Towards the later days of BrainGain, shortly before I ultimately moved on, I learned an important lesson about motivation...and how it’s different for everyone. While many of us believe that money is the sole motivator in life, from my experience I have seen that it’s actually quite the opposite - Money is the easy low … Continue reading Not Everyone Is Motivated by Money
How to encourage inclusion and ideation at work
While running BrainGain I liked to have monthly “State of the Union” style meetings to have a comprehensive overview of what we accomplished throughout the month. These meetings often went well for the most part, but there was a key ingredient missing. Ideation. I found that my teammates just didn’t have ideas to contribute. OR, … Continue reading How to encourage inclusion and ideation at work
Controlled Confrontation – The art of handling difficult conversations
The vast majority of people I meet are averse to confrontation. They fear an argument. They avoid it with all of their willpower. People often look at arguments and confrontations as a BAD thing. If people are arguing, something is wrong. And for good reason - who wants to spend their day locked in heated … Continue reading Controlled Confrontation – The art of handling difficult conversations
If you’re hard on yourself you’re probably hard on others
I’m someone who is very hard on myself. I hold myself to high standards. I expect myself to perform at my best at all times. When I don’t, I become frustrated. When I do, I barely even notice my good performance because I’m too focused on the future and overlooking the present. Unfortunately, while this … Continue reading If you’re hard on yourself you’re probably hard on others
The Power of Positive Constraints
Knowing when to dial back and how to do it One of my worst habits is my ability to perpetually bite off more than I can chew. I have periods of dormancy, where I’m anxious that I don’t have enough work on my plate, and then, feeling this anxiety, I go out and create work … Continue reading The Power of Positive Constraints
Stop chasing new customers if you’re neglecting your current ones
One of my (many) problems with the glorified startup culture is the mindset of grow, grow, grow. Everyone seems to be focused growth. Traffic, signups, downloads, paying users,etc., If you’re not growing ____, then you’re failing as a business. While yes, this is a healthy mindset to have (the goal is always to grow your … Continue reading Stop chasing new customers if you’re neglecting your current ones
My nightmare of a fundraising story
Around two years ago, when trying to scale my recruitment company BrainGain, I tried to raise a round of funding...and failed miserably. It was a great story with a lot of learnings so I decided to document it all. I hope you enjoy the ride 🙂 …. After living in Bangalore, India for the better … Continue reading My nightmare of a fundraising story
Top performers rise to the surface
I don’t believe that job interviews work. They are outdated. Why do I say this? Good communicators can talk their way into a position and then perform poorly. Poor communicators (who could have been great at the job) don’t speak well in the interview and get passed on. Interviews don’t accurately demonstrate who will perform … Continue reading Top performers rise to the surface
Give people the opportunity to surprise you
Goal setting is an important part of your business, but not for the reasons that you think it is. There’s a famous study (that I can’t find right now but you probably can) in which they found that people who exercised for only 5 minutes per day were more likely to build a habit than … Continue reading Give people the opportunity to surprise you
How I spoke at Harvard
Roughly 3 years ago I was invited to speak at Harvard Business School, Cornell, Upenn Wharton School of Business and Rutgers university despite having 0 experience, 0 credibility, and knowing 0 people there. How did I do it? It was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. To back up and give … Continue reading How I spoke at Harvard