#135 – What They Didn't Tell You (and you need to know!), with Jawad Ahsan

Jawad Ahsan is CFO at Axon, where their vision is bigger than just cameras, tasers or software for law enforcement and civilians concerned about their safety. They're actually working every day to make the bullet obsolete. That's interesting… Jawad is also author of the book, What They Didn't Tell Me. That's more of our focus in this podcast because he has five key principles that can change many people's careers. Here they are: (1) Define your north star; (2) Garner trust by honing your four uncoachable traits; (3) Surrounding yourself with quality people will take you further than you think; (4) Hire people you trust, no matter what it costs; and (5) Anyone can be a leader, but don't assume you are a leader because you're in a leadership position. Don't miss this discussion with a very dynamic, strategic, savvy leader - Jawad Ahsan. At age 29, Jawad Ahsan defined his North Star: He wanted to move up to the C-suite. A year later, he became a divisional CFO at GE Healthcare, and was soon promoted to be a GE executive. By age 34, he was the CFO of a private-equity backed SaaS company, and by age 37, became the CFO of a publicly traded company, Axon. As CFO, Jawad is responsible for leading the company's global finance, corporate strategy, legal and IT organizations, as well as Axon's consumer-facing business. During his tenure, Axon's market cap has increased from $1 billion to over $6 billion.