"Dad is a tough businessman, alright,” says Iqbal Ameer, in acknowledgement of his father, who shaped him to become who he is today.
“To Dad, the most important value he could teach us was independence. Praises never came easily from him. But it was his way of showing us he loved us—he wanted us to be able to stand on our own two feet and never settle on mediocrity despite the odds,” he says.
Despite the tough love, Iqbal made it clear that he has benefited from his father’s unconventional brand of parenting in his entrepreneurial journey. Here, he chronicled how he evolved from a young self-started to the cool, composed businessman he is today.
Working for his keep in his student days
Although his parents could afford to send him abroad to study in Melbourne, Australia, Iqbal only received a minimum fixed allowance for his basic needs. To support himself, he worked part-time. His first job was working as a sandwich board man, before he signed up to be a flyer dropper and distributor. The latter taught him the basics of sales and marketing.
“In the process of giving these flyers out to total strangers, I had to learn the hard way on how to deal with rejection. So I improvised. I learnt how to strike a conversation with others and then ‘sell’ my flyers. It taught me a lot especially after I moved into the entertainment business,” he reflects.
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