In November of 2012 a short conversation changed my life forever. It was a crisp San Francisco morning, and we had just had our first session break at the Salesforce Executive Briefing Center for our super cool client Groupon. As I grabbed a bagel and was starting to pour some much-needed coffee, a fellow Salesforce colleague said ‘Javaid you will not believe what my 6-year-old daughter did yesterday’. I looked up and said, ‘What did she do?’. He goes ‘I was on my laptop in my basement couch attempting to get a head start on the week and she came and sat next to me, quietly for about 30 seconds and finally broke her silence and said dad, why isn’t this TV turning on? I said, Sara, you have to turn the TV on for it to turn on. She said no, it should know I am here, it should just turn on by itself’. We both looked at each other, had an amusing laugh and walked back into the next session. But as the day went on, I started thinking about what this little girl had said (and possibly meant) and that was all I could think about for the rest of the day. I couldn’t even sleep that night. As I tossed and turned, I had this uncomfortable urge to comprehend the depth of her ask, her possible belief system (that triggered this entitlement), the innocence hidden in the very powerful demand of hers and above all the monumental expectation she had placed on us adults to create a world that she agrees with, controls and thrives in. Weeks went by with me thinking deeply about how things would evolve for the young humans around us and I couldn’t help but wonder if this little girl had given me a futuristic purpose and crafted a path that carefully tied my collective vision for business, technology and humanity.
In November of 2012 a short conversation changed my life forever. It was a crisp San Francisco morning, and we had just had our first session break at the Salesforce Executive Briefing Center for our super cool client Groupon. As I grabbed a bagel and was starting to pour some much-needed coffee, a fellow Salesforce colleague said ‘Javaid you will not believe what my 6-year-old daughter did yesterday’. I looked up and said, ‘What did she do?’. He goes ‘I was on my laptop in my basement couch attempting to get a head start on the week and she came and sat next to me, quietly for about 30 seconds and finally broke her silence and said dad, why isn’t this TV turning on? I said, Sara, you have to turn the TV on for it to turn on. She said no, it should know I am here, it should just turn on by itself’. We both looked at each other, had an amusing laugh and walked back into the next session. But as the day went on, I started thinking about what this little girl had said (and possibly meant) and that was all I could think about for the rest of the day. I couldn’t even sleep that night. As I tossed and turned, I had this uncomfortable urge to comprehend the depth of her ask, her possible belief system (that triggered this entitlement), the innocence hidden in the very powerful demand of hers and above all the monumental expectation she had placed on us adults to create a world that she agrees with, controls and thrives in. Weeks went by with me thinking deeply about how things would evolve for the young humans around us and I couldn’t help but wonder if this little girl had given me a futuristic purpose and crafted a path that carefully tied my collective vision for business, technology and humanity.
