Success through Service

[Music]

[Applause]

service

to others is the rent you pay for your

room

here on earth i wanted to start my talk

with a quote from the late great

mohammed ali

not because he resonates with me as a

fellow

successful muslim american but because

he is universally

recognized as the greatest

we are all aware of this global icon

whose fame

transcended his sport while he was a

three-time

boxing champion and an olympic gold

medalist his athletic achievements did

not define him rather

his legacy was solidified by a lifelong

commitment

to service outside the ring as much as

his boxing career

inside the ring his quote

about service was one of his most famous

ones

it explores the idea that life comes

with responsibility

it urges us to help others

as a way to pay our way through life

it’s the cornerstone of a philosophy

that

service is the very essence of life

and not something you do just in your

free time

service in turn comes with its own

benefits

our goal today is to discuss how

in the service of others we can achieve

personal and professional success

to better illustrate this point

we will briefly compare two distinct

but recognizable individuals

both came from very different

backgrounds

they took different paths but ascended

to the highest office in the land one

after another the first individual

will call him george

george was born into a wealthy affluent

and connected family his is a story

of privilege and opportunity

he went to the very best private schools

that money can buy

he had every resource at his fingertips

he was a legacy and he got admitted

easily into yale university

and later harvard business school

once he graduated various

business opportunities and jobs awaited

him

i’ll give him credit though he did

take advantage of the opportunities that

were afforded to him

he did not squander them all

ultimately he leveraged his family name

into politics

he got elected as governor

and it started a path that led him all

the way

to the oval office

this is not a self-made story

it is one of inheritance

and being born into and it is not

something that we are going to focus on

today

instead let us highlight individual

number two

we will call him barry

barry was born in a remote state

he barely knew his father he was mainly

raised

by his grandparents he went

to selective schools by the aid of merit

scholarships

and hard work he took advantage

advantages opportunity

and dedicated himself and earned a full

academic scholarship to a liberal arts

college in los angeles

here he got exposed to a larger and more

diverse community

that inspired him and he wanted more

he knew now that he had to expand his

horizons

he wanted to transfer into a more

prestigious university

where he could get the education and

tools to better help

the community he now resonated with and

make an impact

in the world his dedication paid off

he successfully transferred to columbia

university

in the great city of new york

after graduating from an ivy league

university

many doors and lucrative jobs were open

for him

while he dabbled in a few

this was not his plan this was not his

calling

inspired by the first black

mayor of the great city of chicago which

i am proud to say i am now

from in harold washington

he picked up his bags and he moved to

the midwest

he became a community organizer

in chicago’s beleaguered south side

this was a community that definitely

needed help

experience of community service and

organized

organizing changed his life and his

career trajectory

it started him on a path of community

and public service that culminated in

him

becoming the ultimate public servant

that of potus

this is a story story of perseverance

dedication and service it’s a self-made

story

and one that we are going to focus on

today

when barry recounted his experiences

as a community organizer in chicago he

called it the best education he had

ever received he went on to say

he couldn’t tell who benefited more from

it was it him

or the people that he seeked to serve

what was barry talking about here what

is it about community service that makes

it so unique

inevitably it’s the fact that it makes

you connect

with other people and not just

any other people people who are

different from you

people you wouldn’t have otherwise come

across

because they have different backgrounds

different challenges and the blueprint

to success includes the ability to

understand relate and connect

with lots of different people

one of the best known benefits

of service is the positive impact that

it can have

on the community and its members

service volunteers are the glue that

hold a community

together even completing small

tasks makes a big difference in the life

of people who are in need in this way

it is clear to us the benefit that is

conferred

on the people that we look to serve

but community service is a two-way

street it helps us

as much as the people we look to serve

this is what barry was talking about

how you may ask you’re out there

dedicating your time helping others

you’re making friends and contacts

your professional and social network

is expanding and you’re picking up

valuable social skills which will make

it more likely

that you will be successful

success has the ability to bolster

your self-esteem your self-confidence

and your overall life satisfaction

you’re out there in the community

helping others making it a better place

and this can be a real source of

achievement

your role as volunteer can be a real

source

of pride and identity the better you

feel about yourself the more positive of

an

outlook you will have about your life

and your future goals

which will leave you in a better

position to achieve them

success can help you advance your career

it can expose you to professional

organizations

and internships that will become handy

for you

say you want to try a new career or

change your career

service gives you the opportunity to

gain experience in the area of your

interest and put you directly in touch

with individuals who are in that field

volunteering almost gives you the

ability to try out a new career without

the long-term commitment

even if you are not looking to change

your career

by engaging in service projects you will

inevitably learn valuable workplace

skills

such as teamwork task management

organization communication

just to name a few once you’ve honed

these skills in a service setting

you’ll feel more confident about putting

these to task

in a workplace setting just because

community service is altruistic or

unpaid

does not mean the benefits you get from

it are basic

actually most service experiences

come with extensive training that can

become

a real personal asset as you look to

advance

your future career

service has played an integral

part in my life my career

and my path to better understand

the nexus between success and service

i want to tell you a little about my

story

i’m a first generation indian american

my parents immigrated to the united

states

in the late 1970s

looking for better opportunities

and a better life for their family

i was born and raised in the great

city of new york

my mother as well as a lot of family

members

were physicians which was a

well-respected

and highly compensated field

what appealed to me about having a

family of physicians

wasn’t the financial stability or the

comfortable

lifestyle that came with the profession

but rather it was the unique ability

of these physicians to help people in

need

as an extension of their everyday skills

and occupation every time

a family member a friend a community

member

got sick or got hospitalized

they rose up they coordinated care

they comforted family members they saved

lives i was envious of the fact that

they had

unique and special skills that let them

volunteer their services at community

and free clinics providing necessary

health care

to the underserved and underprivileged

who needed this essential care but could

not afford it

this instilled to me the importance of

picking a career

that did more than pay a fair wage

i wanted a career that would help me and

give me the skills

to greater help the community at large

to the dismay of my very south asian

parents

only one of their two children became a

physician

and that would be my younger smarter

sister

i could not tackle organic chemistry

and to the disappointment of my math

whiz of an engineer father

i was weak with numbers and math

so i was pushed in to the legal field

because lawyers don’t have to be good

with numbers jokingly because i watched

a lot of matlock with my mother

but mainly it was because they said i

would never

back down from an argument there was

nothing

i couldn’t talk my way in or out of

so i researched the legal field

and i saw a lot of similar

characteristics

between medicine and law

doctors and lawyers

both were noble professions and gave

unique set of skills that let you help

your greater community outside the four

walls of an office

so i decided to go to law school and

pursue a career

in the legal field

being a lawyer became my calling

or as i like to better refer to it an

advocate

for the people

after law school i got a job in a

private law firm

the hours were long the pay was good

and it was kind of exciting like it is

on television

but something was greatly missing

i could not help the people or take the

cases

that really matter to me there’s only so

much pro bono that any firm can handle

and i lacked the seniority or the

influence

to bring in those cases that really i

cared about and mattered to me

despite the long hours i tried to

volunteer

outside work as it was an important

skill that was ingrained to me by my

family

i volunteered at a pro bono clinic in

chicago’s diverse

north side helping the underprivileged

with landlord and tenant matters

immigration issues i let my time

to a domestic violence shelter for women

where i used my legal expertise

to support and strengthen women who were

going through different situations

i volunteered for and joined the board

of the downtown islamic center which was

my local mosque

little did i know then that that would

become my longest standing

and one of my most rewarding service

experiences

while this helped quench my thirst for

community service

it wasn’t enough i wanted more i wanted

to make

a greater impact where what i was doing

full time was helping not big business

but my community so i took

a big and fairly large risk pretty early

in my career

i decided to go off on my own

which is a daunting experience but i

knew that i could control

the types of cases and the people that i

could help

i remember hearing that if you love what

you do

you never work a day in your life so i

hung my own shingle

building business is hard especially

early in your career

but the community that i was a part of

stepped up for me being familiar with me

and my work through community service

they gave me the opportunity to grow

they took a chance on me they became

my word of mouth organic advertising

that was better than any marketing that

i could have done on my own

soon thereafter my small shop

became a boutique law firm

serving professionals and small

businesses

predominantly in the south asian and

muslim

communities of chicago

i was using my expertise and legal

skills

to strengthen and support my clients

and they were growing and i was growing

with them

soon the community took note i received

community service awards from various

organizations

i had been selected and featured

as a rising star super lawyer by chicago

magazine

every year for the last decade

i had the honor of being elected

to leadership positions including

president

at legal bar associations and

professional associations

i had the privilege to serve on the

boards of

various community organizations

being a part of the community sharing in

its success

had a very positive effect on my career

and my compensation i had noticed

that the revenue of the firm had

increased multiple-fold

and i was in a better situation than my

own colleagues

that took a more traditional path of

becoming a partner

at a private law firm or working for a

big

company but most of all

from the islamophobia that stemmed from

911

to the most recent muslim ban

lawyers like myself became first

responders

i was able to use my legal skills

to become an advocate for civil rights

civil liberties fighting bigotry

and protecting my community helping my

friends and family

helping causes that are near and dear to

me

this gave me true satisfaction

becoming a community organizer activist

and leader while simultaneously growing

my career

and my firm this left me

with the true feeling of success

let’s look even beyond me let’s turn to

the holy grail

of social and professional networking

linked in this social media website

focusing on professional networking

recently added

a feature that lets you highlight

community service

experiences alongside paid work

experiences

forty percent of employers from a

related poll

considered community service work as

important

as paid service work

twenty percent of hiring managers from

the same poll

admitted to making hiring decisions

based on community service work alone

given the time that we are in we cannot

ignore

the global pandemic and the effect it

has had

on the topic at hand

individuals and companies have gone out

of their way

to help those who are in risk especially

the elderly and the immunocompromised

frontline workers are out there every

day

working risking their lives to save

others

entire industries have refocused

to better help the community in need

manufacturers are making ventilators

designers are making masks

distilleries have gone from spirits

to sanitizer restaurants

that were struggling are now providing

meals

to front-line workers as in essential

workers

they continue to give free meals to

those who are in need

this has really caused people to look

inward

what is my skill set what can i do how

can i help

i can sew a mask let me sew a mask and

give it to people

i can cook food let me make food and

distribute it

people want to help one another in any

way they can and this will pay dividends

not only now but after the pandemic ends

individuals and businesses are not only

going to stay afloat because of their

service oriented

pivoting but

people will take note that they

sacrificed and went

out of their way to help in a time of

need

this will create brand and customer

loyalty

that will help them come out of this

pandemic

ahead of the curve and possibly stronger

than before if the last year

has shown us anything it is that now

is the time for transformative change

dare to care

dare to serve make

service the blueprint of your success

story it may not be the most

traditional path but it is certainly

a viable path and one that we have

discussed

today i have found that

service can be very addictive

introduce it to your lifestyle and see

the benefits that come you may even

find yourself answering the ultimate

call to serve by running for public

service

i know i’m considering it because now

more than ever we need

diverse and talented people to serve

at all levels of government

the theme of our tedx

refocus revision

makes it incumbent upon all of us to

re-examine

what is the real meaning of success and

what it means

to succeed it can no longer

mean emassing material possessions

it cannot be increasing our own position

in life we have a responsibility

to leave the world a little better than

we

found it we must make

a positive change in the lives of others

we have to live a life of meaning

this is true purpose after all

one of the greatest minds of our time

sir winston churchill said it best

we make a living by what we get

we make a life by what we give

thank you

you