2009 March - Khurram Shah

Often times he would work 16-18 hours days in this long and slow path to success, but he never gave up and nor did he ever disregard his obligations to the Jamaat. Putting it into a scale of numbers, Khurram has “gotten back maybe 2-3 times the returns based off the time and effort sacrifices that [he has] made for the Jamaat”.

Khurram deals directly with a myriad of clients, including the state of California, Cal Trans, private parties, the local police, and the California Highway Patrol. His private contracts with auction facilities amount to dealing with over 2,000 cars per month. In addition to towing, his business is also responsible for impounding cars. Currently, he has 19 tow trucks, and 19 employees. By the grace of God, the gross income of his business
has grown from a mere sub $100,000 nine years ago to $4.4 million just last year. Every year his business has been growing, and he hopes to double within the next four years.

Khurram is also quite active in the Jamaat. He currently serves MKA USA as Naib Mohtamim Sehat-e-Jismani (Assistant Director of Health & Physicial Fitness), under which he organized and ran the Musleh Maud Sports Tournament held in Silicon Valley in November 2007. He was also the Naib Nazim-e-Ala (Assistant Officer in Charge) for the International Khilafat Centenary Sports Tournament held in February, 2008 in New York, for which he ran ground operations. Finally, he helps run the Waqf-e-Nau program at his local Majlis, at which he is also the Tahrik-e-Jadid and Waqf-e-Jadid secretary. 

Khurram advises all Khuddam to look into business. He says “you should try to find your end. Find what is going to make you happy. It is hard to catch lighting (momentum for your busisiness), but you can’t give up. When you start, you have to work with your loses. Burn the bridge you walked over, and fight as long as you can. It is like a battle. Act as though you have nothing to fall back on”. He also highlights what qualities are needed to succeed in business. He says you need good character in order to attract clients as clients notice how you act, and choose to do business with you accordingly. Also, one needs to have a very calm nature, as this also helps to win the hearts of clients. He says “treat them (clients) the same way you treat yourself. Win their love”

May we all learn from Khurram bhai’s success, in particular how large of a role he believes that his closeness to the Jamaat- in conjunction with many other qualities such as never giving up and winning the hearts of your clients through your character- has played in his success.

[Compiled by: Saad Karamat]