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By:

Divyaa Advaani 

2 November 2024 at 3:28:38 am

Knowing Everything. Growing Nothing

There is a particular performance that most accomplished founders have been giving for so long they no longer recognise it as a performance at all. Every conversation is an opportunity to demonstrate expertise. Every room is a stage for what they already know. Questions feel like exposure. Admitting uncertainty feels like weakness. And so they perform knowledge confidently, fluently, convincingly even when genuine curiosity would serve them infinitely better. Even when the person across from...

Knowing Everything. Growing Nothing

There is a particular performance that most accomplished founders have been giving for so long they no longer recognise it as a performance at all. Every conversation is an opportunity to demonstrate expertise. Every room is a stage for what they already know. Questions feel like exposure. Admitting uncertainty feels like weakness. And so they perform knowledge confidently, fluently, convincingly even when genuine curiosity would serve them infinitely better. Even when the person across from them could teach them something that would change how they lead, how they decide, how they show up. The performance is exhausting for everyone in the room and quietly destroying the brand it was designed to protect. I know a senior professional multiple boards, businesses built and advised across decades who does something most people at his level would never do. When he reads something that teaches him, he says so. Publicly. Without the carefully managed caveat of "of course I already knew this." Just a clean, direct acknowledgement I learned something from this offered openly in a room full of peers, without any concern for what it might do to his image. The effect on everyone watching was immediate and unmistakable. His credibility did not shrink. It grew. Because the room understood instinctively what most founders take years to learn — a person secure enough to say "I am still learning" is someone who has never stopped growing. And people who have never stopped growing are always the most worth being in a room with. This is the single most underused brand signal available to any accomplished founder. Not the polished pitch. Not the curated profile. The willingness to not know. The confidence to say so openly, in a room where knowing is the primary currency of respect. Here is what the performance of expertise is actually costing you — and this is the part nobody says out loud. When you are only ever the expert, you stop being interesting. When you stop being interesting, people stop seeking you out. When people stop seeking you out, your brand begins to contract not dramatically, not visibly, but consistently until the rooms you are invited into start to reflect the ceiling you placed on yourself by deciding you had nothing left to learn. The most magnetic personal brands I have worked with belong to founders who are as genuinely curious as they are knowledgeable. They ask questions that reveal depth rather than assert it. They acknowledge learning without managing the optics of doing so. They make the people around them feel that their perspective is genuinely valued not processed and filed away. And because of that, those people become advocates and connectors in ways that no amount of performed credibility ever generates. Now the question that matters and answer it honestly. When did you last publicly acknowledge learning something from someone you did not expect to learn from? When did you last say in a room of your peers that you did not know something and were genuinely glad to now? If you are struggling to recall a recent example, that absence is not a neutral data point. It is a direct signal about the brand you have been building and the ceiling you have quietly and unknowingly placed on it. Intellectual humility is not softness. It is the most sophisticated brand signal a serious founder can send. It says — I am secure enough in who I am that I have no need to perform it. If that question sits uncomfortably with you, good. A Founder Brand Audit is a focused consultation call where we examine the gap between the brand you are currently projecting and the one that would genuinely serve your next level. This is the beginning of a specific investment in yourself. Five slots open each week. Book your call here: https://www.calendly.com/divyaaadvaani/founder-brand-audit Divyaa Advaani, Personal Branding Strategist (The writer is a personal branding expert. She has clients from 14+ countries. Views personal.)

India working on logistics of Tahawwur Rana's extradition

  • PTI
  • Feb 14, 2025
  • 3 min read

Updated: Feb 18, 2025

Tahawwur Rana

Washington: India is working on the logistics of Tahawwur Rana's surrender and extradition from the US, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri has said, as President Donald Trump announced that his administration has given the go-ahead to extradite the 26/11 terror attack accused “to face justice".

“This is an issue on which the US authorities have taken very clear decisions. I think you've seen the President announce it himself from the White House podium" the decision of the US to extradite Rana, Misri said at a press conference here on Thursday.


During a joint press conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the White House, US President Donald Trump announced that his administration has approved the extradition of "very evil" Tahawwur Rana, wanted by Indian law enforcement agencies for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, "to face justice in India”.


In response to a question by PTI on the timeframe by when Rana will be extradited to India, Misri said: "We are working on the logistics of his surrender and extradition to India. There are a few final steps to be completed. The two sides are in touch on this particular issue.”


The India-US joint statement issued during the Prime Minister's visit to the US notes that Modi and Trump reaffirmed that the global scourge of terrorism must be fought and terrorist safe havens eliminated from every corner of the world.

“They committed to strengthen cooperation against terrorist threats from groups, including Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Jaish-e Mohammad, and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba in order to prevent heinous acts like the attacks in Mumbai on 26/11 and the Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan on August 26, 2021," the joint statement said.


“Recognising a shared desire to bring to justice those who would harm our citizens, the US announced that the extradition to India of Tahawwur Rana has been approved," it said.


The leaders further called on Pakistan to expeditiously bring to justice the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai, and Pathankot attacks and ensure that its territory is not used to carry out cross-border terrorist attacks.

"The leaders also pledged to work together to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems and to deny access to such weapons by terrorists and non-state actors,” the joint statement added.

Rana, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin, is currently lodged at a metropolitan detention centre in Los Angeles. He is known to be associated with Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators of the 26/11 attacks.

Speaking at the joint press meet, Trump said "Today I am pleased to announce that my administration has approved the extradition of one of the plotters and very evil people of the world, and having to do with the horrific Mumbai terrorist attack, to face justice in India. So, he is going back to India to face justice."


The extradition of Rana was cleared by the US Supreme Court in January as it rejected his review petition in the case.


India last month said it was working with American authorities for the early extradition of Rana.


"The US Supreme Court on January 21 declined to hear a petition from the accused. We are now working with the US side on procedural issues for early extradition to India of the accused in the Mumbai terror attack," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had said.


In November 2012, Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving gunman among the Pakistani group, was hanged to death in Yerawada Jail in Pune.

-PTI

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