Faiza Yousuf

I was introduced to TedTalks few years ago by one of my clients while we were talking about some issues related to mental health. It was a talk by Surgeon and author Sherwin Nuland on Shock Therapy and how it can help people with severe depression. I remember watching this talk and not being able to sleep that night thinking about his extraordinary life story. His talk got me hooked and I started following TEDTalks very religiously.
For people who don’t know much about TED (I highly doubt that), it stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. It is a set of conferences held globally, some under TED and others as TEDx ( independently organized TED event) that call exceptional speakers to share knowledge and exchange ideas. These talks are available on their website and YouTube channel.
I am a huge fan of these conferences and over the years I have seen hundreds of these talks. I would love to share some of my favorite TEDTalks with you (in no particular order!).
Here is my list # 1…

It’s been three weeks that I haven’t picked up any book. I guess publishing a book recommendation blog has jinxed my reading routine, so I am trying to un-jinx it with another blog. I am listing down ten more books that I really enjoyed reading and few of them are my go to place in case of anxiety emergencies.
The list is in no particular order and you can find them locally, if you need an ebook, check any free digital library. 
So here is my list # 2 of some exceptional books for you! 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do: Take Back Your Power, Embrace Change, Face Your Fears and Train Your Brain for Happiness and Success by Amy Morin (I landed here after listening to Amy’s TEDTalk. It’s a must read for every single person!)Maya's Notebook by Isabel Allende (It’s a difficult to read/digest book but she writes beautifully, I took my time with it but loved it)How to Become a Really Good Pain in the Ass: A Critical Thinker's Guide to Asking the Right Questions by Christoph…

Learning is what keeps us on track in this race of success and the best medium to learn things is the Internet. We all know how to make use of it in our daily life to get connected and stay informed, on both personal and professional level.
As an entrepreneur, we all have our strengths and weaknesses and when it comes to learning things online, we all have been to the stage where we google something, find hundreds and thousands of results coming up according to the relevance of our search terms and get really confused about which resource to pick and invest our precious time in it.
Over the period of time, I have been asked some repeated questions about the common problems faced by fellow entrepreneurs. Sometimes, these questions have simple answers but a lot of times, the answers are complicated and require learning and deliberation. In the latter case, I always redirect people towards these amazing resources that I have found online and I stick to them whenever I need help.


I am list…

Reading has always been my solace and there is nothing I love more than reading a beautiful, thought provoking and well researched book. But besides being a bookworm, I am also a proud show off (have multiple documented allegations of that) and update my reading lists publicly on goodreads.  Also, I am a member of multiple book clubs and I love the discussion and recommendations coming from my fellow bookworms.
Recently, someone asked me to send them a list of my top ten favorite books and the idea froze me with fear. How can anyone do that? There is no way I can list my top ten favorite books, I can’t even list my top hundred favorite books. But what I can do is to tell you the best books I have read recently. This list is in no particular order and I just picked up the books that I have read in past few months.
You will find most of these books available at our local book stores. I prefer shopping online so my favorite e-stores are readings.pk, libertybooks.com and fabingo.com (in t…

#WomenInTechPK did its Meetup # 2 on 8th July, 2017 and this time 10Pearls hosted us in their Karachi office, a massive thank you to Sana Hussain (Senior HR Manager – 10Pearls) and her team for the generosity and their constant support. The meetup had an open agenda and our members discussed various topics and issues concerning themselves and their fellow women in tech and/or women in workplace.

I couldn’t be there due to my mom’s surgery but I heard about the discussions later and the attendees were kind enough to share the key takeaways from the meetup. To sum it up: Mentorship is required for our young undergrads and they need to see female role models to know that they have a place in the industry and can climb up the career ladder like their predecessors.Men should be involved in the mentorship activities because their support is necessary in taking the cause forward.Universities/colleges should be reached out so that we can meet with aspiring technologists and help them with gett…

The story started when I was out of work after the company we started collapsed within a year. I was depressed, felt like a failure and didn’t know what to do with those 12 hours of my day which I used to spend at work (which proves that workaholics have no social life). My masters was done too and I didn’t want to get into further education (the idea is still appealing but I chicken out every freaking time). It was my fourth year in the Tech industry. I got a call from a friend and he said that some private university (it shouldn’t even be called a university) is looking for a part time lecturer and if I am free, I can go teach there for few hours every week. My reaction wasn’t very polite but he kind of convinced me to go meet the professor there. I went and was extremely disappointed with his hostile and sexist behavior.
Let me explain why I said that. I met someone in a dingy office, surrounded by piles of unsorted papers, using an outdated computer, looking like a troll from some …