Most people think success means picking a lane and staying in it.
They’re wrong. Life rarely follows a straight path.
The real journey begins with curiosity—trying different things, exploring diverse interests, and collecting experiences that seem unrelated.
Only then do you discover what truly captivates you, what you can become genuinely obsessed with.
I’m currently building Arrimo, a company making luxury travel experiences accessible to more people.
Most guys grow up dreaming of being an athlete—some chase football, others basketball, but for me, it was cricket.
As a teenager in Saudi Arabia, I was obsessed, spending hours glued to the game. If you’d told me back then this is where I’d end up, I’d have laughed.
My journey from a cricket-obsessed kid to finance professional to travel entrepreneur makes no sense on paper.
Yet every random detour gave me exactly what I needed to build what I’m creating today.
Here’s what I’ve learned about the power of curiosity and why the straight path is overrated.
Table of Contents
Cricket Taught Me What I Wasn’t
Growing up in Saudi Arabia as a kid with Indian roots, cricket was my life.
I played constantly, dreaming of going pro.
But reality hit hard when I attended a summer camp in India during my younger years.
The gap between “pretty good for Saudi Arabia” and “competitive in India” was massive.
Kids there had been playing obsessively their entire lives on proper fields with real coaching.
Most people would call this a failure. I call it valuable data.
That experience taught me something crucial – I loved the sport deeply, but I wasn’t obsessed enough to compete at the highest level.
Without this realization, I might have spent years pursuing something that wasn’t truly aligned with my potential.
This moment of clarity opened my mind to exploring other options and interests.
Engineering Wasn’t the End Goal – It Was a Starting Point
When cricket was off the table, I followed conventional wisdom.
Good at math? Go into engineering!
I moved to Canada for university and quickly noticed something: while I was competent in engineering, some classmates seemed born for it.
They weren’t just studying engineering—they lived and breathed it.
They built complex projects in their spare time and grasped difficult concepts instantly, while I had to work harder to achieve similar results.
This is where many would say, ‘focus harder on engineering to catch up.’
My curiosity pulled me in a different direction: ‘why limit yourself to just one field?’
So I started experimenting. I took electives in stock market analysis.
I joined business clubs. I read books on psychology and marketing.
I attended entrepreneurship workshops—all driven by genuine interest rather than a strategic plan.
While my engineering peers were specializing, I was sampling different worlds, collecting perspectives that seemed unrelated at the time.
During one summer break, I returned to Saudi Arabia and interviewed for a job.
The conversation was going great until the interviewer discovered I was an Indian expat rather than a Saudi national.
‘Sorry, this role is only for Saudis,’ he said, closing my file.
Rather than waste my summer feeling rejected, I gathered friends from universities across the UK and US to launch a company providing merchandise to university clubs.
We designed, produced, and sold custom items for campus organizations.
That venture didn’t survive beyond summer, but it planted something important: the realization that I could create something from nothing.
And unexpectedly, this ‘distraction’ from my engineering path became a crucial advantage later on.
While my classmates were perfecting technical skills, I was building a diverse toolkit driven by curiosity.
I was learning how businesses operate, how to spot opportunities, and most importantly, how to take initiative when no clear path existed.
The “Career Detour” That Wasn’t
When I graduated in 2016, the engineering job market was brutal.
The interviews I landed were depressing—small operations with engineers working in basement offices, staring at CAD screens all day.
Instead of forcing myself down a path that felt wrong, I leveraged my engineering background to land a financial analyst role at a bank.
I spent seven years there, moving through different positions and gaining skills in both finance and technology.
From the outside, this looked like abandoning my engineering path.
In reality, I was collecting puzzle pieces that would eventually fit together.
Solve Your Own Problems
While building my finance career, I continued exploring ideas that interested me.
The most significant was a travel app connecting friends with similar travel interests, notifying them when their destinations aligned.
Why this idea?
Because it solved a personal frustration.
My friends were scattered across different countries after university, and coordinating trips was a nightmare.
I’d see Instagram stories of friends visiting my city—but only after they’d already left.
Though we eventually shut down this project due to technical challenges, notice the pattern: I kept gravitating toward solving problems.
This wasn’t just casual interest anymore.
Where others saw inconveniences, I saw opportunities I couldn’t stop thinking about. I found myself staying up late sketching solutions and waking up with new ideas.
Your frustrations aren’t just annoyances – they’re pointing you toward what you care about enough to fix.
When those frustrations energize rather than drain you, that’s when curiosity has evolved into obsession.
I had found the problem space I couldn’t walk away from – the challenge worthy of my full commitment.
How Arrimo Was Born
About a year ago, I quit my job to focus entirely on entrepreneurship, exploring several different ideas.
The breakthrough came during my travels with a friend whose family owned a hotel franchise.
We stayed at breathtaking resorts for significantly less than normal rates thanks to his industry discounts.
Meanwhile, my conversations with hotel managers revealed they were eager to increase exposure to travelers from different regions.
What if more people could access these industry rates? What if independent luxury hotels could connect with travelers looking for unique experiences?
Arrimo emerged from this insight – a membership model giving travelers access to vetted luxury boutique hotels with exclusive discounts and perks.
Even with the membership fee, travelers save 20-30% compared to booking directly.
Connect the Dots Backward
Looking at my path now, everything connects:
- Growing up in Saudi Arabia’s international community gave me a global perspective.
- Engineering taught me systematic problem-solving.
- Finance developed my analytical thinking.
- My earlier travel app attempt got me into entrepreneurship and solving problems.
- My personal travel experiences revealed a gap in the market.
None of this was planned. I simply followed what interested me at each stage.
Steve Jobs said it best: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward.”
Why Curiosity Beats Certainty
Our education system trains us to specialize early and stay in our lane.
But the most interesting opportunities often lie at the intersection of different fields and experiences.
Entrepreneurship isn’t about having all the answers – it’s about being curious enough to ask better questions.
It’s about trying things, collecting diverse experiences, and bringing them together in unique ways.
Entrepreneurship might just be another way to fulfill that sports career dream – a different arena where we can compete, grow, and achieve greatness.
So forget the straight path. Follow your curiosity. Try different things and find something you can be obsessed with.
Your seemingly random detours might be exactly what you need to create something truly valuable.