Who is Farhan Lalji?

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.

I started this blog as I finished the MBA to document my transition from a graduate to a professional. Professional what? I’m not sure. Right now it’s a marketer working for Yahoo! Allow me to think out loud for a couple of minutes.

Last week I was listening to a great podcast from Stanford University’s Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders series. The particular podcast was on angel investing and had Ron Conway and Mike Maples discussing their experience. Something Mike Maples said really stuck with me, he basically said that we’re lucky enough to have a tremendous education behind us (he was talking about Stanford, but could equally apply to London Business School) so we have no excuse for not doing something your passionate about. I couldn’t agree more.

We had some close friends over for lunch the other day and amongst the great conversation we were discussing our jobs and what we’re doing. Some of us were still trying to figure out what we’re passionate about and some of us know what we’re passionate about and are working in those fields.

Either way, there’s no excuse for not being passionate about what you do. Because if you’re not it’s easy to do something else.

It might seem difficult, but as someone who fell in love with the internet (as sad as it might sound its true) and moved from studying health to doing web development to studying at LBS to working for Yahoo! I have to believe, with passion and commitment, that anything is possible.

A lot of the world doesn’t have that kind of flexibility. Most of the people of the world grow up not being able to make more then a dollar a day. As someone who has access to capital, education, and information I feel blessed and I totally agree with Mick Maples, there is no excuse for not doing what I’m passionate about.

Will I always be this passionate about online? Who knows, I’m not sure. But whatever I decide I’m passionate about I’m lucky enough to know that I have the education and the experience to transition into something else.

During the MBA I liked to contribute in class. And now it seems like this contributing nature has got me a bit of infamy.I’m on the cover of the EMBA information brochure from London Business School! After hearing about it for a couple of weeks I finally managed to download it on the school website. Not that I mind, I never was one to shy away from a little self-promotion!

It’s kind of odd having my face on the cover now that I’m not at the school anymore.  Especially since my face never made it into any of the brochures while I was there!  Almost gave me a complex.  Oh well, better late then never I guess.

Judging from the look on Yana’s face behind me, whatever I said must have been pretty funny!

I met Tony Wheeler, who with his wife Maureen founded Lonely Planet - at an entrepreneurship gala held by London Business School a few months ago.  The guy was a lot of fun.  He was humble, honest and engaging.  He spoke about how his wife was the business minded one of the two of them.  And of how he was really passionate about traveling. In fact the couple didn’t really plan on building an international business, they were just enjoying travelling during a gap year after Tony had finished his MBA.

So I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Lonely Planet had been acquired by BBC’s worldwide commercial arm. Surprised in a good way in that it’s a great success story for an Alum.  And I hope it means that Tony and Maureen will continue on with their adventures.

It really couldn’t have happened to a nice guy.  Not to mention its a great success story for London Business School!  And we can use a few more of these!

I’m going to try and make this the last post about London Business School and my MBA. With it being part of my yesterday and my new found belief that it only pays to focus on today and tomorrow, I don’t want to get stuck in neutral. But one more indulgent review of the last two years won’t hurt anyone, I hope.

With congregation/graduation/convocation (whatever you want to call it) complete and with the summer ball behind me – great times both – I’m officially done the EMBA programme at London Business School.

It feels like yesterday that I was hanging with Miss N on the steps outside Sainsbury reception, thinking about what a great experience awaited. And it didn’t disappoint.

I went in to the programme hoping to meet great people (solid group of people in the full time and exec programme who I definitely want to stay in touch with, so check), learn a lot (The FT was in Latin before, but now I understand a great deal, from arbitrage to leveraged buy-outs to zero sum games, so check), have some great experiences (hearing Bill Clinton talk about his legacy, consulting in Kiev, meeting great entrepreneurs and hearing about their journeys, so check), ideally come out with a great new job (check) and do it all while convincing the wife that it would all be different when I finished (and so far so good, so check).

It feels very real and very surreal at the same time. But I feel energized and ready to take on the world. But I need a nap to recover from last night first.