At 17, Sharran Srivatsaa arrived in the US from India on a tennis scholarship, alone and uncertain about what came next. The path that followed was anything but linear.

His story challenges the idea that success follows a straight line or a fixed timetable.

Sharran Srivatsaa’s journey: from tennis courts to a $1.2 billion valuation

Srivatsaa’s early years in the US were shaped by discipline and rejection. Tennis helped fund his education and instilled resilience. Finance did not come easily.

He has spoken publicly about being turned down repeatedly before eventually securing roles at major investment banks, including Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse. Those early setbacks, he says, taught him persistence rather than entitlement.

Despite earning admission to Stanford, Srivatsaa decided to leave academia and build a company instead. The move was unconventional and carried significant risk. It also set the tone for a career defined by calculated leaps rather than safe progression. His early ventures provided hands-on operating experience, including a successful exit in his early twenties.

He later made his biggest impact in real estate. As CEO of Teles Properties, he helped grow the firm’s annual sales volume from roughly $300 million to about $3.4 billion over a five-year period. The brokerage was eventually acquired by Douglas Elliman, marking one of the most notable growth stories in the US residential real estate sector.

His next chapter came at The Real Brokerage, commonly known as Real. As President, Srivatsaa played a central role in the company’s rapid expansion. During his tenure, the agent network grew sharply and the publicly listed firm reached a market valuation of around $1.2 billion at its peak. The period cemented his reputation as a scale-focused operator rather than a one-time founder.

In 2025, Srivatsaa joined Acquisition.com, the firm founded by Alex Hormozi and Leila Hormozi. As President and Managing Partner, he now works closely with founders running eight- and nine-figure businesses. His focus is less on ideation and more on systems, leadership, and repeatable growth.

“I’m in my forties and still figuring things out,” he has said, adding, “That’s not failure. That’s progress.”

Why his story resonates now

Srivatsaa frequently speaks to younger professionals who feel behind by their mid-twenties. His message is direct. Careers are rarely linear. First paths are not final paths. Early failures do not define long-term outcomes.

“The only real mistake,” he often argues, “is settling too soon.”

In an era obsessed with early success, Sharran Srivatsaa’s journey offers a quieter truth: Reinvention is not a weakness. It is a skill.

By Engr Fabian Aboh Ortindi

I have come across certain comments in the ongoing discussion bothering on the tenacity and lordship over the entity called Kadarko. These comments are disturbing and seem to be a total deviation from the subject of discussion.

When you engage some of my Alago neighbors intellectually, you get nothing from them but hatred, revenge, and bitterness.

They hate the Tiv people of Nasarawa State because they are desperate for vengeance. Sometimes, out of bitterness, they speak as though they are speaking for the Idoma people of Benue State. You hear statements like:

“If you want to be treated fairly, ask your brothers in Benue State to make the Idoma people governor of the state.”

This does not sound logical. The Idoma people of Benue are there fighting their own cause. They are more than capable of doing so. Why would anyone want to take revenge on their behalf in another state?

You also hear statements like:

“Your people have driven all the Alago people out of Amele, in Benue state, so you cannot enjoy anything in Nasarawa State.”

If you are not cowards, and Amele truly belongs to you, as you claim, there would be no need to run away. You would stay and defend it. The way the Tiv are refusing to leave Nasarawa state.

The Tiv people of Nasarawa
state belong here and God has a reason for keeping them in a state different from where their kins dominate in Benue. There is nowhere they can run to. So you will be wasting your time expecting them to return to Benue simply because you ran away from your fight in Amele. They will stay and fight back.

The hatred and bitterness in them has pushed them into employing their last and only source of strength, which seems to be the employment of the services of Fulani bandits to terrorise the Tiv people and send them out of their homes and farms. But you know that the fulanis do not fight for free.

The question is: How many of the lands they have helped you grab have actually been given to you? They are also interested in the land. Very soon, they will be interested in the leadership position of the chiefdom. And you know what? The Tiv will not be there to fight on your side. War is expensive and expansive. You may not continue to have the finances and energy to prosecute this evil agenda.

Bitterness and jealousy only become a heavy burden to those who carry them. The truth is : Tiv will not leave Nasarawa state or Kadarko, and violence cannot solve this. So if you like, keep being bitter and jealous. Keep hating. It is your cross to carry.

There is no possibility of the Tiv leaving Nasarawa State for you. And it is impossible to kill all the Tiv people. So you can see that your dream will never come to fruition.

Let us choose a better path: peace, justice, and fairness for all. All these are priceless as compared to hatred, bitterness, violence and vengeance.

By Seyi Balogun

For not adding any value to the Benin-Asaba road, the Minister of Works, David Umahi, has advised the concessionaire handling it to immediately write to the Federal Government through the Ministry of Works to enable it to terminate the contract.

The minister also ordered the concessionaire to urgently remove all the blockages on the road to allow free flow of traffic.

Umahi made the appeal and the directive on Wednesday in Benin at a stakeholders’ engagement in Government House, Benin. In his words:

“We are therefore pleading with you to give us written approval to proceed in this manner, we believe this is the way forward.

“Therefore, our directive going forward is that you should be removed from the site of this project, within the limits of our rights. You have added no value to the project,” he said.

He stressed that the Federal Ministry of Works should write to the independent engineer to request measurements of all the works that have been carried out, excluding what we describe as negative work.

“When you remove asphalt contrary to the contract and contrary to the specifications, that is negative work.

“It will not be recognised as part of the value of work done. In fact, the cost of rectifying the damage must also be established.

“Now, we want to plead with you, as the clients acting in the interest of the public, we do not believe that you currently have the capacity to reinstate the road.

“We have not stopped you from working, but if you continue doing what you are currently doing, we are not convinced that you will be able to avert the potential for public disorder in that area,” he added.

The minister, while suggesting ways to remedy the current hardship caused by the concessionaire, directed that the affected sections should then be reconstructed under the supervision of the independent engineer.

He also directed that the concessionaire to provide a technical design for proper stormwater canalisation, adding that this is very important.

He further warned that it should restore all the asphalt, redirect any water that has been channelled onto the carriageway, and restore free flow of traffic along the carriageway.

Responding, Head of Legal and Compliance of the Benin Asaba Expressway Concession Company (BAECC), Mr Peterson Fabian, appealed to all parties involved to allow more time to enable suitable options.

“I believe that everything that is being discussed here is not conclusive in itself. We will have a more robust collaborative way of handling things going forward.

“Every stakeholder here, do allow us to have more time to engage. I believe that we will have more pathways forward to further collaborate,” he said.

On his part, the Senator on Works Committee, Allwell Onyesoh, said that he felt commuters and all other road users plying the Benin-Asaba road described the situation as terrible.

“The concessionaires and whoever pushed for this concession did not mean well for Nigeria, and this is a big lesson about concessionaires in Nigeria. We can see that it is not everybody that has the capacity to handle such a big project,” he said.

Also speaking, the Edo State governor, Monday Okpebholo of Edo, said a lot had been discussed and there was so much to be taken away from the engagement meeting, saying that he was totally disappointed with the way things are on the section of the Benin-Asaba road.

“Looking at the project at hand, looking at the road itself, looking at the suffering of the people and looking at how that road was before now, I felt sorry for those plying the road, especially Edo people.

“What we are seeing now is not what I should be seeing at this point after 16 months. Nothing has been done. To me, it is a total waste of resources. Whatever amount that has been put there, for me, is a total waste.

“You can’t give what you don’t have. If they are competent, by now we should have seen some part of this road completed. You don’t need to tell a layman that something is wrong on that road. These people are not serious about completing this job.

“Minister, I advise that you do the needful. Edo people are watching. Whatever happens here goes round the entire country. Let’s proffer solutions to this issue. There must be a way out. This is a major road,” he said.