Jahanzeb (JZ) is one of my favorite people in the world and this conversation reminded me why. We met as classmates at Harvard Business School, coming from very different backgrounds and perspectives, but we were connected by a love for knowledge, philosophy, and meaningful conversations about life. 

As way of quick background, JZ is from Pakistan and has spent much of his life trying to give back to his country. He has worked in the government, financials sector, entrepreneurship, given TedTalks, and many other things. These days he is focused on his start up, Hoopoe, an EdTech start up with a mission to teach millions of Pakistani children to speak English. As you will hear, JZ believes there is a huge need to teach this skill to better the lives of so many people, which ties directly to his value of "making a difference in the world that he can see." 

We spent much of the first half of the episode talking about that value, his vision for his company, and why he feels it is so important. I always love these discussions because I find it fascinating to hear people articulate their passions. There is so much to be learned in understanding how they identified their passion and what drives them to overcome all of the inevitable obstacles. It was great to also learn more about Pakistan specifically and the opportunities and challenges they face as a country.

The second half of the conversation was a a dream come true for someone like me who loves talking about big, messy, philosophical topics. JZ and I have had countless conversations like this over the years (usually over some hookah and delicious food), so we picked right up where we've previously left off. Much of this discussion centered around the idea of conviction, by that I mean how we can ever have conviction about anything if we don't know anything for certain. We went back and forth on the limits of the human mind, the role emotion/faith play, and if life actually has any meaning at all. I really hope you enjoy this discussion as much as I did.