Note to self

I did not speak a full sentence in English until I was 20, and I am pretty sure the recruiter at HSBC only hired me because I told him my uncle worked there.

I did not write my first blog post until Dec 2018 in an effort to make sense of all the InfoSec jargons for myself.

I did not run a single Km until all the gyms closed in 2020 and there was no other option to exercise.

I did not read a single book growing up and my love for reading only flourished in 2018.

I almost bombed my first public presentation way back in 2010 and did not present again in a major forum until 2020.

Since then, I have been fortunate to work with and advise some of the best organizations in the world, publish a best selling book on Information Security, completed 80Km ultramarathon, read/listened 100s of books, and spoke at some of the most regarded security conferences in the world.

What changed? I started to embrace discomfort, became ok with not being perfect, and signed up for audacious goals anyway.

If I could go back in time, the only advice I would give myself is to live boldly and take more risks.

For everyone young and ambitious – hit that publish button on your first blog, sign up for that 10K, start with the smallest book you could find, and submit your first CFP even if you think you won’t be great, but just start. You never know where those small actions would lead you. You limit your own potential.

Don’t wait to start. Embrace the discomfort. Imperfection is ok, stagnation is not.