Picture this: Third year of college. A girl walks up to me and starts a conversation in English.
There I am, all six and a half feet of me, completely frozen.
My brain goes into overdrive – translating her words into my native language, forming a response, correcting my grammar, translating back to English.
By the time I figure out what to say, she’s already walked away.
That moment changed everything.
Growing Up Between Two Languages
I grew up in a boys school in Tamil Nadu, India, where we spoke more vernacular than English.
We only used English during exams, which meant I could read and write it, but speaking? That was a different challenge altogether.
College exposed this gap immediately. But that awkward encounter with the girl wasn’t just embarrassing, it was clarifying. If I ever wanted to build meaningful relationships, I needed to fix this.
So I started my improvement journey with “Word Power Made Easy.” Within months, my vocabulary grew by 3,000 words. I devoured “An Adult Approach to Vocabulary Building” next.
The learning continued, and I was thrilled with my progress.
Soon, I was casually dropping words like “perspicuity” and “perspicacity” into conversations, waiting for people to be impressed.
Instead, they just stared back at me with blank expressions.
That’s when I learned something more important than any vocabulary lesson: effective communication isn’t about using impressive words.
It’s about simplicity and brevity. It’s about connecting with people, not impressing them.
The Math Behind Transformation
This experience taught me something fundamental about growth that I’ve carried throughout my career in sales and leadership coaching.
There’s a powerful equation from “Atomic Habits” that captures it perfectly:
1^365 = 1 (no improvement, you stay the same)
1.01^365 = 37.8 (just 1% daily improvement)
Think about that. Improve by just 1% each day, and by year’s end, you’re nearly 38 times better than when you started.
The transformation doesn’t come from dramatic overnight changes. It comes from small, consistent steps that compound over time. My English journey proved this. Each new word, each conversation, each book – they all added up to something far greater than I imagined.
The Three Questions That Drive Growth
Since that realization, I’ve asked myself three questions every day:
- How can I become better today?
- What new things can I learn?
- How can I build a better version of myself?
Some days, my 1% improvement is mastering a new coaching technique.
Other days, it’s listening more carefully to a client or simplifying how I explain a complex sales framework.
The size of the improvement matters less than the consistency.
This approach has shaped everything – how I communicate, how I coach, and how I help leaders grow.
Because here’s what I’ve learned: life will present you with moments that expose your limitations. A conversation that goes nowhere. A deal that disappears. A presentation that falls flat.
These aren’t failures. They’re invitations to grow.
The question isn’t whether you’ll face these moments, you will. The question is: will you recognize them as the catalysts they are?
What’s your 1% improvement going to be today?
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