Hmmm...

  Comfort Is Not the Enemy People keep saying this — “Where there is comfort, there is no growth.” But I never believed that. And I still don’t. My best work happens when I am comfortable. When I am in my zone, with my tools, sitting at my own desk. I have seen it again and again in my life. Let me tell you what happened once. Someone thought they were doing me a favour by giving me a “challenge”. They moved me to a new office. Big open space, strange smell, noisy, everyone walking around, nothing in place. They said this will help me adapt, help me discover new energy, push me out of my comfort zone. What really happened? I spent the whole day just looking for my pen, getting distracted by the chatter, and waiting for the day to end. I was not growing. a few month latter I was just irritated. That day I understood something very clearly. Growth does not always mean breaking yourself. It can also mean building yourself quietly, in a space that feels right to you. It’s the ...

I’ve always wondered if chasing big goals is actually making people feel worse. Over time, I learned something simpler and more powerful and it changed my life. For a long time, wherever I read books or listened to self help talks, there was always so much focus on setting goals. Everybody kept saying, write down your big goals, chase them, push yourself. But somehow, it never felt right to me. In fact, I started feeling that this is the reason why many people around me feel low, frustrated or even lost. I have always believed something else. I feel if you just set the right intention every day, you will reach wherever you are meant to reach. Goals feel like a burden sometimes, but intentions feel lighter. They keep you moving without that heavy pressure. I have seen this in my own life. At work, when I kept saying I must become this or earn that much in a year, I was always anxious. The day I decided to just show up every day, do my work well, help people around me and learn something...

There are leadership lessons everywhere. Some come from books. Some from boardrooms. But the most powerful ones, I feel, come from watching people rise… and then fall. Let me tell you a story. From someone you’ve all heard about: Smriti Irani. Now, many know her as a former Union Minister, a firebrand speaker, someone who defeated Rahul Gandhi in Amethi. Some remember her from the saas-bahu days on TV. Others see her today; a bit more silent, no longer in the political spotlight, and facing a lot of public criticism. But this isn’t about politics. This is about leadership. This is about what her story can teach us, not just from her success, but from what followed.  Smriti Irani started small. Really small. Worked at McDonald’s. Tried modeling. Faced rejections. No industry contacts, no godfather, no backup plan. But she kept going. And that’s something to admire. She reinvented herself as an actor, became one of the most recognized faces in Indian households. And then, once again,...