phoenix JOURNAL

I chased milestones like they were map pins to fulfillment. Spoiler: wrong coordinates. I thought success came with a title, a raise, and a brand name people recognized at dinner parties. So I hired a coach. Set ambitious goals.Salary bump? Check.Prestigious logo? Check.Feeling fulfilled? …Not exactly. Turns out, I was chasing what looked good, not […]

Recently, I attended a retirement party for a client I hadn’t worked with in over eight years. To my surprise, it didn’t feel like stepping back in time. It felt like a mirror. Reflecting back to me just how far I’ve come. Back in 2015, I worked closely with this client while going through one […]

Wealth isn’t loud.It’s not a hustle.It’s not another zero in your bank account. True wealth is having options—when life gets chaotic, when careers shift, and when the world throws unexpected tests your way. It’s being able to choose you, without panic. As a founder or a leader, you already know:Your peace, freedom, and power come […]

(The Burnout Was a Message. I Finally Listened.) The cracks started to show in early 2019.And not the kind you ignore with a little drywall patching and denial. The U.S. government shut down.As a contractor, I wasn’t getting paid for 35 days. And then, a few weeks later, my house caught fire.Yes, fire. Real flames.The […]

(Not just financial growth, this was a season of soul strategy.) Between 2015 and early 2019, I was building on the outside, but awakening on the inside. I had just walked out of a toxic marriage.There were days I didn’t know who I was anymore—Just a woman trying to keep going, to stay safe, to […]

(The startup was my mirror. The real story was becoming myself.) I didn’t start my company with a grand vision or perfect plan. I started it because I refused to be broken by someone else’s smallness. I don’t come from a family where entrepreneurship is normal.In fact, if you fail in business even once, that’s […]

They don’t teach this in leadership courses. That sometimes, the most critical negotiation happens not in the boardroom, but in the silence of your living room, when your safety is bargaining against your soul. When I asked for a divorce, it wasn’t clean.He stayed.Played the charm card.Smiled at my parents.Made tea, cracked jokes, offered fake […]

At the end of Quiet, Good, and on Fire: How My Rise in the U.S. Quietly Began, I said: “My Phoenix moment didn’t come with drama. It came with decisions.” You can only stay quiet for so long before your truth insists on rising. If the first five years in the U.S. were about survival […]

December 2002 it was the year of White Christmas in Maryland, my first week in the USA. I arrived in the U.S. with my family, with a green card and a degree in computer engineering, still incomplete. The dream was clear: finish school, land a job in my field, and build a life that made […]

When I turned 21, we received a letter that changed everything. It was official: I would not be allowed to accompany my parents to the United States.A single rule—one that hinged on my age—was enough to sever our chance of migrating together as a family. For my father, this wasn’t just a bureaucratic decision.It was […]