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