Learning From Business Failures

6,000 people at Microsoft lost their jobs this week. Engineers who built critical features. People who sacrificed weekends. Teams that delivered consistently for years. Let's be clear about four harsh truths: First, no company is loyal to you. They can't be. Business decisions will always outweigh personal relationships. Don't love your company; love your work and the skills you develop. Second, you are just a row in a database. Your access card, email, and benefits can be deactivated in seconds, regardless of your years of service or achievements. Third, a single income stream is increasingly risky in today's economy. This is why I started building side projects while still at Microsoft. Not waiting until I needed options, but creating them in advance. Fourth, layoffs are often random and arbitrary. You can be a top performer, exceed every metric, and still find yourself on the list. It rarely comes down to just individual performance; it's about cost centers, strategic pivots, or AI replacing entire functions overnight. To those affected: Your skills are valuable beyond any single employer. Your worth isn't determined by a company that just labeled you as an "expense" to cut. To everyone else: Start building alternative income streams today. Create content. Develop marketable skills. Build a network that transcends your current employer. The best security isn't a big tech logo on your badge. it's having options when you suddenly need them. #TechLayoffs #CareerAdvice

𝗧𝗵𝗲 $𝟭𝟳𝟮 𝗠𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝗔𝗣 𝗙𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘂𝗿𝗲: 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗪𝗲 𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗭𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗕𝗶𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁 💥 When a $25B medical device company loses $75M in annual revenue, lays off 3% of its workforce, and wipes out $2B in market value — all because of a failed SAP S/4HANA implementation — it’s not a tech glitch. It’s a full-scale governance and leadership breakdown. Zimmer Biomet’s lawsuit against Deloitte for $172 million is a wake-up call for every organization planning or in the middle of an ERP transformation. Here are a few of the biggest takeaways: 🔹 𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗲-𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿. Independence ensures objective oversight and protects against vendor bias. 🔹 𝗚𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗴𝗮𝗽𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗼𝗳𝘁𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲. Your integrator should never control the project unilaterally. 🔹 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗼𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹. Neglecting people and process readiness can turn go-live into chaos. 🔹 𝗔𝗜 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗴𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹. Use it to automate oversight, analyze risk, and improve accountability. 🔹 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 𝗮𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲. Transformation is a business journey — not just a software upgrade. I break down these lessons and more in my latest LinkedIn newsletter. 👉 Read the full article and download our Guide to Successful S/4HANA Implementations here: https://lnkd.in/gQ7WV-Wy ✅ Follow me for more insights on SAP, ERP, and digital transformation. 🔁 Repost this to help others avoid the same costly mistakes. #DigitalTransformation #SAP #S4HANA #ERP #Leadership #Governance #ChangeManagement #AI #ThirdStageConsulting #ProjectSuccess

In 1992, I arrived in Silicon Valley from Iran with $700, unable to speak English and knowing only a handful of people. My first home here? An attic above a yogurt shop where I worked. It wasn’t much, but it was a start. That attic was the foundation of a journey that would lead me from working at a car wash to becoming a seed investor in some of the world’s leading companies, like Dropbox and DoorDash. Here are a few lessons from that journey: 1. Solve Real Problems, Not Just Big Ideas The best entrepreneurs are deeply connected to the problems they’re solving. It’s not about chasing the “next big thing” but addressing a real, specific issue. Start with a problem you’ve experienced firsthand and understand deeply. 2. Perseverance Is Key I’ve learned that building anything worthwhile is hard, often unpredictable. Setbacks are part of the journey, and success comes to those who adapt and keep pushing forward. When I struggled, it was my commitment that kept me going. 3. Strong Co-Founder Chemistry Matters Founding a company is a long, challenging journey. Teams with a history of working well together tend to weather storms better. Chemistry and mutual trust among co-founders are invaluable assets. 4. Be in It for the Right Reasons The best founders think long-term. Their drive isn’t just about quick financial wins; it’s about making an impact. Focus on creating value—whether that’s through happier users, meaningful jobs, or industry transformation. 5. Stay Paranoid (in a Good Way) A little paranoia can be healthy. The best founders plan meticulously, double-check every step, and make decisions carefully. Yet, this caution is balanced with kindness—a quality I look for in leaders who inspire loyalty in their teams. 6. Never Give Up My journey began with hope and the belief that I could make something of myself. Today, I’m grateful for that hope and resilience. From that yogurt shop attic to investing in groundbreaking companies, I’ve learned that every humble beginning holds the potential for greatness if you stay focused, work hard, and never, ever give up.

It's never been more exciting to start an AI startup. But the graveyard is vast. Here's what not to do: Spencer Shulem and I studied dozens of AI startup failures and successes. This is what we learned: — 1. Falling for shiny object syndrome When a shiny new model or tech drops, it's tempting to pursue it. For example, Argo AI raised billions of dollars to build self-driving tech. But after 6 years, the company realized the tech wasn't ready for public roads. Now, it's gone. Successful startups stay laser-focused on their target user and use case. For example, Anthropic has been working on its constitutional AI technology for years, despite many flashy new approaches emerging. That focus allowed them to make (one of) the best LLM(s) out there. — 2. "It works in the lab" Turning prototypes into products takes massive investments. Don't make the Rabbit/Humane mistake: they had good demos and commercials, but the AI devices didn't live up to the hype in the real-world. Now, both are headed to the graveyard. Successful AI startups make demos replicable in reality. For instance, Cohere spent two years building a robust serving platform. This foundational work enabled their self-serve API to reliably handle billions of requests from day 1. — 3. Irresponsible deployment In the rush to market, many AI product teams fail to put adequate safeguards in place. Take Clearview AI. They scraped hundreds of millions of social media photos without consent. When the NYT exposed it, they got banned from selling to companies and folded. On the other hand, teams like those at Perplexity AI pay especially close attention to Red Teaming. Their vigilance has allowed them to take share from Google, whose AI search has myriad examples of irresponsible outputs (like recommending the depressed to jump off a bridge). — 4. Prioritizing flash over function Many failed AI startups churn out flashy demos that generate reams of press, but don't solve real problems. Remember Quixey? Their demos touted a deep learning-powered "search engine for apps." Now, they don't exist. Successful startups like video AI tool Runway laser-focused on their users' gnarliest problems. They went deep on discovery with video creators to find the workflows that burn hours and dollars. Then, they cut the time & cost by 10x. — 5. Raising too much, too fast VC can seem necessary as an AI founder. But have you heard the stories of Olive AI or Inflection? Each raised a billion or more without achieving product-market fit. Now, they barely exist. On the other hand, successful startups like Cohere bootstrapped for 2 years before raising a $40M Series A. This allowed them to deeply validate their self-serve model and hit $1M ARR before taking on VC. With strong fundamentals in place, they could then scale with confidence.

In 2016, as I was just finding my footing as a #diversity, #equity, and #inclusion practitioner, I read an article titled, "Why Diversity Programs Fail" and learned that DEI work was not as straightforward as I had thought. From hundreds of interviews and 30 years of data from more than 800 US companies, sociologists Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev found that the usual DEI interventions—mandatory diversity training, job tests, and grievance procedures—tended to REDUCE the representation of women, Black, Latine, and Asian managers. They detailed the unintended consequences of companies that deploy these intiatives: resentment and backlash, double standards, retaliation and more. There are many DEI initiatives and programs that work. Dobbin and Kalev found that programs that drive intergroup contact and draw on people's desire to look good meaningfully increase representation. Other research has found that standardizing hiring processes reduces hiring discrimination, developing competency criteria mitigates bias on promotions outcomes and feedback, designing the workday so people spend more time with others different from them lowers prejudice and increases belonging, and so on. But the $9.4-billion dollar DEI industry didn't get as big as it did by focusing on these evidence-based practices. Change management takes time, money, and coordination, and employers are often leery to take this approach unless forced. Instead, companies opt for one-off initiatives that they can breadcrumb their way toward the bare minimum—interventions that, unfortunately, tend to be either wholly ineffective or activate hostility and resentment that turn the clock back. As a solo practitioner in the late 2010s who was offering precisely the one-time trainings and workshops that were in-demand, this was all overwhelming to me. I knew that in my heart this work was important, but I also wanted my tactics to be effective. If I wasn't actually reducing discrimination, increasing retention, supporting thriving, then I wasn't doing my job properly. If the impact lay in adjacent work—coaching leaders to understand the role they had to play, working alongside HR teams to design standardized processes to mitigate bias, supporting employee resource groups to set better boundaries, designing impact measurement and infrastructure to support long-term behavior change, and so on—then I had to go in those directions. DEI is far from dead, but we can't pretend that the performative pre-backlash status quo was the best we had to offer. As I spoke to Vox in a recent article, this is our moment to double down on our impact, not just good intentions. We can't just aspire to design workplaces that are fair, accessible, inclusive, and representative for all; we have to actually demonstrate success, measurably and tangibly. Anti-DEI activists peddle fear. We beat them with hope—and the proof that we're building a better world for everyone than they could imagine.

How I cleaned up a large SAP table and improved system performance As an SAP Administrator, I noticed that our system was getting slower. Reports were taking more time, and tables like VBAK and BKPF had millions of old records. Many of these records were very old — some more than 5 to 10 years. I started thinking: Do we really need all this old data inside the system every day? That question helped me learn something important — SAP data archiving. --- What is archiving in SAP? Archiving in SAP means safely moving old data out of the main database. This data is saved in a special file called an ADK file, which can still be accessed if needed. After saving the data, we delete it from the main table to make the system lighter and faster. --- How I found out which data to archive Most SAP tables have date fields. I used fields like: ERDAT (created date) AEDAT (changed date) BUDAT (posting date) I looked for records that were very old and no longer used. For example, sales orders that were fully completed and billed before 2018. --- How I confirmed that the data was not being used I used transaction ST03N to check which transactions and years were still active. If no one had used that data or those transactions for a long time, I marked the data as safe for archiving. --- How I archived and deleted the data I used transaction SARA: First, I ran the Write step to create ADK files and move the data Then, I ran the Delete step to remove that data from the database This helped reduce the table size and improved performance. --- How I reclaimed memory in HANA After deleting, I ran a SQL command to release memory in the HANA database: ALTER TABLE "SAPSR3"."VBAK" RECLAIM UNUSED SPACE; This step made sure the space was really freed up from memory. --- What I learned Not all old data needs to stay in the live database Archiving is safe if done properly through SAP tools Talking to business users also helps confirm what data can be removed Cleaning up improves performance and saves storage --- If you are also working on SAP and notice your system getting slower, check your large tables. Start learning about data archiving. It really makes a difference. Let me know if you’ve done this too or are planning to start. I’m happy to share more from my experience. #SAP #SAPHANA #SAPAdministrator #DataArchiving #SystemPerformance #SAPBasis

I’ve been laid off three times in my career. And each one sent me in a direction I never expected. Here are 15 of the biggest lessons I’ve learned from those moments: 1. Your job title is not your identity. You are more than your role. 2. The most uncomfortable seasons usually spark the most growth. 3. You will bounce back. And often, better than before. 4. It’s hard not to take it personally—even when it’s not. 5. Each time I’ve been laid off, I’ve come back twice as strong. 6. Company loyalty is a myth. Put your career first. 7. At the end of the day, no one’s watching your back but you. 8. Your boss probably wasn’t the one who made the call. 9. You were a budget line item. Nothing more. 10. Yes, someone less qualified will keep their job. It’s frustrating. 11. Networking without direction is a waste of time. 12. Everything in life runs in cycles. The lows don’t last forever. 13. Enjoy the highs while you have them. They won’t always stick around. 14. This might be the perfect chance to shift your career path entirely. 15. Always stay ready. Build real skills, grow your network, and learn how to market yourself effectively. Don’t wait until your back’s against the wall. Getting laid off can be one of the hardest things you go through. But it can also be the moment that launches you toward something bigger. And for me? I created an entire brand around sharing my experiences. What’s the biggest lesson you learned from being laid off?

Getting laid off was one of the hardest experiences I've faced, and it has had a lasting impact on me. As someone whose top strength is Achiever, I get a huge sense of purpose from work. So when I lost my job, it wasn’t just about losing a paycheck. It felt like I had lost a piece of my identity. I couldn’t shake the feeling that if I had just been better, if I had worked harder, maybe I would still have a job. Cue the shame spiral of not being good enough. But looking back now, I can honestly say that my layoff taught me some invaluable lessons. 1. Your job doesn’t define your worth. It's easy to tie your identity to your role, especially when you’re passionate about your work. But being laid off wasn’t a reflection of my value — it was a business decision. 2. Being strategic makes all the difference. At first, I applied to anything and everything that seemed like a fit. When I shifted to focusing on newly posted roles, prioritizing local onsite and hybrid opportunities, and connecting with recruiters directly, things changed. 3. Networking is powerful. Some of my best leads came from conversations, not just applications. Reaching out felt intimidating at first, but most people genuinely want to help if you approach them authentically. 4. Resilience is key. Job searching can feel defeating at times, but celebrating small wins like getting a positive response or securing an interview kept me motivated. 5. Your next role might be better than the one you lost. At the time, I couldn’t see how things would work out. It was difficult to be positive and hopeful. But I ended up landing a role that aligned even more closely with my skills, career goals, and lifestyle. If you’re currently navigating a layoff, I know how hard it can be. But you are not alone, and there’s a path forward — one step at a time.

At 26, I thought I needed all the answers before starting. At 32, I realize I only needed to start—and I’m exactly where I need to be. Key lessons from my entrepreneurial journey (that you might need to hear): 1. Building a business isn't just about profits - it's about building people. Some of my best hires were freshers who grew into pillars of my company. 2. Your timeline is your own. Being 32, single, and running a successful business isn't a paradox - it's a choice to live life on your own terms. 3. The best investments aren't always from VCs - they're your clients who believe in you and your team members who invest their time and talent. 4. When family and business mix, keep them in separate bowls. Do business with strangers, and keep family for love. 5. Your employees aren't just resources - they're your partners in success. When they ask for a raise, remember: retention is cheaper than replacement. 6. A gap in your resume isn't failure - it's often the bridge to something better. I left a job in 6 months and built a successful agency. 7. Time tracking doesn't equal productivity. Trust your team, focus on results, and watch creativity flourish. 8. True leadership means supporting your team's dreams, even when it means letting them go pursue higher education. 9. The customer isn't just always right - they're the real CEO. Every business decision should start and end with them. 10. Authenticity in business partnerships matters. Choose collaborators who truly align with your values, not just your profit margins. 11. You can be a woman who manages both family and business. Breaking stereotypes isn't about choosing one over the other - it's about defining success on your own terms. My challenge to aspiring entrepreneurs in 2025: - Trust your instincts - Invest in your people - Build with authenticity - Break stereotypes Remember: Success isn't about fitting into someone else's mould - it's about having the courage to create your own. What lesson resonated most with you? #lesson #entrepreneurship

Stewart Butterfield spent three years building Glitch, an online game. It failed in 2012. Fourteen months later, that dead game became Slack. Seven years later: $27.7 billion exit. You know Slack, but you didn't know he was 40 when he launched it. A decade building multiplayer games taught him that gaming infrastructure IS workplace infrastructure. Without that experience, it could never have happened. Real-time messaging. Channel architecture. Presence indicators. Notification patterns. The backend that failed to hook gamers could transform how companies communicate. When Glitch died, they had an IRC-inspired internal communication system with a perfect backend message server. Butterfield had burned through VC money on a game nobody wanted. But the infrastructure was sound. So he redeployed it. Glitch game server became Slack's message server. New client code on top. Play became work. "We don't sell saddles here," Butterfield wrote in 2013. He wasn't building business software. He was transforming how teams communicate, making their lives simpler and more productive. 500K daily users year one. 12 million by 2019. Companies were hooked. But this only worked because Butterfield spent years perfecting game engagement. Which notifications maximize addiction. How to create presence without video. Making async feel alive. Anyone could see workplace chat was broken. Only someone who'd built multiplayer infrastructure for years could see the solution. At 40, Butterfield saw what others couldn't. Experience isn't time spent. It’s the power to recognize patterns across unrelated domains. For Butterfield, that power became a $27.7 billion company.