I had a difficult childhood.
I am the eighth of nine children – six brothers and three sisters. I was born in Mumbai, India. My father was a real estate broker. Sometimes, for periods up to three months, he would get very little business. As a result, we lived a frugal life.
Nevertheless, he did his best to give us what we needed and taught us to be content with the basics.
I was always very ambitious – even as a child.
I realised at a very young age that it is not easy to earn money. When my father asked me what I wanted to be when I grow up, I replied, ‘A businessman’. I still remember my father laughing at my reply. I guess he thought me naive.
I was not very studious so I dropped out of school after the fifth grade and joined my father in his business. I would often accompany him to meetings and observed his negotiating tactics. They served me well when I started off in life.
During the early Eighties, many people from India used to travel to Dubai and Sharjah in search of greener pastures. I decided to follow suit and made a trip to Sharjah which turned out to be a turning point in my life.
Although I lived in Sharjah, I used to travel to Dubai regularly because I enjoyed visiting the gold souq. Here, I learnt the business of buying and selling this precious metal. I realised there was a huge potential in trading in gold and when I returned to Mumbai 15 days later, I had made up my mind: I would return to Dubai and set up my own gold business.
My father was extremely upset by my idea.
I had married Rozina in 1980 and this prompted my father to advise me to be more responsible. He asked me to drop the idea of going to the Middle East and instead assist him in his business. However, I was reluctant to give up. I was sure I would do well in gold business and was keen to go to Dubai.
Instead of assisting my father in his business, I decided to spend all my time in Mumbai’s gold market and even learnt how to make gold jewellery. Everybody discouraged me, but I was determined to realise my dream.
In early 1989, I moved to Dubai. My father refused to help me financially. I stayed in Deira and had practically no money. My roommate worked at the gold souq and he introduced me to his employer who offered me a job selling gold bars. For each gold bar I sold,I made a commission of Dh5 or Dh10, depending on the size of the bar.
Initially I sold around five bars a day, but slowly I managed to sell as many as 50 a day. Pretty soon I was earning a decent salary by way of commissions.
A few months later, I got a residence visa and even opened a bank account.
Once I started earning well, I decided to buy a small company that was called Pure Gold. I then acquired office space and hired my first employee.
That was the beginning of my business. Today, my company employs over 2,000 people. I have factories in India, China and all over the Gulf. In the UAE alone, we have 75 stores and more than 450 employees.
To me, there is no better business in this world than working with this precious metal.
Across the ages, gold has been key to economy. People have seen the value of investing in gold. It is the only commodity that appreciates regularly. In the next five years, I see the price of gold rising even higher.
I often think about my past.
I cannot forget those days of struggle. There are moments when I feel that
I was much happier in those times. I used to be absolutely carefree, with very little stress. Satisfaction and happiness in life is not dependent on how much money you earn. Of course, it’s nice to not have to worry about money but I do miss those days when life was so simple.
My days of travelling in ‘sharing taxis’ between Sharjah and Dubai with a group of people packed like sardines was actually a lot more fun than driving to work in a Bentley.
I think every person should set principles in their life and stick to them.
Principles help in that they are motivating and support you when
you need the grounding necessary
to achieve success.
I believe that there are three possible ways to live your life: in the short-, medium- and long-term.
Short-term is full of short cuts; medium-term is visionless; long-term is about balancing human values, life goals and professionalism. The art of living for the long-term is to maintain all these aspects in a perfect balance.
I do not believe in the concept of a ‘generation gap’.
I have two children – Karim and Amreen. Karim and I share a good relationship. I am not just his father – I am his friend. I have always made a point of spending time with him.
I have done my best to understand his ways of thinking, his perspectives and what motivates him. I try to make him understand my points of view, too. Today Karim is happily married and is handling his responsibilities very ably as the managing director and CEO of the group.
There are three women in my life.
I do not believe in the saying that behind every successful man there is a woman. For me, there was more than one!
They are my mother, my wife and my daughter. They have all played prominent roles in my life.
My mother was a very kind woman. She taught me about the importance of staying grounded and why one must always act humanely and show compassion to others.
I owe a lot to Rozina. We were married young. She stood by me in all my decisions and is largely responsible for my success. I am also proud of her for doing such a great job of raising our kids to be such fine adults.
I am also very close to my daughter, Amreen, who is 26. She is the director of the diamond division at Pure Gold and is very talented. We, too, are great friends.
My father is still my hero.
I owe all my success in my career to my father. He taught me my greatest lesson: to be successful, you need to foster the correct mindset.
