Who is a Sufi? A Sufi is one who does not see a dichotomy between the spiritual and the material; for a Sufi everything is inter-connected. A Sufi fulfills a dual responsibility - material and spiritual Ð and lives an integrated life.
A Sufi looks beyond religion, culture, color or creed. A Sufi can be a man or a woman, young or old, black or white, a professional or a homemaker, Christian, Jew or Muslim. Labels do not matter to a Sufi. A Sufi is beyond rituals. He goes with the flow and lives in the moment, which he sees as a perfect time to do good. The Sufi knows his mission in life and sees himself as an instrument or vessel through which he takes from one hand and gives with another. He is in the world but not of the world and is a person of "timelessness" and "placelessness." He is humble and believes in the existence of a Supreme Being, who is above all.
A Sufi is grounded in ethics and principles; she lives with integrity and makes a difference to herself and others. A Sufi is grateful and counts her blessings. She learns from every experience and encounter, seeing difficulties as opportunities to grow spiritually. The Sufi sees all human beings and all creation as one and a reflection of the Divine. Thus, she values diversity, treats all beings with the highest respect, and gets the best out of others. She is a person of wisdom and grace and is a pleasure to be around. She does what is right and gives her best effort without worrying about popularity. A Sufi is a mystic who is willing to risk all to find the truth.
What do I mean by "corporate"? The word "corporate" is normally associated with a business setting, but in my book, I have used this term to convey much more. Here "corporate" is associated with someone who has worldly ambitionÐto be rich, successful, well known, and powerful. This definition would include a CEO, an executive, a senior manager, a team leader, middle management, a group facilitator, or a partner in a business setting. It would also include a school principal, a teacher, a board member or even a parent as a leader. So in my book, "corporate" has broad application.
A corporate Sufi is a person who is ambitious and wants to do well in the worldly sense of climbing the corporate ladder, acquiring wealth and status, raising a family, becoming (or remaining) a CEO or presidentÐwithout compromising Sufi principles. She understands that you are an instrument or vessel through which you take from one hand and give with another. This book guides a corporate person to marry his worldly aspirations with the Sufi way of living.
Why would one want to be a corporate Sufi? Ultimately all human beings want fulfillment and lasting happiness. People climb the corporate ladder not just for the mere sake of it but because they believe that corporate success will bring them inner happiness, contentment, and satisfaction; as we sadly see every day, this is not necessarily the case.
If you are worth fifty billion dollars, but in the process of acquiring that wealth lose your family, your health, and the connection to your spirit, you will not find fulfillment and lasting happiness. The money you have made cannot buy back your family, your health, or the connection to your spirit.
We spend a third of our life at work. It is important to work in order to pay for the necessities and the toys of life. After a point the excess money is only useful if we are able to make a difference with our wealth. The best way to get happiness is to give happiness. Also, if we are not happy at work, if our work is not fulfilling or nourishing our soul, a third of our life is consumed to some degree in unhappiness.
The corporate Sufi is able to fuse his life's mission with his corporate mission. His work becomes a prayer, a way of connecting to his spirit.
Envision yourself working in a field that not only nourishes your soul but also allows you to make a difference to yourself and others. You lose track of time while doing your "work". It is a type of work in which you are really talented and gifted. You work hard at it because you want to work hard, not because you have to. It is like Wayne Gretzky working hard at playing hockey or Michael Jordan working hard at playing basketball. You love the challenges and hurdles that are thrown at you. You are not scared to take risks and go into uncharted territory because you believe in your work.
Let me share with you the story of the writing of The Corporate Sufi that illustrates this point. Until recently, I was a professional accountant and a senior partner in a professional accounting firm where I had spent twenty years of my professional life. I made a comfortable living, providing for my family and myself, after having spent a good number of years working hard to acquire three professional accounting degrees.
During those twenty years, I did some voluntary work, primarily in the area of motivational and inspirational speaking. Every time I spoke in this capacity, I discovered boundless energy and lost track of time even though I was not paid to speak. These engagements changed me. I learned so much about myself, about life, about purpose, and about others. I would have paid to get a chance to speak!
In the early 1990s, a recurring thought would not leave me alone. What if I did inspirational speaking for a living? This would mean doing something I really loved doing, something at which I had talent and made a difference. Why not? What is stopping me from doing this?
Initially, a thousand and one thoughts came rushing in from myself and from others as to why this was such a stupid idea. What? Give up my profession and the three professional degrees that I had worked so hard to attain? For many aspiring individuals, this would be their life's quest! Why am I considering giving up something so valuable? It was overwhelming to deal with these thoughts.
So here I was, at the threshold of a dream. I had to make a choice. Either I live a life that I really want to live, or I live a life that others want me to live, a life wherein I will not perform to my fullest joy and potential. I persisted in thinking that my circumstances were not right, that I had to support two kids, that I had to provide for my spouse and my retired parents. Surely I could not abandon my responsibilities and go into a venture that many people described as risky, even irresponsible. Nevertheless, my inner voice responded. Yes, writing and speaking professionally may be risky, but some speakers and writers do very well. In the time of Shakespeare or Rumi, one probably did well and made it big after one died. Today, excellent writers can do well during their earthly passage. I pondered the shining examples of Deepak Chopra, who has written twenty or so national best-sellers, the Brazilian author, Pavlo Coelho, who has also sold millions of copies of his books, and Stephen Covey who has nine children and has also sold several million copies of his books. Another voice cried: Yes, but these are the very few among the hundreds of thousands in the writing and speaking field. My inner voice responded: Why can't I be one of the few who make it? What is going to stop me from going all the way?
I began to feel empowered and realized two things. First, I understood that it was up to me, not anyone else, to succeed. It was not that I had two young children, nor was it the fickle writing market that would determine my fate. It was entirely up to me to make the choice. If I believed I could do it, then I would do it. Second, I was conscious of the Sufi way of looking at things: "To a frog that's never left his pond, the ocean seems like a gamble. Look what he's giving up: security, mastery of his world, recognition! The ocean frog just shakes his head. I can't explain where I live, but someday I'll take you there". (Rumi). A frog will never know the beauty of the ocean if it remains in the pond. If I wanted to live to my full potential, if I was committed to exploring my innate gifts, I would not be able to do so in the accounting field because I was not passionately in love with it. Though risky, speaking and writing was a field to which I could commit myself and could give my heart and soul, enjoying every bit of it. The picture was getting clearer.
But how was I going to convince my spouse whose support I would most definitely need? How was I to convince my parents whose blessings I would need? How would I make my parents understand that, after all those years of investment in their child and all the education they had provided me, I would not end up in a fickle and risky business that would drain me of money and time? How do I get my children on my side, cheering for me and being proud of their dad? These thoughts were daunting.
It seemed to me that each time I overcame one hurdle or negative thought, another took its place. The easy thing to do would be to forget about all these dreams and to pretend I never had a thought of "jumping in the ocean". Just stick to accounting, Azim. I justified this conclusion by assuring myself that I could always spend some time speaking in a voluntary capacity and remain in my accounting profession full time.
My inner voice asked: Is that the best you wish for yourself? If you were dying today, would you be happy with how you spent your life? Could I face God and say that I did what I promised You I would do? I remembered Rumi, the Sufi spiritual giant: "You have a duty to perform. Do anything else, do a number of things, occupy your time fully, and yet, if you do not do this task, all your time will have been wasted."
I knew convincingly deep down what my answer had to be. The rest was just the details. I knew then that I had to do what I had come here to do and that all the years of preparation, including my being a senior partner and president of an accounting corporation, were what I needed to prepare myself for this new road. I decided that I would make the switch with the blessing and support of my spouse, parents, and children. This was important for my success, as well as a principle that I preach and practice. I also decided that I would do well financially in my new career. My motivation was a good life for my family and myself. Also, most importantly, this success would allow me to help those who are less fortunate in many parts of the world.
In my many years of travel all over the world, I have seen poverty and sadness. I have seen fourteen Afghan refugees in Karachi live in a room as small as my children's bedroom, surviving on a dollar a day. I have seen people working fourteen hours a day in the blazing sun making about a dollar a day. I have met children who lost their father in war and saw a parent shot in front of their eyes. There are many such peopleÐtoo many. Some research states that there are approximately 6 billion people in the world today of which 1.5 billion do not have enough to eat, 1.5 billion do not have enough clean water to drink, and 1.2 billion are living on less than a dollar a day. These people do not need just philosophies; they need the basic necessities of food, clothing, and shelter before they can go further. I realized that I had a responsibility to live to my full potential and to make a difference to the society in which I lived.
These thoughts became my fuel for working hard, overcoming hurdles, and meeting challenges. I got the support of my associate, Kend, at my accounting practice and gradually began withdrawing from my accounting profession. I did this gradually to make sure the transition for my partner and staff was smooth, and it also allowed me, financially, to begin to invest in my new profession.
I began writing my first book, The Corporate Sufi. Yes, the very book that you are reading - except that I never completed it until April 2002, almost ten years after I began writing it! I went half way to completing the book and found I could not tie things together. I had trained as an accountant Ð a numbers man Ð and not as a writer. I was beginning to feel hopeless and to despair. I stopped writing for a while, pondering my decision. Eventually I started again - this time on a new book, The Exalted Destiny. This second book is still not complete. One day I hope to complete it. I completed two-thirds of this book and got stuck. Again, I could not tie things together. And then, I stopped writing again and almost returned to my accounting profession.
It was in April 1998, on a long flight back to Vancouver from Sydney, Australia, that my best-selling book, Seven Steps to Lasting Happiness, was conceived. I finished this book and published it myself in July 1999, having tried tirelessly without success to get a publisher to take it on. Once the book was published, I felt great relief and joy. As a man, I can never experience giving birth to a child, but publishing my first book was for me like giving birth. I felt a load off my shoulders! A promise fulfilled!
Unexpectedly, the completion of the first book made me realize that writing a book was only a beginning. An entirely new kind of work - promotion and marketing - was to begin - activities that made writing the book seem easy!
Having self-published my book I was unaware that bookstores would not speak directly to authors. I did not have a distributor to assure me that my book reached the bookstores. So, I had to look for a distribution company. After a lot of rejection I was fortunate to find Hushion House where, in October 1999, the president of the company, Bill Hushion, took an interest in my book.
I was doing well with book sales at my seminars and had an excellent sales rate where I spoke, but the books were still unavailable in the bookstores. I was doing a few keynote addresses on "Lifelong Learning - a Key to Success" in the United Kingdom in February 2000. Around that time I went to the Chapters bookstores, the big bookstore chain in Canada, to see if my book had arrived in the bookstores. Quietly entering the store, I went to the computer. I hit Seven Steps and saw seventy titles with "seven", but no sign of my book. Then I pressed happiness and again saw seventy tiles without any sign of my book. Anxiously, I proceeded to type A-z-i-m J-a-m-a-l - still no sign of any books by this author.
I realized that my books had still not hit the stores. I had not understood the lead-time that distributors need to get books to stores. This was a really low point in my journey. I had spoken approximately 170 times in 1999 across the world (United Kingdom, France, Portugal, Australia, New Zealand and many cities in Canada and United States) to audiences ranging from fifty to a few thousand at a time, but I could not get my books into the bookstores. It was very discouraging. It reminded me of the risky and fickle business that everyone had described. As these thoughts gushed into my mind, I noticed a book in the Chapters bookstore. I tried to ignore it, but the book kept staring at me - to the point that I could not ignore it any more.
I picked it up and read the introduction. This is what the introduction in essence said: This man fought in the Second World War, came back, and started working on his childhood dream of writing a great American novel. After collecting rejection slip after rejection slip from scores of publishers, he found himself going broke. He never sold as much as a single sentence of his work to anyone. His wife and child left him, and he resorted to drinking. One cold day in November he was walking in Cleveland and passed a pawnshop. He saw a revolver for sale for $29; he had his last $30 in his pocket. But he writes that he was so pathetic that he did not have the spine to go into the pawnshop to buy the gun to end his life. He continued walking and ended up in a library instead. He decided to stay there because it was free and it was warm inside. He ended up in the self-help section reading motivational literature. He read one book and then another.
The next day he returned to the library and read some more. He kept going to the library and spending countless hours reading these books in order to find out who he was. He came across a book entitled Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude by the insurance genius and philanthropist W. Clement Stone (co-authored by Napoleon Hill) that he absolutely adored. He read it a few times and vowed to meet the author one day. He found out that W. Clement Stone was the president of a national company. He also found a branch of this company in the city where he lived. So he applied for a job as a salesperson and got the job.
With all the reading he had done in the library, he began to do well in his sales job. This led to a promotion, requiring him to move to Chicago where he was to write sales promotion material for the company's staff in the field. A year later he saw a notice at the office with an application for a position as executive editor of W. Clement Stone's magazine Success Unlimited. Being imbued with plenty of positive mental attitude, he boldly applied for the job, although he knew next to nothing about editing a magazine. After several interviews and spelling out in detail what he would do to improve the quality of the magazine and its circulation, he luckily landed the job.
At this time the author wrote his first book that he dedicated to W. Clement Stone. How many copies could this guy who was going to shoot himself sell? One copy to himself, a few to his friends and some complimentary copies to the library? Guess again. He has sold more than 30 million books, having written 18 books that were translated into 22 different languages! He also became the most widely read inspirational and self-help author in the world. The author's name was Og Mandino and his first book was The Greatest Salesman in the World.
The success of his book was not instant. He struggled to promote his work as an unknown writer. His break came when W. Clement Stone read his book. Stone had gone to London where his wife, Jessie, gave him Og Mandino's book to read. W. Clement Stone sent him a cablegram stating, "Your book is the most inspiring I have read since Magnificent Obsession. See me upon my return". At that time W. Clement Stone called Og Mandino's publisher, Fredrick Fell and ordered 10,000 copies, one for every salesperson, employee, and shareholder of his company. Subsequently, Rich Devos, the dynamic president of Amway Corporations, recommended the book to all his staff and members, and Og Mandino never looked back. He fulfilled his Irish mother's dream of becoming a great writer and his wish of meeting W. Clement Stone. He went further by not only meeting his idol Stone but also winning his admiration and support. Why am I sharing this story with you? Just to tell you the message the Universe was giving me: Why am I complaining about not having my book in Chapters? While I have never reached the stage of being down to my last 30 bucks and wanting to shoot myself, clearly, if Og can do it, I can too! I picked myself up and, shortly thereafter, had a great speaking tour in the United Kingdom with excellent book sales in London, Birmingham, Leicester, and Edinburgh.
In 2000, I spoke approximately 180 times across the world and in 2001 about 120 times, as well as spending a month doing full-time voluntary work in Central Asia. I got my big break when on July 13, 2001, Deepak Chopra endorsed my book Seven Steps to Lasting Happiness by stating: "Azim Jamal's work is both inspiring and practical. Everyone will benefit from it." That gave my work a great boost. Today I am a full-time international inspirational professional speaker and a national best-selling author. So, the big question to ask is: Have I realized my dream?
From one perspective, the answer is absolutely not! You never quite arrive. Every time you reach 'there' from 'here', then 'there' becomes 'here' and you have another 'there' you aim for. So, throughout your life you aspire to new goals that keep you going. From that perspective, you only really arrive when you die.
From another perspective, the answer is a resounding yes! I am doing what I love doing; I am really passionate about my work, losing track of time when I am engrossed in my work. I am traveling around the world speaking frequently. I have the full support of my spouse, the blessings of my parents, and the cheering from my children. Moreover, I am making a difference every day to myself and to others. I am doing what I had the promise to do when I was born. If I were to die today, I would have no regrets. In this sense, I have arrived.
CORPORATE SUFI PRINCIPLES APPLIED IN MY JOURNEY
- Be willing to risk to find the truth.
- Life is an uncharted territory - be comfortable with the unknown.
- Learn from every experience and every encounter.
- Turn difficulties into opportunities to grow spiritually.
- Do what is right and give your best effort.
- Don't worry about conventional wisdom.
- Know yourself and your mission in life.
- Believe and fulfill your dual responsibility - material and spiritual.
- Know that you are an instrument or vessel through which you take from one hand and give with another.
- Make a difference to self and others.
- Be patient - do not rush for results.
- Marry your work with your life mission.
- Your destiny is in the journey.
