The 10 Years of My Training Career

August 2008

As Charles Dickens says in his legendary book A Tale of Two Cities, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…..”

Pakistan was passing through the toughest times. Zardari, loadshedding, movement of Ch Iftikhar, terrorism, law & order, you name any curse, Pakistan had it. Global meltdown starting from closure of Lehman caused the crash of stock market. In my entire life, I had never seen such a gloomy environment like 2008. Companies were closing operations. People were being laid off. Hopelessness, despair all around.

In this doom and gloom, something beautiful happens to my life. I was laid off from job! My company took away car, blackberry and laptop. Due to stock market crash, my entire savings were wiped out. I had hardly 3 months fuel in my pocket.

The life had pushed me to the wall. I had two options. 1) To search job in a collapsing economy 2) To pursue my passion that I had been delaying for 10 years.

In the words of Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
“Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
The Cheshire Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.”

I wanted to get to where I pursue my passion.I marshaled courage and took the second option. When companies were laying off sales people, I started my career as Sales Trainer.
Comes 2009. No training assignments. Life was terrible. To run my kitchen, I was ghost-writing articles for a CEO who was publishing them in Express Tribune under his name. Some family crises multiplied my miseries. No income. Crisis after crisis in family. Litigation. Some close “relations” got exposed. “Friends” stopped attending my calls. I had fallen in deep shithole.

Yours Truly never believed in quitting. To the world, I was shamelessly projecting myself as Pakistan’s #1 Sales Trainer and author of International Best Seller. People laughed at me; mocked at my initiatives; ridiculed me. As pastor Robert Schuller says, “Tough Times Never Last But Tough People Do”. I was sowing the seeds of cold calling, warm calling, shameless self-promotion, spamming, content marketing. I have natural bias for action. Don’t care about results, they are in hands of Allah. My job was to sow the seeds, that I did and did vociferously.

26th December 2009, Marriott Karachi. My first public workshop “The 10 Commandments of Selling” was super-hit. CEO of Culligan Pakistan attended my workshop and he is still my friend and client. I launched Guerrilla Selling in February 2010 and it was oversold. A Business Manager from Getz Pharma attended my workshop and I am learning partner of Getz Pharma (Now Pakistan’s #1 Pharmaceutical Company) till now. Today, I am Pakistan’s most sought-after Sales Trainer. From one city to another; from one hotel to another; from one airport to another, this is what I am today. I evolved from one man army to platoon of 30 dedicated and passionate colleagues. Everybody is gem. Beenish Jamshad Sidra Ji Mariam MehboobHafsa SA Qazi Fahad Aslam Khokhar and entire team.

Here are 5 lessons from my 10 years struggle.

  1. Your job is to sow seeds. Nurture them daily. Take initiatives. Have bias for action. Wait for the tipping point. One day people will say WOW.
  2. You lose only when you accept the defeat. Be determined. Show bull-dog ferocity. You will win.
  3. When you are passionate and determined, Allah creates ways to help you from those quarters you never imagined.
  4. Take your work as worship. Deliver more than your promise. Be valuable. Be seen. Assignments will chase you.
  5. Treat customers as Representatives of Raaziq. Be credible. You don’t deserve money if your customer is not satisfied. (That’s the reason I give money back guarantee on every product.)

Here is a list of angels who supported, mentored and coached me when even close friends had left me. I am thankful to them.
A.Karim Shekhani Khawar Jamal Hammad Siddiqui Imran Yusufzai Dilbar Saeed Taher Hussain Khan Kamran Zubairy Nisar Chaudhry (and many more)

I am also thankful to my ex-colleagues who have parted ways with me like Hina RoudaniUmar J. Qureshi, and Urooj Iqbal. Their contribution had been tremendous. I am glad they chose the entrepreneurial path after leaving me. May you always outshine in life.

If you think someone is struggling in life and needs a little motivation, please tag him/her and share on your wall.

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