It has been a week of digging deep to keep ourselves motivated as we have had the pendulum swing from hectic Diwali celebrations to the brain dead - let’s smell roses for a bit - post festival recovery weekend… to the shock of the breathless sleepless pace of the work week immediately after … and all its sinusoidal effects… It’s the biggest understatement when I say that in all of our 8 weeks, there hasn’t been a single day that has gone to plan per whatever I expected it to look like in the morning … The best laid plans have been a source of amusement to the big guy or gal up there and he/she has enjoyed keeping us on our toes … but … silver linings … - when your day starts with the CIO of a publicly listed large firm waking you up at 6AM to help him with a presentation to his board on AI plans for the next two years, you do remind yourself that you might actually be adding value somewhere… so chin up ! - when your partners are happy to hang with you and talk to you at 2 AM and listen to your exhausted musings on how to shape offerings and be willing to help … - when your co-founder is your best friend and your biggest morale booster … - when you have old work and uni connects who always just turn up at the right time to give you support and advise … … you do start to wonder and hope that there might be a method to this madness somewhere and it is all leading to good things in the end … Biggest take aways from this week - Need to shed all the learned habits of consulting in my previous life - When you are providing advisory services as a startup to enterprises, they expect no BS , straight talking, common sensical recommendations and advise with zero jargon and frills and less is more It’s ALL ABOUT making your client stakeholders successful and not proving how much you know … chest thumping is so so 1980s and belongs to the fossils … Servant leadership is never ever going outta style … Thanks for continuing to read these unfiltered ramblings … Hope those who celebrated had a fun Diwali.