“Life is the best teacher, it just doesn’t hand out its lessons gently.” Over the weekend, a mentor asked me, “What makes great leaders truly great, and how certain humans stay strong?” That question stuck. I didn’t have an instant answer (would’ve been nice if I did!), so I started looking back not at the fancy milestones, but at those messy, in-between moments that actually taught me something. So here are 13 lessons life has taught me simple reminders I keep coming bac

Came across Mark Twain’s line again today - “A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.” And I smiled. Because isn’t that true for all of us? In theory, we should be learning from others’ mistakes. In reality, some lessons just refuse to sink in until we’ve lived them, scratched, surprised and all. As leaders, we read, we listen, we observe, yet every now and then, we still end up holding the cat by the tail. That’s how growth works. I

In today’s world, AI transformation is on every organization's agenda. Teams run pilots, build proofs-of-concept, and track adoption dashboards. Yet the organizations that truly succeed aren’t the ones that “finish” a project, they’re the ones that embed transformation into the way they work every day. The trap I see often: tools are deployed, early wins celebrated, and it is assumed the job is done. But AI adoption isn’t about finishing, it’s about practicing transformation

It’s true that you can’t manage what you don’t measure. But it’s equally true that what you measure starts mattering more than what ought to matter. That’s the beauty and the danger of metrics. In corporate life we chase dashboards, OKRs, and quarterly targets until they begin to define success more than purpose. In personal life, we chase step counts, calorie goals, and likes until movement feels like numbers and not joy. Metrics give us focus. But sometimes, they quietly hi

The magic of childhood wasn’t in being a kid - it was in being present. Look around - the sky, the sun, the laughter , everything is almost the same. Yet we were abundantly happy. Why? Because our minds weren’t stuck in “what happened” or “what’s next.” Age may tick on, but it’s the mind that decides our mood, our energy, our spark - whether we lead, create, or just move on autopilot. When we pause, we tap into that curiosity, joy, and audacity we carried as kids. That same s

"Every bold idea sounds crazy at first until it changes the game.” That thought was front and center at our recent Ideathon at Ubisoft India Studios , where I was truly impressed by the quality of ideas our teams put forward. It wasn’t just creativity, it was energy, curiosity, and ownership in action. What stood out most to me: ✅People stepping outside the safe zone, bringing “ambitious” ideas with conviction. ✅Conversations sparking that stretched our thinking to new level