I walked into the office on March 3, 2025, with a little more excitement than usual. It was the start of the 9th season of Major League Soccer that our team was managing. We had grown from one club to nine, and on the technology side we were now managing over 25 venues — up from just one when it all started eight years ago. The season openers were done, and I was looking forward to a strong year ahead.
Then my 8 a.m. meeting with the CEO began. His very first sentence hit me hard: “Yagya, things are going in a different direction, so let’s part ways today.”
I sat there stunned and shocked. This was the place I had helped build for the last eight years. I had played a part in multiplying our sports revenue by over six times. And now, suddenly, I wasn’t going to be part of it anymore. My mind was flooded with questions — How did this happen? What’s going on here?
But here’s what really hit me the hardest — I’m on an H-1B visa. My job was what kept me and my family legally in the United States. If I didn’t find a new sponsor within 60 days and get the paperwork filed, we’d have to leave the country. My younger son Avyukth has never lived anywhere else. There was so much to process all at once.
I left the office, parked my car in a playground on the way home, and cried my heart out. I waited until it was time for Avyukth to head to school before going home. After another good cry at the house, I turned to my wife and said, “I cannot afford to cry about this anymore. We have 60 days to find a new job and sort out the immigration paperwork so we can stay here. I’m going to start working on my next options right now.”
Connect with people
I went straight to the home office and started making phone calls. I stayed on the phone from late morning until 9 pm or even later. I don’t even remember if I ate anything that day. After 5 pm, I took the car for a long drive just to clear my head.
The next day was more of the same, but things started looking brighter. I got my first encouraging call from someone I had worked with 10 years ago — he had heard I was available and wanted to talk about bringing me on board. That gave me real hope on just the second day.
I dressed up like I was going to work and sat in the home office making calls and talking to people. On the third and fourth days, I attended the Sports Business Journal Tech Week conference in New York (I had signed up through work earlier, but now paid for it myself). I spent those days networking, meeting people, and openly letting everyone know I was now a free agent.
When I got back home that Friday, I realized working from home wasn’t really my thing. I needed structure. So I started looking for co-working spaces and found a good one in the second week. I signed up and began going there every morning like it was my new office.
My activities in those first few weeks
I kept a solid routine:
- Never slept in later than I did on a normal workday — latest wake-up was 6:15 a.m.
- No afternoon naps.
- Completed at least 45 minutes of exercise four days a week, thanks to Peloton.
- Made a list of people to reach out to and started calling and connecting.
- Updated my resume (it hadn’t been properly current in eight years).
- Got professional help to polish it even better.
- Updated my LinkedIn profile and asked for recommendations.
- Went to the co-working space every morning like I was heading to work.
- Met people for lunches, coffees, and dinners. Called and talked to as many folks as possible.
- I didn’t hesitate to tell anyone what had happened and ask for help — either directly or through their connections.
Support from people around me
Over the past eight years, I had built relationships with so many clients, partners, and colleagues. Now they stepped up in ways that left me speechless. They offered support, guidance, and real concern. Some reassured me they were actively looking for opportunities for me, keeping that tight 60-day deadline in mind. Others asked if I needed financial help, gave me access to their C-level team, or anything else to make things easier. A few even offered to talk to my wife if she needed someone to lean on.
It was incredibly humbling. One client reminded me, “We’ve been your third client, and until last week you never missed a weekly check-in with me. The least we can do is be there for you now.”
On game days, I used to text them, celebrate their wins, and stay connected — not because it was required for the job, but because I genuinely cared. Those small things built real, unbreakable relationships. These are good people, and I truly wish the best for all of them. We still talk, celebrate their successes, discuss soccer, and stay in touch.
I’ve often heard Jim Wolford say, “Take care of your clients, and they will take care of you.” And I saw that truth play out right in front of me.
What did I learn?
In a tough job market where so many people are looking for opportunities, here’s what worked for me:
Having a daily routine kept me focused and productive. Even after I accepted the new offer, I continued going to the co-working space so I wouldn’t slip into a “jobless” mindset.
It’s completely natural to feel disbelief, sadness, and loss of faith when something like this happens. But a strong professional network can carry you through. I don’t have a huge personal social circle here in the USA, but the people from my work life showed up in amazing ways. People genuinely want to help when they can.
I didn’t go through any formal interviews, but I received five offers and got to choose the best one for me and my family. I’m not saying this to gloat — I’m sharing it because people trust people. Many good job openings are never published online, and companies don’t want to miss great talent. People trusted my work based on reputation and conversations. I had a clear timeline in my head: accept an offer before day 30 so the new company would have time for background checks and file the H-1B paperwork within the 60-day window.
Many people told me I was lucky to navigate this so smoothly. And yes, things moved fast. But when I looked back, I realized those eight years of hard work, late nights, early flights, putting clients first, explaining complex tech in plain English, and building real trust — that’s what made the “luck” possible.
One year later, I can honestly say that March 3, 2025, was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I would never have chosen it myself. But in the last 14 months, I’ve become healthier, much less stressed, I travel way less, I spend real time with my family, and I feel more peaceful overall. It’s been a true lifestyle change.
Yes, I got lucky in how quickly everything came together. But that luck had eight years of consistent effort, care, and integrity behind it. I had unknowingly built my sailboat with strong values, gathered a great crew of people who believed in me, and when the wind came, we hoisted the sail.
I won’t take all the credit though. I heard this from Mahatria. When God upsets your plans, be grateful. Now he is starting to execute HIS plans and His plans are always better for you.
I built this scarf wall in my home office to always remember this episode of my life (Scarves sequenced in the order we started with them).
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