Have you ever heard about a person dropping out of school in his childhood and accomplishing goals that even graduates can’t?
Meet Mr. Sheikh Asif, a class 8 dropout, born and brought up in a small village Batmaloo in Srinagar. He is an Entrepreneur and CEO & Founder at Thames Infotech, a Manchester-based company. While being a successful multitalented man with an annual turnover of 2.5 crores, he is also a professional web designer / developer, graphics designer, digital marketer author, and influencer.
Sheikh Asif – Tough Childhood
When Sheikh Asif was 8, his father, a head constable in the valley, fell sick. Due to that, his family’s financial condition depreciated and unfortunately, he had to drop out of school at the age of 8. Sheikh Asif was always fascinated by computers and had a great interest in computers.
With an interest in computers, he got his first job at the age of 16 as a data entry operator for which he got Rs.1500 per month. Despite his financial conditions and unpleasant situations, Sheikh Asif always had big ambitions and wanted to be an entrepreneur since his childhood.
Journey to Success
When Sheikh Asif was young, he had access to the computer which he was interested in learning. But his valley faced a major problem with the internet, they were still using 2G when the whole world was switching to 4G. But that did not deter Sheikh from learning and achieving his goals.
Sheikh Asif worked in several jobs, starting from a tours and travel company to working in a medical agency where he used to sell medical equipment. To fulfill his basic needs, he worked hard.
Sheikh Asif also worked in telecom companies like Airtel, Vodafone, and Aircel. His life took a turn in 2014 when the floods hit the valley and his home was wiped away with them.
After his home was wiped away in the floods of 2014, Sheikh Asif used up all his savings to reconstruct his home. He had to restart his life from scratch and was completely like a new beginning for Asif.
Out of all the hard work he put towards his dream he always had to face some kind of difficulty in his every step. But fortunately, in the year 2015, Asif got an opportunity to work in Delhi which opened up doors for the beginning of his successful life.
There are more people like Sheikh Asif, you can also check this inspiring story about – Alakh Pandey – a man who once had to sell his house and now has a billion-dollar company
While Sheikh Asif was working in Delhi his financial condition got stable. The first job that he got was to design a website for which he was to be paid only if the client was satisfied with his work. He worked hard on that project and made his client satisfied with his delivered work.
After his work in Delhi, Sheikh Asif got an opportunity to go to the UK for a project he was working on in 2016. He worked inside a garage of his client where he had to design a logo and website for him. Once his work was complete he was paid around Rs.7 lakh for his work.
This amount helped Sheikh Asif to gain confidence to set up his own business in the UK. He also hired more people to work for him. Till 2018 Asif hired more than 35 people to work for him in two different offices, one in Kashmir and one in the UK.
It took Sheikh Asif more than 10 years and 8 different jobs to reach the level where he is right now. Even after setting up his business in the UK, Asif decided to shift back to India and work for the benefit of the people in his hometown.
Helping People Grow
Till 2016 there was no proper internet connection in the village where Asif lived, people were still using 2G connections at really high prices which were around Rs.150 for 1GB of data per month. The 2G connection which was being used, often got disconnected in between. It was only after 2016 that proper internet connection became accessible and much more affordable.
Sheikh Asif also saw an opportunity in this and therefore started his free online classes for the students in his hometown where he teaches Digital Marketing, Website, and Graphic designing free for his students.
After his free classes started growing he started getting queries from different countries like Australia and the US. He now teaches children from around the world through his free online classes. Besides teaching, Sheikh Asif is a mentor for many young entrepreneurs who wants to start their own business.
Sheikh Asif has taught more than 900 students around the world to learn Designing and Digital Marketing. He has also helped more than 40 businesses to grow digitally while his main source of income is his own company ‘Thames Infotech’ which he set up in the UK.
” To be an entrepreneur you don’t need any qualification or degree. You must be a risk taker and that’s enough to start your entrepreneur journey “
Says Sheikh Asif
To know more Asif Sheikh you can check out his website – Sheikh Asif
Feature image source – Facebook, Public Domain
If you love reading this story, you can also read about – Story Of The Man Who Changed The World Of Motivation, Sandeep Maheshwari
If you know more inspirational stories about any person, company, new idea, or social initiative, write to us on mad4india.com, or share such information with us on Facebook or LinkedIn.
