chapter four - my 30s
Whoever said beggars can’t be choosers? It wasn’t me. As I walked from the gym to the tube this evening I was approached by a homeless man and we had the following exchange:
Him: Hey man, I’m really hungry. Need to get some food. Got 20p?
Me: Sorry man, I got 5p
Him: (pause) Naah I need 20p
Me: You sure?
Him: Yeah no thanks.
Man walks off.
I continued to walk to the tube, stunned at a refusal of one quarter of the funds requested. Oh well.
As someone who studied sport, who works in technology and has a passion for entrepreneurship, I love it when the three meet. So when Don Dodge wrote a post about the Giants, Pats, Mavs, Larry Bird, and other sporting teams and heroes and the lessons for entrepreneurs through sport I enjoyed reading every word.
Originally uploaded by farhanlalji
Took this picture yesterday while walking around in Hampstead Heath. It always amazes me how much green space there is in London. You could be in the middle of buildings and yet not be far from a big park. Love it.
When I was in University the internet was just being discovered. I subscribed to a Yahoo! email account, taught myself html on Geocities and fell in love with the web. I was lucky to have such experiences.When I left University, circa 2000, I came to London at a time when you didn’t need a Computer Science or engineering degree to be a web developer. I got job offers for roles that were bigger then my skills. I got lucky.
Sure there were tough times; I went to work in the public sector when the private sector money was drying out. But I learnt a lot over that period. Mostly, I learnt I was cut out to be a developer.
I went back to school and graduated with a great class, as the current FT rankings will testify. Made some great friends during this time and had some phenomenal experiences.
We sold our flat a couple of months ago, before the sub prime mortgage crisis and now the housing market looks like it’s turning down. Luck was striking again.
Now that I’m at Yahoo! it kind of feels like I’ve come full circle. And with the latest news around the company I’d be lying if I didn’t say I’m a little nervous about what the future holds. But whatever it holds I’m looking forward to the ride.
I would be remiss if I didn’t say Shukar/shukran somewhere in this, so there it’s been said.
