I want to tell you a story. How I got to my first job in Australia. My Boss interviewed me in Malaysia. He was super happy with...
I want to tell you a story. How I got to my first job in Australia.
My
Boss interviewed me in Malaysia. He was super happy with my
communication skills, handling customers, My coding skills and training
skills. He said I want to hire you. How much do you want?
I told him. "You give me $2
salary, I am happy as long as you agree to move me to Sydney office. He
said. Done. You are hired. Your salary will be $25k annual. I said,
Done. I am your employee now. I don't care what you pay me.
He
said, done. In 2 weeks, book your flight and come to Australia. I said
done. In 2 weeks, I'll fly to Sydney and start my job. It was not a big
multinational, they had no experience hiring foreign employees before.
They all had Singaporean/Malaysian passports so for them going to
Australia was just taking a ticket only. They had no clue what they were
dealing with that time. (A Pakistani National)
I
wish you could understand what my brain was going through with the
masterminding and planning what am I going to do. How am I going to fly
to Australia. How can I even explain to him the valuation of Pakistani
passport and getting an Australian visa is mission impossible either it
is visit or work visa. How do I explain to him I just came sleeping a
night in a mosque and eating white rice in water with barely RM20 in my
pocket. I can't dare to tell him that I am going to be a very big
elephant for you to carry. I must be Singaporean resident to be just
able to apply for a visit visa.
Every
wire of my brain was like a super mesh calculating every move, ever
word coming out of my mouth was carefully planned within micro seconds
and every word coming out of his mouth would trigger me to find keys in
his statement. And I painted a picture of my future and I told him
politely and humbly if you could give me few weeks so I see my parents
in Pakistan I fly direct to Australia from there which he granted.
Another request due to Pakistan/Australia bad relationships if you don't
mind letting me come to Singapore first and then I can fly to Australia
in 2 months time. He granted. I did all Singapore work permit paperwork
myself without even burdening him, without demanding anything, without
showing any attitude to him. Finally I applied for Australian visa being
a Singaporean resident with work permit. He kept granting all my
requests while I worked 18 hours a day accumulating awards over awards
from my company.
Of
course my Australian visa was rejected immediately due to my young age,
they couldn't believe why a kid of 22 year old would come to Australia
to do training for Microsoft employees on Network security and Exchange
systems. Now only my boss realized, "Pakistani passport does matter
while doing hiring decisions". However he told me You are my wonderful
asset and one of the best ever commando in my team. I will do anything
in this world for you. Don't worry. That was the grand moment of my
life. Things happened exactly how I painted. We appealed and proved the
Australian Government that this is not an ordinary Microsoft consultant
but Trainer of the Trainers and will train Microsoft employees how to
hack networks and how to secure them and he hold 27 top certifications.
Australian Immigration had no choice but to grant me my first visit visa
and I landed Australia in year 2001 training batch of 70 white
Australians at the age of 22-23 before returning back and later
obtaining my Australian Work permit. Australia is the country for which I
was refused student visa among so many others I applied due to no
financials of course. And I landed on work permit to train there in year
2001.
Why do I have to
tell this story today? Because I feel sad with responses and attitude of
some members when I hear about them from EC Admin team. I wish you
could understand the value of being humble, Politeness and yet ability
to jump in regardless if you make money or not make money. You need to
be in the ring to win. Ability to do anything to get a chance to
participate in an opportunity. No matter how big or small you are, one
must remain humble and away from egoism. When my EC team tell me people
calling them and telling them their terms. They show ego. They show
attitude. They want things their way. I wish they could learn what they
will loose with this attitude and what they could gain by being humble. I
wish you not only learn Amazon or about selling online but about life,
about ethics, about principles, about being humble, building an ability
to paint the future, ability to plan the future. I wish you could learn
something from my story. Story of an unprivileged Pakistani who was
raised in slums below the line of poverty and took out not only myself
but my family, my clan and my friends out of poverty. I wish you could
learn something from me. It’s not about Amazon but the ability to say
"Yes". Ability to say "Yes". Ability to say "Yes". There is no word
called NO in your life.
All
I wish if you could learn this basic thing from me. Learn to become
humble. No one is number 1. It's only the blessing of Allah if you gain
respect otherwise no one is number 1. There is always someone better
than you.
Thanks
