When I was reflecting on my journey thus far, I realized I am on my fourth career path now! I am essentially a mechanical engineer by education. Post-engineering I joined the IT industry. After being a programmer for 4 odd years, I proceeded with my MBA. Post my MBA I did a number of roles in enterprise sales, M&A, building commercial models, negotiating fairly large contracts (loved it!), and at one point was one of the youngest Vice Presidents in a Top tier IT consultancy firm, heading the sales for Europe.

This is when I felt an overwhelming need to head out and set up my own startup. So post our startup's successful exit, I have been building AI products for various firms over the past 6-7 years, and thoroughly enjoying it.

1. Know what you want and have the courage to ask for it.
2. Go from the known to the unknown — do things that leverage your natural strengths.
3. Failures are bound to happen (it's a mathematical certainty), so might as well fail big — pick the hard path always.
4. Always easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.

I take my failures to heart. Even for the small ones — probably more so. The goal is to hate that feeling of failure, to figure out what you could have done differently, so that you never have to feel like that again.

I know my strengths, but more importantly I am aware of my weaknesses.

"What you don't manage, you lose."