09/2008
Attended Islamic School
For most, afterschool madrassah and/or Saturday classes would form their basis and understanding of Islam. I had the privilege of also attending an Islamic primary school up until 2015 when I moved into an Islamic secondary school.
02/2016
Moved into a state school
After 5-6 months into my first year, issues arose with the school, so we decided to move local. There was huge change, starting with the number of people per year group. Over the years, I dropped pieces of my identity to fit in – the only thing that stayed consistent was my salah (prayer).
04/2016
Spire Designs
Taking inspiration from my favourite YouTuber, MKBHD’s profile picture – I started a small graphics design company to create minimalistic portraits, logos and banners for friends, and by reaching out to people on Instagram. spiredesigns.weebly.com
10/2017
Selling sweets at school
I quickly realised that a lot of money could be made with the small network of people at school and so bought products online to resell at a profit in school, which later got shut down.
04/2019
Flipping luxury goods
A friend of mine shared his passion for sneakers and streetwear which was also a great business opportunity. The ROI was insane – fuelled by low supply and high demand but that made it difficult to scale quickly without additional savings/investment.
04/2020
Halal Sweets Delivered
During the peak of COVID-19, Eid was coming up and I wanted a way to gift all my friends & family the same product without going broke. I created a brand out of it, did some social media marketing, and donated the entire first month’s profits to charity as it was the month of giving (Ramadan).
12/2020
Flipping retail goods
With COVID-19 disrupting many supply chains, the idea of low supply & high demand didn’t just apply to sneakers anymore. It applied to everything, including toilet rolls. I used this opportunity to capitalise on affected goods and sold them at their new market prices.
07/2021
First part-time job
I knew I wanted to do an apprenticeship after A-Levels, but a CV with no work experience would have made me a difficult candidate, so I got onto the first opportunity that came through.
01/2022
Amazon FBA
I quit my job and the day I turned 18, I opened my seller account, a limited company and began to leverage the demand generated by the world’s largest marketplace. Essentially I continued flipping retail goods but FBA allowed me to take a more sustained and profitable approach.
09/2022
Degree apprenticeship @ IBM
After a tough decision between Cyber Security at a FTSE100 company and Tech Sales @ IBM, I decided on the latter because of how valuable I figured the soft skills learnt from selling would be (and the idea of commission).
08/2023
Solah
As someone who struggled to balance work, spirituality and life, I searched for an answer, realising one was rooted in my religion. But with no practical tool to help me visualise this planning, I decided to build my own app to help me and others achieve this holistic sense of productivity.
If you liked reading my story, you should get to know me a little better. Check out my about section to learn more.