Saturday Takeover by Sam

What's up everyone? Wow, it's Saturday already and I'm writing this on a Monday. Cool how things work.

So, here's the deal. Ambreen and Rebekah asked me to run with our first Saturday Takeover.

Saturday what!? Yeah, exactly. Each week, a member of the Hey Rebekah team will takeover the newsletter and bore you to death with personal $#!t.

Crap, I really hope this doesn't end up being some lame version of a glorified online dating profile.

Anyway, let's get started.

I'm a beach bum from Santa Monica—the second generation of Indian/Pakistani and British/Irani parents. However, most days, I feel like I'm half Mexican, half of my parents' halves, and half German Shepherd.

My dad left India for the US in 1947 when he was a child, right before his family moved to Karachi, Pakistan. My mom's from Dover in England.

My grandfathers were best friends and colleagues in the airline industry working in London, and thought it'd be great if their kids got married. So they did. That's how I came to be.

My younger sister and I grew up in a working class family with a smörgåsbord of cultural influences but pretty simple values. I spent a lot of time with a nearby caretaker as a child. She was from Mexico City. She taught me how to dream in Spanish.

Growing up in Santa Monica as a surf-kid helped me establish what's important in life. However, those priorities didn't necessarily reconcile with my dad's plans for my future.

So I went to college, got a degree, got a job, got a bunch of more degrees, and then was determined to get everything I needed to get done in my career—done, by the age of 46.

That age was determined by a confluence of the beach loving slacker in me and the pragmatism of my ancestry. And I almost did, well mostly that is.

As I approached that final milestone in my career as a solution architect, I met Rebekah, then Ambreen. Both of whom I seem to be stuck with for life. Rebekah as a colleague, Ambreen as my wife. That's a jingle!

And here I am, at their behest, spilling my guts out to you, which ironically feels oddly therapeutic.

Mr. Miyagi was probably more influential on me than Maverick. Growing up, my Goose (aka f^ckstick) and I embraced the Japanese pursuit of perfection in life. I was an athletic kid who swam, surfed, scored soccer balls, smashed tennis balls, dunked basketballs, and ran footballs.

We learned to multi-task chucking papers to stoops from our bikes in the morning. Deep frying chicken at KFC was our next adventure. Then, we picked up a pretty diverse set of construction skills, mostly out of necessity while working on an extension at home.

I enjoy building and creating things. That's probably why I got into computer science.

Later in life, I started making things out of wood. I also got into eating—I mean cooking, and gardening.

I drive a classic Mustang and an old-school Defender. I listen to rock en español, cumbia, reggae, the classics, and any good music.

I've traveled to more than 100 countries for work, so check that off the bucket list.

My favorite TV shows are: Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Deadwood, Justified, Atlanta, Dave, and Breaking Bad. My favorite movie? True Grit.

Social profiles? None. Signal is my messenger of choice.

In another life, I'd probably be a cowboy.

Born to immigrants on the west side, with a little of Orange County's red in me. I believe in free speech, sensible gun legislation, small government, that no one has the right to tell anyone what to do with their bodies, everyone's personal choices are their own, and that God doesn't have a place in government.

I help Ambreen and Rebekah build a technology enabled business and assist with complex audio failures on personal computing devices (in other words, explain how to turn silent mode on/off).

Anything else you'd like to know?