How To Choose a Path?

For those that may not know, a campaign was started a few weeks back to beat the world record of the most likes on an Instagram post (held by Kylie Jenner introducing her daughter, Stormi, to the world). The photo to beat the most liked picture of all time was simple, a picture of an egg. And guess what?! The egg WON. The egg currently has 52 million likes while Kylie’s photo had 18 million. A few weeks past, and the egg did something that nobody thought it would do. It began to crack! Well now we need to know! What’s inside the egg!? The internet had a whole bunch of speculations like it was Kylie playing a trick on us, a chicken, an avocado, Shrek, yodeling kid, the list , as you can imagine, goes on and on! REGARDLESS, THE EGG HAD ME HOOKED. I WAS DYING TO KNOW WHAT WAS INSIDE THIS STUPID EGG. A new post goes up from the egg a couple days before the Super Bowl. It announced that the world can stop waiting and everything will be revealed on Sunday at 8pm after the Super Bowl on Hulu. I was BUMMED. I mean a part of me knew that brands would capitalize on this moment (I do work in advertising), but another part of me really wanted this to be an authentic experience. I immediately assumed it was promoting a Hulu show or their recently reduced rates. As a side note, experts estimated the value of this placement was around $10 millions and brands are all about getting in on what is culturally relevant. So this did seem to make sense that a brand like Hulu would pay a lot to get into this conversation. Albeit a bit disappointed, I anxiously waited until 8pm and opened up the Hulu app to turn into find out what lies in the egg. And what I saw completely took be by surprise. The egg started to crack, and crack some more from the pressures of social media . And in that moment I felt a sense of relief, a sense of understanding and especially proud of Hulu for taking this time to highlight our core mission her at OOTify. And I’m so happy they’ve partnered with our close friends at Mental Health America. Big thanks to Hulu to getting more people to talk about our mental health. #worldrecordegg #egggang #mentalhealth #mentalhealthamerica #hulu

Man, I've been told "No" so many times in my life! I'd love to hear what your reaction is when you hear a "No"? I'll share some of the toughest "No's" I've heard and share some of the outcomes and would love to hear how you've handled your "No's" - different perspectives welcome! So the first "No" I remember was when I tried out for my high school tennis team. I had never taken any lessons and my game was not technically sound so I got a private coach my sophomore year. Unfortunately, my high school coach didn't like the way my private coach taught me and said I probably would not make the team. So... I hustled and I got on the team as a bench warmer. I was on the bench for most of the season and that really bothered me because I knew I could compete with some of the players out there. That following summer, I worked hard and took lessons from my private coach and doubled up with lessons at summer camp with my high school coach as well. I tried out for the varsity team my senior year. And I made #1 doubles and went on to CIF (the playoffs) that year . That was one of the first "No's" that I was able to turn to a "Yes" and it reinforced the power of grit. My second big "No" happened as I was graduating college. I had applied to big consulting firms and investment firms. In the process, I sought mentorship one of my older distant cousins. He was a Wall Street portfolio manager and he reviewed my resume. His conclusion: I would probably not get a job in finance and that I should probably just look elsewhere. Brutally honest, but I still applied and got some bites in consulting and other opportunities. One opportunity that came along was for sure a long shot and it was with a prestigious financial firm. 500 applicants for 1 slot. I made the second cut and then went in for the final 3rd round interview. As I looked around, I saw students from UCLA, Stanford and other Ivy league schools. One kid literally had a quantum physics book. I laughed to myself and said there's no way I'm getting this job so I went in totally relaxed knowing for sure that it was not in the cards for me - my brutally honest cousin was probably right. I was finishing the last round of interviews and ran into someone on the trading floor that had interviewed me in the first two rounds. I told her I had just come out of the final exam and wasn't feeling good about my prospects. She laughed. Told me I already had the job and this was JUST a formality. Did not expect that one. That was my second major experience with "No", but it just felt like the universe had given me that one. Sometimes, you just got to trust the process. Now, this is the most important "No" I changed to a "Yes" - marriage and a kid. The moment I met Amy, I knew I wanted to be in her life. She shut me down from the moment I met her because we met at a wedding and it was a family affair. This wasn't a place she wanted to meet someone - too cliche maybe. She'll tell you some hilarious other reasons - apparently, my dancing and suit game was too LA for her. That night I met her, I told her we would be together, she would move from Chicago to LA and the rest would be history. There was a little liquid courage there - Indian weddings typically have an open bar. Needless to say, she moved to LA in a year, we got engaged on 11/12/13 and married on 5/9/15. Easy. Well, it was easy when compared to the journey of trying to have a kid, but everyone (including professionals) told us it would be so chill. We got a lot of "Yes" this time around because we were young (relatively) and therefore it would be easy. So we tried and tried - ultimately had to see multiple doctors, undergo many treatments and procedures. All while working full-time in very demanding careers. Fortunately, we were able to afford the best care and she was able to take a little time off to focus on our family. Kacen Radev Sharma was born on 2/13/18 and turns one next month. Another "No" I got was when I left PennyMac (REIT) as a Director / FVP to build a new business at Western Asset. Everyone told me it would not be possible and that the business didn't exist and therefore could not be built. Long story short, I built a $1bn portfolio. It took everything out of me, but I did it. It would be unfair if I said I did it myself and I had a great team behind me and great mentorship in my boss. But that stress combined with trying to have a kid and then... losing my friend to suicide all within a year, I knew I needed to try something new. #signs The last "No" I received was when I left Western Asset to go build OOTify. I'm still getting "No's" here and there, but I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone that has given me a "Yes" - my wife, my parents, my sister, my team, my mentors and my investors. I invested in the business, my family invested in the business, my team invested in the business and professional investors believed and continue to believe in my ability to build OOTify. Sending me relevant articles, making introductions and just being awesome. #karma #payitforward Thank you to my investors past and current for being kind and always there when I have a quick question or just want to chat. Special thank you to Fadi at Tidecrest Capital, Smita Bagla and the rest of the TiE Angels (most recently, Abhi Mahule @ Roku), Joe Andrea, Michael Rivera at USC, Daniel Koffler at K3, Santhosh Devati at Anamika Ventures, and the entire Nex Cubed team. And all the others that have participated - ya'll know who you are and I appreciate you. #venturecapital #angels #thankyou Finally, I thank our Providers, our members and the entire mental health community for everything that they do on a daily basis. They face many "No's", but continue to persevere. #community I hope that seeing some of the battles I've fought, you'll share one of your "No" turned "Yes" experiences. Trust me, I've got some more where that came from! Some "No's" that never resulted in "Yes's" too, but I choose not to dwell on those and just be thankful for those that that support me and trust the process. I also try to give as many "Yes's" as I can to those that deserve it or otherwise would not have had an opportunity because that's when you can bring out the best in folks. What "No" have you heard lately? Is it worth fighting for? You know where I stand, but would love your views. Share them on ootify.com/thefabric on any thread you feel comfortable! #ootify -R Final note: if you have any thoughts on how we can make OOTify better so we can succeed in improving mental health in our community, we will say "Yes" to do our best to incorporate your feedback, if and where appropriate. Email us at iris@ootify.com! Thank you

Happy New Year OOTers! I hope that everyone’s 2019 is off to a great start. I came across this article in the New York Times over the holidays and wanted to share it with the community to see if we can spark a discussion and get your thoughts. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/31/technology/facebook-suicide-screening-algorithm.html?emc=edit_th_190101&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=606348670101 This article speaks about how Facebook has developed an algorithm that scans all of the posts that go up on the platform and identifies potential suicide risks. Once the suicide risk is identified it is reviewed by a human specialist and if it is deemed that the poster is at risk they will notify the local authorities. Facebook flags high scoring posts as well as posts submitted by concerned users. Is Facebook potentially putting itself in a sticky situation by taking on the role of a public health agency? Does this service violate user’s privacy? Some mental health experts are arguing that Facebook’s calls to the police can also cause harm? What do you guys think? In my opinion, I think Facebook is absolutely doing the right thing. I think that they are making a very good attempt to fulfill their social responsibility given the position that they are in….you know, huge social media platform with a population of over 2 billion! It may not be perfect the first time around, but doing something is better than doing nothing. Plus, I would wager that their algorithm and whole suicide detection system will only get better with time. Alright, let’s hear it OOTers!