1. Best career advice I ever got:
I was in 7th grade, when I read the translation of Dale Carnegie’s classic “How to Win Friends and Influence People”. I learnt that throughout our whole life, we are in the ‘selling’ profession. The function of ‘selling’ starts with first cry for milk by the baby and it just goes on. When you opt to roll out your professional career, you are in the ‘selling’ business all the way. You sell your ideas to your colleagues; you sell proposals to your boss; you sell budgets to finance; you sell stumbling blocks to yourself as stepping stones. I am incredibly lucky that I got this career advice in my childhood from no less than Dale Carnegie. When you take yourself as a salesperson rather than as an employee, your approach towards career in particular and towards life in general is very different. You take everybody as your prospect. You remain on auto-networking mode all the time. You look for avenues within the organization as well as outside where you are able to sell your ideas. By selling ideas, you create value-addition possibilities. The more valuable you are to the organization, the bigger price tag you will put on your services. That is how you scale the heights of career.
2. Favorite Job task I ever had to do:
Writing The Craft of Selling “YOURSELF” was one of the most favorite “job tasks” I ever had to do in life. There is a very thought-provoking dialogue in the movie The Rookies, that is something like: “It is fine to do what you want to do, but sooner or later you have to do what you were meant to do”. I believe I have been designed to share my life experiences with others and to impact people’s lives with life-changing trainings and writings. This is what I am meant to do. It is a great discovery. When I decided in August 2008 to “retire” at the age of 38 from a 9 to 5 safe and comfortable job to start my own entrepreneurial venture of changing people’s lives by challenging their disempowering and limiting beliefs, as a first step to long journey I started writing The Craft of Selling “YOURSELF”. I was not a professional writer but I discovered that I am passionate writer. I wrote my book in 21 days! It was launched in Pakistan in November 2008 and soon it was approved by a US publisher. Last month, it was published in USA. Now the book is available at Amazons (USA, UK, Germany, Japan and France).
3. Most dreaded job task I ever had to do:
Once in my career, I made a wrong choice of working for some marketing research company. I accepted the offer without doing sufficient reconnaissance on that organization. Late sittings for one day or for one week is acceptable but if it is culture of the company to retain employees till 11 pm and even beyond is no less than slavery. I worked for that company for a few months and I still recall that experience as nightmare.
4. Best career decision ever made:
I think going on the entrepreneurial flight is the best career decision I ever made. I am achieving three objectives. First, my working hours are very flexible. I give more time to my family now. I have independence. I am my own boss. Second, I enjoy what I am doing. I don’t take my job as ‘assigned’ or monotonous drudgery. I am my job and job is me. Third, I am impacting people’s lives positively.”
5. Weirdest career decision ever made:
Going for a ‘9 to 5’ safe job after MBA. Had I started my business soon after graduation, I would have been at a different place today. It was the weirdest thing to go for fixed salary while Almighty’s universe is vast and unlimited. I think one should be in the hot pursuit of one’s passion. The Rest of things follow automatically.
6. My Biggest Professional Challenge:
Trainings are normally taken as expense by the companies instead of investments. In current times of economic meltdown, business organizations have come very hard on training budgets. As a trainer, it is the biggest challenge to stay sustainable in the business, but I am quite optimistic that the current recession is not going to last forever. Things will take the u-turn soon.
7. Icons who have influenced my career progression/Role Models:
I take inspiration from people like Anthony Robbins, Stephen Covey and Bob Urichuck. Anthony Robbins is my real role model. He is the man who despite no formal higher education has impacted lives of millions with his seminars, motivational tapes and books. In Pakistan, Abdul Sattar Edhi is an icon and a living legend. Despite no formal education, only with dedication and deliverance, he has erected an empire of philanthropic services. I have literally seen him in Karachi holding sack in his hands on roadside and people making queues to give him donations. It is incredible!
8. Most recommended readings (Websites, books) for people interested in my field of work/ industry:
"Awaken the Giant Within" by Anthony Robbins and "The Greatest Salesman in the World" by Og Mandino are the two books that every professional must read for personal and professional enrichment.
9. In another life, my perfect job would be:
To enable and empower unfortunate children to lead lives of abundance and prosperity.
10. A successful career thought/ motto that I live by (and advise others to consider):
Life is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Whatever you think and perceive consistently, manifests in life. Human beings become what they predominantly think. If you think you are genius, you will become. If you think abundance, you will get abundance. If you think scarcity, ultimately scarcity will be your fate. So one must choose one’s thoughts very carefully because thoughts finally become reality.
