24, November, 2013
By Mehar-un-nisa
As
the Global Entrepreneurship week has begun, I see lots and lots of people keep
sharing their entrepreneurial experiences via Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, and
Orkut, etc. Each status or post is nothing but a source of inspiration to those
who are unaware of this factor of production. The flood of posts regarding
entrepreneurship literally compelled me to dig deeper and search for some
success stories scattered in our society.
I
spend hours for searching different entrepreneurs in Pakistan. Certainly,
selecting one was a hard decision to make. However, the journey of search was
over after I found Ashraf Chaudhry’s profile!
Ashraf
Chaudhry is a dynamic man with beaming passion, talent, skills and courage. His
diversified skills compels one to introduce him with many references. For
instance as a “Zara sochiye” fame, CEO of ""Ashraf Chaudhry Associates",
Pakistan’s number 1 sales trainer and author of “The Craft of SellingYourself”.
His
professional journey has a long list of successes. After completing his
education, he started a regular 9 to 5 job. He excelled in the field of sales
while working in many reputable organizations. He worked for blue-chip
companies like Chevron, Tapal Tea, Pearl Continental/Marriott Hotels and
Worldcall Group in sales and marketing departments. He was moving forward in
professional life.
A
turn then came and he found himself quitting the job in pursuit of his internal
passion and became an entrepreneur. He engaged himself in corporate sales
training career and laid the foundation of "Ashraf Chaudhry Associates" with the
vision to raise the spirits of people working in the organizations to enhance
the sales with “never-say-quit” determination.
Initially
the idea of this establishment was quite risky as the economy was facing
depressions and the business organizations were hesitant to invest the budget
in training of employees. But his hopes were high and he had belief that that
phase would pass on.
Like
a daring entrepreneur he took the risk while keeping the hope alive and he
waited for the right time to come to bring the change.
He
says “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 which allows me to spend more time with my family now and therefore, I
have complete independence. Second, I am my own boss. I enjoy what I am doing
and 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.” Now his company is
growing faster day by day. The company conducts open enrollment and customized
training sessions in the disciplines of sales, marketing, customer services,
leadership, social media, soft skills policy advocacy for local and
multinational organizations. Different professional trainers “Guru” in their
fields transfer their skills and expertise with the clients by using different
techniques , interactive discussions, case studies, exercises, video analyses
and hands-on experiences.
He
says, ”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 dis-empowering and limiting
beliefs, as a first step to a long journey I started writing The Craft ofSelling “YOURSELF”.
With
all qualities of an entrepreneur his career is an inspiration for starter. Even
I would love to start my career as an entrepreneur after reading his success
story. Wouldn't you like it too?
