Murad Ali Shah

Activist, Business leader, Concerned citizen, Entrepreneur, Foodie, Marketer, Muslim, Student

The journey started when my mother sent me to a government preschool in my village where we would sit on the carpets and write on wooden boards with chalk. I had to walk for 30 minutes down a mountain to reach my school every day and on the way back up after school, my brother would come and carry me half the way home. I still look back at the time and my eyes fill up with the thought of how far I have made it since then. My family then moved to the city and I got enrolled in a private preschool from the beginning. There was a bench and a table for 4 students and yes there were paper copies to write on this time. Not the optimum preschool environment for a kid but it still was so much better than the previous school and I just loved the upgrade. I studied there for 2 years and moved to Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, with my father and an elder brother. My father was a driver for the Ministry of Commerce and my brother was doing his MBA at a University there. The 3 of us would live in a small rented room. Times became harder when my father was posted in the Pakistani Embassy in Hong Kong because now it was just me and my brother alone. I was a 6 or 7-year-old kid and my brother had to cook, clean, take care of me, and also do his MBA. I can never repay what he did for me back then. Let’s fast forward to when my father decided to take us with him to Hong Kong, a multicultural hub with the two most commonly spoken languages; Cantonese and English, of which I spoke non. It was a big challenge for me to settle in this first-world city and cope with the speed of life there. I was looking forward to join a school there. Finally, the day came and I got admitted to Sir Ellis Kadoorie Primary School in the Causeway Bay district. I was thrilled as well as frightened because I was very poor at speaking English. The teachers understood that and helped a lot but I could still not completely understand the lectures. I signed up for an English Language Course and started reading books, lots and lots of books. I have “early bird reading scheme awards” from there as well. Gradually things started to fall in place and I happily studied there for two years. That's where I really started to enjoy learning. I became the Capitan of the School Cricket Team and the team went on to win 2nd position in the All Hong Kong Primary School Cricket Championship. It was the first time I led a team and the outcome was a success. I graduated from there with honors and completed my form 7 from Delia Memorial School (Broadway) in the Mei Foo Sun Chuen district. I then returned to Pakistan and started studying at Iqra Academy in the city of collaged, Abbottabad. My whole family was in Hong Kong for the next 6 months and I was living in the internal hostel. It was the first time I had been so far away from my whole family and I can still recall crying myself to sleep sometimes. The same challenge was there again; settling in a new environment but this time it was all on my own. No family members to help me out. Surprisingly this is where I think I learned to manage, specially my own self. I was used to a faster lifestyle in Hong Kong and life here was pretty slow here so I had to join the drama club, the ushers team, the basketball team, and the Model United Nations (MUN) organizing team in the college to keep my mind running on the same speed. I also joined the basketball team and went on the win the “Best Basketball Player of the Year Award”. Sporty guy with managerial skills, not something you see every day, isn’t it? Well, this was about to end and something was about to change my life. The next MUN event was coming up and I signed up for the Director of Registrations because I had excellent communication skills and experience with a diverse group of people. I got the position and after lots of hard work, I and my team were able to get students registered from all over the country. The event went out to be a huge success. This event made me realize the potential and passion inside of me for being a great manager. It was this time when I became so passionate about management. I got done with my Cambridge International Examinations and joined COMSATS University Islamabad – Abbottabad Campus for Bachelors in Business. This was the point in life where I knowingly signed up for management. The next thing I did was to join a central society there. When during the students week, the society pulled off 1 event each day of the week and despite being tired I felt amazing, I immediately decided I am going to be the society's President one day. Management students don’t have labs to do practicles and universities in Pakistan don’t realy help in applying theory in real world scenarios but this was not stoping me. I bekieved in my own self. During the 2nd 3rd and 4th semster I helped organize the first ever TEDx event in my univeristy and we also pulled off a national level TEDx event in the capital city of Islamabad.

Learning and Social Work

Unity and Faith!

It all began when a friend suggested to do something productive with my time that I was just wasting in my 2nd semster. brought the same friend onboard and we organized 2 TEDx events togather.

being me!