The story I’ve been putting off for two years. The journey to TKS, lessons learnt, and why I’ve left.
Two years ago at 17, I made a life-altering decision: dropping out of university (a month before it began!) to join TKS as their first employee.
Since then – other than having the best job over – I’ve been on a plane almost every month, hung out with some of the smartest people in the world, gotten poached to work directly with billionaires, developed countless 1-degree-from-Elon-Musk relationships (lol, although it’s true I’m not actually counting), consulted for the executive team at Wealthsimple and Interac, went from living in a 2-bedroom apartment with my family to having my own place smack downtown with the sickest friends… and those were all things that happened on the side! My bestfriend and I dryly joke that we can’t share 90% of the experiences we’ve had over the past two years until we’re older to avoid unintentionally stunting on people. Yes, even moreso than I already seem to have.
This story has been a long time coming. It’s supposed to give you insight to the lessons I’ve learned from the crazy adventure it’s been, but mostly it’ll finally let my high school class know wtf it is that I’ve been up to 😅
Let me paint the picture for you: it’s 2018, I’m 17, and having the best summer of my life. I’ve found a community of people I LOVE. We’re all having a blast going through our first summer internships. Some are paid ones with the biggest corps. in Canada and some are even more interesting jobs at lowkey startups. Every evening, we’re rushing out of office doors at different spots in the city to hangout with each other – eager to develop the most meaningful friendships we’ve come across in our lives.
I’ve never felt like I belonged somewhere more. I’ve always been passionate about building the future, and although I never felt completely alone – it’s changed my life to have a group of people I would call my family. Not because we’ve spent a lot of time together, or that we happen to be in similar crazy-teen-circumstances, but because of our values. We believe and practice growth mindset, being ambitious, supporting each other (how tf is it that a group of teens came together without any sparks of jealousy or competition!?)… and we’re serious about changing the world.
At the same time that summer, I was meeting people I was supposed to spend the next 4 years with through university. It only took a few weeks to know this was not the place I’d find my future co-founders. I’m sure based on luck and prep by the end of the four years there’d be a few people, but it was not an investment I was willing to make. And I already had the sickest friends ever.
This is literally why I was contemplating not going to university.
Also let’s be real, getting educated on computer science by a prof in a classroom was the last thing on my mind. I could learn how to code through the internet. The value in university for me was supposed to be the place, the people, the social experience…”finding myself”. And it was the same value held by founders who’s opinions I valued, and advice I was seeking.
The reason I met all my dope friends was because of a program we went through together called TKS. It’s the shit. Every day that summer we’d all go hangout with the founders (Navid & Nadeem Nathoo) at their office space. We were literally there past midnight playing mafia and just jamming. In between the shenanigans, I would share my doubts about university with the brothers.
Meanwhile during the day I would see them going through interviews with candidates for their first full-time employee position. At some points I even overheard bits of conversations they had about a candidate.
A few days later, Navid asks me to join the team.
They can’t find someone who’s the perfect fit. Someone who get’s TKS, is mission-driven, and understands the community.
I was the fit.
Lesson #1: Mindset trumps knowledge. The best skill I had was that I knew how to learn, fast. I didn’t know how to build a community, or to grow TKS to 5 major cities in 8 months. I had never been handed a +$20,000 budget to put a stage together for Canada’s largest tech festival. I didn’t know how to send invoices. Or email 500 people at once. I think I learned how to send a calendar invite 4 months prior. But I knew how to learn and unlearn, and that was valuable. More valuable than the bachelor-degree and experience holding candidates interviewing for the same role.
Spending the next year with two of the smartest people I knew – hell freaking yeah! In retrospect I straight up learned more important things within the first two months than I think I would’ve in all 4 years of university.
My answer was an instant yes. Navid gave me 2-3 days to think it over, but it was an instant yes.
Then came the tougher conversation..
My mom didn’t give me permission. For the first time in my life I made a pro’s and con’s list with her (which is SO unusual to do as a brown person). She agreed (which took a long time in and of itself) that everything logically made sense, but still said no.
I didn’t even tell my dad!
The third day rolls around. “Hey Ammi, so can I submit this gap-year form?” “No.” “Okay I just did it”. (lol…).
I still hadn’t told my dad.
At TKS I was a swiss-army knife, a juggler of all things. I don’t know how to tell you what my role was. It was project managing, it was working with my best friend (who joined during my second year) as her manager, it was owning relationships with hundreds of schools, generating applications across 5 North American cities, building strategy for our community, literally managing our revenue stream and payments totalling over a million dollars… the list could go on forever.
It definitely wasn’t your typical teenage experience. It changed my life. I’m damn beyond grateful towards Navid & Nadeem for making this possible for me. Not only because of the meaningful work, the incredible story, the awesome memories, but also because of the endless list of important lessons I’ve internalized:
Lessons for Life
The world isn’t well designed, and it’s not run by smart people
or as many smart people as you’d think. Within my first few months at TKS, Nadeem asked me if I wanted to take on a large project. I’d be working with executives at a medium-sized Toronto startup, with a founder that everyone in the tech community knew. Of course I said yes! A few days later a meeting to get the ball rolling was set between me, Nadeem, and 4 people from their team. I went in with a conception of what the agenda would probably be, and was excited for this would-be-half-hour official meeting… My expectations were shattered. There was a 40 page slide deck in front of us with a few words per slide. The meeting lasted two hours and we discussed almost nothing. I remember leaving that meeting explicitly saying “WTF!?” to Nadeem in our Uber. These were “executives”. People in their 30s, who’ve been working for years. The founder was very well recognized and connected with every major person in our tech community. No doubt handing a lot of money and having influence in their cities/the world. How does this happen!? Unfortunately this was the first of countless experiences where C-Suite level people I met from the largest corps to local startups who did a lot of things that didn’t make sense. I’ve watched millions and millions of dollars being wasted by unproductive decision making.
Age doesn’t matter. Yes, you can do anything.
Steve Jobs also knew that the world wasn’t built by people much smarter than him (and you). Internalizing and experiencing that really helped me understand that I can do everything I perceive, and perhaps even more than I know I’m capable of. I went from being stuck in 2 hour meetings with people all older than me, to being the youngest one leading more efficient ones.
Throughout the past two years I’ve felt fulfilled with how I’m living, been offered to work directly with billionaires, had experiences I couldn’t have even dreamt of as a child, and seen my same-age friends sell their startups. It’s all possible, and it’s up to you to be the activator of your own life.
Relationships matter.
People build everything. Everything around you is built by other people. The systems, the furniture, the art you consume, our capability to explore the universe, the device you’re using to read this. No matter what you want to do in life – but especially if you’re here to create a meaningful impact on the world, you need to learn how to love, work with, and understand people.
Luck is real. And you can maximize it.
I don’t have wealthy parents. Or a well-connected family. But I was lucky my parents moved to Canada. It was not a decision I made, or could have even been a part of – but without it I wouldn’t have had a higher-success-potential zip code. I got lucky.
Probably 50% of the experiences that have happened over the past two years have been because of luck. The interesting thing about this though is that luck alone did not make things happen. It’s actually the intersection between luck and preparation at which opportunities lay.
Unlike the situation with my parents deciding to move to Canada, there’s a lot of room for you to foster luck by how much you “prepare”. You can create serendipity. How? Be in environments with people who can help make interesting things happen. Write blogs. Create a personal brand, and amplify it through social media.
You can activate and wield your life a lot more than you think. Perhaps not entirely, but definitely a lot more than you think. That’s powerful.
You decide.
’nuff said.
Lessons from Working at a Startup
Also applicable to long-term meaningful projects.
Learn how to be relentlessly resourceful.
Figuring things out is a skill, and it might sound simple but it’s not actually popular. Learn how to do this, and you’ll be super-powered.
Have high standards.
Some teams might not value this, but having high standards is what helps you be legit. Whether that’s high standards for what you’re building, or for how you’re promoting it. And yes, even work that needs to be scrappy can be done at high standards without taking much effort.
GSD Get the right stuff done*
aka GtrSD. ****The right question to ask isn’t “what can we do?” it’s “what should we do?”. In addition, something Navid mentions to the team is also helpful: Correct > Done > Perfect.
Actively reflect,
and then act on it. That’s how you practice a growth mindset.
Here are two reflections I found that I sent to Navid & Nadeem last year. I’ve done a version of updates that included reflections every day for over a year. It’s what’s helped me grow fast + consistently:
Move fast. And when things break, be able to slow down.
Navid does this really well. In 2018 and 2019, I managed the operations for our program launches. And shit would hit the fan, often. I can’t even express to you how often.. It’s a year later, we’ve built the systems we need – and we still haven’t perfected these methods. That’s a story for another day, but Navid being able to recognize the integral parts of TKS to flesh out as we grew and hiring a Director of Operations (who is SO KICKASS) was a small decision that had a big impact. He makes these iterative decisions often, and when things break he’s able to identify which part of the structure not only needs fixing, but needs to be rebuilt.
Burnout is real.
I’ve seen every single person on the team experience some level of burnout. It’s real, so figure out systems to be productive while still taking care of yourself. Or if you’re willing to sacrifice your health to go “all in” on a project – know how to breathe after a sprint so you can run your next race well.
Productive Hours > Long Hours
There were many times when I was in the office all day, sometimes past midnight. Sometimes the methods I was using to get shit done were the right methods, and sometimes they could’ve been more productive. If you find yourself working long hours or doing the same tasks often, those are good signals to evaluate if you can apply the 80/20 rule to your work.
Lessons from Working with Others
Understand them.
Learn how to get aligned quickly. It’s easy to do with people who share the same communicating and working methods as you, but it’s more important to do this for those who don’t. You’ll always work better together if you can understand how the other person flows and sprints.
Motivations lead people.
Some people are mission-driven, others by money, fear, status, and career-success. These motivations drive how people make decisions, and what their values are. Sometimes it’s clear what motivates someone, and other times it’s not. Sometime’s people bullshit their motivations – it happens. Life is a game of mafia, and understanding what drives people will help you determine who you do or don’t want to work with.
Develop trust.
This was something Navid & Nadeem actively taught me in the first few months of TKS. They were excited for me to go grow with them, but I also needed to earn their trust so that they felt comfortable with me completely owning important projects. How did I do this? Developing ownership, learning how to be on the ball, and over-communicating. If I wasn’t able to show them they could trust me, I know they wouldn’t have kept me on the team.
Make the world work for you.
I learned this one from Nadeem. Send emails early in the morning. Do them before major important tasks, because while you’re heads-down is when people can read and reply to them. Text people ideas and asks as soon as you know you want them to support on something. Have bias towards action when it comes to getting things from other people. Doing this makes the work more effortless on your end, and gets things moving fast.
People develop culture.
And when you’re with a small group of people, every new person will shape the culture. Our team felt different when it went from 3, to 10, to 15, to 20 people. It was noticable, and it was significantly positive every time we’ve hired the right person.
Be early!
I’ve done over a thousand meetings over the past two years. Every time you’re late, it shows you don’t care about the other person. Even if it’s a casual meeting. Even if it’s a coffee date.
Remember, people make everything happen.
So… head scratch. After such a daaaaaaaazling and life-shaping 2 years why the heck am I leaving!? And during COVID? (Yes I do feel insanely privileged to be able to leave at such a time).
I wouldn’t go if I didn’t have such a compelling desire to do what I need to do next: I think one of the next major evolution points for humans will be through our understanding and tapability into human consciousness. I have a can’t-ignore desire to deeply understand this.
What does that actually mean for the next few months? My main goal is to map out what reality(/ies) could be, and our experience of reality. That entails understanding the universe (big bang, dark energy and matter, time, space, theoretical phsyics, quantum mechanics) and understanding the human experience (neurobiology, psychedelics, consciousness as a science and as theories/philosophies, energies, the science behind emotions).
Is there an end goal in mind? Only to have understanding of what truth could be. I know my purpose in life is to impact billions. And I think this area could be the place I’ll do that through.
I’ve had so many other topics and opportunities I’ve dived into over the past year, but the magnitude of how compelling this one is needs my full attention.
I’m nervous, in a good way. Kind of scared, but excited.
Throughout this journey I’ll be sending personal updates via email on progress I’m making. This’ll include progress on the project, but also what’s up in my life. I’m not selling anything. I don’t have anything to promote. Just keeping you caught up on the crazy adventures! You can sign up here to receive them (and you can email me back so we can become friends if you want!).
I’m always going to be a part of the TKS community. I’m so dang pumped to have both my feet in as an alumni now! Obviously a huge massive gigantic astronomical thank-you to NN for being so personally invested in my growth, trusting in me and for letting me have ownership. Love you guys and the whole team.
Catch you all on the flip (alum) side,
Nazra
