• The Noun Elon Musk Left Out of the SpaceX S1: A Positioning Read of the June 12 IPO

    The Noun Elon Musk Left Out of the SpaceX S1: A Positioning Read of the June 12 IPO

    A note before you read this: SpaceX has been operating for 24 years, and the part of the company most worth respecting is the part the financial press does not write about: the engineering culture, the cadence, the tolerance for…

  • Cloudflare built the internet’s Immune Layer

    Cloudflare built the internet’s Immune Layer

    A note before you read this: I’ve been watching Cloudflare for a long time. What Matthew Prince, Michelle Zatlyn, and Lee Holloway built, and what the team continues to build, sits in a category of its own. Fifteen years of…

  • Nerdio: The Command Layer

    Nerdio: The Command Layer

    A Note Before You Read: I’ve been following Nerdio and Vadim’s work the past few weeks, paying close attention to the content, the conference, the community, and the story being built in public. What you see here comes from genuine…

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  • Do you sell the drill or the hole? Putting the urban legend to rest #sales

    Today, we’ll challenge the age-old chestnut, what your customer is buying: the drill or the hole? Spoiler alert, none! They’re neither buying the drill nor the hole. And this urban legend story has been used by sales and marketing people to help others identify the difference between a product and…

  • How a poor villager’s story from the Indian desert taught me human-centered design

    Today’s story takes me back a decade ago when I was at the Northpoint Centre of Learning doing my post-grad in Marketing, Media, and Communications. One day, I had the chance to participate in a workshop by Mr. Premjeet Sodhi, the President of Lintas Media Group at the time. In…

  • CEO Mindset — Strategy Masterclass with Steve Jobs (Apple) & Sandeep Goyal (Rediffusion)

    Your focus, willpower, and gameplay are the only things standing between you and your most ambitious goals. So, what can you do to set yourself up for success? The big game mentality theory by Dr. Sandeep Goyal depicts the difference between the winners and the runner-ups. It is a simple…

  • The Power of Contrast and Self-Value

    Today, I would like to jump right into the topic of self-value. A while back, I was going through Twitter, as you do, and I came across a tweet from Blair Enns that said, and I’m paraphrasing: “If you’re not willing to pay for value, then you can’t learn how…

  • How to Lead with Curiosity

    All the major breakthroughs and inventions in the history of the world derive from one thing: curiosity. As defined by Mirriam-Webster, curiosity is the desire to know and I would add that it is inherently intrinsic to who we are as a species. Curiosity is linked to all aspects of…

  • Forget the T-shaped skillset: Try being a comb instead!

    Read the revised, updated and better version of this article over here. Landing your first job might be tricky if you don’t have a specific skill set, but you know what? Getting hired with a plethora of skills is even more challenging contrary to what you might think. More means…

  • The Art of Remote Storytelling

    Virtually presenting your creative ideas and telling engaging stories can be limiting and challenging. Most people observe passively and multitask in the background adding to your frustration. Is there a way to get noticed and replicate the in-person experience remotely, influencing and winning the audience? Don’t sweat, I’ve done the…

  • Missed Connections — Short Film Series

    Hello and welcome! Everyone is trying to cope with the current strange situation in their own way. I’m making a series of short films. Why am I making films? Have I made some already? Where am I posting them? Who watches them? Should you be watching them? Feeling anxious and…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

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