✨ Ali Celik's story:
They say that most men die at the age of 25, but they are not buried until 85.
When you start from the bottom, that's all the motivation you need, to work with what you have.
I grew up in The Hague, Schilderswijk. Before I became a student of Startup Muslim, I didn't know what I wanted in life.
I dropped out of school and I wanted to do something I enjoyed, but the issue was that I didn't know what I wanted.
Therefore I became depressed because I was just roaming through life with no direction.
I was working as a stock clerk at a grocery store and I was just lost. My dad was also struggling with the bills, even though he had a fulltime job. When my dad got a hernia, he lost his job. We were on welfare for quite some time. I was really frustrated with this entire situation, but I didn't know how to change it and because of that, my frustration only kept growing.
One day I saw this Entrepreneurship event of Startup Muslim on Facebook that would be held in Amsterdam. Because it was held on a Saturday morning, I had to pay for a train ticket to get there.
After the event, it was clear to me: I wanted to start my own business. The problem was that I had no experience in business whatsoever.
I'd never had one. In fact, I had no business being in business.
I had goals I wanted to achieve, sure. But they seemed quite unrealistic. I wanted to send my parents to Hajj.
Omar and Hayat showed and taught me what I could achieve with consulting, and I finally found a way to achieve my goals.
When I came home, everyone laughed at me because it wasn't realistic. "Two tickets to Hajj are 15K, are you delusional?" However, when someone tells me I'm not capable of doing something, I get even more motivated to achieve it. People called me crazy, they still do. They're right, but I didn't care one bit.
I went from one business to another, and I got rejected a lot. But then I met this kebab shop owner who wanted a website. He paid me 400 euros to make him one. It wasn't a lot, but hey, everything counts, right? He was also my first client ever. And it's not a get rich quick thing. You need to work on yourself, be disciplined and above anything else, you need a WHY. Why? Because when you start with something, without knowing why you're doing it, you'll be running in circles and you won't be satisfied with the outcome. And that won't lead to happiness.
My main goal was to help my family financially and another goal of mine was to be financially secure.
To most people, I was just a stupid kid with stupid dreams, but I didn't care about their opinion.
They were broke. So I worked really, really, really hard and managed to send my parents to Hajj last summer.
I've learned that the best way to start a business, is to do the things that successful people do. Hayat and Omar mentored me and they gave me a lot of valuable personal advice. A lot has happened since and now my business partner and I have had a client who paid us 23,7K for helping him acquire a call agent through Facebook.
This just shows that everything you want in life can be achieved. Don't listen to people who say that you're incapable. Focus on your goal. And with the help of Allah, YOU WILL ACHIEVE IT!
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