friends, running buddies, and connections have come from LinkedIn. Without that, I would have missed out on...

read more

Victory is born in our mind, so is defeat

You must have heard a lot of wisdom along the lines of, "Here is what you should do in your 20s." Often, one hears things like: Learn aggressively, try things you are scared of, make mistakes Build relationships and network Explore ideas that seem interesting Have fun...

read more

The power of simple finance

A Wharton professor, who taught us valuation, once told this story of Merton Miller, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics for his work on the Miller-Modigliani theorem. At that time, our professor was a student at the University of Chicago, where Miller was also...

read more

Have a beginner’s mind

I once was interviewing a professional investor who invests in power plants and infrastructure. But when I asked him "What is 1 kilowatt-hour?" he had no idea. Many people swim in the shallows. They make do by talking about high-level stuff, without really...

read more

Do what will give you peace of mind

We hear two extreme philosophies of life. One says, "Spend less, own less, and be minimalistic. The other says, "Live it up, enjoy the luxuries, and have fun." So what should you do? While there can't be a prescriptive answer, let me lay out a framework to think about...

read more

Train your people to build focus

In this deafening clamor of notifications, pings, and rings, do you know the one thing nobody cares about? You. And your attention, your well-being. Nobody cares about your attention because you can always work late nights and get work done. Then why bother? We have...

read more

How to rise up the leadership ladder

If you want to rapidly rise up the leadership ladder, these are the things to do: Don’t wait for people to tell you what to do. Identify problems or areas where can you contribute and then offer specific help. Take responsibility, even if small ones – and deliver....

read more

Overcoming perfectionism

Procrastination is NOT laziness. And unless we understand this, we can't fix our procrastination problem. We procrastinate when we don't know how to handle the negative emotions generated by a task (e.g., anxiety). We then avoid working on a task even when we know...

read more

Subscribe to the HabitStrong newsletter

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