Learning about Ideas & how to Execute them. Engineering | Storytelling | Business

"You are the world you have created."

That line from Cormac McCarthy hit me at month 7 of unemployment. 68.8% rejection rate. 1 month of finances left.

I wasn't getting rejected because I lacked skills. I was getting rejected because 10 years earlier, I'd made a choice I didn't know I was making. I picked legitimacy over authority. Proof over interpretation.

Engineering credentials over storytelling instinct.

Every project after that: one more vote for a future I didn't consciously want.
By the time I noticed, the shape was drawn. I was at the crossroads thinking there was a choice, but the choosing was done a long time ago.

I stopped applying to jobs.

For 4 weeks, I wrote. Not to explain what happened. To see what I'd been building without realizing.
The answer showed up in 15 minutes.

Short story writing wasn't a hobby. It was the access mechanism.

Stories surface assumptions before they harden. They let you test futures without betting your life on them first. They show you the world you're building while you still have time to choose differently.

I built a workshop around it. Ran 6 sessions in 2 weeks bfeore I even had a job offer.

A 30-year scenario planning veteran at Morgan Stanley told me: "I've been trying to do this for three decades. You just solved it."

Here's the method:
- Write for 15 minutes. First-person future. One day. 
- Don't think. Let details emerge.
- Signals guide the writing. Your unconscious does the rest.

What surfaces:
- Assumptions you didn't know you were making
- Prereqs you hadn't considered
- The gap between what you think you want and what you're actually building

A computer programmer: "Blank canvas that made me rethink what was possible."
A marketer: "More engaging than mood boards or strategy docs."
A startup chief of staff: "Discovered new angles to a problem I'd been stuck on."

I spent 7 months learning what McCarthy meant.
Now I help people see the shape before acceptance becomes the only option.
DM me if you're building something and want to surface what's driving it.

She followed startup advice perfectly & created a disaster. 

Elizabeth Holmes followed advice you’d find “Zero to One” by Peter Thiel
• Built a monopoly (proprietary blood testing technology)
• Eliminated competition (aggressive NDAs, patents) 
• Created switching costs (Walgreens and Safeway locked in multi-year contracts) 
• Owned her category (redefined blood testing)

Succeeding at everything Peter Thiel teaches. Except the technology didn't work. She was a fraud.

By the time anyone discovered this:
• $700M trapped in investments
• Partners locked in multi-year contracts
• Patients receiving false medical results
• Employees silenced by NDAs

“Zero to One” can't distinguish between a successful startup and frauds like Theranos.

Both can claim they have products 10x better than competitors, capture markets, and make money.

Thiel's framework has no test for "does the technology actually work?"

Because the framework assumes you'll exit in 5-7 years. Well before the technology has to prove itself long-term.

You can't "move fast and break things" in cancer therapeutics. You can't "exit" before your technology proves it works.
But that's what startup advice assumes you'll do.

So what can deep tech founders do? 

Instead of focusing on growth & exiting, focus on proof points & partnerships. 

• Instead of Gatekeeping > Educating the market 
• Instead of eliminating competition > Transparent tech demos 
• Instead of optimizing for growth rate > Optimize for customer success rate. 

Same goal of building a successful company but on different timescales. Different worlds built, a sustainable one instead of extractive.

Elizabeth Holmes followed the playbook & built an extractive monopoly.

But the playbook doesn't care if the technology works. It only cares if you can build power before anyone finds out.

Deep tech founders can't afford that gamble. 
You're building for 20 years, not 5.

Mohammad Khan

Teaching professionals to navigate uncertainty through short stories | Engineer building future-prototyping workshops in public

Robert Greene's "Mastery" cost me $15K and 12 months.

Then a 200-page novel showed me why his method fails for creative work.

Sooooo here's what happened: 

I followed Robert Greene's "Mastery" on success. 
• Study the best in the field.
• Extract their techniques
• Apply what you learn. 

Made 3 PPTs reverse engineering successful consultants. After 12 months, I had $0. 

My writing mimicked successful consultants, but my voice was dead. A carcass floating the waves of content. 

Then a 200-page novel about a man cataloging tides changed my approach.

"Piranesi" is about two men in one infinite house with two completely different approaches to understanding it

One man named "Piranesi" catalogs tides for decades seeing wonder everywhere.  

Another man named "The Other" brings measuring devices trying to force the House to reveal its secrets.

The House closes itself off to extraction but opens itself to wonder & curiosity.

I realized I was "the Other" in business. I was dissecting when I should've been building and learning. 

Greene assumes knowledge is similar to chess. 
• Study it, extract patterns, replicate. 
• Fields like surgery, engineering, design. 

Piranesi assumes some knowledge is alive & relational. It dies when you dissect it. Such as creativity, voice, positioning, or how birds flock together.

I deleted those PPTs & asked "What fascinates me that others overlook?"

$0 months became $2K months became $13K months. Work became enjoyable. 

Greene teaches dissection, 
Piranesi teaches attention.

What are you extracting when you should be wondering?

undefined undefined

Hey there!

So excited to hear you're looking to build Partnerships for your Prosthetics Nonprofit

Here's the link to download my Profitable Prosthetic Partnerships Starter Pack.

https://profitableprostheticpartnerships.com/

I've spent weeks working on this resource—and I honestly think you're going to find it super valuable.

Let me know if you have any questions as you go through it and enjoy!

- Mohammad Khan

Image Link

Here's Cuba's full Oscar speech without seeing the backstage camera operators. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnCMqr1QRQw

Career Decision Matrix

Struggling to choose a career path & job? 
A Decision Matrix can help. 
Get my FREE decision matrix that helped me land a job at a top R&D Firm: 

https://mohammadkhan135.gumroad.com/l/decision_matrix

Resume, Interview Newsletter Post

For a deeper dive into conquering cold emails, resumes, & interviews, read my newsletter: 

https://next-level-engineer.beehiiv.com/p/resumes-and-interviews

Problem Solving Frameworks Newsletter Post

Stop wasting time banging your head against a wall & getting nowhere. 

Check out Problem-Solving Frameworks in my Newsletter & Solve problems faster today

https://next-level-engineer.beehiiv.com/p/the-thing-and-problem-solving

Negotiation Tactics Email

For a deeper dive into negotiation tactics read my newsletter: 


https://next-level-engineer.beehiiv.com/p/negotation101-with-better-call-saul

Networking & Power of Introverts Post

For a deeper dive into networking, tips for introverts to master networking, and more, read my newsletter: 

https://next-level-engineer.beehiiv.com/p/moneyball-the-power-of-networking

Explaining Complex Topics Newsletter Post

For more on Explaining a topic better, read my newsletter: https://next-level-engineer.beehiiv.com/p/explaining-complex-topics

6 Steps Cold-Emaiing

Need help with drafting cold emails? 

Dominate Cold-Emailing in 6 easy Steps. 

Never get ignored again.
Double your response rate

https://navigator.beehiiv.com/p/10-cold-email-prompts-and-templates

Innovative PowerHouse

Learn more about achieving the impossible. 

20% at a time. 

Become an Innovative Powerhouse.

https://next-level-engineer.beehiiv.com/p/innovative-power-house

Resume Storytelling

Cut rejection letters in half! 

Read more about Improving Resumes with Storytelling: 

https://next-level-engineer.beehiiv.com/p/conquering-resumes

Mental Fitness

Take care of your Mental Health. 

4 Strategies you can use Today: https://next-level-engineer.beehiiv.com/p/mental-fitness

Think Different

Don't get boxed in your own thinking. 

Think different. 
https://next-level-engineer.beehiiv.com/p/preparing-the-mind

Porfolio Storytelling

Read more about Crafting the perfect Portfolio with Storytelling: 
https://next-level-engineer.beehiiv.com/p/4-storytelling-frameworks-to-use-in-portfolios

Cover Letter

Write the perfect cover letter using Storytelling. 
https://next-level-engineer.beehiiv.com/p/3-steps-for-storytelling-in-cover-letters

Profitable Prosthetic Partnerships

And if you want to learn how to make these types of Partnerships, learn more here:

https://profitableprostheticpartnerships.com/

Volunteer Velocity

And if you want to learn how to recruit & retain Volunteers, learn more here:

https://volunteervelocity.carrd.co/

Idea & Execution Newsletter

Steve Jobs calls it a disease that almost killed Apple. 

Thinking a great idea is 90% of the work. When it's only 5% of the work. There's a huge amount of work in the execution. 

I got you covered! 👇👇
https://ideaandexecution.substack.com/

Join my Newsletter & Dive into How to generate Ideas and execute them. 

Learn how others have executed their ideas and created their visions:
• Business Leaders
• Storytellers
• Politicians
• Inventors
• Generals

And more!

0% Fluff, 100% Action. 
https://ideaandexecution.substack.com/

Creator Chronicles

Want more on my journey as Online Creator?
Follow me for posts as I share what I learn. 
Follow the Creator Chronicles
https://themohammadkhan.substack.com/t/the-creator-chronicles

Want more Storytelling breakdowns?

Interested in more Storytelling breakdowns? 

Check out my Storytelling & Film posts in my Substack! https://themohammadkhan.substack.com/t/storytellingandfilm

Here's one on building an organic audience as a novice creator:  

https://themohammadkhan.substack.com/p/3-ways-you-can-attract-an-audience?r=rkewv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Want more Essays?

Learn more about the 3 Stories to Attract an Audience as a Novice Content Creator.
https://themohammadkhan.substack.com/p/3-ways-you-can-attract-an-audience

Interested in more Essays like this? 

Check out more in my Substack! 
https://themohammadkhan.substack.com/t/essays

I & E Newsletter - Variation 2

You're great with ideas but not so much on the execution. 

The goal: Crunch the time between idea & execution. 

But, it's hard to see how to execute an idea if you've never seen anyone else do it. 

I got you covered! 👇👇
https://ideaandexecution.substack.com/

Join my Newsletter & Dive into How to generate Ideas and execute them. 

Learn how others have executed their ideas and created their visions:
• Business Leaders
• Storytellers
• Politicians
• Inventors
• Generals

And more!

0% Fluff, 100% Action. 
https://ideaandexecution.substack.com/

Academic Alchemy V1

Academic Alchemists face 1 big hurdle: 
Having too many interests. 
Being Unfocused.

but that's wrong, 

Here's my journey of combining storytelling & engineering and Why Having many Interests Doesn’t Mean You're Unfocused.

https://themohammadkhan.substack.com/p/why-having-many-interests-doesnt

Life through a Storytelling Lens

Viewing life through a Storytelling Lens. 

This perspective shift made writing 100X easier.

The results? 
• 11 Creative Challenges
• 04 Journal Entries
• 60 Short Stories
• 44 Screenplays
• 15 Memoirs
• 23 Poems

Read more about the Perspective below:

https://themohammadkhan.substack.com/p/life-through-a-storytelling-lens

Photo Power

Here's my take on the photo

https://story-portfolio-page.super.site/week-131-one-of-these-mornings

Case Studies - Mongol Marketing 101

Learn more about how to Close Clients when you're not in the room, Mongol style. 
https://ideaandexecution.substack.com/p/how-to-close-clients-without-being

Interested in more Case Studies like this? 

Check out more in my Substack! 
https://ideaandexecution.substack.com/s/case-studies

Explosion & Inversion

Here's my take on the Explosion or Inversion

https://story-portfolio-page.super.site/week-035-superpower

3 Nouns +1 Genre

Here's my take on the 3 Nouns +1 Genre

https://story-portfolio-page.super.site/week-042-transcendence

Edison's Greatest Invention

Learn more about Edison's Greatest Invention here: 
https://ideaandexecution.substack.com/p/how-to-generate-ideas-and-execute

Movies as Novels

Read more about my take on Treating Movies as Novels here: 
https://themohammadkhan.substack.com/p/essay-treating-movies-as-novels?r=rkewv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

First Draft Fast Track

If you....

- like this post
- Struggle with Storytelling 
- Stuck with an unfinished Story draft? 

Here's a free email course to help you get to your 1st draft within 7 days. 
https://first-draft-fast-track.carrd.co/

Navigator Newsletter

If you...

- Liked this post
- Are Ready to Write Your Own Story
- Tired of being stuck in the same place

I help you use Storytelling to: 
- Boost your Income
- Build Mental Clarity
- Have better Relationships 

In less than 10 minutes per week.

https://navigator.beehiiv.com/subscribe

To survive a crisis Royal Dutch Shell didn't write a strategy doc, they rewired how leaders thought using a story.

It's 1973 and oil prices 4x in a few months, and oil companies panicked. 

They were draining cash, oil reserves were locked in other countries, and poor investments piled up.

However, Royal Dutch Shell wasn't worried. 
Because the crisis wasn't a surprise to them.

In 1959, Shell started a group to predict future trends.
Long-Range Studies considering alternative futures

But these studies weren't writing forecasts or spreadsheets.

Instead, they were writing stories. 

In the 1970s, they created 2 types of storylines: 

Storyline A) based on growing tensions and protectionism looked at technical limits of oil extraction & how shortages might happen

Storyline B) Based on free trade and market relations. 

Most companies assumed Storyline B would happen, but Shell didn’t.

Shell moved away from heavy fuels (shipping, power plants) to light fuels (gasoline and diesel) because light fuels are harder to replace.

During the 1973 oil crisis, other companies scrambled because they planned for Storyline A.

After the crisis, Shell:
• Survived the crisis
• Jumped from 7th → 2nd most profitable oil company

Their storylines didn't predict the future but instead challenged the leadership's assumptions.

Stories were used to expose blind-spots.

And the difference was survival.

I read "Zero to One" in 2019. It changed how I thought about building a business. 
I read it again in 2024. It's an indoctrination manifesto.

Then I read Octavia Butler. She predicted what Thiel was building, 21 years before he published his playbook.
---

In 2019, I was devouring business books.

"Zero to One" was high on people's lists. And it made sense. A concise book on growing your business and what to aim for.

Took some notes & moved on.

2022: ChatGPT launches

A question stuck in my head 
"What problem does this actually solve?"

I couldn't answer it.

2024: I reread "Zero to One" 

ChatGPT broke every rule Thiel teaches.

Thiel's thesis: build monopolies by making something so uniquely and often 10x better that they escape competition

OpenAI didn't build 10x better technology. They published first with better marketing & lower costs.

And Thiel funded them anyway.

That's when I realized Zero to One isn't methodology. It's business ideology.

An indoctrination manifesto from survivorship bias that built the world we live in today. 

2025: I read “Parable of the Sower” by Octavia Butler 

She wrote it in 1993 & set the story in 2024. And she showed me what happens when Thiel's ideology runs for 20 years.

Most startup advice assume you'll exit. But what if you can’t exit? 

What if these companies built themselves a monopoly they now have to manage and can’t exit? Something so entangled in the market where leaving risks collapse? 

What happens when you plan on exiting but can’t? 

In Butler's story:
• Corporations own entire towns
• Employees become debt slaves
• Technology serves monopolists only
• Workers can't leave (leaving means death)
• Corporations call this "providing value"

If “Zero to One” gives the extractive monopoly ideology, then “Parable of the Sower” shows you what happens when that ideology runs unchecked.

If you’re building technology that will take 20 years to mature, you should understand the world your advice is quietly trying to create.

A fiction book made me ask: What world am I building?
Then I rewrote my entire business model.

In 2025, I read “Parable of the Sower” by Octavia Butler

She predicted what "build a monopoly" creates after 20 years:
• Company towns for employees
• Employees indebted to the company
• Technology serving monopolists only
• Workers can't leave (leaving means death)

Then I looked at my own positioning company.

I was helping science and engineering companies:
• Lock in customers (switching costs)
• Dominate categories (eliminate alternatives)
• Become the "only" choice (build monopolies)

Butler forced me to ask: What world is MY company creating?

If everyone wins by becoming a gatekeeper, everyone loses.
Customers lose freedom. Innovation slows. Switching becomes punishment.

I didn't want to make money building a world I wouldn't want to live in.

So, I pivoted.

Just published a newsletter on What world are you building?

Deep tech founders don't exit in 5 years. You live with what you build for 20 years.

Make sure it's a world you want to live in. 

Read more here: https://lnkd.in/ggN9us6v

In 2025, I trusted my future plan because it was clear. Turns out clarity can be the problem.

I had just gotten back from a long trip. It was Christmas. While others were decorating, I was sitting with my laptop open, staring at a plan that still made sense.

8 months & no job and the plan was coherent and useless.

The plan said, 'network to find work', but it didn't say what happens when your contact gets laid off the week before your coffee meeting.

Every milestone assumed nothing would go wrong. Not one backup. Not one 'what if this fails.'

So instead of refining the plan again, I changed the test.

I wrote two stories from first-person perspective.

Two story lines:

I wrote Tuesday morning, best case. New job, coffee with the team, solving problems.
 
Then I wrote Tuesday morning, month 9 unemployed. Checking the bank account. 

My original plan never asked, "what if no one picks you?"

Plans optimize for clarity.
Stories expose consequences.

It's not about making a better plan for the future, but what you do when your plan gets punched in the face

It's 11:45 pm and there's someone banging on the door. But I'm on a roll. 

Thoughts flowing like the water spiraling beneath me. 

Years of mental constipation cured by the laxative atmosphere of the loo. 

Synapses at full throttle aboard the ceramic ship. 

Thank God, I had my phone on me.

Because the weird part is that my best writing happens sitting on the toilet.

Not going out on walks
Or listening to music.
Or reading books.

The ideas that come from the porcelain throne are unmatched. 

Whoever's at the door can wait.

taplio

Mohammad Khan's Linkedin Analytics

Mohammad Khan

Performance ScoreMohammad Khan's LinkedIn Performance

What is Mohammad talking about?

Who is engaging with Mohammad

Mohammad Khan's Best Posts (last 30 days)

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

.css-6ytdur{background-image:linear-gradient(284deg, rgba(39, 43, 72, 1) 0%, rgba(33, 47, 183, 1) 100%);color:transparent;-webkit-background-clip:text;background-clip:text;}Mohammad Khan's Linkedin Analytics

Mohammad Khan

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Mohammad Khan's LinkedIn Performance

What is Mohammad talking about?

Who is engaging with Mohammad

Mohammad Khan's Best Posts .css-1emoo84{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:400;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);}(last 30 days)

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Mohammad Khan's Linkedin Analytics

Performance ScoreMohammad Khan's LinkedIn Performance

Mohammad Khan's Best Posts (last 30 days)