Thread by @rebootdude

1/ Nothing every really goes to waste.

You would be surprised what you could build on foundations of your original failures as a founder.

A few years after Avicena, I came back home to Karachi and started Alchemy, I had a head start.

I already knew the path to starting up.

2/ Our first real success as a new business.

A training engagement that opened many doors in future years.

We had gone to pitch something else to a customer. He didn't want it.

But given my background he asked if I could do a product specific risk training for his team.

3/ A younger pre-Avicena me would have said no. This wasn't the model. This wasn't the way.

The older me said yes. Listen to him. Give the customer what he wants. Take the money and do what he asks.

We did. It required us to change our focus but we were already in the space.

4/ Customers often come back with counter offers. Not just in terms of pricing but also in terms of work.

Not always workable but sometimes you get lucky.

We didn't know it then. But that one deal sealed with a simple handshake would launch many boats at Alchemy.

4/ The work I had done at Avicena, building courses from scratch came in handy.

The training frameworks were already there because we had earlier spent two years on them. I just had to fill in the blanks.

The biggest gift was keeping myself open to feedback.

5/ The training practice launched in 2003 is 30% of our revenue today.

In bad years it was the training practice that helped us keep our doors open.

In good years it did much more. It made it possible for us to dig and grow in areas where we had no access

6/ 3 years later, the relationships and channels we had built made it possible for us to put together a convertible pipeline for our enterprise risk software products.

Most customers were already students. I was not a vendor but an instructor and teacher.

7/A decade after we shut the doors on Avicena a student casually asked if I had something that he could read and refer to online.

Accessible class notes for lack of a better word. Or ideally even @khanacademy

He sent me a link to @salkhanacademy collection of videos.

8/ I didn't have time to do videos but I put up a simple word press site that over the next decade grew into
FinanceTrainingCourse.com

9/ 4 businesses grew out of the ashes of Avicena

Instructor led training
Enterprise risk software
Risk practice
FinanceTrainingCourse.com

A core part of who we are and what we do today. Wouldn't be possible if I hadn't picked the road that led to my original failure.

10/ Avicena also taught me

1) Tech didn't matter. Fit did.
2) Don't seek perfection. Ship early, not late.
3) Take small bites. Don't aim for the elephant.
4) A runaway to iterate.
5) Do your own diligence.
6. Set and get expectations right.

Small lessons with big footprints.

11/ For years I thought, how could you do this. How could you be so foolish? To fail, leave such a big hole in the ground that took years to fill in.

Didn't realize that failure was like a cleansing fire. A ritual of necessity. A first step towards a better, improved me.

12/ Nothing ever really goes to waste.

Someday you will build a new you out of the ashes of your past.

13/ When destiny takes you on a path that ends at a dead end or a hole in the ground remember its just training.

A practice dry run for bigger holes in the ground. A test to see if you are really worthy for all that she has planned for you.