Reflections in the 40s - Part 3 - Audacious Goals, Patient Execution

In my earlier posts, I wrote about how entering the 40s changed the way I think — shifting from chasing linear paths to embracing non-linearity and the power of moments. Today's reflection continues that journey.

In my 20s and 30s, I believed that big goals needed fast execution. The harder you pushed, the quicker you’d arrive. Life felt like a race — against peers, timelines, and even myself. But somewhere along the way, I realized that while ambition sets the direction, patience determines the outcome.

Audacious goals are essential. They keep us hungry, curious, and alive. But the secret to reaching them lies in patient, deliberate execution — in showing up each day with quiet consistency. The dream may be bold, but the work is often unglamorous: planning, practicing, repeating, refining.

Over time, I’ve begun to see patience as a strength, not a compromise. It’s the ability to stay steady when progress is invisible, to keep faith when results are still forming beneath the surface.

The most meaningful successes I’ve seen — in work, relationships, or personal growth — didn’t come from frantic energy, but from steady, long-term intent. 

So today, I still dream audaciously — sometimes even wildly. But I pair that ambition with patience, trusting that good things compound quietly.

Because in the end, it’s not the speed of achievement that defines us, but the persistence that sustains it.

Reflections in the 40s - Part 2 - The Power of Moments: Life’s Non-Linear Truth

Most of us love plans. We map our careers, finances, and even personal milestones with neat timelines — as if life were a straight line. Linear thinking comforts us. It promises steadiness, predictability, control.

But the truth is — life rarely moves in straight lines.

A chance conversation can open a new career door. A delayed flight can lead to meeting someone who changes how you see the world. A single bold decision — taken on instinct — can alter the direction of decades ahead. These aren’t linear outcomes. They are inflection points — sudden moments when everything changes trajectory.

Over time, I have begun to appreciate this non-linearity. Growth doesn’t always come in planned steps. Sometimes it arrives in leaps — unexpected, messy, magical. The power lies not in predicting these moments but in being perceptive enough to notice them when they appear.

Because moments rarely announce themselves. They hide inside discomfort, risk, or even failure. The real question is — are we too busy chasing the linear plan to recognize a turning point when it quietly knocks on our door?

Non-linearity teaches humility. It reminds us that progress isn’t always incremental; sometimes it’s exponential. That a single “yes” or “no” can rewrite our story.

So maybe the goal isn’t to design a perfect, predictable path — but to stay awake to the power of moments that can take us into a completely different orbit.

Because in the grand story of life, a moment can do what years of planning sometimes cannot.

Turning 42: What Changed in My 40s

 A birthday is always a moment of pause. This week, as I turned 42, I found myself reflecting on what has really shifted in me over the last few years. The changes aren’t about the grey strands of hair or the slightly slower recovery from a late night. They are deeper, quieter shifts that shape how I now approach life and work.

1. Audacious Goals, Patient Execution

In my 30s, I believed in speed. Big goals meant bigger hustle and faster sprints. But in my 40s, I’ve realized that the bolder the goal, the more patience it demands. It’s not about slowing down ambition—it’s about pairing it with endurance. Whether in career milestones, financial goals, or personal fitness, I now see that consistency often wins bigger than intensity.

2. Being Intentional

Time, energy, and attention are the true currencies of life. In my 20s and 30s, I said yes far too often—to projects, meetings, and even social obligations. Today, I choose more carefully. If something doesn’t align with what I deeply value, I’m okay letting it go. This shift has brought more clarity, better relationships, and a sense of focus I didn’t have earlier.

3. Daily Discipline Over Inspiration

Inspiration feels good, but it is unreliable. Some days you wake up motivated, many days you don’t. Discipline, however, doesn’t ask for moods. It simply asks for action. Whether it’s exercising, writing, or professional work, I lean far more on habits now than on waiting for the “perfect moment.”

4. Steady Over Quick

There’s a quiet confidence that comes with choosing steady progress over quick wins. Earlier, I celebrated the rush of fast achievements. Now, I take pride in building things that last—relationships, financial security, skills. The slow, compounding effect has started to feel far more rewarding than the thrill of shortcuts.

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At 42, I don’t think I’ve figured it all out, but I do know this: life feels less about racing and more about pacing. And in that shift lies both peace and progress.

🚀 Guiding vs Mentoring vs Coaching — Ravi’s Journey as a Software Engineer

 When Ravi, a young software engineer in Bengaluru, started his career, he often found himself confused about what help he needed. He heard terms like guidance or mentoring or coaching and to him all of it seemed alien. Honestly, he wasn't even sure what each of these meant. Over the years, he experienced all three — and that changed how he grew at work.

👉 Guidance came first. His team lead would tell him, “Follow this coding framework” or “Use this tool for debugging.” It was direct, task-focused, and helped him avoid mistakes. Guidance solved today’s problem.

👉 Mentoring happened when he met Shreya, a senior manager in Pune. She didn’t just tell him what to do, she shared why and how. She spoke about handling client expectations, building resilience, and planning his career. Mentoring lit up the future path.

👉 Coaching came later, when Ravi wanted to become a tech lead. His company arranged professional coaching sessions. The coach never gave him answers. Instead, they asked questions like, “What strengths do you bring as a leader?” or “How would you handle conflict differently?” Coaching empowered him to discover his own solutions.

That’s when Ravi realized the difference:

• Guidance is about direction.

• Mentoring is about wisdom.

• Coaching is about unlocking potential.

In India’s fast-paced tech world, professionals like Ravi need a mix of all three. Guidance to get started, mentoring to grow, and coaching to lead.

💡 If you’re leading teams today, ask yourself — are you guiding, mentoring, or coaching your people? Or a bit of all three?

A study of foreign investments in Indian e-commerce and its effects on retail industry

I recently wrote a research article for Srujan (ISSN 2456-4079) - Vidya Prasarak Mandal's Dr. VNB Institute of Management Studies' annual research publication, on how foreign investments has driven the Indian e-commerce industry and  its effects on the retail industry & other allied industries like logistics, warehousing, payments, etc. 

Below is the abstract of the research paper and the whole paper is available here. 

Abstract

This article highlights the key investments of foreign institutional investors into Indian e-commerce companies over the last decade (2008-18) and explains the impact of these investments on the Indian retail industry.

It starts with an overview of the key online & offline players in the Indian retail industry across three large categories - electronics, apparels and groceries. That is followed by a walk-through of important milestones for the online organizations over the last decade in terms of investments, expansions and mergers & acquisitions along with a highlight of the key foreign investors who catalyzed these activities. The article then moves on to the impact of these activities on the overall retail landscape in India and how it has affected other allied industries (such as warehousing & logistics). The article concludes with the author’s commentary on future prospects of the Indian retail industry and what can be expected in the next 10 years.

This article is intended for students who would like to get a better understanding of an emerging industry (e-commerce), academicians wanting to explore its growth & impact and working professionals interested in better understanding or switching their careers towards e-commerce. The article is built upon research data from government sources (such as FDI inflow data), author’s own experience in the e-commerce industry, balance sheets & quarterly/annual results of retail companies & investors and sectoral analysis papers from consulting firms.

Styles of Leadership

Ramayana & Mahabharata are considered to be two of the greatest epics India has ever produced. While Ram is easily identified as the hero of Ramayana, there are many claimants for the title of hero of Mahabharata - the most popular one being Krishna. When Arjuna asked Krishna to be part of the Pandava army, Krishna famously agreed with one condition – that he would be just a charioteer. When the Pandava army had warriors like Arjuna, Bheem and all, it made sense for Krishna to take a role of someone who would just show the path and let the warriors run the show. Krishna had to step in only during crucial junctures in the war, when the warriors looked genuinely defeated and needed help. On the other hand, in Ramayana, poor Ram did not have that choice. He had to lead from the front and be actively involved in the war, since he was leading an army of monkeys.

This is one of the greatest leadership lessons that we can learn from Ramayana & Mahabharata. The approach taken by Ram is called as “Coaching style” of leadership where the leader is hands-on and sets clear goals and tasks to each member. He “guides” them to achieve success. On the other hand, the approach taken by Krishna is called as “Affiliative style” of leadership, where the leader forms emotional bonds with his team-members and “motivates” them to achieve success. 

Coaching leader guides the team

Affiliative leader motivates the team

A coaching style of leadership works best when the team is young or inexperienced or made up of not so great players. On the other hand, Affiliative style of leadership works best, when the team is made of experienced professionals who just need some direction, not hand-holding.

The third type of leadership style that is commonly observed is the “Authoritative style”. As the name suggests, it works with an authoritative person on the top, who sets the vision & agenda and mobilizes the team-members towards that vision. This style of leadership works very well when the team is adrift and clueless as to what really “needs to be done”. Steve Jobs is a classic example of this style of leadership. 

Contrasting to the authoritative leadership style is the “Democratic style”. This style emphasizes on collaboration & cooperation within the team and helps the team-members set workable goals and celebrates their achievement. This style is very popular in creative organizations that require constant innovation and exchange of ideas. It normally leads to a very participative work environment where contribution by all team-members is encouraged. Other than these four leadership styles, i.e. Affiliative, coaching, authoritative & democratic, there are more styles like altruistic leader, bureaucratic leader, pace setting leader, etc.

When it comes to individuals, each of us has streaks of these leadership traits in us and, we subconsciously pick the style that would work best for that situation.  So the next time you have to push your team to achieve a larger than life goal, take a step back and first think whether you are leading warriors or monkeys and then be the leader that the situation demands.

Reducing returns on e-commerce orders

Product returns is one of the major pain areas for all e-commerce sellers in India. Depending on the category of the product sold, the returns vary from 5 % to sometime even as high as 25 % (primarily for apparels). Below are the 3 major reasons for product returns:

• Buyer not available - The buyer might not pick up the phone, might not be available at the mentioned address, might not open the door, etc. This is seen especially when the order contains low value items and the deliveries are made during working hours. In this scenario, the product never gets delivered to the buyer and the forward and reverse logistics costs are borne by the seller / market-place without the transaction even happening. For obvious reasons this is observed more in Cash on Delivery orders as compared to prepaid orders. 

• Buyer doesn't like the product - This is seen primarily in apparels where the buyer returns the product after accepting it. The reasons for return could be issues with fitting, size differences, color differences, etc. It is also observed that products like leggings which are defined just by a size & color hardly get returned while products like  Denim pants which have waist width, length, cut, design, etc have higher returns.

• Broken product or product not working - This is primarily observed in categories like kitchenware, bathroom fittings, etc. where the packing & filler materials are critical for a problem free transport. This problem is also observed in electronics where the product might be received in good condition but might over-heat or hang on first use. 

When a return occurs, the seller suffers in the following ways:

• Market-place penalties -  To ensure a high quality of catalogs & consequently high customer satisfaction, the market-places substantially penalize the seller in case the return happens due to a faulty or wrong product. The penalties are levied even for cases where the correct apparel is shipped but the size, color, cut, etc are wrong.

• Forward & reverse shipping costs - For seller-shipped orders, the seller has to completely bear the logistics costs while for market-place shipped orders (i.e. market-place assigned courier partner picks the product from seller's warehouse), the seller bears the reverse logistics cost if the return is due to a seller's fault. 

• Delay/change in remittances - Normally the market-places remit the money to the seller (collected from the buyer) only at the end of the time-period mentioned in the return policy. So, if the buyer can return a product for up to 30 days, then the remittance to the seller will happen only after 30 days. Here also, in case the product stops working after the return period & the buyer raises a complaint, then depending on the seriousness of the problem & the popularity of the product, the market-place might agree for a return. In that case, the seller will get a debit note against the already remitted order and the deductions will happen in the subsequent remittance cycle. 

• Delay in receiving the returned product - For forward logistics, the number of pick-up points is less (market-place / seller warehouses) and number of delivery points are high (buyer addresses). It is the opposite for reverse logistics. Reverse logistics is still a maturing business  in India and most logistics partners have a smaller coverage for it as compared to forward logistics. So, picking up a returned product and delivering it to the warehouse inherently takes a long time. This leads to scenarios, where the market-place penalizes the seller for a return and the seller receives the return only after some days. This is even more exasperating for the seller in case the returned product is of a good quality (i.e. re-sellable) and got returned only due to fitting issues. 

• Product damage during return - The product might be damaged when it is returned and it is difficult to pin-point the party responsible for the damage (buyer or logistics team). In such cases, the seller suffers a double whammy as the sale is nullified and the returned product is also useless. 

Below are some good practices that the seller can incorporate in her fulfillment operations to reduce returns:

• Providing maximum details on the product page - While listing the product with the market-place, the seller should provide all possible details instead of just the mandatory ones. This ensures that the buyer has sufficient information to make an informed decision & reduces cases of buyer remorse. 

• Contacting the buyer for unique / high value orders - In case of high value items which also incur a high transport cost (such as TVs, washing machines fridges, laptops, etc) it is a good practice for the seller to contact the buyer & confirm the details (esp. the color, size/capacity, etc.) before dispatching the product. This eliminates product return due to shipping of wrong product. 

• Stringent quality check & physical verification during dispatch - This is particularly useful for apparels orders, where the color, size, fit, etc play a crucial role in product rejections. Many apparels sellers I work with do a physical verification of the picked product with a picture of the ordered product before packing it. This ensures that errors if any are detected & rectified right upfront, thereby reducing expensive returns & replacements.

• Appropriate packaging & packing material - Depending on the dimensions & nature of product being shipped, the seller should use the correct packing & packaging material. Materials could be polybag (apparels), corrugated boxes with bubble wrap (electronics & other breakable items), corrugated boxes with air filled plastic bags, etc.