Just Get Up: Dr Ishnella Azad’s Playbook for Turning Adversity into a Billion‑Dollar Vision

Written By Aggie And Cristy ProveHER

Setting the Scene

When Dr Ishnella Azad enters a room something shifts. Conversation sharpens, posture straightens, and you sense that every obstacle just shrank a size. She talks fast because her story is sprinting. She has been a scientist, a neuro‑psychiatrist, a commercial real‑estate mogul, a data‑center pioneer, and a walking billboard for resilience. Plenty of high achievers look impressive on paper. Ish’s power lives in the space between bullet points, where setbacks meet stubborn determination.

This long‑form piece unpacks the full arc behind our recent episode of Badass Women in Business. It is the behind‑the‑mic look at how a woman with three science degrees, an amputated leg, and an unyielding belief in everyday investors is racing toward a ten‑billion‑dollar empire while lifting others along the way.

Roots in Real Estate and the Rigors of Medicine

Ish grew up in a Sikh household where dinner‑table talk included cap rates and tenant mix. Her father owned small rental properties around Houston, so closing costs and cash flow never felt foreign. While most kids juggled homework and part‑time jobs, Ish balanced course loads worthy of three Bachelor of Science degrees at the University of Houston: psychology, biology, and chemistry. Research labs sharpened her curiosity, and the emergency department polished her calm under pressure.

Medicine still called, so she packed for Los Angeles and completed psychiatry training at UCLA and Cedars Sinai. A neurology fellowship followed, focusing on the fragile wiring that connects brain to behavior. Inside those hospital walls she witnessed trauma, addiction, and the thin line between breakdown and breakthrough. That clinical lens would later influence how she structures deals and mentors investors. She listens first, diagnoses risk second, and prescribes action only after the full picture emerges.

Launching 5Rivers: A Family Experiment Scales Up

Even during residency Ish kept an eye on local strip centers. She and her father spotted distressed properties that looked ugly to institutions but perfect for patient capital. They formed 5Rivers Commercial Real Estate and bought their first center using personal savings plus small checks from extended family. Weekend conference calls often included aunts, uncles, cousins, and church friends who wanted a piece of the returns but lacked a gateway into commercial deals.

Word of mouth spread. By the time Ish completed medical training the portfolio had crossed one hundred million dollars in assets under management. Still, medicine dominated her hours, and she knew real estate deserved a full‑time steward. The tipping point came when a tenant dispute erupted while she was on call. She found herself mediating between a dental office and a neighboring restaurant during a lunch break, then prescribing antipsychotics an hour later. She loved clinical work, yet the pull toward scaling 5Rivers felt stronger every month.

Leaving medicine after nine years of practice looked irrational to colleagues, but Ish read the numbers. The portfolio generated steady income, and investor appetite was growing. She swapped lab coat for lease abstracts and never looked back.

Raising Forty Million Dollars One Paycheck at a Time

Conventional wisdom says you chase institutional funds when your project crosses ten million dollars. Ish ignored the memo. Fayette Pavilion, a one point one million square foot power center south of Atlanta, hit the market at the height of pandemic dislocation. Sixteen large firms submitted bids. Ish countered with a coalition of teachers, nurses, civil engineers, truck drivers, and small business owners. Her team held more than two hundred Zoom calls in ninety days, walking potential partners through rent rolls and pro‑forma models line by line. No fancy pitch decks, no high‑gloss brochures. Just transparent math and the promise that ordinary people could co‑own a property usually reserved for pension funds.

They wired forty million dollars in thirteen weeks. Fayette Pavilion closed, becoming the largest open‑air shopping‑center deal completed in North America that year. The win signaled two truths: crowds can outmuscle institutions, and investors crave educators more than salespeople.

The Infection that Rewired Everything

Success rarely travels a straight road. In late 2019 Ish scraped her leg while touring a construction site. A rare flesh‑eating bacterium slipped through the cut. Surgeries stacked one after another. Eleven operations, months of intravenous antibiotics, and still the infection climbed. Doctors recommended more amputations. Ish told them to remove the leg and save her life.

Trauma can hollow a person or harden resolve. Ish chose the latter. While relearning to walk with a prosthetic she handled vendor calls from a hospital bed. She orchestrated earnest‑money extensions on two pending acquisitions and raised eighteen point five million dollars in equity within three weeks of discharge. Sleep happened in ninety‑minute increments. She kept a pair of stilettos by her desk, a reminder that she would soon stand tall again.

The ordeal crystallized her philosophy: courage is movement in the presence of fear, not its absence. “Just get up” became both mantra and metric. Every setback now ends with the same command, spoken aloud if necessary.

Spotting the Next Frontier: Servers Over Storefronts

E‑commerce had chipped away at big‑box retail for years, yet many landlords treated data centers as a niche. Lockdowns flipped that narrative. Ish noticed the constancy of Zoom connections, the twenty‑four‑seven hum of cloud computing, and the surging price of industrial power. Fiber lines looked like digital highways, and server racks resembled micro store shelves. She asked a practical question: if she already understood triple‑net leases and capital improvements, why not apply those skills to infrastructure that runs the internet?

A bankruptcy sale offered her entry. Bed Bath and Beyond liquidated two purpose‑built data centers north of Houston. Appraised at thirty‑two million dollars, the package went for seven. Ish closed the deal within sixty days, rechristened the sites as Data Journey, and hired Matt Wells, a twenty‑year data‑center veteran and former Marine, as operating partner. Their first shake‑hand agreement preceded any legal paperwork, a testament to mutual trust forged through straight talk and shared work ethic.

Data Journey now manages roughly two hundred million dollars in digital infrastructure with an expansion pipeline measured in gigawatts. The flagship initiative, Chillirack, cuts energy consumption by fifty percent and doubles rentable floor area without massive cap‑ex. In an industry where power usage effectiveness dictates profitability, the innovation could redraw the economics of colocation.

Sikh Values, Service, and an Investor Class that Looks Like America

Sikh theology anchors life in three pillars: honest living, meditation on truth, and sharing with others. Ish embodies each. She serves on the executive board of her gurdwara, leads interior design projects for the congregation, and acts as financial advisor to United Sikhs, a global humanitarian organization. Beyond faith communities she mentors first‑time investors through weekly webinars that translate cap rates into everyday language. Spreadsheets appear side by side with case studies, and no question is labeled naïve.

Focusing on minorities, women, and newcomers to finance is both moral compass and business strategy. Diverse capital tables build word‑of‑mouth networks that marketing dollars cannot match. Investor town halls feel more like family reunions than shareholder meetings, and a genuine sense of collective achievement follows each closing announcement.

Lessons from the Front Lines of Grit and Growth

1. Money is made on the buy. Distressed assets, bankruptcy auctions, and off‑market deals yield built‑in equity that no operating efficiency can rival.

2. Shared ownership beats lone heroics. One hundred limited partners contribute more reach, creativity, and accountability than a single pension fund.

3. Expertise compounds like interest. Ish worked every role in property management before delegating. That firsthand knowledge now informs quick decisions.

4. Crisis can sharpen vision. Medical trauma unveiled the fragility of life and the futility of excuses. Fear survives only if you shelter it.

5. Technology is real estate in disguise. Fiber trenches replace main streets, server racks replace boutique shelves, and landlords who adapt early capture the upside.

6. Education is the ultimate acquisition funnel. Teaching potential partners creates trust that glossy brochures cannot fake.

7. Never outsource your integrity. Millions changed hands on a handshake because reputation travels faster than legal drafts. Guard yours.

The Road to Ten Billion and Beyond

Ish sets targets in multiples of five: one billion as an initial milestone, five billion as proof of scalability, and ten billion as the capital base that frees her to enter public service. Politics may loom, or perhaps publishing and public speaking. Whatever the platform, she wants independence from donor influence so she can champion policies that fortify the middle class.

Her schedule already includes quarterly financial‑literacy workshops, pro‑bono consulting for minority founders, and an internship track for women in data‑center engineering. She insists on at least one female associate on every broker team that courts her deals. Tokenism is not the goal, pipeline is. Experience cannot accumulate if doors remain shut.

A Personal Call to Action

If you are reading this with a knot of ambition in your stomach, borrow Ish’s mantra. Type it on your lock screen, paint it on your mirror, whisper it before board meetings: Just get up. Get up when markets wobble, get up when algorithms change, get up when critics doubt. Grit is a muscle, not a trait, and it grows through repetition.

Next, audit your circle. Does it include people who cheer your wins and challenge your blind spots? If not, widen the net. Join a mastermind, attend a local investor meet‑up, or send a cold email to a mentor whose story sparks yours. The most valuable network you build may start with a single vulnerable question.

Finally, remember that wealth building is not a zero‑sum arena. Pull someone onto the ladder behind you. Share an underwriting template, introduce a lender, critique a pitch deck. Collective advancement was once the backbone of American prosperity, and it can be again if we each carry a piece of the load.

Closing Thoughts

Dr Ishnella Azad’s narrative reads like fiction, yet every data point verifies her trajectory. Three science degrees, eleven surgeries, hundreds of everyday investors, millions raised in days, and a portfolio sprinting toward a billion dollars. The through‑line is relentless motion forward. Obstacles appear, she recalibrates, and the command repeats: just get up.

Some leaders inspire through polish, others through candor. Ish chooses candor. She will tell you her scars, show you the prosthetic, even laugh about missteps that cost seven figures, because hiding imperfection serves no one. Her honesty invites us to trade tidy narratives for authentic progress. Perfection is not a prerequisite for impact. Movement is.

So write the offer letter, record the webinar, book the learning trip, send the wire, whatever your next brave step resembles. When doubt whispers you are underqualified or off‑schedule, remember the woman who built a data‑center empire on one good leg and a limitless refusal to stay down. Then heed the same two‑word instruction that fuels her mornings.

Just get up.

Resources & Links

Connect with Dr. Ishnella Azad

Aggie And Cristy ProveHER

Aggie Chydzinski and Cristy O'Connor

Aggie Chydzinski and Cristy O'Connor are seasoned business veterans with a distinct focus on the realities of owning a small business.

Aggie, with over two decades of experience, excels in operational strategy and finance. Her primary mission? To empower and uplift women in business, providing them with the tools and insights needed to thrive in competitive markets. When not steering business transformations, she co-hosts a podcast, offering practical advice drawn from real-world scenarios.

Parallelly, Cristy's robust track record in achieving revenue growth speaks volumes. Her passion lies in working alongside women entrepreneurs, guiding them towards achieving their goals and realizing their business potential. Like Aggie, Cristy uses their joint podcast as another platform to engage, inspire, and assist.

In short, Aggie and Cristy aren't just business leaders—they are trusted allies for women navigating the challenges of business ownership.

https://proveHER.com
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