There is a certain undercurrent of indifferent cruelty that runs through Indian corporate life, and it shows up most starkly in how we treat the people we owe money to. We call it “process”, “finance cycle”, “system delays”. But underneath the jargon sits something older and uglier. It is the ingrained societal belief that if you are waiting to be paid, you must be lower in the food chain. How are You coping with being a VENDOR? On the phone, on an email, or in meetings, these words you...

Happiness. Sadness. Helplessness. Doubts. Hopes. Aspirations. For three long decades he was a part of all of it. Wherever we were in the world, I would pick up a phone when I wanted to hear his voice. No matter how long it had been since he heard my voice, whatever the number I was dialing in from, the excitement in his voice never changed: ‘How are you? How is Madam? Are you in Bombay? What time are you both coming?’ He was our friend, our philosopher, our confidante, the safe rock on which...

The lesson for leaders is clear. Your competitive advantage isn’t how long you can work. It is how effectively you can perform when it matters most. And that requires what elite athletes have always known, the courage to step away, to truly disengage, to come back hungry.