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
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
Friends and family are the worst people to pitch your business ideas
When starting a business the first people we (usually) jump to for feedback are friends and family. They are the quickest and most reliable people to get feedback from. Easiest way to get people to try your potential product. However, I think that this is dangerous. I believe that friends and family are not reliable … Continue reading Friends and family are the worst people to pitch your business ideas
Why you should release your ideas before you feel ready to
In life I believe that there are two types of people when it comes to creative and entrepreneurial pursuits; Doers and Planners. The doers are people who jump into projects without thinking. They do first and then learn from their mistakes. The planners on the other hand are obsessed with finding potential mistakes before they … Continue reading Why you should release your ideas before you feel ready to