Yesterday night I watched Sanju Samson walk out to bat for CSK against Delhi Capitals at Chepauk.
Three games into his CSK career. Scores of 6, 7 and 9. The boos had not started yet but the murmurs had. People were beginning to question the trade. Whether leaving Rajasthan Royals made sense. Whether the pressure of a new franchise had gotten to him.
I have watched Sanju bat for many years now. I know what he looks like when he is troubled. And I know what he looks like when he has made up his mind.
Yesterday, he had made up his mind.
He took Mukesh Kumar for consecutive fours in the first over. He launched Kuldeep Yadav for a six over extra cover. CSK raced to 62 in the powerplay. He never looked back. He finished on an unbeaten 115 off 56 balls.
IPL 2026 had its first centurion. And he chose the perfect night to do it.
CSK won by 23 runs. Jamie Overton took 4 for 18. First points of the season. The relief was written all over Ruturaj Gaikwad’s face at the end.
Never doubt Sanju Samson. He always answers. Eventually.
Seven Days. Nine Matches. Where Do I Even Begin.
April 5 started with a double-header.
The first match in Hyderabad. SRH versus LSG. Mohammed Shami dismantled the SRH top order, removing Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head cheaply to leave them reeling at 26 for 4 after eight overs. From there, Klaasen and Nitish Kumar Reddy rescued SRH with a 116-run fifth-wicket partnership in 63 balls, the highest for SRH in IPL history, to get them to 156.
Still not enough. Rishabh Pant stayed calm through LSG’s middle-order wobble and finished the chase with three boundaries off the last over, winning it with one ball to spare. Classic Pant. Makes it look impossible until the very last moment, then makes it look easy.
The second match that evening at Chinnaswamy. RCB versus CSK. And RCB were simply brutal. Tim David scored 70 not out off 25 balls with 8 sixes. Patidar smashed 48 off 19. RCB posted 250 for 3, the highest ever by any team against CSK in IPL history. CSK were bowled out for 207 and lost by 43 runs, their third consecutive defeat.
CSK looked broken after that evening. They were not. But we did not know that yet.
April 6. Eden Gardens. My team. My city. And the rain.
KKR were 25 for 2 in 3.4 overs when the match was abandoned. Xavier Bartlett had already removed Finn Allen and Cameron Green. Both teams took a point.
So KKR’s first point of the season came courtesy of a Kolkata thunderstorm. SRK appeared on the balcony and waved to the crowd. That was the highlight of the evening. I will say no more.
April 7 in Guwahati. Rain again, this time cutting the match to 11 overs a side. But shorter did not mean quieter.
Suryavanshi and Jaiswal put on an 80-run opening stand. Suryavanshi scored 39. Jaiswal finished unbeaten on 77 off 32 balls. RR posted 150 for 3 and bowled MI out to win by 27 runs. Bumrah bowled. Suryavanshi hit him anyway. Jaiswal said after the game that watching Suryavanshi take on Bumrah in the first over released the pressure for the whole team. That sentence tells you everything about what this 15-year-old is doing to opposition bowlers’ minds.
April 8. Delhi. DC versus GT. The first real last-ball finish of the week.
GT posted 210. KL Rahul scored 92 off 52 for DC. David Miller, facing his former side, brought the equation down to 2 needed off the final ball. He missed. Jos Buttler ran out Kuldeep Yadav attempting a desperate bye. GT won by 1 run.
One run. The cruelty of this game. Rahul deserved a winning side that night. He did not get one.
April 9. Eden Gardens again. KKR versus LSG. And the most painful kind of loss.
KKR posted 181. LSG were 104 for 5. Mukul Choudhary walked in and scored 54 off 27 balls with seven sixes. He and Avesh Khan added 54 for the eighth wicket. With one needed off the final ball, Choudhary swung, missed, ran through. Raghuvanshi’s throw missed the stumps. LSG won by three wickets.
I turned off the television at that point. I could not watch the celebrations.
KKR posted 181 and it should have been enough. But the death bowling fell apart completely in those final four overs. With no Harshit Rana and Pathirana still unavailable, the lack of experienced death bowling options showed badly when it mattered most. When a team has no genuine pace threat at the death, lower-order batters like Choudhary start looking like match-winners. And that is exactly what happened.
The hard truth is this. Without Harshit Rana and Pathirana, KKR have no reliable death bowling identity. Sunil Narine at 37 may genuinely be their best option in those final overs. That is not a plan. That is a prayer.
April 10 in Guwahati. RR versus the defending champions RCB. And Suryavanshi again. This time against the best bowling attack in the tournament.
RCB posted 201. Suryavanshi came out and scored 78 off 26 balls, with 7 sixes and 8 fours, reaching his fifty off just 15 balls. Dhruv Jurel followed with an unbeaten 81 off 43 balls. RR chased 202 with two overs to spare. RCB’s first loss of the season. RR’s fourth consecutive win. Suryavanshi now leads the Orange Cap with 200 runs in four matches at a strike rate of 266.
After the match, Virat Kohli sent him a personal message of appreciation. When Kohli reaches out to you specifically, you know you have done something truly special.
April 11 gave us a double-header to close the week. First, SRH blazed to 105 for 0 in the powerplay, the third-highest powerplay total in IPL history, with Abhishek Sharma smashing 74 off 28 balls. They were looking at 240. Shashank Singh took two wickets in one over and stopped the charge. SRH managed 219. PBKS chased it down with 7 balls to spare, with Shreyas Iyer finishing unbeaten on 69 off 33.
And then the final match of the week. Sanju’s night. The century. The first points for CSK. The feeling that a team has finally found its feet.
Where Things Stand After Two Weeks
Rajasthan Royals are the team of the tournament. Four wins from four. A 15-year-old who produces a match-winning performance every single time he walks in. A captain in Riyan Parag who backs his instincts. The RR bowling has wobbled a couple of times but the batting has always covered for it.
Punjab Kings are quietly doing something special too. Unbeaten in four games. Three wins and an abandonment that felt like a robbery for them at Eden Gardens.
CSK have woken up. One big performance can do that to a team. Watch them from here.
And KKR. Three losses, one rain point. Next up is CSK at Chepauk on Tuesday the 14th. Away game. Desperate for a win.
I want to believe. I always do. But this team needs answers urgently. The bowling combinations, the death overs, the inability to close out tight games. Something needs to change before it is too late.
Tell Me What You Think
What was your moment of Week 2?
Sanju’s 115? Suryavanshi’s 78 off 26 against the champions? GT winning by 1 run in Delhi? Or Mukul Choudhary appearing from nowhere to steal the game at Eden Gardens on the last ball?
Drop it in the comments. I read every single one.
And if you are a KKR fan, you know where I am. Let us hope Tuesday finally brings some good news.
Let me ask you something.
When was the last time you were genuinely surprised by what AI could do?
Not impressed. Not curious. Actually surprised. The kind of surprise that makes you sit back and think: wait, that changes things.
For most people, that moment was sometime in late 2022 or early 2023. ChatGPT arrived. You typed a question and got a brilliant answer. You asked it to write something and it wrote something good. You showed it to a colleague and they were amazed.
That feeling was real. That moment was real.
But that version of AI? It is already old.
AI Version 1.0: The Very Smart Assistant
Think about what that first wave of AI actually was.
It was a tool that waited.
You opened it. You typed something. It responded. You read the response. You decided what to do next. You closed it and went back to your work.
It was extraordinary. But it was still passive. It sat there, quietly, until you needed it. Like a very knowledgeable colleague who only speaks when spoken to.
Search got smarter. Writing got faster. Customer support got cheaper. Code got easier to write. Entire categories of work got compressed into minutes.
All of that is real. All of that matters.
But here is what that version of AI could not do.
It could not watch.
It could not notice.
It could not act on your behalf while you were doing something else entirely.
You always had to be in the loop. You were always the one making the final call. AI made you faster and sharper, but you were still the engine. AI was just the fuel.
That is Version 1.0.
Something Fundamental Just Shifted.
Agentic AI is not an upgrade to the AI you already know.
It is a completely different idea.
The old AI answered your questions. Agentic AI watches your world continuously, reasons about what is happening, makes a decision, and acts. Without waiting for you to ask. Without needing you to be in the room.
Think about what that actually means.
A system that monitors 47 data points simultaneously. That notices a pattern forming. That cross-references it against a rule you set six months ago. That executes a response in the next 60 seconds. And sends you a message telling you what it did and why.
You wake up in the morning and your AI agent has already done three things on your behalf overnight.
That is not a smarter chatbot. That is a different category of technology entirely.
The shift is this: AI moved from being a tool you use to being a system that works for you.
There is a word for what that creates. Autonomy. And autonomy at scale is what every business has been trying to buy for the last hundred years.
Let Me Show You What This Looks Like In The Real World.
There is a problem hiding inside every large jewellery retailer in India.
It is not visible on the balance sheet. It does not show up in the monthly P&L in an obvious way. But it is there, leaking, every single day.
Gold prices move in milliseconds. The MCX ticker updates continuously. The global LBMA benchmark shifts with every dollar move. The USD/INR rate adds another layer of complexity on top of that.
And in the middle of all this movement sits a CFO, looking at three different screens.
Screen one: live commodity prices. Screen two: the ERP system, batch-synced and hours behind reality. Screen three: a global price feed that speaks a different language from the local market data.
Nobody built a bridge between these three screens. So a human being became the bridge. And every time a human being is the bridge between a moving market and a business decision, margin leaks through the gap.
At the scale of a retailer operating 150 plus locations across India, that gap is not small. It is crores. Every year. Silently.
This is exactly the kind of problem that Agentic AI was built for.
What We Are Building At Brainium.
At Brainium, we are in the middle of building something we are calling Project Aurum-i.
It is an agentic middleware. Not a dashboard. Not a report. Not another screen for the CFO to stare at.
A system that ingests three live data streams simultaneously: global gold prices, domestic MCX futures, and real-time USD/INR rates. It normalises all three into a single number: landed cost per gram in INR, updated continuously.
Every time a sale happens anywhere in the retail network, the system registers the unhedged position automatically. It tracks the gap between what has been sold and what has been repurchased. In real time.
And then the agent takes over.
When the unhedged position crosses a threshold and the current price is below the 20-day moving average, the system does not send a report. It does not schedule a meeting. It fires a hedge recommendation directly to the CFO’s phone via WhatsApp. With the reasoning. With the numbers. Ready to act on immediately.
The entire POC runs for under Rs. 3,500 a month.
That is the economics of agentic AI right now. The cost of building it is almost nothing. The value it protects is crores.
We are not talking about AI in the abstract at Brainium. We are building it, right now, for one of the most complex and high-stakes environments in Indian retail.
The Question I Want To Leave You With.
Every business has a version of the three-screen problem.
Three systems that do not talk to each other. A human being acting as the bridge. Margin, time, or opportunity leaking through the gap every single day.
You have probably normalised it. It has been there so long it feels like just the way things work.
Agentic AI exists to replace that human bridge with something that never sleeps, never gets distracted, and never misses the signal.
The question is not whether this technology is ready. It is ready.
The question is: which gap in your business are you going to close first?
If you are thinking about that question seriously, I would love to have that conversation. Drop a comment below or connect with me directly. Let us talk.
Last night, I was barely breathing.
Tushar Deshpande. Final over. Gujarat Titans needing 11 runs. Kagiso Rabada on strike. Rashid Khan at the other end. The entire Narendra Modi Stadium on its feet.
I was sitting at home, and I was still nervous.
That is what IPL does to you. Every single year. It pulls you in. It grabs you by the collar. And it does not let go until the last ball is bowled.
Deshpande bowled six consecutive deliveries on the blockhole and wide yorker length. Rabada and Rashid could only manage 4 runs. RR won by 6. Pure nerve. Pure drama.
Welcome back, IPL. I have missed you.
Eight Days. Nine Matches. One Theme.
It started on March 28 with Virat Kohli doing what Virat Kohli does.
Defending champions RCB were chasing 202 against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Kohli scored 69 not out. Devdutt Padikkal smashed 61. They got there in 15.4 overs. A title defense that began exactly like a champion would want it to.
Then came Rohit Sharma, reminding the world that age is just a number people use when they have run out of better arguments.
MI were chasing 221 against KKR. Rohit smashed 78 off 38 balls with six sixes, helping MI pull off a final-over victory. 38 years old. Absolutely no signs of slowing down. That knock had the whole country talking the next morning.
And then a 15-year-old walked in and made everyone forget about Rohit.
Vaibhav Suryavanshi scored 52 off 17 balls against CSK. His fifty came in just 15 balls. The joint-third fastest fifty in IPL history. Strike rate of 305.88. Think about that for a second. He was not born when the IPL began in 2008. He does not know what nerves look like. He just walks in, clears his front leg, and hits it over the stands.
His post-match reaction? “They just said play your natural game. That’s what I did.”
That calmness is terrifying. In the best possible way.
RR chased down CSK’s 127 in just 12.1 overs. Eight wickets to spare. And CSK had a nightmare of their own. Sanju Samson, making his debut for his new team against his old one, got out for just 2. Cricket really has no sense of occasion.
Then came Cooper Connolly. An Australian nobody had heard of before March 31.
PBKS were 118 for 6 chasing a target of 163. Connolly walked in and scored 72 not out off 44 balls to win the match for his team. Just like that. First IPL game. Biggest moment of the chase. Completely unfazed.
Then Sameer Rizvi of Delhi. DC were in tatters at 26 for 4. Rizvi came in and scored 70 not out off 47 balls, winning the match almost single-handedly.
Unknown players. Big moments. Calm heads.
That is the theme of Week 1. Youth is not waiting for permission anymore.
And then last night, Dhruv Jurel scored a career-best 75 off 42 balls, Ravi Bishnoi ripped through GT’s middle order with 4 for 41, and Deshpande finished it off in the final over in the first real thriller of IPL 2026.
Eight days in. The tournament is already delivering.
Now Let Me Talk About KKR. Because I Have To.
I have supported this team since 2008. The bad years, the rebuilds, the heartbreaks, the three titles. 2024 felt like the start of something really special.
Right now, I am worried.
Harshit Rana is out for the entire season. Knee ligament injury from the T20 World Cup warm-up. Matheesh Pathirana, bought for Rs. 18 crore, is still not cleared by Sri Lanka Cricket. Cameron Green, the most expensive overseas buy in IPL history at Rs. 25.20 crore, is available only as a batter right now due to workload restrictions.
Three pacers. All unavailable or restricted. That is not bad luck. That is a crisis.
And Varun Chakravarthy, who I was counting on to be the difference-maker this season, is struggling for form and confidence after a difficult T20 World Cup where batters figured him out and hit him hard.
Two games played. Two losses. The batting has runs. The bowling has questions.
April 6, KKR host PBKS at Eden Gardens. The crowd will be loud. I will be watching. But honestly, something needs to change in how they are approaching their bowling combinations. This cannot continue.
So Where Does Week 2 Take Us?
CSK have 0 points from 2 games. So do KKR. Both proud franchises. Both under pressure already.
RR, PBKS, and DC are sitting pretty at the top. The Rajasthan Royals in particular look scary. That opening pair of Jaiswal and Suryavanshi has already put on 510 runs in partnership across IPL matches, needing only 246 balls between them. That is not an opening pair. That is a wrecking ball.
Today SRH face LSG. RCB face CSK. Both matches promise a lot.
The season has just started. And it already feels like there is no room to breathe.
That is exactly how IPL should feel.
Tell Me What You Think
Which moment of Week 1 had you on your feet?
Was it Rohit’s 78? Vaibhav’s 15-ball fifty? Connolly appearing from nowhere? Or last night’s final over at Ahmedabad?
And if you are a KKR fan like me, tell me honestly. Worried or not?
Drop your answer in the comments below. I read every single one. Always have.
Creativity needs collaboration.
But Covid-19 has created a massive challenge in this aspect.
Let’s think of the good part.
But amidst all this what’s missed is the sheer camaraderie.
Gone are the days when people used to think that your best friends by default always used to be from school or college days. As the last couple of decades has shown us that best of friends can come from amongst your colleagues too.
But is that camaraderie possible in the remote work environment?
Absolutely not.
Whatever one-to-one you have with your colleagues or have tea-break sessions over Google Meet – it can never replace physical interactions. Relationships grow when you have unabridged discussions over a beer or a cup of coffee.
When relationships evolve, your meetings get more interesting. You get more transparent feedback. You improve the trust factor.
This is distinctly not possible in a remote environment. And this leads to a scenario where collaboration reduces and it takes a toll on your creative output.
What we are increasingly seeing today is that people are spending way too much time on video meetings but the output is lackluster because there’s a fatigue that’s setting in with too many video calls. Not everyone is comfortable talking endlessly or listening endlessly. People lose focus and when you lose focus your creativity reduces. Mistakes creep in and another set of video calls follow. This is a vicious circle.
First and foremost we need to realise that the old normal won’t be back in a jiffy. What the latest strain of Covid-19 shows is that we have to learn to live with the virus forever. You can’t control it. You just try to be safe as much as possible but accept this fact. Denial won’t help you – you can’t just force the old normal back. People want to stay at home and work from home. The biggest problem is travel especially in India where there are endless traffic jams and crowded trains and busses. People want to avoid that and you won’t be able to change this scenario for the foreseeable future.
What we need to do is that the team sizes need to be reduced. Previously every 9-10 members used to have one manager or reporting head. This needs to change to 4-5 member teams. Lesser number of team members would mean lesser video calls and the chance of friendships to grow amongst a very small group of people. The chances of friendship will increase when there is a very small team. Companies need to think about it because till you get genuine friendship happening, your work quality will suffer. Having a small team will help in this aspect.
This will of course mean, the need for better middle managers. India over the last decade has faltered in this aspect. India struggled to develop genuine leaders in the corporate sector. Leaders need to create more leaders and it’s high time companies look into this aspect and develop a good leadership pipeline. Give opportunities to people who have a flair towards leadership – people who have empathy and people who care.
Having offsites once in a quarter is a must-have right now. You need to get your team members out of their homes – go to a different place for a couple of days and allow your team members to mingle and allow them to come up with ideas to help the organisation grow. Your team members will love you for this opportunity. Try it and see the transformation happening.
What do you think about how companies can overcome this creative bottleneck challenge?
What seems cheap is expensive! What’s perceived as expensive actually ends up being cheaper!
We talk long term but think short term!
I bought a flat a few years back and when I was doing the interiors my cousin who is an interior designer himself helped me in settling things for me! Getting an expert on my side was actually very helpful!
When we went to search for curtains, he took me to a showroom at Triangular Park (in Kolkata) and this shop had some awesome collections! But as you can realise it was very costly! I was not very sure of that purchase but my cousin told me to think long-term!
” You are already spending quite a bit in your interiors and this addition not only gives a better look, but it will also last a hell of a long time “! he said.
It’s been 5 years and my curtains are still hanging as if they are new!
My cousin was telling me that one of his customers was not ok to pay for expensive sets of curtains and they went for the curtains from their local shop! What happened was that in the next 3 years they had to change their curtains twice!
I see this happening a lot with people in India while changing their old tyres in four-wheelers! To save costs they sometimes go for refurbished tyres and sometimes they opt to change only two tyres! What happens then is that the two older tyres ensure that these new tyres get old quicker and within a year they have to replace 4 tyres!
In the share market, especially many newbies think buying shares of companies whose share prices are very high is “Expensive” and penny stocks are “Cheap“! The fact is good companies will cost you a premium but in the long run, the results and your wealth will be unimaginable!
What you think is cheap today will make you feel like a fool a few years later!
What you think is expensive today will turn out to be a great ” deal ” when you compare it a few years later!
Just like stock market investments, when you purchase any useful gadget think long-term. When you purchase an electronic gadget don’t settle for the lower-end model because one year later you might have to spend again! Better buy the top-of-the-shelf product which can give you long-lasting pleasure!
Please don’t mistake this post as if I am promoting things to buy on EMI! You should only buy things which you can afford and that could mean postponing your buying plan but don’t settle for stuff which will give pain in the future!
As the saying goes, short-term pain leads to long-term gain!
What’s your recent purchase where you thought long term and made the decision? Let’s share our experiences and learn from each other!
Inadvertently we are all selfish!
It’s because we care for ourselves! Nothing wrong with that! You should love yourself first before loving others!
But there is another side to it! When you start loving yourself you also have this in the back of your mind how do others validate us!
Say, for example, you love buying T-shirts! Now you go to a mall or Amazon to purchase some cool Tshirt s! You feel nice! But the next day when you wear it and no one says, “Wow you look great in that T-shirt ” you feel it was a wrong purchase!
Doing what you want to do should be your primary motivator – others validating or not should not be your criteria!
Recently I was talking to a friend and I was asking him why he was not active on social media! He said I don’t have many followers so what’s the point of being active! Why don’t one have many followers? What’s being active in social media means? You only want to cater to your wants but don’t want to cater to others’ wants?
We all are living and as we live we create stories! Every day some experience is happening in our lives. Be it at home or work or with friends and family! Every incident is a story!
You might think why should anyone be interested in my story! True, initially people won’t but you need to persist because the technique is to not only write for yourself or create content for yourself but also for people two rungs below you!
Say for example you are a manager in a company – you should generate content for juniors in your group who are two rungs below you! If you are new to college – generate content for people who are in class 10. If you are fresher in the IT industry – write content for juniors who will get into this industry couple of years later!
Every story has an audience and every story gets some connection! You need to first generate the content for that niche audience of yours and then distribute it to that target group!
If you are a coder who recently joined a company, write or talk about your experience in that industry! Talk about the challenges you face daily! Talk about the gap from college to a job! This will help your juniors to understand what’s in store for them! You will generate a fan following when you do that!
Social media creates a FOMO concept and you are always looking for validation! You are always expecting the influencers to engage with your content but that won’t happen because your journey and the influencer’s journey are treading separate paths!
Remember at any point in time you are an influencer! If you are the eldest son of the house your siblings look up to you as an influencer! You will find the younger siblings always trying to copy the elder ones! That’s in our genes because as I said we all are influencing someone or the other in our lives!
Don’t hold back in telling your story! I find Indian entrepreneurs talking a lot less about their stories! Very few actually open up on their struggles! Very few actually write about their failures! This is precisely why I have a lot of respect for Mr. Vaitheeswaran because he wrote Failing to Succeed! His ventures Indiaplaza and Fabmart were pioneers in Indian e-commerce but they didn’t reach the level where the current Ecommerce companies reached and he was game enough to write that story! What’s more, he took those learnings and started his new venture again! I guess that’s why he named it AGAIN – though he might not agree!
If we come forward and tell our story it will help the next generation because they will learn in advance the mistakes which they should not commit!
I find digital marketers struggling with story writing! But the fact is if you are a marketer then you should be confident to write! Copywriting is marketing! Copywriting is sales! Copywriting is everything today when it comes to branding and if we are not doing this correctly our brand equity will never rise!
Start building your personal brand! Your personal brand is your story! When you start doing that you will realise how many people will connect with you and open up with you and then together everyone will learn something new!
What’s holding you back? What’s your story?
When I started my career as a salesperson I found prospecting new customers as the hardest part of my role. I was an introvert by nature and talking with strangers was not my strength more so face to face. As days went by I learned the tricks of the trade and got better! But amidst all this, I found managing an account to be my mojo! Once the relationship is built I found it very comfortable to take the relationship to the next level! Being a good listener people got the vibe to talk with me pretty easily.
This made me think that account management is pretty cool. Well, it was cool till things turned awry one day when a customer went irated due to a bad service issue. Being friendly is good – helps you in getting more business easily via reference but it also means you are the man who would be caught first when things go wrong. That’s exactly what happened and unfortunately, it happened on a weekend! Communication in the year 2000 was not as easy as it is today! I didn’t have a mobile phone either. I was on my way to watch a movie with my friends and on the way met the customer and faced his wrath. Thankfully my boss had a landline at home and I called him up and he somehow arranged a serviceman to reach the location and gave him a spare battery! (I was into UPS sales at that time)
This incident made me realise what seems easy is not so easy. You as a salesperson can commit but to keep up to that commitment level is what will take your relationship further! Yes, problems can happen but how you solve those problems by keeping the customer’s interest in mind will enhance your reputation!
I learned two things that evening (I missed my evening movie too)
The problem in the service industry is that you can’t really control what your delivery team is going to serve to the client and hence you as an account manager can be sandwiched between the customer and the production team!
How do you come out of that situation:
Maintain healthy relationships
Be proactive! Be your client’s spokesperson inside your organisation! This might lead you to face awkward stares from your colleagues but your job is to keep your client happy! When your end goal is client satisfaction then nothing should stop you from ensuring that the goal is achieved!
Customers believe you and give you the order and relationships are built on trust! Now you as the account manager can’t destroy that trust! If you love your job then you will do everything in your capacity to ensure that the client is happy! Businesses are built on trust and once you gain that trust it’s on you to ensure that it’s not broken!
Competition is lurking around and the only way you can grow your business is by word of mouth marketing! Word of mouth marketing can only happen when your clients refer more businesses towards you without you prompting for them! Clients become your brand ambassadors when they are very happy with your services! You as an account manager play a vital role in ensuring that it happens and stays that way!
Account management is always a dual-edged sword because you are basically sandwiched between your production team and the client. It can be stressful but if you love your job and if you love servicing clients and if you want to make your clients happy then you have to accept this as part of your career growth! The best CXOs come through the account management route because this group of people takes care of two important pillars of the company’s success: people and clients!
A company thrives via PPC
P = People
P = Process
C = Customers
As account managers, you are directly coordinating with P and C and that makes you the ideal candidate to move into the next stage of career growth! Of course, that’s only possible if you do your job well!
As an account manager what gives you maximum happiness and what gets you stressed?
My email is open to questions and I look forward to interacting with you to understand your pain points and I hope to solve some or all of your queries!
Keep firing!
Most of the time it’s not your fault.
Most of the time you are not in control.
It’s up to you how you “react“ because that’s in your control!
Did we have any control over the pandemic? No.
Many people lost their lives! I personally went through multiple tragedies in the last 18 months! And I am sure millions across the globe went through similar emotions. Now it’s up to us to treat this as an excuse and blame our luck for anything wrong hereafter or you turn around with resilience to accept the bitter truth of fact and rebuild your life!
Lies we have been taught include that you do this and your life will be set! The fact is life is never set! As soon as you breathe easy, something will or might happen to change your life! Similarly, any tragedy is not the end of the world! You being alive is the biggest gift! Make use of it! Accept reality and get up and get going!
One of the biggest problems that I see people having is that they face tremendous difficulty to ask for help! The world is filled with good people and even when some remain silent just come forward and ask and you will see many hands coming forward to support you.
Nothing is permanent! We move on! Even after tremendous tragedy, I have seen people recover and find joy in life! You can’t stop living! You can’t stop breathing! We need to remember one thing that till we are alive we are supposed to work towards happiness!
When I was 10 years old, a cousin of mine who was 18 at that time passed away due to an accident! The lives of my uncle and aunt changed forever! For months they remained silent! I remember staying with them for more than a month at their house! Hardly anyone spoke but they started recovering. Naturally, life was never the same again but then their elder son got married and smiles were back in the family! Does that mean we didn’t remember our cousin on that day? Yes, we did remember him and still remember him but we learned to live without him. Then my nephew was born and normalcy returned!
God has strange ways to remind us who is the boss! The more you believe you are in control, the more he will show you that you have nothing in control!
If you look at social media you will feel everyone is having a cool life! Everyone is getting fantastic returns in the stock market! Everyone is building a start-up and everyone is successful and filled up with new business orders! But the fact is most are showing off! Social media is a great place to mask yourself! You can say anything and everything and become an influencer! You will find absolutely irrelevant posts and tweets and copycats having more than 50,000 followers! And you are thinking, “wow” how did he do that? But why are you thinking that way? Will your life change with that thinking? You need to love yourself and try to live a better life than yesterday! Be resilient and learn to live life on your terms! Work on something that makes you happy and try to gain freedom! Time is the biggest leverage! And it’s up to you how you utilise it!
Many times I have seen people trying to control others! Frankly, you can‘t! Parents trying to control their kids are the worst offenders because the seeds are sown right there! Learn to make your kids independent! Don’t make decisions on their behalf but when they ask, help them and guide them! They will ask for guidance only when they know that you don’t control them. It’s the same in a professional set up too! You can’t control your team members! You can only inspire them and guide them! If the alignment is not there then part ways but never try to control! It will always give disastrous results!
The problems that you have today will vanish tomorrow but can reoccur the day after tomorrow! But don’t let the anxiousness of tomorrow take away your happiness of today! Always bring your whole self to work and at home! People mix up things too much! And this work-from-home scenario has actually done more harm for many of the individuals! If you don’t have a caring support system at home then it can lead to a situation where you are always at home and always at work and finally, you are not satisfied anywhere!
You need to take the call what is best for you! But first, you have to accept the problem! When acceptance happens you will find a way to the solution.
The world is abundant with love and joy and you just need to tell yourself that you will live a life of fulfillment! It’s all inside you, it’s your belief that matters!
If you lie to yourself, it means you are denying the problem, and till you are in a state of denial nothing gonna change! You will always be frustrated because you are yet to find out your “why”.
I have seen people telling me that if I get X amount of money from next month I will be happy. Two problems:
First, that is not gonna happen.
Second, what are you going to do to make that happen!
If you believe in the second option then you will find a way for additional ethical income. As I said earlier the world is filled with opportunities but it’s up to you to go for it. Of course, it means you have to work doubly hard to reach there!
Nothing will come easily!
You need to pick up new skills to make yourself more worthwhile. That requires hard work! But you can do it! If you believe in yourself I am very sure you can achieve it!
Make your mind strong enough to face adversity and build your power of resilience so that you don’t break down when things go against you! God has something for everyone! But it’s upon us to find it and live a life of fulfillment and joy!
Are you ready?
Come on, be a man!
We have heard this dialogue before in many Indian movies!
Isn’t that sexist?
Means, come on – if you are emotionally hydrated then you, as a man, have to show that all is cool and put up a brave face! That’s what this dialogue is all about.
But we are humans. We are vulnerable. We can make mistakes. We can get into trouble. We can get hurt. We can lose someone very close to us. After this also chin up? Be a man?
I have a big problem with this dialogue! It’s like men can’t cry. Men can’t show vulnerable emotions! Why so?
And when we show something to the world – which is basically a makeup – then deep inside we are falling apart. This leads to depression. It’s not so simple. But the fact is that depression is for real.
And the worst thing others can do is by saying, “be a man” or “it’s fine, move on”. These people don’t understand that depression exists. The person sitting right beside you might be suffering. Look out!
That’s why it’s important that you talk. Just talk and let another person listen to you. You need close family members or friends to get out of this scenario. People don’t understand the emotions that depressed people go through during these times.
Everyone is not the same. Some people play it very well or act very well.
But from the inside, these so-called strong people are broken. Many are! So it’s important that you talk to your near and dear ones. If you have a problem – speak. If you don’t have a problem – speak. All problems don’t need a solution. Sometimes what the other person needs is someone to talk to. It gets easier when you discuss or talk to another person. Even when there are no immediate solutions you will see the heaviness of your heart reducing after a candid talk.
Don’t make life difficult! Don’t make negative comments. Don’t be toxic. What works for you might not work for others! What emotions you had can’t be equated to another person’s emotion in the same scenario. We are all different and it’s important that we respect that.
By not talking we complicate matters! Isn’t it so weird that 25 years back it was difficult to communicate with people staying far away? When I used to stay in a hostel, I could speak only once a week with my parents. STD calls were very costly those days! There were no mobile phones. Today when we can call or talk with anyone at any time due to technology innovations, we take it for granted. We take relationships for granted. Relationships need to be given time. You need to talk.
If you are in a happy space and you are not making the first move to talk to your near and dear ones regularly then the problem lies with you. The people who are in the depressed zone won’t come and speak to you but they are yearning to talk. So give them the ears!
Depression is for real folks. Treat it very seriously! If you lose a close relative or a friend due to depression then you will be cursing yourself for life. It would remain a lifelong regret! Don’t do it!
Whom are you calling now?
You are grumpy!
Your friend asks you what happened.
You say you are tensed because your son’s admission to college is round the corner and you are having difficulty arranging the money!
Sounds similar? Sounds familiar?
And then when your friend says don’t worry, something will come around. But it’s not so easy because it’s your problem and it’s difficult to take things so casually!
We have been told multiple times that life is not about money. Also, we have been told that money can’t buy you happiness! But the fact is money can’t buy you happiness in the actual sense but it does buy you food which you place on the table!
One of the biggest anxiety problems is the money problem.
If you have debt issues: You can’t be happy
If you have a health crisis in your family: You can’t be happy.
Though health comes before wealth, you can dry up your wealth in one unfortunate crisis! How will you be happy after that? Your future anxiousness will only take you far off from happiness!
So whether you like it or not, it’s important to solve your money problems to ensure happiness! Your basic needs should be well covered for you to even think of being happy!
How do you do it? It’s difficult, but the fun fact is that you can turn this around even if you are broken today.
Let’s go!
First, get a hang of all your spending.
Get rid of any spending which is not a need.
Control your wants. And save and invest the rest!
There is no way you can garner wealth if you have not invested in equities.
Equity investment doesn’t mean you buy any cheap stocks! Believe, it’s your business which you are buying to be a part of! Buy with the notion of holding on for at least 15 years! Do not buy based on tips or don’t get into FOMO!
If you want a secure future and a happy life you need to get rid of your anxiousness! It’s not easy in theory because if you have a money problem you can’t be happy. Anyone telling you otherwise, don’t care for you because it doesn’t happen that way!
You should have the habit of purchasing equity regularly. You should be proud of your investments!
If your debts are taken care of and you decide to live a life within your means then you will have a happy and joyful time with your family and a good night’s sleep. Very few can afford this.
If you can start living a life within 50% of your earnings from today, be pretty sure that in 10 years to 12 years’ time, you won’t be running around for money. But you have to patiently do this.
So what to do with the other 50%?
Break that up into 2 parts:
30% – Wants
20% – Investments.
In your “wants”, you can have your EMIs. That is the maximum you are allowed to spend in EMIs. By default 20% has to go into investments.
100 – Age
If you are 25 years of age, subtract 100 from your age, that’s 100-25 = 75. Now 75% goes into equities and 25% in liquid products which can be RD (Recurring Deposits), FD (Fixed Deposits) or Liquid funds, or any endowment products. I prefer liquid funds because they can be redeemed easily.
If you have debts that will run for more than 10 years, make sure that in your next raise, you will put that extra money in servicing those debts. Debts cripple you. So get rid of them at the earliest.
If you follow the above rules consistently, 10 years down the line, you won’t be working for money because now money will work for you. It will grow when you sleep and that means you will have true control of your time. When this happens, you can do what you want to do rather than being forced to do something which you are not passionate about.
Are you facing difficulty in managing to create your goals and maintaining them? If yes, connect with me over LinkedIn and we can have a chat. Always happy to help.
Till then, take care and God Bless!