During my talks, one of the question I ask is “Can you think of interacting with someone in the recent past, someone who was very nice to you until he wanted to get something out of you and once the work was complete – seems to have disappeared from the planet?” I usually hear people… Continue reading →

One of your close friends comes up with an idea that has the possibility of making a big impact on your future – may be in terms of money, career or any other kind of success. You may take that idea and do something about it or you may decide to pass on it. Whatever… Continue reading →

I know you should not judge a book by its cover. People do. So if the book is good, why not spend some time to get a good cover? I know that first impressions can be wrong. You should not judge a person just by the first impression. People do. They may not give him… Continue reading →

We are always buying insurance policies. No. Not those related to your life and car. Just those simple insurance policies that will protect our ego just in case something we say doesn’t turn out the way we said it would. Rather than talking in abstract terms, here are some examples: You say: I have not… Continue reading →

Imagine you are walking up the stairs. When you are almost at the top, you may think that the first few steps on these stairs are no longer useful so why not knock them off and save some space. The thought seems ridiculous, yes,  but in real-life that’s what many people do. They get a… Continue reading →

It is fun to be around people who are humorous. Right? Wrong. “Probably” is the right answer. It all depends on what kind of humor we are talking about. Humor when not used right can simply hurt someone or make them uncomfortable. Since humor is typically related to people, the fundamental question to always ask… Continue reading →

Programming languages have syntax and rules. With the right design in place, following the syntax and rules will get us the desired results. Which is fine but trying to extend that to life may not work all the time. Simple reason – in life you are dealing with people and people are very different from… Continue reading →

Let’s say you are working on a new project. You want to get some feedback from some of your smartest friends. You pick a number. Let’s say that number is ten and you call all of them at the start of the project and ask for their feedback. Chances are that more than one of… Continue reading →

This is typically a “last mile” problem that can easily be solved. This is also a problem mostly related to awareness and the power of beliefs. Let me explain. Let’s say painting is your passion. You love to paint. You have done some amazing work in the past and you continue to produce great work… Continue reading →

About fifteen years ago, I was attending a speed reading workshop back in Bangalore, India. As an introduction to the course, the instructor asked us to pick up a book and turn it around and read a page. It was hard to read the book upside-down. It took us a few minutes to read one… Continue reading →