I’ve always shared the good news and achievements about Uptech, but today I’m sharing something difficult – my own mistakes as a founder. I’m opening up about these failures so you can learn from them and hopefully avoid repeating them in your own business journey.

I recently had to downsize my team by 30%, with many team members now on notice period. This wasn’t something I ever wanted to do, but it became necessary.

Looking back on 5 years of running Uptech, my junoon (passion) for building something bigger than myself led me down a challenging path – one with painful lessons I’m still processing.

My biggest mistakes:

1. Keeping team members on payroll when there wasn’t enough work
2. Running business decisions based on emotions rather than logic – it took me 5 years (and Muhammad Yousaf’s persistent advice that “business doesn’t run on emotions”) to finally accept this reality
3. Prioritizing relationships over what was actually best for Uptech
4. Investing in people who don’t return value during training/internship – I spent 500k on someone who ended up leaving tech altogether for a slightly better-paying admin job
5. Not being strict enough about productivity and accountability
6. Hesitating too long before making necessary but difficult decisions
7. Believing everyone shares the same commitment to the company vision

What I’ve learned from these hard realities:

1. I could earn more working alone, but chose team-building over personal profit. It’s like eating less so everyone gets thora thora (a little bit)
2. I’m probably earning less than many solo entrepreneurs – and that’s okay
3. Business doesn’t run on emotions – it runs on practical decisions
4. In business, we must be flexible and accept when we’re wrong
5. Sometimes tough love is better than misplaced kindness
6. Clear expectations and boundaries are essential for success

I’ve faced some serious reality checks along the way – ones I’m not sharing here. I’m keeping these particular lessons private because they involve other people, and I don’t want anyone to be hurt because of my post. These experiences taught me hard lessons that have fundamentally changed how I approach business.

My “I won’t terminate someone even without work” policy has been officially retired. When forced to choose between emotions and Uptech, I finally chose the Uptech. It hurt, but it was necessary.

Going forward, I’ll still provide opportunities but not paid ones until I don’t start earning from that person. The days of emotional decision-making are behind me.

Sometimes the hardest experiences teach us the most.

P.S: Behind every business decision is a human being who feels the weight of those choices. This is me after making the toughest call of my entrepreneurial journey.