CA turned writer sharing corporate wisdom | Ghostwriter of 2 bestselling books | Follow me for actionable advice and mindset on enjoying your corporate job

Our work isn't supposed to be hell. 

It is something you should have fun with, while making sure you are positive and practical.

I am a CA turned full-time writer, who writes books on helping you do your work better. Books include The Career Changing Guide, The Corporate Life Handbook, How to Deal with Heartbreak, and Every Writer Needs to Read This. You may get instant access to all these books in the "Publication" section.

I am also a ghostwriter of books for CXOs, and work on ~3 projects at a time. The books I have ghostwritten have made multiple crores in royalty, have landed deals for multiple years, and have been picked by the best publishing houses even for authors with a very small following. 

I also work with corporates directly, on helping their teams work on their corporate communications, especially the ones <30 years. Also running a bestselling course on Corporate Communications for the same :) 

Please DM here/email me on writer@nishtha.blog and we can take our conversation forward.

PS: Whether we end up working together or not, I hope you find what you are looking for. And I hope you have a great work life and life overall. Anything else isn't the best. :)

Nishtha Gehija

"How far is Bharat Mandapam from your place?" my father asked me over the phone this morning.

"Not much. An hour away."

"There is an AI Summit happening there," my father told me. Of course I did not interrupt him by saying I was following it. He followed up with, "I hope you are using AI to benefit yourself too."
He then followed up with me promising to teach AI to Mom and him, the next time I visit them.

It made me pause and think. 

This is a man turning 72 a few months from now. Has legit seen the era of typewriters to electronic typewriters to box size monitors to flat screens and internet, and now is talking about AI.

Keeping all business pillars aside, one of the keys to longevity is to always keep growing. And to never become the man who cringes at every change, and rather become a part of that change. 

If a 72 year old eldest son of the family with hajaar responsibilities for 5+ decades of his life can do it, you and I can do it too :)

Writer at rawreal.in and nishtha.blog, Ghostwriter of books for CXOs, CA turned full-time writer, Writer on career and life stories

It breaks my heart to see writers I have been following for over a decade to succumb to writing their books via AI.

They perhaps seem to think that no one is noticing. Or that writing via AI would make their writing (presumably) better. Spoiler: It isn’t. Or that they think that they should outsource writing to an LLM and do something more meaningful themselves.

I only wonder, if a author thinks something else is more important than writing, what is the point of even playing that game?

As a reader (and writer and a book ghostwriter of bestsellers that have never used a single word of AI), here is what I think:

That the author did not do the emotional labour to think through the difficult parts of the book.
That the author did not have the understanding of their own thoughts, let alone providing the clarity to their audience.
That the author really does not care about a connection with the audience, and all they care about is capitalising on their past success, which was either through their previous books or piggybacking on millions of followers. 

It seems too cool to say "Artificial intelligence is coming". Of course it is. No one can escape it. But when people are done with their day running their work and homes through AI, they want to go back to humanity. If art does not serve them well then, who would? How would human beings feel human?

Art was hard even when Shakespeare used to write. 
Art is hard now even when we write on laptops lighter than Shakespeare’s pen. 
It is the journey of going through that hard which makes any art worth consuming.

The reason we had so much fun as kids (despite hating some subjects) is because: 

1. We had a time-table to study, during which we had no option but to study. 
2. There was games period to ensure we didn’t have all work and no play. 
3. No matter what, we went out every evening and played.

Life lesson to take in our own work.

YOUR STRENGTH IS YOUR GREATEST WEAKNESS

You work with 200% dedication. Don’t draw boundaries and people will take you for a ride.

You are full of empathy. Listen to everything people say and you are their trash can.

You want everyone to win. At some point you must know winning begins with you winning in the first place.

At night when I fill in the jar of my flosser, the tap water runs with a pressure that it almost runs everywhere around the tiny hole of the flosser, never inside it. It is only when I reduce the water pressure in the tap that the water reaches the flosser jar. 

Excess of everything takes it away from excellence.

Things I wish every single girl in this world knew:

1. The world will not "just understand" the sacrifices you make, with you hoping that they would understand. You need to communicate what you are feeling. And do that every day of your life.

2. If you are doing role of 2-3 jobs in one job assuming you would get promoted/get a raise, my girl, ask for it. If you don't ask for it, people assume your worth is worth what you are already getting paid for.

3. If your role or a part of your role is giving consultations to people, do not open your mouth till there is money on the table. A man doing this would be called "an astute businessman". So you go be an astute businesswoman. In the past I have given advice worth lacs to people and they just walked away with it. Even without a "thank you". Now I just smile, or better yet, not give them my time if they haven't earned it.

4. You should never feel guilty about taking off days. Or taking off hours. Or getting offline daily.

5. This one is most important: The world really does not wake up one morning and conspire against us women. I guess sometimes it is us that we keep giving and giving by draining our well, while never communicating that we need help or holiday or hunks of cash. 

Oprah often says "you teach others how to treat you". 
If you don't treat yourself well, the world is taking notes. 
And if you do treat yourself well, the world is taking notes and changing their orbit for you. 
But it all begins with you.

Every work has two elements to it:

1. Do you love doing that work? (Yes/No)
2. Do you really enjoy working with the people you work with? (Yes/No)

Simply loving your work is not enough. 
Most people ignore the "people" aspect that affects every work, whether you love it or not.

Here is a different way of looking at your work, even when you love it or not, and how the people you work with bring out the best or worst in you:
https://lnkd.in/e9CAW7e7

Ever since my early teens, I've been super cautious of what I put inside my head. 

The default has always been severe aversion to anything negative that could mess up with my brain.

It was also during this time that my elder sister introduced me to the TV show Hannah Montana. 
For no apparent reason, it was a fun show to watch as a little girl. The lyrics made so much sense: 

"Who said, who said
I can't be Superman?
I say, I say
That I know I can."

Oh lord, I actually went on to become a Superman eventually, in whatever I did. 

But then there was a song by the same actor/singer called "The Climb", where she speaks about the fact that you are going to lose sometimes. As a grown up adult, those lyrics make sense. But back then, I had modified the original lyrics to the following (the capitalised words are my self-induced opposites of the original lyrics):

"I can almost see it/That dream I'm dreaming/here's a voice inside my head saying/You'll FOR SURE reach it"

"There's always gonna be another mountain/I'm always gonna wanna make it move/Always gonna be an uphill battle/ALWAYS you gotta WIN"

Why am I telling this to you?
Just to show you that you can always bend everything that is served to you. These are merely plain vanilla lyrics, but there is nothing in this world that you have to do just because that is the default.

Thank you, for giving me your time to another episode of "You can just do things".

The saddest thing about writing by AI is that it slowly shuts down your thinking process and hence the ability to articulate your emotions too.

When the time comes to express your love to someone from your family on a social media post, your post might be error-free and filled with the brightest words, while at the same time lacking the emotion underneath the “quiet strength, the quiet love, which is not real, is AI generated”. Phew.

Every single person hates rules.

Yet we all subconsciously live our lives by some rules. 

I sat down to write 5 short quick rules of life for myself, which have been helping me even without me thinking. 

Read it here: https://lnkd.in/gaPN_tbF

Email ID- kritika.shanker12@gmail.com
This was last updated on 12th Jan, 2024. Please email for the most recent résumé.

Kritika Shanker

Officially wrapped up my time at Lovable. 

This has been one of the hardest goodbyes, and honestly it's taken a while to fully sink in. 

From day one, I’ve had the privilege to learn and unlearn at rocket speed — constantly ramping myself up for the next challenge, while contributing to the growth of a company I feel such strong resonance with. 

Looking back, many of the hardest days were also the best ones. It feels like a decade's worth of stories compressed into months. Of all our rituals, Friday demos will probably remain one of my core memories. 

I always knew this one would be special. But it also reaffirmed (and deepened) my love for startups and early building.

To our builders: You’re the reason Lovable exists. You trusted us with your ambition, creativity and wildest ideas. In doing so, you shaped a meaningful chapter of my career. Thank you for building with us! Your stories continue to inspire me. Can’t wait to see what you create next.

To all my incredible colleagues: Working alongside you has been one of my greatest privileges. Thank you for the trust, challenges, and support. Seeing how much heart and grit you put into this has been very inspiring. I’m proud of what we built together, and I’ll always be rooting for each one of you!

Beyond grateful to Charles Guillemet, Caroline Wong, and Maryanne Caughey - thank you for showing me what “great” really looks like on a day to day. Thank you for your mentorship and for caring so damn much! I know that when I lead, you’re the kind of leader I would aspire to be.

And finally, a major thank you to Anton Osika and Fabian Hedin for sowing the seeds of Lovable and for assembling this extraordinary bunch under one roof. It’s been a privilege, and I’m a super proud alum. 

Thank you, Lovable, with all my heart! ♥️

Now onto to the next one. And always... Våga vara annorlunda!

building the last piece of software @ Lovable

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The Battle

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