I could say the time flew by but I’d be lying. I spent the majority of 2025 doing free labor for companies in the form of “interview assessments” just to hear that I didn’t get the job and they didn’t really have any feedback. Idk, sounds suspicious.

If you have friends going through the job search right now, their mental health is probably struggling, please check on them. 🥲

Only a few months ago, I was terrified of this day coming. I felt like if I hadn’t secured a full-time role within this imaginary 365 day deadline, I will have failed. But something shifted the moment I separated myself from the job search. I stopped caring what corporate America thought of me. Who would’ve thought they actually have no bearing over my self worth??

About ten months into this year, I forced myself to make a choice. Either I continue in this miserable cycle (I think when I last counted, I had over 35 interviews cumulatively) or I could just…stop. I was already making some money from Daleel. It wasn’t much but I had to ask myself if it was worth it to keep trying to work against economic forces I had no control over or if I should actually give myself a chance to build something that already had some momentum. I kid you not - overnight I felt like a new person.

My first four-figure brand deal made me think I was onto something. It wasn’t life-changing money by any means but someone believed in my work enough to hand over a thousand dollars and I finally understood that I had some leverage. I had created something that allowed me to stop acting like I “wasted” the year.

Of course, If I had the opportunity to build Daleel while making consistent income, the choice would have been easy. But Allah had other plans for me and I finally stopped trying to fight against them. And all of a sudden I wasn’t depressed anymore! We plan. And Allah plans. and Allah is the best of planners.

I genuinely hated the queasy feeling I’d get in my stomach when I looked at my 401(k). Do I love investing on autopilot? Absolutely. But that money going to BlackRock? Haaaard pass. So what’s the solution? ~Purification~ But all of the advice about purifying haram earnings is vague at best. So I created a detailed guide to help you estimate how much of your 401(k) earnings to donate so you can feel better about your money growing in that tax-advantaged, double edged sword of a beast.

Note: this is not inspirational word-vomit. It is reality. Which happens to be so much worse.

Last December, I posted a video with my 2025 goals:
1. Make 2 extra mortgage payments
2. Pay off all of my debt
3. Get a new job with an increase in base salary of $30k

I met a whopping 0 out of 3 goals! 🥳

This year went nothing like I planned (see tragic job loss story above). But life isn’t linear and neither are our finances. I’m still going to set some lofty goals for 2026 though. Corporate America hasn’t successfully beat the delulu out of me entirely, no matter how hard it tried.