Own My Growth

Helping folks with practical tips to manage themselves better

Embrace Solitude

Many feel uncomfortable with the idea of solitude. But, it is fundamental to any creative problem solving. ​


Daily Interactions

Our daily interactions are a key indicator of future success—improving the quality of these connections drives better outcomes.


Weekend Story-The Priest And Three Questions

Priest and three questions

Once upon a time, a priest on a walking tour in pre-revolutionary Russia was confronted by a soldier as he entered the town. The soldier pointed his bayonet at the priest and called out,  The priest was unfazed. Instead of Read more…


Beware Of The Curse Of Knowledge

curse of knowledge

In 1990, Elizabeth Newton, a Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University, did a study to check how confident people were about communicating some message to someone and how successful they were in getting the message across to the recipient.  In the Read more…


Weekend Story-Riding The Bicycle

Riding the bicycle

A Zen Teacher saw five of his students return from the market, riding their bicycles. When they had dismounted, the teacher asked the students, “Why are you riding your bicycles?” The first student replied, “The bicycle is carrying this sack Read more…


Carry A Compass

Compass

We spend a lot of life looking for maps. Tell me what to do. Give me the steps. Show me the right answer. Maps are useful when the destination is clear, and the terrain is familiar. They show us routes Read more…


Seven Social Sins

seven social sins

In 1925, Mahatma Gandhi published a short note in Young India titled “Seven Social Sins.” (library.bjp.org) He listed seven things he believed society needed to guard against: Interestingly, Gandhi did not originate the list. It had earlier been articulated by Read more…


Higher Levels, Bigger Swings

Higher levels

As you grow professionally, the decisions rarely get easier. The stakes get higher. The consequences travel further. More people are affected. More can go right, and more can go wrong. That is not necessarily a sign that something is wrong. Read more…


Leave Room For Surprise

leave room for surprise

We like to believe that good decisions come from knowing what happens next. But when I look back, many of the biggest breakthroughs in my life were not things I could have predicted. A conversation led somewhere unexpected. An opportunity Read more…


Don’t Let The Last One Decide

A bad outcome often does more damage through the decisions that follow it than through the original mistake itself. We make one poor call, then defend it because we have already invested too much. A deal goes wrong, and we Read more…


Risk You Can Work

Risk you can work

After I decide, how much can I still influence the outcome? Take an AI solution for a customer. I may not have the product fully ready. There may be uncertainty around what needs to be built. But I can still Read more…


Weekend Story- The Second Letter

second letter

A woman wrote a furious letter to her sister but, in the end, decided not to send it. The next morning she wrote a second one, calmer, and sent that instead. They were close again within a month. Years later, Read more…


The Story You Carry Forward

story you carry

Sometimes an event is over, but we are still carrying it. You can carry the same event in two ways. You can keep seeing it mainly through what it did to you, the hurt, the loss, the helplessness. Or you Read more…


Two Types Of Impatience

Impatient

There are two ways to be impatient, and they pull in opposite directions. You can be impatient with effort. Restless to do more, to push harder, to keep moving. This kind is useful. It turns restlessness into action, and action Read more…