In the early days of Snap Lending Texas, Jeff Ali, co-founder of the company, recounts coming one day to his partner, Nick Ahmad, discouraged because the company had not generated the results he expected despite their arduous efforts.
“Jeff, you are looking at it all wrong,” Ali recalls his partner saying. “You are basing success on the end game, and you are losing sight of the day-to-day process.”
Since its foundation in 2018, Snap Lending has grown into one of the largest mortgage lenders in Texas. Over the past three years, this Houston-based lending company has provided hundreds of traditional and non-traditional loans to families across the Lone Star State.
For Ali, this entrepreneurial endeavor at the side of his lifetime friend and business partner, Ahmad, has been a process of personal growth.
When asked about some of the most valuable lessons over his decades-long career, Ali unhesitantly credited Ahmad for teaching him to not measure success based on outcomes.
In a recent video interview, Ali narrated the anecdote of how his business partner helped him shift his notion about quantifying success from a result-focused approach towards a process-focused approach.
Ali and Ahmad had known each other since childhood, when they used to play at the park after church. These two Houstonian entrepreneurs build thriving careers as real estate investors and business owners separately.
Years later, destiny worked to intertwine the paths of Ali and Ahmad once again, leading to the creation of Snap Lending. The two entrepreneurs decided to unite their expertise and jointly venture into a business endeavor. Their vision was to create a lending company that finances loans for individuals who otherwise could not obtain a loan from a bank.
For Ali, Ahmad has become one of his most influential mentors.
“My business partner is a freaking genius and a rock star entrepreneur,” said Ali.
In the early days of Snap Lending, as the company established itself in the Texas lending market, Ali faced multiple challenging and, at times, discouraging moments that tested his resilience.
“I used to measure the business’s success based on the results of actions,” said Ali. “For a while, my spirit on this business had broken down because I would think, ‘man, we are not having any turnover, or this is not equating to another loan.’”
Ahmad became critical in helping Ali overcome this period of uncertainty and shift his mindset about success. With the guidance of his business partner, Ali came to the realization that success was about consistently making one’s best effort and taking the proper actions.
“Nick helped me understand that your success should just be how much effort you put on a daily basis,” said Ali. “You have to be consistent and bring your A-game every day.”
Nowadays, when Ali looks back to the early days of Snap Lending, he acknowledges that his partner’s words proved to be true. Ali recognizes that this simple shift in approach was critical for the eventual growth of Snap Lending.
Today, Ali and his team are working on expanding Snap Lending and providing mortgages to more hard-working families in other parts of Texas and neighboring states. Ali believes that the key to reaching this goal will be to simply focus on giving his best effort on a day-to-day basis.
“Whether success comes then, now, later, or never, as long as you are trying your hardest, what more can you do?” concluded Ali.
By Juan Sebastian Restrepo,
With Artistic Initiative Agency
