Last episode I left you with a question. Three years exceeding

quota. No raise. No promotion. Do I stay or do I go?

Today you get the answer.

And then this series changes — because starting next episode

we stop with the autobiography and start building your career.

In this episode:

🔹 The decision to bet on myself — and the exact mindset I used

🔹 Why the best time to look for a job is while you still have one

🔹 6 months of daily applications — the rejections, the ghosting,

the early rounds that went nowhere

🔹 The job I was basically promised — then got blocked from by

a CEO I never even got to speak to

🔹 How I went around the recruiter and got the truth directly

🔹 Two offers landing at the same time after months of nothing

🔹 Company A vs Company B — the startup vs the established player

🔹 The hardest part of having two good offers nobody warns you about

🔹 Why I chose stability over the swing — and why I don't regret it

🔹 What comes next: the practical playbook for getting into tech sales

Pre-med dropout. Nigerian household. No finance degree.

No engineering background. High-profile data center deals with

some of the most innovative companies in the world.

Where you start has nothing to do with where you finish.

🔔 Subscribe — the practical stuff starts next episode.

#techsales #techsalescareer #salescareer #howtogetintotechsales

#CourtsideFinancial #salesjobs #SDR #accountexecutive #careeradvice

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Friday roundup. Here's everything that mattered this week.

NIO unveiled the ES9 — physically larger than a Rolls Royce Cullinan

and projected to carry NIO's highest SUV gross margin. Pre-orders from

outside NIO's existing community are already running 1.5x the ES8's

pre-sale pace. We break down what it means for the business.

ALSO THIS WEEK:

— Inflation worst reading in 2 years — gas up $1+/gallon since

US-Iran conflict began

— 3,200 ships idle in the Strait of Hormuz

— S&P 500 recovering war losses as ceasefire talks progress

— Someone threw a Molotov cocktail at Sam Altman's house

— Michael Burry posted and deleted — Palantir dropped anyway

— Chinese NEV exports up 124% YoY in Q1 — Tesla China exports

up 164%

— Can NIO actually become the next BMW, Benz or Audi?

The honest answer from the Chinese press

— US crackdown on China academic collaboration — what it means

for the tech war

Courtside Financial. Hosted by Obi.

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NIO revealed the ES9 today in Hangzhou. Pre-sales start at 528,000 yuan — about $77,000 — with battery-as-a-service bringing the entry price down to 420,000 yuan. That's 31% lower than the ET9 sedan carrying identical technology — the same Shenji NX9031 autonomous driving chip, SkyRide active chassis, 900V architecture, and 600kW charging. Official launch late May. First deliveries June 1st. NIO Hong Kong shares hit a five month high. Obi used Nord VPN to access the Chinese internet and found Chinese automotive journalists on dealership floors, real buyers pressing their faces against showroom windows, and community members calling the ES9 a Range Rover killer at half the price. Full breakdown of the confirmed specs — 5,365mm length bigger than a Rolls-Royce Cullinan, 520kW dual motor, 620km range, 47 speakers, zero gravity second row seats, electrochromic windows, wire-controlled steering, 5.4 meter turning radius — plus the investment thesis for what the June 1st delivery date means for NIO's trajectory through the rest of 2026.

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GoPro cut 23% of their workforce this morning. Over 1,600 companies have announced layoffs since January 1st as AI eliminates jobs faster than any recovery can replace them. Apple former insiders confirmed this week that Apple had a 5-year head start on AI and wasted it — Siri still trailing ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude in 2026. And NIO confirmed today their in-house Shenji chip is going into the Onvo L90 launching April 21st — meaning NIO's own semiconductor technology now runs across Firefly, Onvo, and the NIO main brand. Shenji chips are already being pitched to Leapmotor and Geely as a third party supply business. NIO is not just a car company. They're building an AI chip ecosystem inside a car company. Obi breaks down what the AI layoff wave means for everyday Americans, why Apple's failure is the most important business lesson of 2026, and why the Shenji chip story is the most underappreciated investment thesis in the EV space right now. ES9 reveals tomorrow.

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J.P. Morgan put a $145 price target on Tesla today — a 60% drop from current levels. Meanwhile NIO upgraded the Firefly with more power, more features, and same price — giving existing owners the motor upgrade for free over the air. Volkswagen launched a new EV in China built using Xpeng's technology — the 89-year-old German automaker needed Chinese help to compete. BYD's Denza starts pre-sales for a luxury SUV that charges in 9 minutes. And tomorrow NIO reveals the ES9. Full breakdown of everything happening in the Chinese EV space 24 hours before NIO's biggest product reveal.

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Three stories dropped today that most people aren't connecting. OpenAI is burning $85 billion in a single year. Pakistan is mediating an Iran truce that could drop gas prices this week. And tomorrow NIO reveals the ES9 — their largest SUV ever at 5,365mm long, bigger than a Rolls-Royce Cullinan, with 697 horsepower, 620km CLTC range, 900V charging adding 155 miles in five minutes, dual Shenji NX 9031 autonomous driving chips built in-house, and the SkyRide active chassis system from the ET9. Obi breaks down everything we know going into tomorrow's tech reveal event, why the battery swap model makes NIO owners immune to oil price swings regardless of what Pakistan negotiates, and why the ES9 is not just a car story — it's a civilization story about where automotive technology is actually being built.

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On April 1st at the New York International Auto Show NIO's Firefly won the 2026 World Urban Car of the Year — judged by 98 automotive journalists from 33 countries with votes tabulated by KPMG. For the first time in 21 years every single World Car Award trophy went to a battery electric vehicle. Full breakdown of what happened in New York, what the Firefly actually is, NIO's three brand strategy, the investment case including EPS projections, NIO Power subscription revenue, semiconductor licensing, and margin expansion from scale. Plus the Firefly upgrade Tuesday April 7th and the ES9 reveal Wednesday April 9th. This video was inspired by community member  @dannialronen2577 

Lessie AI (Courtside Financial Link) :https://bit.ly/4dmJk27

Discount code: CF50

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Gas hit $4.06 per gallon nationally this week — up over a dollar from one month ago. WTI crude hit $112 a barrel with the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed by Iran, causing what the IEA called the worst energy crisis in history. Analysts warn $150 oil and $5 gas are possible within weeks. Meanwhile America has a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs — the most affordable and technologically advanced vehicles that would save everyday Americans the most money at the pump. Obi breaks down the oil crisis, the tariff wall, the American EV affordability problem, and why NIO's battery swap model makes their owners completely immune to Middle Eastern geopolitics regardless of what oil does.

Lessie AI (Courtside Financial Link) :https://bit.ly/4dmJk27

Discount code: CF50

Discord: https://discord.gg/GSbp4wR

I turned my Texas house into a rental property and moved to Scottsdale Arizona to cover Arizona in field sales. Four to six months later they reassigned my territory to New Mexico — a state I could have covered from Texas where I already was. This episode covers the real lessons of field sales, why body language and in-person presence change everything, how showing up consistently in New Mexico led a customer to buy over a million dollars of gear, and why I'm genuinely grateful for everything Arizona gave me beyond the job. Plus the three year epiphany that made me question everything. Do I stay or do I go? Next episode we find out.

Lessie AI (Courtside Financial Link) :https://bit.ly/4dmJk27

Discount code: CF50

Discord: https://discord.gg/GSbp4wR

Tesla just confirmed the end of the Model S and Model X — the premium vehicles that built the company's reputation — to bet everything on the CyberCab robotaxi which has no steering wheel, no pedals, and no regulatory approval to operate on public roads. Chinese owners who paid 64,000 yuan for FSD watched hackers unlock it with a $35 Raspberry Pi before Tesla patched it in 48 hours. Robotaxis stopped in traffic in both San Francisco and Wuhan in the same week and both events were safety systems working correctly — not failures — though the media reported them as breakdowns. And the three companies that manufactured NIO, Xpeng, and Li Auto's first vehicles are now bankrupt, pivoting to AI, or betting survival on hydrogen. Obi connects every story to NIO's positioning — Tesla vacating the premium personal EV segment is the exact space NIO has been building in for eleven years. ES9 reveal in 6 days.

Lessie AI (Courtside Financial Link) :https://bit.ly/4dmJk27

Discount code: CF50

Discord: https://discord.gg/GSbp4wR