There’s a growing romance in business circles around the idea of “fractional” leadership - a head of marketing who works two days a week, a product lead who divides their time across three ventures, or a strategy executive who parachutes in for a few hours of wisdom and then disappears into the next … [Read more...]
The Difference Between Making and Designing
There comes a point in every creative person’s journey when instinct stops being enough. You can have the eye, the talent, the intuition, and even the charm of good taste, but without structure, intention, and reflection, all of that brilliance remains suspended in chance. It might work today, … [Read more...]
The Illusion of Career Planning
I often tell my students that trying to plan your entire career is one of the biggest mistakes smart people make. It feels responsible, even intelligent, to map it all out - the next job, the next city, the next milestone. We’re taught that clarity comes from certainty. But in reality, clarity comes … [Read more...]
The Golf Course of Life
Some conversations stay with you long after they end. A couple of days back, at Irish Hills Golf Course, I found myself in one of those moments. We were being hosted by Jagdeep Bhaji and Lakhwinder Bhaji for a celebration - an evening filled with laughter, stories, and that easy kind of … [Read more...]
The Empty Chair and the Missing Customer
Every time I meet someone excited about starting a new venture, I hear the same enthusiasm in their voice. They want to build something they’ve dreamed up, something they believe the world needs, or something they are confident they can create. That excitement is wonderful, but it is also where … [Read more...]
The Game Is Won in the Mind Before It Is Won on the Field
No matter how dazzling your game, if you don’t win the match, it doesn’t count for much. Sports, like life and leadership, remind us that brilliance without results can be entertaining, even memorable, but it is not defining. The scoreboard has the final say. The crowd may rise to applaud a … [Read more...]
The Seduction of Habit
Most of what we do in life is not the result of conscious choice. It is not because we have carefully thought it through, weighed the alternatives, or acted with deliberate conviction. It is simply habit. The way we tie our shoes, the way we check our phones, the way we respond in meetings, even … [Read more...]
The False Comfort of Being Even
One of the strangest logics we continue to accept in our personal lives, in organizations, and even in world affairs is the logic of “getting even.” You take one of mine, I take one of yours, and now we are balanced. One minus one equals zero. But here’s the catch: the math doesn’t hold. If you … [Read more...]
What We Walk Past
Every leader eventually faces the moment when apathy stares back at them. It can come in the form of a shrug, a dismissive answer, or a subtle act of neglect. And it’s tempting to treat it as a simple failure of discipline or a need for stricter rules. But the truth is, no system, no policy, no … [Read more...]