Executive Coach | Your Copilot to a Fulfilling Life and Career Growth | Powered by the Ignite Life Method™ | Coached 1,200+ Leaders at Dropbox, Salesforce, Coinbase | Take the Quiz to See What Needs to Shift — Now

Do you feel that you are stuck in your career,
life overwhelmed with busyness, 
and you are disconnected from yourself... 
then we need to talk.

Most high achievers I coach aren’t broken — they’re just disconnected.

🚨 Disconnected from their purpose.
🚨 Disconnected from the work they once loved.
🚨 Disconnected from the life they truly want to live.

It shows up as: STUCK, FRUSTRATION, LOST.

❌ Career stagnation
❌ Constant firefighting
❌ Burnout masked as busyness
❌ Imposter syndrome despite success

I help ambitious professionals — founders, product leaders, and emerging executives — reignite clarity, rebuild courage, and create conscious impact using The Ignite Method™.

You don’t have to choose between growth and fulfilment. You can have both.

🔥 The Ignite Method™

1. Clarity Journey — Rediscover who you are and what truly matters.
2. Courage Building — Move through fear and start acting boldly.
3. Conscious Impact — Create a career and life that actually feels like success.
4. Cohesive Action — Align what you think, feel, and do every single day.

🎯 What My Clients Gain

✅ Unshakable clarity on what’s next
✅ Courage to make big, aligned decisions
✅ Confidence to lead teams or businesses with purpose
✅ Energy and ownership to thrive at work and at home

📍 A Bit About Me

- PCC Certified Coach (ICF)
- 1,200+ leaders coached in 18+ countries
- Clients from Google, Coinbase, Dropbox, Salesforce, Intel, EA Sports, Rubrik, Visa, Zynga and more
- TEDx Speaker: Can Fear Push Us to be Courageous? Google it!
- Founder, IgnitedNeurons — a platform helping build a culture of high performance, growth mindset and based in values!
- Building the IgnitedNeurons Podcast to extract lessons you and I can apply in everyday life

💼 If You’re Leading a Team or Organisation:
I also partner with founders, HR heads, and L&D leaders to design bold cultures, build values-driven teams, and humanise leadership.

📩 Ready to Take the First Step?
Take the free 5-minute Ignite Life Quiz to discover what’s holding you back.

Let’s ignite your next chapter.

Utkarsh Narang

Work should make us feel seen, valued and heard. That is all that matters.

Finding a job is great.
Finding a company that genuinely values you is better.

A role can pay the bills.
A title can boost your résumé.

But neither guarantees that you’ll be respected, trusted, or allowed to be yourself at work.

Too many people spend years trying to earn their worth in environments that quietly benefit from them doubting it.

Here’s the truth most of us learn late: your self-worth isn’t something a company gives you. 
It’s inherent.

The right organisation doesn’t ask you to shrink your voice, edit your values, or perform a version of yourself just to belong.

It challenges you, yes but it also creates enough safety for you to show up as you are,
do your best work, and grow without feeling like you’re constantly on trial.

If you’ve ever felt successful on paper but unseen in reality,
this distinction matters more than salary bands or perks ever will.

♻️Repost it for someone who needs it.
📌Follow Utkarsh Narang for honest guidance on career transitions and rebuilding momentum.

Executive Coach Helping Ambitious Professionals Breakthrough Stuck Careers & Inner Frustration | Ignite Life Method™ | Coached 1,200+ Leaders at Dropbox, Salesforce, Coinbase | Take the Quiz to Reignite Yourself

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Most people won’t admit this.

Some jobs pay you in money.
And charge you in peace. 

If you’re ever forced to choose between your job and your mental health…

That’s not a career decision.

It’s a self-respect decision.

Here’s the lie we’ve normalized:

🚫 Burnout = ambition
🚫 Anxiety = drive
🚫 Toxicity = “high performance culture”

No.

Emotional intelligence means recognizing when your environment is shrinking you.

Not every hard season is growth.
Some are warnings.

If you’re:

• Scared of being laid off
• Staying in a role that drains you
• Afraid to pivot
• Quietly miserable but “grateful”

Read this carefully:

You can be ambitious
without being self-destructive.

Your nervous system is part of your career strategy.

When your mental health declines:
→ Your creativity drops
→ Your confidence erodes
→ Your decision-making weakens

And no title fixes that.

This doesn’t mean quit tomorrow.

It means:
✔️ Build leverage
✔️ Upskill quietly
✔️ Strengthen your network
✔️ Create options

Choose strategy over panic.

But never normalize suffering as success.

A job is replaceable.

Your mind is not.

♻️If this hit, repost it for someone silently struggling.

➕And follow Utkarsh Narang for honest conversations about growth and building a career that protects your peace.

The 7 Highly Effective Habits of Leaders. 
Super simple yet very few practice them. Here's why 🔽 


Empathy, ownership, empower others, relationships - we have all heard these.

But still not many are able to practice them.

The big reason is that we have not seen them in real life.

But that can start with you.

Leadership is about how you show up every day and how you help others rise.

If you want to lead, start practicing these 7 habits:

 1. Take ownership
↳ See a problem? Step up and solve it.
↳ Go beyond your job description and take initiative.

 2. Create impact
↳ Focus on work that moves the needle.
↳ Help your team and leaders succeed by driving real results.

 3. Foster strong relationships
↳ Leadership isn’t a solo sport. Build trust and collaboration.
↳ Be the person others can rely on, listen deeply, and uplift those around you.

 4. Make space for everyone
↳ Leadership means amplifying diverse voices, not just your own.
↳ Invite different perspectives and ensure everyone is heard.

 5. Empower others
↳ Great leaders don’t hoard knowledge—they share it freely.
↳ Support your colleagues, mentor those around you, and celebrate others’ wins.

 6. Lead with integrity
↳ Do the right thing, even when it’s hard.
↳ Stay committed, stay passionate, and show up fully.

 7. Embrace growth
↳ See change as a chance to learn, not something to fear.
↳ Seek feedback, adapt, and keep evolving.

You don’t need a title to be a leader.

You just need the courage to start.

Start leading today.

♻️ Repost to inspire someone.
➕ Follow Utkarsh Narang for more insights on leadership, growth, and performance.

Failure doesn’t block success.
It filters who’s serious about it.

Most people quit at discomfort.
A few stay long enough to be shaped by it.

That’s the difference.

Over the years of coaching leaders and emerging executives, 
I keep seeing the same pattern. 

People walk out of meetings with brilliant thoughts 
still sitting quietly in their heads.

Later they say things like,
“I should have said something.”
“I didn’t want to sound stupid.”
“Maybe it wasn’t the right time.”
“What if people judged me?”

And that silence slowly turns into regret.

The mind tells stories. 
That others know more. 
That your perspective may not matter. 
That speaking up could make you look incapable or difficult.

But here is the reality.

Leadership is not built in the moments when everything feels comfortable.

It is built in the moments when you decide your voice deserves space in the room.

Here’s a simple three-step framework that works - 

Step 1. Ground yourself in intent.
Before speaking, ask yourself a simple question. Am I trying to prove myself right or am I trying to help the team think better? When your intent is contribution, your tone changes.

Step 2. Add perspective, not opposition.
You do not have to challenge people aggressively. A simple line works wonders. “May I offer another perspective?” or “Can I build on that idea?” It keeps the conversation open instead of defensive.

Step 3. Stay curious.
After sharing your thoughts, ask a question. “How are others seeing this?” Curiosity keeps dialogue alive and signals that you are here to think with the room, not win against it.

Most leaders do not need more confidence… they need the courage to honour their perspective.

So the next time you sit in a room and feel that familiar hesitation creeping in, remember this.

You were not hired to sit quietly and agree.

You were hired to make the thinking in the room better.

What helps you find the courage to speak up when it matters?

♻️If this resonated, repost it so someone else sees it today.
➕Follow Utkarsh Narang  for more thinking on growth, resilience, and building momentum over time.

“Go 10 miles while others go 1.”

That’s the advice.

And it sounds powerful. 

But here’s the part nobody talks about:

Most people don’t fail because they didn’t go 10 miles.

They fail because they went 10 miles in the wrong direction.

Hyper-focus is dangerous
if you’re focused on the wrong thing.

Relentless effort is expensive
if it’s applied without clarity.

In a world obsessed with hustle, we’ve confused:

🔁 Intensity with impact
⏱️ Hours with leverage
😓 Exhaustion with excellence

Yes, Alexandr Wang talks about overdoing it.

But what actually separates the top 1% isn’t just “more effort.”

It’s:

• Choosing the right problem
• Building rare skills
• Compounding daily consistency
• And knowing when to pivot

If you’re facing layoffs, uncertainty, or a career pivot right now…

Don’t just “go 10 miles.”

Ask yourself:

👉 Is this the right road?
👉 Is this building long-term leverage?
👉 Is this sustainable for 3–5 years?

Because extraordinary careers aren’t built on burnout.

They’re built on strategic obsession.

Go further.

But go wisely. 🧠

♻️If this challenged your thinking, repost it for someone who needs a smarter approach to growth.

➕And follow Utkarsh Narang for insights on long-term career leverage, not just short-term hustle.

In my first month as a physiotherapist, I earned ₹5,000. I genuinely wondered if I had wasted 6 years of my life.

Six years of study.
Internships.
Exams.
Late nights.

For this?

I left my clinic confused.

And my dad said something I’ll never forget.

He said, “Money grows. But don’t let money decide your worth.”

At 23, I didn’t fully understand it.

Today, I do.

Yes, I earn more now. Way more.

But my success is larger than my paycheck.

Success is:
• Waking up excited
• Working with people I respect
• Coaching someone into clarity
• Having dinner with my family without checking my phone
• Sleeping with peace

Money matters.

But if it becomes your only scoreboard, you will always feel behind.

If you want to build a life that feels successful, not just looks successful, let’s talk.

DM me COACH and I will send you a link to my clarity call.

Happiness is not supposed to feel good all the time.

That sounds wrong.

But it explains why so many successful people still feel stuck.

We’ve been sold a simple equation:

Less stress
More comfort
= Happiness

But that formula doesn’t work.

If feeling good all the time created happiness…

People with the easiest lives
would be the happiest.

They’re not.

Because there are two different things we confuse all the time:

Pleasure and Purpose

Pleasure is easy.

A raise.
A promotion.
A weekend off.
A dopamine hit.

It feels great.

Until the feeling fades.

Purpose is different.

Purpose survives bad weeks.
Failed projects.
Hard feedback.
Difficult conversations.

It doesn’t disappear when things get hard.

It often requires things to get hard.

This is where many careers go wrong.

People optimize for comfort instead of meaning.

But meaningful careers are rarely comfortable.

Some reminders I come back to often:

1️⃣ If your work never challenges you, it’s probably not growing you.
2️⃣ Short-term comfort often trades away long-term fulfillment.
3️⃣ The right problems make struggle feel worthwhile.
4️⃣ Progress feels better than pleasure.

So maybe the real career question isn’t:

“How do I make my life easier?”

It’s:

“What problem is worth struggling for?”

That answer changes everything.

♻️If this resonates, repost the carousel so more people see it.

➕And follow Utkarsh Narang for more ideas on meaningful work and intentional careers.

The Biggest Career Myths!

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: 
Founders and employees are both slaves to their aspirations.

The founder burns out chasing freedom.
The employee burns out chasing security.
Different cages, same exhaustion.

Both tell themselves “it’ll make sense when I get there.”
But “there” keeps moving.

More targets. 
More funding. 
More promotions.
And slowly, we trade peace for progress 
one dopamine hit at a time.

We mistake motion for meaning.
We call stress “passion.”
We glorify the grind and forget the goal.

But look closer at the ones who made it.
Satya Nadella  
Sundar Pichai  
John Donahoe  
 
They didn’t chase titles. 
They reinvented identities.
They didn’t quit to find purpose.
They became purposeful where they were.

And then look at founders like Jensen Huang (NVIDIA), Whitney Wolfe (Bumble Inc.), Melanie Perkins (Canva)

They didn’t build companies, they built themselves first.
Their empires were a byproduct of clarity, conviction, and consistency.

You don’t need a new company, a new logo, or a new title.

You need a new operating system.
Because at some point, you stop working for a company
and start working on yourself.

So here’s the real play:
Think of yourself as a startup worth investing in.

Build your product - your skills.
Craft your pitch - your story.

And sell your value to the world.

You are the founder.
You are the product.
You are the investment.

Now, build like it matters.

 this resonates with you,
♻️ Repost it to help someone who might need this today.
➕ Follow Utkarsh Narang for more such daily posts!

This line today stopped me mid-scroll:

“Today is the youngest you’ll ever be.”

Read that again.

Most people think the advantage belongs to people who started early.

It doesn’t.

The real advantage belongs to people who start before they feel ready.

The truth:

You will never feel fully prepared.

Not before launching the idea.
Not before switching careers.
Not before posting your first piece of content.
Not before starting something meaningful.

So people wait.

Another month.
Another year.
Another “when things settle down.”

And suddenly a decade passes.

Here’s what actually matters:
1️⃣	Start messy. Clarity comes from motion.
2️⃣	Stop over-optimizing the first step.
3️⃣	Momentum beats perfection every time.
4️⃣	The earlier you start, the longer compounding works for you.

Five years from now you’ll look back and think:

“I wish I started then.”

But the truth is simple.

Then… is today.

♻️If this resonated with you, repost it so someone else stops waiting.

➕Follow for Utkarsh Narang  more insights on growth, leadership, and building things that matter.

I turn 41 this year.

And here’s the uncomfortable truth:

Most of what stressed me out at 25
doesn’t even register now.

The “urgent” emails.
The race to be impressive.
The fear of being behind.
The need to say yes to everything.

None of it aged well.

What actually mattered?

Here are 9 things I wish I understood earlier 👇

1️⃣ Sleep is a performance strategy.
Not a luxury.
8 hours > 8 productivity hacks.

2️⃣ Movement fixes more than mindset.
A daily walk has solved problems
overthinking never could.

3️⃣ If you don’t choose your priorities,
your inbox will.

4️⃣ Your values are proven by what you refuse.
Not what you chase.

5️⃣ Boundaries feel selfish before they feel strong.
If saying “no” makes you anxious,
you’re rewiring something important.

6️⃣ Most people aren’t stuck because life is hard.
They’re stuck because distraction feels safer than action.

7️⃣ Learning can be productive.
But it can also be sophisticated procrastination.
Depth beats dabbling.

8️⃣ Fear and confidence both require belief in the unknown.
You’re choosing one either way.

9️⃣ Happiness isn’t having no problems.
It’s having better problems.

At 40, I don’t want an easy life.

I want a meaningful one.

And meaningful lives come with responsibility, discomfort, and growth.

If you’re in your 20s or 30s feeling behind:

You’re not behind.

You’re just early in the reps.

What feels urgent today probably won’t matter in 15 years.

But your health, your integrity, and your relationships will.

Protect those fiercely. 💛

If this resonated, tell me:
What stopped feeling urgent as you got older?

👉 Follow Utkarsh Narang 
 for practical insights on growth and leadership

Most of what feels urgent at 25 won’t even matter at 45.

This BAFTA win matters for a reason no one’s talking about.



A small regional film winning an international Award is easy to celebrate.

The headline writes itself.

But what stayed with me about the Manipuri- language, Indian feature, Boong, wasn’t just that it won.

It was what was said on that stage.

In a room built to celebrate achievement, the message wasn’t about scale or success.

It was about forgiveness.

That matters.

Because moments like this quietly reshape what we believe is possible.

When something rooted, specific, and deeply personal travels to a global stage, it does two things:

✅It expands representation.
✅And it expands imagination.

You start to question your own internal ceilings.

Maybe the work you’re building doesn’t need to look “mainstream.”
Maybe your background isn’t a limitation.
Maybe depth can travel further than polish.

And maybe strength doesn’t always look loud.

There’s something powerful about seeing recognition attached to humility.

About seeing visibility used to elevate something bigger than the self.

That kind of example doesn’t just inspire filmmakers.

It inspires anyone building something slowly.
Anyone working without immediate validation.
Anyone trying to stay grounded while aiming high.

Wins like this don’t just change industries.

They change belief.

And belief is where every long-term journey actually begins.

♻️ If this resonated, share it with someone building quietly.

➕ Follow Utkarsh Narang for grounded conversations on leadership, careers, and building work that lasts.

Most meetings don’t fail because of bad people.
They fail because of bad leadership.

If you walk into a meeting without intention,
you’re not leading it.
You’re just attending it.

Here’s a simple framework I use: LEAD

L - Limit the agenda
• One clear objective
• Fewer topics, deeper focus
• Share context before the meeting

If everything is important, nothing is.

E - Engage everyone
• Set expectations upfront
• Ask quieter voices first
• Use questions, not monologues

Engagement is designed. Not hoped for.

A - Align on actions
• Summarize decisions before closing
• Assign one owner per task
• Confirm deadlines out loud

If there’s no owner, there’s no outcome.

D - Drive accountability
• Send a 5-line action summary
• Set one check-in date
• Celebrate progress publicly

Great meetings don’t happen by accident.
They’re led with clarity.

What’s one meeting habit you’re changing this week?

♻️ Repost to raise the standard of meetings at work
👉 Follow Utkarsh Narang for practical leadership frameworks that actually work.

“I wish I started earlier.”

That sentence quietly ruins more lives than failure ever will.

Read that again.

Not failure.
Not rejection.
Not layoffs.

Regret.

Most people don’t fail because they’re incapable.

They fail because they wait.

They wait to feel ready.
They wait to feel confident.
They wait for clarity.
They wait for permission.

Meanwhile…

Opportunity keeps moving. 🚆

If you’re:
• Thinking about changing careers
• Recovering from a layoff
• Sitting on an idea
• Fantasizing about a “better life”

Here’s the uncomfortable truth:

You don’t need more time.
You need more courage. ⚡️

The people ahead of you?

They were scared too.
They just moved anyway.

Confidence isn’t a prerequisite.
It’s a byproduct.

You don’t become confident and then act.

You act…
And confidence catches up.

A year from now you’ll either say:

“I’m glad I started.”

Or

“I wish I started earlier.”

One decision separates those two sentences.

Start messy.
Start unsure.
Start embarrassed.
Start small.

Just start. 🚀

♻️If this hit you, repost it for someone who’s stuck in hesitation.

➕And follow Utkarsh Narang for sharp, no-fluff insights on growth, reinvention, and building momentum when you feel behind.

Most people don’t need a new plan.

They need better questions.

Your next decade won’t be defined by one big decision.
It’ll be shaped by the small things you keep optimizing for.

Most careers drift because we never pause to ask:

• What am I actually building toward?
• What skill am I compounding?
• What am I tolerating that’s quietly draining me?
• What does “enough” even mean for me?

We obsess over productivity.
But rarely over direction.

And direction > speed.

I’ve seen incredibly smart people burn years chasing goals they never consciously chose.

The uncomfortable truth?

If nothing changes, you will still arrive somewhere.

The real question is:
Will you like where you land?

Take 10 minutes today.
Answer the 7 questions in this carousel honestly.

Not for LinkedIn.
Not for performance.
For yourself.

🔁 Repost this so you revisit it next year.
➕ Follow Utkarsh Narang for ideas on building a career that compounds, not just impresses.

7 questions that will define your next decade

Everyone tells you to never stop.

Push harder.
Stay consistent.
Outwork everyone.

But sometimes the real power move is stepping away.

At 16, Alysa Liu retired from competitive skating.

Most people thought it made no sense.

She was already a champion.
Already breaking records.
Already at the top.

Then she walked away.

Two years later she came back.

And at the 2026 Winter Olympics she won gold.

Here’s the lesson most people miss:

Burnout doesn’t mean you’re weak.
Sometimes it means you’ve been strong for too long.

The Alysa Liu mindset is simple:
1️⃣	Rest is not quitting.
It’s recovery for the next version of you.
2️⃣	Distance creates clarity.
When you step away, you remember why you started.
3️⃣	Pressure kills passion.
Joy is often what brings elite performance back.
4️⃣	Comebacks are built in silence.
Growth happens while the world thinks you disappeared.

In a culture obsessed with hustle…

The bravest thing you can do is pause.

Because sometimes the fastest way forward…

is taking a step back.

♻️ If this resonated, repost to remind someone they’re allowed to breathe.

➕ Follow Utkarsh Narang for more insights on mindset, growth, and meaningful success. 🚀

“Yet” might be the most underrated leadership tool.

Most people use language to limit themselves.

The best leaders use language to expand possibility.

Here’s why one small word matters:

It reframes failure
“I failed” → “I haven’t figured it out yet.”

It builds persistence
“This isn’t working” → “This isn’t working yet.”

It prevents premature quitting
Struggle becomes a phase, not a verdict.

It interrupts harsh self-talk
“I’m not good at this” → “I’m not good at this yet.”

It normalizes being a beginner
Mastery always starts with awkward reps.

It shifts your time horizon
Today is data. Not destiny.

It builds mental flexibility
Fixed becomes fluid.

A small shift in language.
A massive shift in trajectory.

This week, try this:

Notice one limiting sentence you say to yourself.
Add “yet” at the end.

That’s it.

Extraordinary outcomes often begin with an ordinary “yet.”

What’s one sentence you’re rewriting today?
—
If this resonated:
♻️ Repost to someone who needs this reminder
➕ Follow Utkarsh Narang for practical ideas on growth, leadership, and mindset

How do you take the journey from loneliness to solitude?


You can be surrounded by people…
and still feel lonely.

You can be completely alone…
and feel deeply at peace.

Solitude and loneliness are not the same.

Loneliness hurts.
Research shows chronic loneliness can impact your health as much as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

But solitude? Solitude strengthens you.

When chosen intentionally, time alone improves clarity, creativity, and emotional control. It helps you hear your own thoughts instead of everyone else’s noise.

When we moved countries, I experienced both.

At first, the quiet felt heavy. Then it became powerful.

I realised the difference was choice and meaning.

If you cannot sit alone with your thoughts, you will struggle to lead yourself well.

And if you avoid real connection, loneliness grows quietly.

If this resonates, take a few minutes and read it.

Alone is not the same as lonely.

One is a skill. The other is a signal.

Which one are you experiencing right now?

Welcome to another beautiful week. When an idea sparks that I think is worth sharing, it becomes this weekly newsletter. If something hits home, write

Open article: A journey of a lifetime by Utkarsh Narang • 3 min read

Most people aren’t afraid of being alone.

They’re afraid of being still.

Because stillness removes the noise.

No meetings.
No notifications.
No performance.

Just you and your thoughts.

And that’s uncomfortable.

So we stay “productive.”

Back-to-back calls.
Constant Slack pings.
Scrolling between tasks.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth:

If you can’t sit with yourself,
you’ll struggle to lead others.

Because leadership requires:

• Emotional regulation
• Clarity under pressure
• Independent thinking
• Decisions that aren’t crowd-approved

Solitude builds those.

Not isolation.
Not withdrawal.

Intentional time alone.

When I started protecting small pockets of silence:

Morning walks without podcasts.
Journaling without an agenda.
Sitting in a café without reaching for my phone.

I noticed something.

Clarity improved.
Reactivity dropped.
Decisions felt cleaner.

Solitude isn’t loneliness.

It’s strategy.

In a world addicted to distraction,
the ability to sit with your own thoughts
is a competitive advantage.

Try this:

10 minutes tomorrow.
No input.
No scrolling.
No background noise.

Just observe your thoughts.

You’ll either meet clarity
or meet discomfort.

Both are useful.

The leaders who think clearly
are usually the ones comfortable being alone with their thinking.

♻️ If this resonated, repost it for someone who lives in back-to-back meetings.

Stillness might be the skill we’re underestimating most.

Every year on Women’s Day, I see the same thing on LinkedIn.

Messages.
Quotes.
Celebrations.

All well-intentioned.

But this year I tried something different.

I listened.

Not to respond.
Not to debate.
Just to listen.

I spent time reflecting on the words, experiences, and struggles that women have shared for decades.

And something became very clear.

Many of the lessons we talk about in leadership today have been said for years.

We just haven’t always been listening.

Sitting with that reminded me of a few things:

1️⃣ Listening is one of the most underrated leadership skills

2️⃣ Progress begins when we question the stories society handed to us

3️⃣ Equality is not a “women’s issue”
It is a human issue

4️⃣ When women rise in education, leadership, and the economy, societies rise with them  

Today, I’m reminding myself of something simple.

Before we try to say the right thing…

We should first learn to listen.

Happy Women’s Day 💜

If this resonates with you:
♻️ Repost this so more people see it
👥 Tag someone who needs to hear this today
➕ Follow Utkarsh Narang for more reflections on leadership, growth, and emotional intelligence

Speeches everyone should hear this women’s day

Ehsan Ali 🚀

Top-Ranked Australian Career Coach | Helped 100+ Senior IT Pros Land $200K–$400K+ Roles | 2–4 Level Jumps. 30%–120% Raises. | Take the 3-Min Quiz & Uncover Your Hidden Growth Blockers

For Indian-origin professionals like us, 
career was never just a paycheck.

It’s identity.

Study hard.
Get a good job.
Hustle. Climb fast.
Move abroad. Make everyone proud.

I did all that too.

From the outside, it looked sorted.
Good roles. Good money. Comfortable life.

But inside, I felt it.

I was playing safe.
Staying reliable.
Delivering more. 
But not becoming more.

Then life got heavier.

Mortgage. Kids’ school fees. Lifestyle. Ageing parents.

And work got shakier.

Reorgs. Layoffs. Politics.
Big decisions made fast, without warning.

During Covid, I hit a turning point.

I quit.
And then... two years of no income.

That season humbled me.

It forced me to face a truth most senior pros avoid:

Doing good work keeps you employed.
It does not protect your future.

I wasn’t looking for motivation. 
I needed a method.

So I studied what actually drives senior growth:

• How trust is built at the top.
• How leaders make decisions behind closed doors.
• How hiring really works at senior level.
• Why capable people get overlooked.

Then I applied it—to myself.

Even after two years without a job, I started getting invited into $400K+ interviews.
Doors that once felt locked began to open.

Now I had to choose:

Go back quietly, rebuild the title...
or help others rebuild their power.

I chose the second.

Over the last 4+ years, I’ve turned those hard lessons into playbooks and private sessions that help mid-to-senior IT professionals reclaim direction, self-worth, and income.

Recent wins from the community:

🚀 Tim (Senior Director): 18 months without a role to two $300K+ offers in 10 weeks
🚀 Urvish (S/W Engineer): laid off to Principal Engineer in 10 weeks, then Director in 12 months
🚀 Hesham (Principal Engineer): $200K to $650K+ in 3 months
🚀 Maruf (VP, Analytics & AI): Invisible to Global Top 100 within a year

If you’re feeling that mix of frustration, fear, and quiet exhaustion, don’t wait for things to “settle”. 

They won’t.

Start now:

✅ Take the 2-minute Career Diagnostic Quiz (link in Featured)
✅ Or DM ROUNDTABLE for an invite to my Virtual Career Roundtable
Private. Invite-only.

Podcast Host & Producer

Australia's 1st Business & Career podcast featuring inspiring stories of Indian Expats who either successfully transitioned into entrepreneurship or excelled in their careers beyond the perceived limitations and ceiling

Ehsan Ali

Nobody quits when they’re respected, paid, and growing.

They quit when one of those gets taken away.

So when someone “suddenly resigns”…

It wasn’t sudden.

It was the final straw
after months of quiet shrinking.

They left when:

• the workload grew, but the role didn’t
• their results got praised, not rewarded
• they were trusted to deliver, not trusted to decide
• they became the fixer, not the future

Most mid-senior IT professionals don’t quit for fun.

They quit because staying started costing them:

sleep
confidence
self-respect
time with family

And here’s the trap:

A decent salary can hide a bad deal.

You tell yourself:

“It’s fine.”
“I’m lucky.”
“Once this project ends…”

But “fine” becomes 3 years.
Then 5.

Respect. Pay. Growth.

If you don’t have at least two,
you’re not building a career. You’re tolerating a job.

Quick self-check:

When was the last time this job made you feel bigger?

Not busier.
Bigger.

♻️ Repost this for someone who’s been “fine” for too long
🔔 Follow Ehsan Ali for $250K–$400K+ Senior IT career playbooks

Senior IT Career Coach & Strategist | End Career Stagnation. Land Your $250K–$400K+ Next Level Role | 22 Years of lived experience in IT. Not HR. Not a Recruiter.

Everyone is replaceable at work.
Even the ones who stay late.
Especially them.

I know that's uncomfortable.
Especially for those of us raised to believe the opposite.

Work hard. Stay humble. Don't complain.
Be grateful you have the opportunity.

Our parents didn't build their lives in a new country by saying no.
They survived by being indispensable.

And we watched that.

We learned it.

We wore it like armour into every job we ever had.

So now you're 42.
Senior Manager. Principal Engineer. Solution Architect. 18 years in.
Answering Slack at 11pm.

Fixing other people's emergencies because you were raised not to drop things.

Skipping the gym, the doctor, your kid's thing.

Because that's what commitment looks like.
That's what you were taught.

And here's what you got for it.

The same salary band for three years.
A "you're really valued" at EOFY.
A quiet feeling that if you stopped carrying it, everything would fall apart.

Here's what nobody told us:

The loyalty that kept our parents safe in survival mode
is the exact thing keeping us stuck in growth mode.

The people above you aren't working harder.
They stopped absorbing everything.
They started deciding what mattered.

Availability is not seniority.
Reliability is not leadership.

The market doesn't pay $300K for the person who never drops the ball.
It pays $300K for the person who decides which balls matter.

You don't have a work ethic problem.
You were just never shown that the rules changed.

♻️ Repost for someone still carrying the armour they no longer need.
🔔 Follow Ehsan Ali for $250K–$400K+ senior IT career playbooks.

They rewarded you with more work.

Not more money.
Not more title.
More work.

That’s not appreciation.

That’s PERFORMANCE PUNISHMENT.

Last week in my Hidden Gold roundtable, a Senior Engineering Manager in Sydney said something that stopped the room:

“I’ve been the most reliable person in 3 different teams.
I’ve never once been the most promoted.”

No one argued.
Too many people in that room had lived it.

The people who moved ahead were not carrying more.
They just stopped carrying what was never theirs.

High performers become the company’s safety net.

Something breaks? You.
Cross-team fire? You.
Last-minute exec deck at 9pm? You.

And slowly your role becomes this invisible pile of
steering committees,
executive reporting,
cross-functional fire drills.

Important work.
Useful work.
But not promotable work.

Because promotions rarely go to the person holding the system together.

They go to the person leading the work leadership cannot afford to get wrong.

Revenue risk.
Delivery velocity.
Platform modernisation.
Capability gaps.

The work that lands in board packs. The work that gets discussed when senior leaders close the door.

The work that makes someone say,
we need this person in the room.

And the difference is not just doing that work.

It is how you talk about it.

Not:

“Here’s what I did.”

But:

“Here’s the business problem I saw.
Here’s the initiative I led.
Here’s the outcome it created.”

Same work.
Different signal.

The first sounds like someone dependable. The second sounds like someone who should be shaping decisions.

One gets more work. The other gets the title.

If you've been the safety net for too long, you already know which one you've been.

The next step is learning how to reposition the work you're already doing, so the right people finally see it the right way.

That's exactly what we work through live at the Hidden Gold roundtable.

Real profiles. Real senior IT leaders. Real repositioning, on screen, together.

This Thursday is the last session for March.
Small room. Senior IT only.

DM me GOLD and I'll send you the details.

If you'd rather check quietly first: https://lnkd.in/g8HtDBRn
If seats are still open, you can grab one there.

Room closes Thursday morning.

♻️ Repost this for the high performer quietly carrying half the company.

🔔 Follow Ehsan Ali for $250K–$400K+ senior IT career playbooks that actually work.

In IT, two people can have the same experience.
One still ends up $200K ahead.

Here's why.

A bar of iron is worth $100.
Turn it into horseshoes? $250.
Sewing needles? $70,000.
Watch springs? $6 million.
Laser components? $15 million.

Same iron.
Different refinement.
That's how careers work too.

Same years in the industry.
Same certifications.
Sometimes even the same job title.

One stays stuck at $180K.
The other moves into $280K, $320K, $400K+ roles.

I've seen this gap up close.

One of my clients, a Data Analytics Senior Manager, 18 years of experience, Sydney, went from $220K to $285K in 10 weeks.

Same resume. Same skills. Completely different positioning.

Most senior IT professionals are not underqualified.
They're undershaped.

One person learns how to shape their hidden gold, how to present their experience in a way the market actually pays a premium for.

The other stays as raw material.

We grew up being told:
Keep your head down.
Do good work.
The rest will follow.

Our parents said it. Their parents said it.
It worked for a world where loyalty was rewarded, and tenure meant promotion.

That world is gone.

In today's Australian IT market, the market doesn't reward the hardest worker in the room.

It rewards the one who is best positioned.

Your experience alone does not multiply your value.

Refinement does.
And most people are never shown how.

That’s why some professionals stay invisible for 10 years…
while others become the obvious hire in 10 weeks.

You may already be sitting on career gold.

But right now, it still looks like scrap metal to the market.

That’s the gap I help close.

I'm unpacking this live at my 𝐇𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐆𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐑𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞, a small private virtual session for mid-senior IT professionals who know they have more to offer than their current title, salary, or visibility suggests.

If you're an IC, Manager, or Director in IT and your LinkedIn or resume is underselling you, comment 𝐆𝐎𝐋𝐃 and I'll send you the details.

♻️ Repost for someone whose value is being missed.
🔔 Follow Ehsan Ali for senior IT career growth playbooks.

Some companies build careers.
Some quietly break confidence.

A Data Analytics Senior Manager reached out to me earlier this year.

18 years in the industry.
Strong track record.
A stint at Macquarie.

If you know the industry in Australia, you know the nickname:

The Millionaire Factory.

High rewards. High pressure.
And in some pockets, a culture that slowly grinds people down.

He landed in one of those pockets.

By the time he left, he was exhausted.

But that wasn’t his biggest problem.

His biggest worry was the conversation he’d have in every interview.

“How do I explain why I left?”

He’d resigned. The environment had become suffocating.

So I told him:

Don’t lead with why you left.
Lead with what you built.

He went quiet.

Then said:

“I’m not sure I even know what that is right now.
I don’t feel good enough.”

18 years. $220K. And that’s where he was.

This happens to capable people everywhere.

Big 4 banks.
Telcos.
Consulting firms.

The name on the door doesn’t matter.

A toxic pocket.
A restructure.
A layoff.
A PIP.
A promotion that never came.

And slowly the story changes.

From: “I’ve built serious capability.”
To: “Maybe I’m not that impressive.”

But when we unpacked his career, the truth was obvious.

There was serious hidden gold.

Problems he solved that others couldn’t.
Decisions that influenced millions in revenue.
Work that shaped how entire teams operated.

None of it was visible in the way he was telling his story.

So we fixed three things:

→ Extracted the hidden gold from his experience
→ Built a clear value narrative with proof stories
→ Repositioned his LinkedIn and introduction

10 weeks later.

$285K. Top-tier consulting firm.
A $65K jump.

And then came the part he didn’t expect.

They hired him specifically for the work he’d done in that toxic pocket.

The place that broke his confidence 
was the exact reason they wanted him.

He just needed someone to help him see it first.

This week I’m showing exactly how this works. 
Live. Virtual. Small private group setting. Limited Seats.

Real LinkedIn profiles.
Real people.
Real hidden gold uncovered on screen.

Saturday 14th March, 4pm AEST
Thursday 19th March, 5:30pm AEST

If you’re a senior IC, manager, or leader in engineering, product, delivery, or sales:

You know you’ve done serious work.

But you still struggle to explain it in a way the market responds to.

DM me GOLD and I’ll send you the link.

Or grab a seat directly here, if still available:
https://lnkd.in/g8HhDbRn

"We found someone slightly better."

That sentence has ended more careers than bad interviews.

They didn’t choose someone with better skills.
Or a better résumé.
Or better answers.

They chose the person who made them feel certain.

Hiring managers don’t choose from checklists.

They choose from conviction.

Emotion first.
Logic later.

If you leave even a sliver of doubt, you lose.

It doesn’t matter how talented you are.
How many certifications you hold.
How much experience you bring.

What matters is how certain they feel after meeting you.

Here’s what certainty looks like in an interview:

✅ A story they can believe
✅ Outcomes, not activity
✅ Calm authority in the room

Interviews are not talent contests.

They are certainty tests.

The offer doesn’t go to the best candidate.

It goes to the one who removes every doubt.

If they have to think about it…

it’s already a no.

Only certainty wins.

If you’re tired of hearing
“we found someone slightly better” —

Stop competing on paper.

Start commanding the room.

📌 I’m running a free live session this month:
Hidden Gold — Live LinkedIn Profile Breakdown (Senior IT)

If your 15+ years of experience is buried under generic language,
I’ll show you exactly how to fix it live.

DM GOLD and I’ll send the invite.

♻️ Repost if this felt a little too real
🔔 Follow Ehsan Ali for career strategy that turns experience into leverage

The hardest part of a career setback isn’t losing the job.
It’s losing the version of yourself you believed in.

I’ve seen this happen to senior IT professionals with 18, 20, even 25 years of experience.

Senior Managers.
Principal Engineers.
Solution Architects.
Directors.

People who’ve built teams from scratch.
Delivered programs worth tens of millions.
Kept entire organisations running.

Then something happens.

A toxic pocket inside the company.
A layoff.
A restructure.
Three years of being passed over.
A PIP that quietly signals the end.

And suddenly the question appears:

“𝐌𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐞 𝐈’𝐦 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚𝐬 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐚𝐬 𝐈 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭.”

That’s when the panic kicks in.

Another certification.
An MBA.
An AI course.
Posting “Open to Work.”
Applying everywhere.

𝐈𝐭 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬. 𝐈𝐭 𝐢𝐬𝐧’𝐭.

Because the real problem isn’t more activity.

It’s that most senior professionals never learned how to find the gold in their own experience and explain it in a way the market understands.

So when someone asks, “𝐓𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟,” they give a career timeline.

And 20 years of real value stays buried.

I’ve seen capable people without job for 12, even 18 months.

Not because they lacked value, but because they were trying to solve a positioning problem with more activity.

That’s exactly what I’m showing live this week.

Real LinkedIn profiles.
Real people.
Real hidden gold found on screen, in front of you.

𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟓:𝟑𝟎𝐩𝐦 𝐀𝐄𝐒𝐓
𝐒𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟒𝐩𝐦 𝐀𝐄𝐒𝐓

If you’re a senior IC, manager, or leader in IT who knows you’ve done a lot but can’t explain it in a way the market responds to, DM me 𝐆𝐎𝐋𝐃.

I’ll send you the link to join live, if seats are still available.

𝐍𝐨𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝟐𝟎 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐈𝐓.

Not your manager.
Not your performance reviews.
Not the certifications you collected along the way.

How to find the 𝐡𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐠𝐨𝐥𝐝 in your own experience.

Last week, I was working with a Senior Program Manager at a Big Tech company.

𝟏𝟕 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲.

Led large programs.
Managed complex stakeholders.
Delivered work that affected thousands of users.

Halfway through our conversation, he paused and asked:

“𝐃𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐈’𝐦 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥?”

On paper, he clearly was.

And I hear versions of that question all the time.

From Principal Engineers who’ve architected systems used by millions.
From Solution Architects who’ve led transformations worth tens of millions.
From Program Managers who’ve kept entire organisations running.

They all say some version of the same thing:

“𝐈 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐈’𝐯𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐭. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐈’𝐦 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡.”

Here’s the truth.

It’s rarely a capability problem.
It’s a 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦.

Most senior professionals know how to do the work.

But they were never taught how to step back, extract the gold from their experience, and explain it in a way the market values.

So when someone asks, “𝐓𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟,” they talk about roles, projects, and responsibilities.

Not the real value they bring.

𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐠𝐚𝐩 𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞.

It costs people better roles, better pay, and opportunities they were never even considered for.

That’s how incredibly capable people end up sounding ordinary.

That’s exactly what I’m showing live this week.

Real LinkedIn profiles.
Real people.
Real hidden gold found on screen, in front of you.

𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟓:𝟑𝟎𝐩𝐦 𝐀𝐄𝐒𝐓
𝐒𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟒𝐩𝐦 𝐀𝐄𝐒𝐓

If you’re a senior IC, manager, or leader in IT who knows you’ve done a lot but can’t explain it in a way the market responds to, 

DM me 𝐆𝐎𝐋𝐃.

If you’d rather check the details quietly, here’s the link.
https://lnkd.in/g8HhDbRn

If seats are still open, you can grab one there.

21 years in enterprise IT.
His LinkedIn headline said:

Senior Program Manager | ANZ Bank

That’s not positioning.

That’s a business card.

At Saturday’s Hidden Gold roundtable, he sat down and said:

“Roast my profile. I want to know exactly what’s costing me.”

He was targeting Director-level roles.
Doing the work.
Building the capability.

But something was not converting.

So I pulled his profile up live in front of the room.

Here was the problem.

21 years.
Programs worth tens of millions.
Stakeholders at EGM level.

And the first thing the market saw?

A job title.
And an employer.

That’s how most senior IT profiles in Australia still read.

The problem was never his experience.

His profile was missing three signals:

Reputation.
Influence.
Impact.

All three were there.

Buried.
Invisible.
Whispering.

Two minutes later, his headline looked like this:

Senior Program Manager | $80M Core Banking, Product & Cloud Programs | CIO & EGM Engagement | Ex-ANZ, Accenture

Same person.
Same career.
Completely different weight in the market.

Then he asked the real question:

“How do I use this to get mentioned in rooms I’m not in?”

That’s the real game at Director level.

Not just who you know.

But who thinks of you
when the role opens
before it ever gets posted.

That’s what we’re covering this Thursday.

Small room.
Senior IT only.
Real profiles.
Live teardowns.
On screen.

If your profile still reads like a title dump
while you’re already doing Director-level work,

DM me GOLD and I’ll send you the link.

♻️ Repost this for the senior IT pro whose profile undersells them every single day.

🔔 Follow Ehsan Ali for $250K–$400K+ senior IT career playbooks.

A recruiter DM’d you on LinkedIn last month.

You replied.

They went quiet.

So you told yourself:

Maybe the role was filled.
Maybe the timing was off.
Maybe they found someone more senior.

Maybe.

But here’s what more likely happened.

They liked your message.

Then they clicked your profile to validate it.

And what they found
didn’t match the person they had in mind.

So they moved on.

That was last month.

Before Atlassian cut 1,600 jobs globally.

Around 480 of them were in Australia.

Senior engineers.
Architects.
Program managers.
Delivery leads.

They’re updating their LinkedIn profiles right now.

They’re hitting the market right now.

And many of them have one of the strongest tech brands in Australia on their headline.

So that recruiter who went quiet on you last month?

Their inbox just got a lot more crowded.

And most senior IT profiles still look exactly the same:

Job title.
Company name.
Maybe a certification.

But no signal of the scale you operate at.
No signal of the decisions you influence.
No signal of the transformation work you’ve led.

You don’t have a skill problem.

You have a profile that sells you short.

You may be excellent.

But if your profile can’t prove that fast, you disappear.

That’s how good people get overlooked.

Tomorrow, Thursday, is the final Hidden Gold session for March.

Small room.
Senior IT only.

We take real LinkedIn profiles, put them on screen,

and show you, in real time, what the market is actually reading.

Then we fix them.

If you're a senior IC, architect, manager, or leader,
and the market isn't seeing what you're actually worth:

DM me GOLD and I’ll send you the details.

Or grab a seat here if one’s still open:
https://lnkd.in/g8HhDbRn

Last session for March.
Room closes Thursday morning.

This afternoon’s session was meant to finish 30 minutes earlier.

It didn’t.

Nobody wanted to leave.

Not because I was running a presentation.

Because the room got real.

A small engaged group.

Cameras on.
Profiles open.
No hiding behind “I’ll fix it later.”

One person said he doesn’t feel good enough when speaking with senior leaders.

Another said he’s been moving across roles for years but still can’t clearly see what value he should package.

Another had been told for years to focus on keywords, certifications, and job titles.

But the real shift happened when we started pulling apart their profiles live.

Not to make them look prettier.

To find the hidden gold.

The proof.
The pattern.
The value sitting inside years of work that even they had stopped seeing clearly.

One moment stuck with me.

After we unpacked his profile, one participant said he already felt more confident.

That matters.

Because most senior IT professionals don’t need more noise.

They need a better lens.

They need someone to show them:

→ what their experience is actually worth
→ how to position it for the right market
→ how to stop sounding like a job title and start sounding like a solution

That’s why the session ran over.

Not because I had more slides.

Because once people start seeing their value differently, the conversation changes.

One session left. That's it for March.

Thursday 19th March, 5:30pm AEST

If you’re a senior IC, manager, or leader in IT and you know you’ve done serious work but still struggle to explain it in a way the market responds to:

DM me GOLD. I’ll send you the link.

Or if you'd rather check the details quietly:

Open article: Hidden Gold: Live LinkedIn Profile Breakdown - Coach Ehsan by calendly.com

Hidden Gold: Live LinkedIn Profile Breakdown - Coach Ehsan

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The Battle

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