It’s my birthday today. So many milestones. I do have a favor to ask. But first. Hello, I’m Navin ⚔️ Mahavijiyan. Some of you know me and some of you don’t but the main thing is I like to use LinkedIn as my virtual water cooler to chat with friends. So for us to be friends I feel you should know a little bit about me. I grew up in a small town (it was when I was a kid at least) in Malaysia called Seremban. My parents were English teachers. I never thought of us as poor, but there were signs 🤣. I had to perform exceptionally well in elementary school (teacher parents am I right) to earn my toys. I had to be the top scoring kid in my grade to acquire just one piece of Voltron - the Black Lion. And now you know the backstory of how I came full circle to start Black Paladin Solutions 😅. Eventually my cousins each acquired the remaining lions and we would form Voltron on weekends and holidays. This would I guess be my first experience with #teambuilding 😬 After highschool I went to college. I had no plan so my dad said “you like those computer games so do computer science” since it was all the rage back in the late 90s. I did that for a semester and hated every second of it. I dropped out. Then my dad said “you like to talk and argue a lot, you should do law”. Fortunately this second instance of poor decision making worked out by happenstance. After graduating I actually worked at Citibank for 6 months. I never put it in my job history for some reason but it was the most old school mortgage contract management work. I was physically pulling paper copies of mortgages when they were needed (eg a default) to confirm the bank actually had enforceable paperwork. I left to join PETRONAS as an #inhouse #attorney. Looking back at it in my 40s, I never appreciated what an amazing job I had. Here I was some punk kid negotiating some of the most complex #contracts #lawyers see in their careers. I was working with senior attorneys from the larger companies & law firms in the world and traveling the globe all fancy. I once travelled to an island tax haven with a half billion dollar check in my briefcase to conclude a business deal. I have seen some shit 😇. Ask me about “machine gun contract negotiations” if you see me at LegalGeek or CrushContracts Academy this week (I require at least one adult beverage before divulging). I once fought a Kraken 🦑Ok this one might be an embellishment I left it all behind. Why? You see there was a girl. It’s very cliche. I fell in love with my law school sweetheart Malobi Achike, Esq. moved to the United States and began my adventure into what we today call #legalops. If not for this I would probably still be at my first job. There’s more to this story and I will not make you wait another year. But now my favor. My friends. I am trying to grow my following and that of the firm, I you are able please like, share and ask your followers to follow me and the firm. This helps more than you know 🙏🏾
Would love to meet you at LegalGeek or CrushContracts Academy this week, Navin! Interested to hear about "machine gun contract negotiations".
Happy birthday, nemesis. Also, my dad told me, "You love to argue and you hate to lose, so you should go to law school." My parents are both educators. So apparently you are truly my mirror.
No No No! You were not supposed to tell folks you fought a Kraken, you were going to share how you funded your college by being an epic "hair model" I thought we talked about this! (in my head at least!) So with that, all I guess I can say is "hair hair!"
Happy birthday friend! ⚔️👑 Thank you for sharing your story! It is inspiring, it feels that my dad had the same speech when I was 5, called me devil’s advocate and that’s it I was sold. This picture is catering both those who are not listening to the favour versus supporting a talented service provider, contract slayer! 😅
I am interested in the kraken story and will find you at Legal Geek to get to the bottom of it, as I too have made such claims in the past. 🤣 Happy Birthday!
Happy Be-Lated Birthday and congrats of course!!!
happy birthday Dark Lord Navin ⚔️ Mahavijiyan 🎂 😉
Happy Birthday birthday boy! Seriously though? The Black Lion? Now it all makes sense. Talk soon!!!!’n
The Dark Lord of Contracts | Managing Partner ⚫ Black Paladin Solutions | LegalOps & genAI Witcher
2moBonus: I named the sword you see in promos and events “Blacklining” which is my personal take and negotiation tactic I apply to redlining.