Avi Sharma

I'm 16. My Head of Year orders me to remove something from my wrist (in front of other teachers). I hold eye contact and say "no".

My school was unnecessarily strict.

→ Detention for your tie being too short.
→ Detention for writing in the wrong pen colour.

One morning, I walk in wearing a thread on my wrist.

My Head of Year clocks it immediately.

"Take it off Avi"

"But Miss, my sister tied it on me"

She pushed. I pushed back harder.

In the end: Saturday detention if I didn't remove it.

I relented.

But the moment she told me to...

It wasn't purely about the thread anymore.

It was about who gets to tell you who to be.

The thread was a rakhi.

A symbol my sister ties on me every year as a promise that I'll protect her.

I think about that corridor more than I should.

The same pressure shows up in business.

𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗲𝗱𝗴𝗲.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺, 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲.

Nobody gets to decide that for you.

Not a teacher, a firm, or any rulebook.

Agree?

(♻️ Repost if your difference is your edge)

📌 I'm Avi. I help finance leaders win on LinkedIn.

I’m 26. Eating Indian food with my hands in front of a client, in Mayfair. The waiter stares. My client can’t look away. I just keep chomping.

That’s how I eat Indian food.

And I don't care where I am.

I've thought about that dinner a lot recently….

Because the instinct to adapt yourself so others feel comfortable shows up everywhere in business.

- You bite your tongue in meetings. 
- You nod along when you disagree.

And slowly, but surely, you become everyone else.

Forgettable.

But leaders who stand out don’t fit in with the crowd.

They’re odd (and you have to be odd to be #1)

Most ppl hide the opinion that got them hired.

They drop the personal anecdote from the pitch.

And then wonder why nobody remembers them.

So show up as yourself.

In Mayfair, in the boardroom, and on LinkedIn.

It's the only version nobody else can compete with.

Agree?

(♻️ Repost to help someone stop hiding)

📌 I'm Avi. I help finance leaders win on LinkedIn.

I just ran a LinkedIn Masterclass for 50 audit partners from S&W! (3yrs after The BBC Apprentice. I was finally invited on merit, not TV fame)

After the show, I got invited into corporate rooms.

But deep down I knew why…

I was the chap from that hit TV series.

Definitely not a useful expert.

And when those invites dried up…

I wandered for a long time, with zero life direction.

(That period was one of the hardest of my life)

But I kept learning, I kept trying.

One day, Outseen got a call.

S&W wanted me teach 50 of their audit partners how to win on LinkedIn.

So I delivered a 2-hour masterclass.

I handed every partner a 'LinkedIn Action Pack", a premium workbook I spent 100s of hours building, packed with hook templates, AI prompts, and an audit post library.

I get home after the masterclass + check LinkedIn...

FULL of connection requests from audit partners!

I clicked on their profiles, one by one.

And saw post after post after post.

They'd published during my session!

They just needed the right guidance.

Yesterday taught me: most senior execs are willing…

They just need someone to show them how.

To every S&W partner who was in that room: thank you.

I’m PROUD of you for showing up!

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗺𝘆 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗼 𝗳𝗮𝗿.

𝗜 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝘀𝗼 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲.

(♻️ Repost to remind someone merit outlasts fame)

📌 I'm Avi. I help finance leaders win on LinkedIn.