Hello Reader,

Happy New Year 2026 to you and your family 🎉. 2025 was a big year for me both professionally and personally. My biggest achievements of 2025 are delivering critical customer projects that YOU use in your life, starting a Start Up, and helping my students succeed. In this email, I will share some highlights and lessons that helped me:

• If you live in the US, you have certainly used one of the projects I have architected. When a commercial airplane pilot goes up or down, or turn few degrees using Flight Path Optimization software to save fuel and reduce distance, it’s using an architecture that I designed and optimized on AWS working with Raytheon Collins. I am super proud that it became a public reference, and we even have a shiny official customer plus AWS video featuring yours truly.
• Celebrated 6 year anniversary at AWS, and then left AWS to build my own startup. This will put my two decades of on-prem, cloud, coding, architecture, and leadership experience to the test. But I had to take my shot!
• I presented at Kubecon London as L7 Principal Solutions Architect from AWS, and then at KCD Washington DC as Stealth Startup Founder (pic attached).
• And this is what I am most proud of - helping my students and mentees get great jobs in 2025 💰. Some of them thought they were too old to switch, their legacy IT experience was throwaway, or that they were doomed after they failed their last interview before being mentored by me.

This was my biggest realization in 2025:

Haters will always find something to criticize. If you succeed, they’ll say you got lucky. If you fail, they’ll say they saw it coming. When you change careers, they’ll say it’s risky. When it works, they’ll say, “Anyone could’ve done that.”
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The mistake most people, including myself, make is trying to win arguments with people who aren’t even in the arena. You don’t need consensus, you need conviction. Life is short. Stop explaining, stop defending. Take the power of judgement away from the haters.

Set bold goals for 2026. Do the work. Chase what they think you can't have. Beat the naysayers on the scoreboard. Just win 🚀
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SA Bootcamp Update

Are you thinking about becoming an AWS SA or switching career to cloud in 2026? The demand for AWS Solutions Architects has never been higher. And the data indicates it will continue to rise because there are literally trillions of dollars worth of projects currently running on legacy technologies that need to be migrated to the cloud.

SA Bootcamp is developed to be the most direct and guided route to become a Solutions Architect and get a high paying cloud job. In as little as 3 months you could be an AWS SA leading world class projects, on the cutting edge of technology and giving your income a significant boost all while ensuring job security. And good news - it already worked for last cohort's students who secured cloud jobs in top companies, including at AWS, Microsoft, Google, JPMC, Reddit, and some of them didn't even have cloud experience.

Please note, this is NOT a certification bootcamp, this bootcamp is to get you an actual cloud job 💰.

Tune in for the live webinar on Saturday, 01/03, at 12 Noon EST (9 am PST) to get all the details, previous bootcamper's success stories, price, a special offer just for the livestream participants, and q/a. Make sure to mark your calendar and click the "Notify me" button so that you do not miss it - Webinar Link​

For your convenience, here are the links to add the event to your calendar:

🍎 Apple Calendar/Universal (Download the below .ics file, and open with your Calendar):

​​​Get-AWS-Solutions-Architect-Job-Bootcamp-Jan-2026-Cohort-Live-Launch-FullDesc.ics​

May 2026 be the MOST prosperous, focused, and successful year for you all.

Happy New Year 🚀,

Raj

"How long will you wait before you demand the best from yourself, for yourself" - Epictetus