Personal · Principles
The handful of rules I actually live by.
Not a poster on the wall — the few principles that have genuinely shaped the decisions, including the ones that cost me something.
Everyone has a list of values. Mine are here because they’ve actually changed what I did — usually by making me choose the harder or slower path. That’s the only test of a real principle: it costs you something when you follow it.
Before you lead, learn to follow
A piece of Marwari wisdom I was given young, and the reason I spent a decade in agencies before building my own function instead of rushing to be my own boss. It cost me ten years of not being in charge — and gave me the only authority worth having: having actually done the work.
Curiosity beats certainty
The most dangerous people in marketing are the ones who are sure. I’d rather work with someone who asks a better question than someone who has a confident answer. Most of my best work started with ‘I don’t actually know — let’s find out.’
Do the unglamorous thing well
I started interning at thirteen and pricing websites at eleven rupees at seventeen. The lesson stuck: the work that compounds is usually the boring, careful work nobody claps for. Glamour is a lagging indicator of a lot of unglamorous effort.
Own the outcome, not the excuse
The whole reason I crossed from advising brands to running one was to stop being able to hide behind ‘the client didn’t listen.’ Owning the result — including when it’s bad — is uncomfortable and clarifying in equal measure.
Where they came from: the full story · the lessons behind them.