Shekhar Astitwa (Indian Lyricist) in one of his songs wrote what can be loosely translated as: “Melt the chains that hold you back, make swords out of them and win every battle with them. So what if you are out of luck, so what if your swords are broken, fight with the broken swords and win every battle” The thing with humans is that we let many things hold us back. From laziness to fear to self pity, from lack of self belief to believing that we simply don’t have it in us. So break free from whatever is holding you back (mentally or otherwise) and go get whatever you…

When I started my accounting business all those year ago, I came up with a great tax advice product (or so I thought at that time). It was so great in my mind and in my plans that I thought it would be crazy successful and I wont have the resources to deal with all the incoming queries and work. I decided to roll it out gradually fearing my lack of capacity if the response was as expected. The advice product did not set the taxation advisory world on fire as I expected and not much came out of it in terms of financial reward but I was at that…

When I was studying at UNSW (university) I had long breaks between classes so I would carry a bag full of all the text books I had for the semester and tell myself that if I had time, I would pull out one of those books and start reading. Semesters ended and so did my bachelors degree but I hardly read the books I was carrying to university everyday and those who have been to UNSW would know how big the campus is and if you had lectures at either end of the campus, you would be walking a fair distance and climbing lots and lots of stairs. Thinking about…

If someone had asked me a few years ago if our accounting firm had a business plan, I would have pulled out a dozen pages of carefully put together ideas of where our business was coming from, where it was and how it was going to get to the place we wanted it to. Ask me now and I would say something in the lines of “Our business plan is to deliver quality service to our clients to the best of our abilities”. The rest just takes care of itself when we are able to do that.

If I asked this question about your work, what would you say? I often ask people the questions “How is your work?” and “How is your work environment?” or something similar on those lines. Some would say “Great” or “Love it” or even “Inspiring and Motivating” Most would respond with “Work is okay” or “Pays the bills” or “Busy” or even “Boring”. Not too bad an optimistic person I am would translate those phrases. Same old descriptions of work and nothing to worry about. Then there are a few who would describe work as “Toxic” or “Hate it”. Now that description of work is very worrying and if you describe…

As I learnt the art of business, there were lots of things that I heard I had to do to make my business a success. I had to dress smartly I needed to be a member of a particular institution I had to socialize with others The list was endless. All I can say now is: FOCUS ON YOUR WORK AND DO IT TO THE BEST OF YOUR ABILITY AND YOU WILL BE FINE. THE REST IS JUST NOISE…

Most people I interact with in the business environment (mostly clients and service providers) are of the view (and rightly so) that my view of the way their and all other businesses should be operating is too simplistic. Business is meant to be kept simple but we somehow just manage to complicate everything with over-thinking, over-analysing, over-regulating, over-documenting, over-reporting, etc. Basically going over the top with most things. Solving the business problems is not too hard if we just understand them right.