Founders Are Shaped Long Before Day One

I didn’t plan to become a tech founder.

I planned to be useful.

That choice changed everything.

I started in academia.
Teaching.
Researching.
Explaining complex ideas until they made sense.

It taught me one thing early.
If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it deeply.

Then I moved into corporate.
Telco.
Big systems.
Big budgets.
Bigger politics.

That world taught me scale.
Decisions ripple.
Mistakes multiply.
Time moves slower than ambition.

I learned how real infrastructure works.
How systems break.
How people behave when risk enters the room.

And then came the hardest move.
Founder.

No syllabus.
No safety net.
No brand to hide behind.

Just judgement.

Here’s the roadmap I wish someone had shown me earlier.

Academia trains your thinking.
Corporate trains your discipline.
Entrepreneurship tests your character.

Each phase matters.
Skip one, and you feel it later.

Young leaders ask me,
“When is the right time to jump?”

Here’s the truth.

You don’t jump when you’re ready.
You jump when your questions get louder than your comfort.

What helped me transition?

I stopped chasing titles.
I chased problems worth solving.

I stopped trying to be the smartest person in the room.
I tried to be the calmest.

I learned that leadership is not about control.
It’s about clarity.

And founders are not built overnight.
They are assembled slowly…
From lessons that only different worlds can teach.

If you’re early in your career…
Don’t rush the journey.

Learn deeply.
Build credibility.
Understand systems.
Then, when the pull comes…

You’ll know.

Because founders aren’t born in startups.
They’re shaped long before that.

One decision at a time.