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475 North Martingale Road, Schaumburg, IL

475. North Martingale Road, Schaumburg, IL.

It’s the address – etched deep inside my memory. For eleven years as I registered for actuarial exams, took them, anticipated results and wrote to the Society of Actuaries (SOA), the snail mail address that I wrote down hundreds of times across that one decade was: 475 North [...]


The Quartet. Old age is not for sissies.

Everywhere I look, I see old couples.

I guess as a 42 year old, the young no longer catch me eyes (except when they decide to go walkabout without adult supervision)) . I love teaching them and corrupting their bright fresh minds, but it’s the 80 year old holding hands as they board aircrafts and sit [...]


Everything you wanted to ask about startup failure but were afraid to ask.

Everything you wanted to ask about startup failure but were afraid to ask
 

You were wondering what the fuss is all about? After all its just a book? So what if its on the iPad? Why does that make Reboot special? We put together a special section answering common questions around Reboot that have been asked. [...]


Enterprise Risk Management Symposium, Chicago – Takeaways

Enterprise Risk Management – Chicago Symposium – Highlights.

Day One – ERM Pre Seminar – Forecasting Extreme Events

Professor Guntram is really upset at Nassim Taleb. Nassim’s logic has never been perfect but he speaks from his heart as a practitioner. I can relate to the challenges he raises as a practitioner and I loved [...]


Chicago – Society of Actuaries, CAS, PRMIA Enterprise Risk Symposium – Random snapshots

Chicago. Windy city, where the river meets the lake; Keeanu Reeves and Chain reaction. This April the location for Society of Actuaries, CAS & PRMIA’s join Enterprise Risk Management Symposium.

Two and a half days of catching up with old friends and new and some very interesting lunch conversations. More to follow but for now [...]


Happiness comes in four flavors

Once upon a time in a galaxy far away, the search was on for a cure for blues. Turned into a global catastrophe, the blues sapped productivty & smiles everywhere you looked. Spending decades scouring the universe for an antidote, a depressed nation of aliens discovered that happiness comes in four flavours.

And they [...]


From startup failure to pitching like a pro. Reboot for iPad, ibook edition is live.

Pitching for startups?
Reboot, 3rd edition for iPad with a brand new chapter and 7 new videos on Pitching for startups is now available at the iTune store. Download it at the launch special $4.99, valid till 31st May 2013.

It started as a labor of love.
Part obituary, part therapy, part getting the record for history right. [...]


Pitching for your startup? Reboot for iPad is here

Why do startups fail?
No, really, why do we fail?
Why isn’t an even mix of ambition, inspiration, hard work, talent, drive, commitment and creativity enough? And why more often than not, a superior mix of the above ingredients fares much worse than a much more boring, passé combination.
I have spent a large part of the last [...]


Goodbye New York. So long and thanks for all the fish…

Missed you Fawzia. Wish you were here.

 


Columbia Business School – Private reunion April 2013

It’s a reunion we had planned forever.

While I made many good friends at Columbia, four were very special. Ken Uesugi who went back to Tokoyo to work for Lands End. Qamar Bakrin who now rules the Private Equity world in West Africa. Arno, my friend from the banking world and Ken Bates, the wisest of [...]