{"id":4593,"date":"2010-04-06T12:04:28","date_gmt":"2010-04-06T12:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2010\/04\/06\/young-gun\/"},"modified":"2016-01-07T12:33:35","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T12:33:35","slug":"young-gun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2010\/04\/06\/young-gun\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Gun"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Meet Sabirul Islam \u2013 The teen who has the World at his Feet<\/h3>\n
\"\"GROWING up in Tower Hamlets, just 10 minutes away from the City and Canary Wharf, you\u2019d be forgiven for thinking Sabirul Islam lived a life of luxury.<\/strong><\/div>\n

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Despite being so close to the financial heart of London, Tower Hamlets is a borough that sees crime and violence as \u201ca way forward\u201d.<\/div>\n

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A young entrepreneur since the age of 13; speaker and author of bestselling book \u2018The World at Your Feet\u2019, 19 year old Sabirul Islam encourages young people to recognise their own entrepreneurial potential. <\/div>\n

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\u201cBeing 19 isn\u2019t a barrier for me; it\u2019s actually what drives me to take opportunities because I believe in making the most of the talent I hold as an individual in order to bring the world to my<\/em> feet.\u201d\u00a0<\/div>\n

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Aged 13, he was given the chance to work in his cousin\u2019s business, but was fired after just two weeks. It was this moment of failure which he looks at now and sees as a crucial turning point. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI spent two weeks thinking it was an easy ride. Then I got a letter saying \u2018Dear Sabirul Islam, You\u2019re fired.\u2019 I was angry but thought I\u2019d show him it was the biggest mistake of his life.\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

At the age of 14, he started his own business designing websites, which won Best Young Enterprise Inner East London Company making him a \u2018thousandaire\u2019. \u201cI thought I could retire on the money!\u201d says Sabirul.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

His drive impressed Merrill Lynch so much they invited him to learn the basics of investment by watching live trading in New York for three months. Aged 16, he went on to work in the London Stock Exchange.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents were on government benefits and I was making money. You don\u2019t have to be born with a silver spoon in your mouth or have rich parents.\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Sabirul is continuously been approached by young people asking how he achieved his success at such a young age. This inspired him to write \u2018The World at Your Feet\u2019 aged 17. <\/div>\n

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\u201cThe book encourages all young individuals to follow their dreams and turn their entrepreneurial ideas into reality by working on his \u2018three strike\u2019 philosophy – Intensity, integrity, intelligence.\u201d <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Initially self published, it sold just over 42,500 copies \u2013 outselling Peter Jones\u2019 autobiography. The publishers who had originally rejected him now came back with offers. He accepted Marshall Cavendish, taking the book global. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Still hungry for success he set up his own company, giving speeches worldwide, and released a board game called \u2018Teen-trepreneur\u2019. Later that year, Sabirul won the Mosaic Entrepreneur of the Year Award, an award recognizing his success as an entrepreneur within the Muslim community. This still wasn\u2019t enough.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI started young and can be more successful. Duncan Bannatyne was 29 when he started. I want one day to push him off that Dragons\u2019 Den seat and sit there myself.\u201d <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

In 2009, he flew to Nigeria for his highest profile engagement, where he was invited to speak at an enterprise summit by the wife of Nigeria\u2019s First President. Over 3000 young budding entrepreneurs attended. Sabirul received emails thanking him for inspiring them to write books of their own. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cOne author had acknowledged Barack Obama, Luther King and other big names. Ahead of all of them he named me as his main inspiration. Me? A 19 year old? Money can\u2019t buy that.\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Not one to rest for long, Sabirul is creating a Cbeebies series and an advice website \u2018Twayf\u2019, putting young people in contact with investors. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of my success started with me waking up at 10 o\u2019clock and turning on my laptop by my bed.\u201d Sabirul admits. \u201cIf my cousin hadn\u2019t fired me I\u2019d be working in McDonald\u2019s stuck in the negativity in Tower Hamlets. Instead, I\u2019ve made a brand within myself and I can\u2019t wait to see what else I can do with that.\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

By Jo-Anne Rowney<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n

\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meet Sabirul Islam \u2013 The teen who has the World at his Feet GROWING up in Tower Hamlets, just 10 minutes away from the City and Canary Wharf, you\u2019d be forgiven for thinking Sabirul Islam lived a life of luxury. Despite being so close to the financial heart of London, Tower Hamlets is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}