Thread by @ishaheen10

Here’s to the crazy ones!

Imagine being a VP of Product at a unicorn tech company (~2,000+ employees) at the age of 29 and then deciding to quit your career to become a historian....without having any background in history!

Meet Azfar Moin, a Pakistani man who pulled this off.

Today Azfer is considered a world class historian. His book, The Millenial Sovereign: Sacred Kingship and Sainthood in Islam, has won several prestigious awards and he is currently a tenured prof at UT Austin.

amazon.com/Millennial-Sov…

Last year I got a glimpse of the question that drives him:

“Why would the most powerful man in the world (Emperor Akbar) declare himself an apostate? (Akbar declared himself the most sacred being on earth, turns out many before him (eg Genghis Khan) pulled off a similar move)

An obsession with this question drove Azfar to:

1. Enroll in an undergrad program as a 30 yr old
2. Become fluent in Arabic + Persian
3. Give up a financially lucrative career
4. Dedicate over a decade to uncover decisions made by past kings
5. Become a prof at a university

For close to 17 years this man has worked to uncover the obsession of kings to become saints.

What’s relevant though is that he wasn’t “driven” by the “need” to become the best historian. He was driven by a maddening curiosity to understand why Akbar did what he did.

It’s hard figuring out what drives conviction and where does obsession come from. But generally when obsession is driven by a desire to understand and not a desire to “appear” great, greatness emerges.

I share this story to emphasize that greatness, like revenue is a trailing indicator. Chasing revenue or greatness doesn’t result in either.

It’s far more potent to uncover a big question or solve a meaningful problem.

If you are on the verge of quitting your career. Don’t do it to become great or wealthy. Do it to learn, to uncover, to indulge, to live!

cheers to the crazy ones. The rebels. The misfits. The founders. The immigrants.