At the end of 2018 Jordan suggested we make a move in the exhibitor space. Nearly all of our sales were done from inbound or outbound marketing and we were missing opportunities from people who had never heard of us.

He pitched a plan where we would be prudent about the gamble, perhaps we should start off as a small sponsor, he said.

Jordan had not seen Boiler Room.

We decided to gamble big and bet our 2019 strategy on becoming a high level sponsor of a major trade organization. This sponsorship would give us the biggest booths on the show floor, prime placement, and signage everywhere. …

If you have never played Starfox 64, let me tell you, in 1997 it was all the rage. Having control of a futuristic space plane on a 3-D terrain was pure joy.

There was one level which mimicked the Independence Day movie scene where an impenetrable alien ship would hover over and destroy world icon locations.

This level was one of the top designed plays of all time. …

“Koo-nul, where are you from?”
“Oh I’m from New York, but my parents came here from India”
“That’s so nice to see, your family must be one of the good ones”
- Private Equity Investor comment to me in 2019

Earlier this year my brother moved into his new office space on Park Ave. He is a physician and fortunate enough to be running his own private practice. He was never very good at working for the man. As the family came to all congratulate him, I turned to my mom and asked, “ma… wasn’t dad’s office somewhere around here?”

My dad too was an entrepreneur. He ran an import/export business in the 1980s selling Oriental Rugs. …

I arrived at Terminal 2, The Queen’s Terminal, London Heathrow International Airport. I tried to shift into UK mode. I played Bohemian Rhapsody in my headphones.

I was here for a meeting with Decanter Wine Awards, a division of Time Magazine. The largest deal our company ever had a chance of signing, the deal that would bring us European operations if we won it, and most importantly the deal my company trusted me with to deliver on.

I switched to Estelle — American Boy featuring Kanye West.

Who the hottest in the world right now.
Just touched down in London town.
Bet they give me a pound.
Tell them put the money in my hand right now.
Tell the promoter we need more seats,
We just sold out all the floor…

On August 23, 2011, a magnitude 5.8 earthquake hit the Piedmont region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, at 1:51:04 p.m. local time. The shock wave from that earthquake started causing tremors in Northern Virginia and Washington, DC within minutes.

Tim and I were at a sales meeting at the National Association of Tank Truck Carriers. Mid pitch the room started shaking. Immediately, my mind flashed back to the kindergarten lesson of how to stay safe during an earthquake, and I made a beeline towards the door frame.

Everyone remained in the room and laughed, “you know Kunal this is an office building, the frames are fake… also it was a brand new building built to withstand any east coast earthquake.” …

Starting the day with a good morning message seems polite but it drives me nuts. I banned it.

Hollywood has done a great job of glorifying what a morning looks like for a business executive. In the movies, you see a business executive walk in. As the executive swaggers towards his (and its usually a he) office he is greeted by various staff members. Each staff member has dialog that is more or less the following:

Good morning Mr. Johar. Here is your coffee.

Good morning Mr. Johar, Bitcoin is currently trading at 17,000.

Good morning Mr. Johar, your meeting with Karlie Kloss is confirmed for noon. …

Before WeWork popularized the idea of a co-working space, small businesses just getting their feet off the ground would rent space from “Shared Office Spaces.” These are cube-farms with unpleasant lighting, bad internet, and coffee served from vending machines. A far cry from the cold brew on tap and comfortable couches startups are used to working out of.

I was notorious for never decorating my office or work area. I would not even put down a picture of family or friends. I guess I had always felt the office was for function — it needed to provide space for whatever the mission at hand was. …

In rowing, there’s a concept called “open water.” It’s used to describe the distance between two boats at the finish line. In close races, the front of the trailing boat overlaps with the leading boat. That’s normal.

But sometimes, when one crew has truly pulled away from the competition, there’s no overlap at all between the boats. There’s just open water. Our name conjures up our commitment to advancing our solutions and ourselves. One that evokes limitless possibilities and unbroken horizons. And one that reflects upon the people with whom we do business — the visionaries, the go-getters, the people doing everything they can to get ahead of the pack … and stay there. …