"CEOs can't wait to read Sunny Bindra's articles every week."

“In a perfect world…” How many times have you heard that, or said it yourself? The human yearning for things to be better, more conducive, more acceptable, seems to be insatiable. We bring our children up in the pretence that the world is far better than it really is; that life is manageable and addressable, […]

We must have passions, we are told—our greatest achievements will come from it. True enough. Humans are creatures of passion. It is passion that sparks our most extraordinary feats, driving us to create, innovate, and pursue our dreams with unrelenting energy. Passion fuels motivation and unlocks the kind of performance that defies expectations, often turning […]

The year began for me with a series of setbacks. Life is often like that; the challenges come thick and fast. It has always been thus, and there is nothing to be done except deal with it. But when the season of setbacks is upon us, we need to step up, focus, stay calm, and […]

Have you ever watched a young cat? Many of these creatures are not “brought up” by their parents—they tend to get separated from their mothers at quite tender ages. Yet they seem to know exactly how to get into hunting positions; exactly how to eat, and how much; exactly how to clean themselves; exactly how […]

A New Year is the time to look ahead, to plan for the future, to make preparations. Right? And yet. Last week I closed the year urging you to be aware of the words of the wise since time immemorial. Be present. Be rooted in the here and now. Tomorrow is a dream, today is […]

“Our revels are now ended.” As another year slips away, we can look to Prospero’s famous words from The Tempest for some wisdom. That passage is considered one of Shakespeare’s most poignant reflections on the nature of life, art, and impermanence. The end of a year is a good time to reflect on our “revels.” […]

UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot dead outside a Manhattan hotel in early December. A suspect was arrested a few days later, and revealed to be Luigi Mangione. The alleged perpetrator now faces charges including murder as an act of terrorism. Mangione is Ivy-League educated, and the scion of a well-to-do family. Upon his arrest, […]

Recently, I was gazing across Mombasa’s Tudor Creek at twilight. Nyali Bridge was there in the distance, a perfect picture of twinkling lights. From here, the vehicles crossing the bridge were a pretty series of coloured beams, moving silently, like a movie watched on mute. I had crossed that bridge earlier that day, and it […]

While travelling in Italy last year, I came across an interesting juxtaposition. In a small, rustic village, there was a modest, very charming chapel. Right next to it was the village tavern. I paused to reflect. The human being truly has a need for escape from life’s myriad difficulties. Our lives are full of challenges […]

Most of the people reading this column right now are billionaires. Don’t believe me? That’s because you naturally assumed “billions” are about money. Jade Bonacolta, a writer on personal growth and productivity, has a different way of looking at it. One billion seconds equals 30 or so years. If you have that much time available […]

Would you seek life advice from a money-man? Not as a rule. Those fixated on the accumulation of wealth tend not to have too much general wisdom to impart. There are some exceptions, though. Jim Simons passed away recently. He’s not the best-known name, but he probably made more money than virtually anyone else on […]

The sage Nanak was travelling across the northern Indian subcontinent and beyond. His fame as a wise observer and enlightened teacher had grown, and crowds would flock to see him and hear his discourses, wherever he visited. He arrived in a town dominated by a very wealthy man. When the rich personage heard Nanak was […]

The outgoing British government is throughly surprised. It came in on a landslide in 2019; it exits on an even stronger landslide in 2024. In 2019 the opposition Labour Party looked like it could be marginalised forever, so bad was its defeat. This time round it has a super-majority. Surprise! Life is a capricious beast. […]

What is a nation? What makes it what it is? Is a nation its borders, the lines on a map that define its boundaries? Is that what we think of when we think of a country? Is a nation its physical features, the mountains and lakes and rivers that are its hallmarks? Or is a […]

Zarina Patel is no more; Kenya’s activist of renown passed away recently. She hit our headlines when she led the protests against the grabbing of Nairobi’s historic Jeevanjee Gardens in 1991. Since then she found a whole range of worthy causes to be involved in. If action was needed against a social injustice or human-rights […]

“I will miss him a lot. (He) has been a really important part of my life. He brought me to another level as a manager. I think we respect each other incredibly. He helps me so many times.” The person who said that was Pep Guardiola, manager of Manchester City Football Club, soon after winning […]

I never thought I would resonate with a book about money. All my life I have had a sceptical mistrust of matters mammon. I have observed the derangement it causes in many: individuals, corporations, even entire cultures. And as I have written here many a time, a manic obsession with money leads to nothing good […]

I am Gaia, your Mother Earth, and today I speak to you humans with a heavy heart. I have nurtured and nourished you for millennia, and given you a great bounty teeming with everything you need to thrive. Sadly, you have abused me incessantly, and you have worsened the mistreatment over the past century. You […]

I watched a television programme recently which highlighted the work of a Japanese cooper—a maker of wooden barrels, casks, and tubs. A simple enough task, you might think—but you stand to be re-educated, as I was. The choice of wood, how to treat it, how to shape it into staves, how to create a curved […]

Asma Khan is quite a phenomenon. A Bengali Muslim immigrant in the UK, she is a trained lawyer with a PhD in constitutional law. Yet her accomplishment is not in the field of her training. Asma is famous simply for cooking the dishes of her childhood. She had never learned to cook when she got […]

Let me return to the subject of “fru-fru” today. Regular readers will recall that fru-fru (or frou-frou if you prefer the original French) refers to empty embellishment—frippery for the sake of ostentation, having no substance behind it. In communication and branding terms, fru-fru is feel-good look-good messaging, devoid of meaning. We all communicate, all the […]

What keeps us going? What makes us keep striving to be more, do more, have more? Is it a necessary human trait, to hanker and to grow? We could call it ambition or aspiration. But I also have other words to for you to consider: greed, obsession, and sickness. The need to have and be […]

There are so many arrogant people running around. Full of themselves, cocksure, always right, always certain of their positions, usually dismissive of others. Why, though? What is there to be arrogant about, for any human being? You are arrogant because you are rich, perhaps? But how fickle is material wealth? It can be obtained through […]

Pick a side. You have to be on one side, or the other. If you’re not for us, you’re against us. If you’re not with us, you’re with them. Pick a side, and stick to it all your life. That message is drummed into us soon after we are born, and then reinforced for all […]

Here are the best books I read in 2023, both old and new. The Aosawa Murders is a chilling Japanese story about an entire family being poisoned during a birthday. There is only one survivor—a young blind daughter. A remarkably well constructed, haunting mystery. Trust by Hernan Diaz was outstanding. It’s about the world’s richest man, and […]

As the year draws to a close, let’s learn some Latin. I want to dust off three two-letter phrases that are profound meditations on having a meaningful life. They express timeless philosophies, rooted in many ancient spiritual and contemplative traditions. The first phrase is AMOR FATI. This means simply to love one’s fate. It is […]

I was once walking through the older parts of Reading, a town in the United Kingdom. I came upon a lovely old church hidden behind the town centre, and in it a cemetery. There I found this gem: a large wooden grave marker, with an inscription in memory of Henry West. Who was Henry West? […]

I was once in an airport immigration queue, awaiting clearance to re-enter my homeland. The queue was long, and we were all tired after a long flight.  A very well known business tycoon came in from a different flight. He took a look at the line in front of passport control and walked right past […]