Aswath Krishnan

One simple advice for professional success is to think and act like a founder. Before you take a job, think like a founder.  Would you start a startup in the same space, with the same business model? Do you think there's a good opportunity for  impact?  Are you are the right person to do it? Are you excited about it? Do you have the right team or the resources to hire the right team? Is your team's charter relevant to the company and supported by the company? Do you think you have the investment and support (from the company) to make you successful? Do you agree with the company's values and culture? Are they meritocratic, rational and not political? If your answers are not a yes and if your situation allows for it, keep looking for another job. It is usually hard to change these factors in an established company. After you take the job, continue to think and act like a founder.  Make the business, customers and your "investors and board members" (...

Growing up, I loved listening to my grandmother's stories - an eclectic mix of folk tales, mythology, tales about her life and family. She is a gifted story teller and when she enters story mode, her audience of young kids and adults alike are thoroughly drawn into the experience - listening attentively, sharing laughs, astonishment and scares (my grandmother loves the horror genre, much to the chagrin of the parents). For the last fifteen or so years, I moved to a different country and have lived quite far away from my family. My interactions with my grandmother reduced to monthly phone calls and yearly visits. Our phone calls were simple check-ins, with similar patterns - my grandmother advising me to eat more or get married; and me enquiring about my grandmother's health, tv shows or daily routine. Yesterday, I broke that pattern. When we were about to be done with our usual check-in and when my grandma was advising me to have babies soon, I changed course and asked her...