Dive deep into business, brand and strategy.
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The desk
Working from a café, on your laptop, is a trifle at best and a trek if you’re carrying a laptop bag. A coffee shop, in my mind, is suitable for meetings, quick last-minute edits, chatting and “coffee” but the absolute worst for doing focused work. “Oh, look! There’s Paul at the coffee shop working on…
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Naked ankles
It’s been half a decade. And I can’t seem to stop. I’m finally coming out and saying it. Ready? Naked ankles are my weakness. Folding my pant cuffs, revealing the hairy flesh underneath, is a habit I picked up from GQ. Shameless plug alert. I wrote for GQ. So when I say GQ was my…
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The lonely nose hair
Tell me you haven’t looked someone in the eye, noticed a single strand of hair poking out of their nose, and been a) sick to your stomach or b) made attempts to stare without getting caught or c) imagined not one but a hair flower. Nose hair extensions, anyone? I don’t like to stick my…
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Why Designers Are Good Pickup Artists
The number one trait that makes designers and pick up artists siblings from different mothers is their ability to instigate, favourable behaviour, emotions in the end user (which can be a girl they just met or the end customer they want in their sales funnel). Wait, what? That’s possible? But Paul, not all designers are…
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Five Life Lessons My Coach Taught Me
Last month I crossed 500 days of training milestone, while raising my one rep deadlift max to an all-new 300lb. To set the record straight and avoid the ire of fitness elite, I do Crossfit on alternate days of the week. (Spoiler: Completing x-days has never been and never was the objective. It happens to…
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Dentsu’s Chairman on “The Big Game Mentality”
Some time ago, I had the opportunity to sit across the table, at a conference, with a man who turned around a 3 million company (Rediff DY&R) into a 100 million powerhouse, almost overnight. Sporting a ponytail, and alive with experience, Mr. Sandeep Goyal, Chairman, Dentsu Advertising (the biggest agency in the world — holds…
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Is India the worst for digital nomads?
According to 70 nomads on NomadList, India is probably one of the worst places to work scoring poorly on almost all categories. Internet, gays and women have it so bad you can’t help but cringe. Quartz chimes in. This is fucking insane! Having lived and worked in Chandigarh, New Delhi, Mumbai and New York I…
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The Tesla of Online Airline Ticket Booking is Virgin
The notorious flag glooming over most airline ticketing portals is hanging on a price pole. Commissions are held back like a receding hairline. I’d rather shave it than wax nostalgic sporting a comb over. Hemmed on that flag are the letters “FUCK” in big bold letters, underlined, enclosed in a starburst, catching a welfare fluff.…
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How I got my first job in advertising (Third and final part)
Read part one and two first. While I stood in one corner of the room, by the balcony, overlooking Thane, my friend lay lazy in bed. We were brainstorming ideas to get me a foot in the door at an advertising agency. He was hosting me for the weekend while I was in-between places. He worked…
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How I got my first job in advertising (Part two)
Read part one first. Before the one bedroom hall kitchen there was a room. Not just any room. It was a classroom at the end of a hallway on the third floor of a school. Yeah, thats right. You heard me right. The room was divided into three parts, appropriated with a bed without sheets,…
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How I got my first job in advertising (Part one)
The bell to our one bedroom hall kitchen rang. We were expecting burgers and fries from McDonald’s this afternoon. But, this wasn’t your regular delivery. There was a catch. My roommate and me were jobless and broke as fuck. No advertising agency was willing to hire virgin copywriters. I was told repeatedly that I lacked…
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Assumptions, eating pizza and startups
There we were, at the end of a long day, huddled together at a pizza place, debating the intentions of “circular-pizza-sliced-perforations” on the top of a pizza box. Let’s quickly add context to “we” here. There’s the founder, the designer and I. Back to that evening. “It’s meant to keep the pizza fresh,” prompted the…
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