Tauseef Hayat Khan was a fresh civil engineering graduate looking for a job when the Gulf War hit the UAE and the Middle East. His father, Sheruzaman Khan, ran an auto garage in Kuwait. Khan, who studied civil engineering from India's Aligarh Muslim University, was on his way to see his father in Kuwait and stopped over in Sharjah where his sister, Rizwana Husain, and her family lived.
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00:00Hello everyone, this is Anjana Kumar and we are back with a millionaire series. With me
00:06is Mr. Tauseef Khan. He's the chairman of City Tower Real Estate Development and Properties
00:12and he is another successful story that we are bringing to you. He came here for a salary
00:18of 1850 and today he's a multi-millionaire. Wow, that is a real rags to riches story.
00:25He's very earnest and honest and he says these are two qualities that has made him successful
00:31here in the UAE. Thank you so much for talking to us and it's a pleasure to come here and
00:36interview you. So tell us about your journey and how it started. I came here basically
00:41on a visit visa and I was on the way to Kuwait. My father has a small business over there
00:46so I wanted to join him and unfortunately my sister stays here and unfortunately the
00:54situation happened, Iraq-Kuwait war happened and because of that I happened to stay here.
01:00And then I started looking, because everything war, we lost everything and all and I started
01:05looking for some job and I was very much fresh at that time. I freshly did my engineering
01:11and no experience, no background and all. So I just took a job which really gave me
01:16a starting up and it was very basic, 1850 dirhams per month and I have all my Indian
01:27families and I'm the eldest so I look after all my family and all, since father lost everything
01:32in the business and all. So it was very much a struggling period and then sooner I realised
01:37this thing is not going to be enough because the future is very difficult and a lot of
01:42tasks are there. So I started working, working very hard, came across very, very hardship
01:50and all and with the grace of God today here, but supporting all this thing I will definitely
01:58say this country has really brought future and fortune for the people. Those who are
02:04straightforward, honest, trust, trustworthy, transparent and if you have no wrongdoings
02:09then I'm telling you this, in this country, in this part of the world, basically every
02:13part of the world but here the most, the best thing is the support from the system, support
02:19from the government, his highness, I mean you can grow as much as you want, you can
02:24work for the betterment of the country, for yourself and all, there's no limit for that
02:28and that really helps a lot. That's interesting, so why did you think about real estate though?
02:34Well I had a most struggling time in my life is real estate and looking for the house and
02:40I feel like it is the most challenging thing so I felt like this is what I should work
02:46on and basically I feel like this I can help some people also and surely I'm helping some
02:52people who are not in position to pay the rent so we do really help those people to
02:56support them to take the payment in an extended period of time and that way I feel like that
03:03I'm there, I'm indirectly helping some people so that way and real estate definitely a business
03:10which is need of everybody's life and all, every child grow up and when he became in
03:17like in maturity and all they look for their own properties and so I find like real estate
03:24education, food and stuff and all will never go wrong in life so I chose real estate.
03:30But today's market is pretty challenging and that's why I want to ask you how you are
03:36staying you know successful in the real estate sector?
03:42It's a very very good question and tell you the truth in 2008 when we have this financial
03:49cycle breakdown and all and the most challenging time that time but this time I felt like it
03:56is still more challenging than that one actually but reason is we cooperate with the landlords,
04:04we cooperate with the property suppliers who are our partners basically and they do help
04:11us and we do help them also we never let them to suffer for their payment things and all
04:17do we though we suffer a lot from the incoming payment so we make relationship with the landlords
04:24the situation are not good so let's just consider the reduction as much as possible
04:29and when the time comes good and all we should come back to the same level and all so that's
04:34where I feel like the cooperation between both our partners is helping a lot and that
04:38way we are managing and surviving in the market and we are with the grace of God none of our
04:45staff we reduce, none of our staff salary we reduce but we let them work as much as
04:51possible so everybody whether I am there in the office or not there they look after
04:56the things and they make sure the business is rolling actually.
04:59Okay that brings me to the question the way you saw success do you think someone who is
05:06earning a salary of 1850 can they become a successful multimillionaire like you did?
05:13Definitely it is a different scenario today, yesterday it was different today is more challenging
05:19but in the same time a lot of advantage today because the when we started there was not
05:24that kind of advantages like YouTube today social media so strong you can market yourself
05:29in a different way and all but in today's market the new young children they also become
05:35you know overnight multimillionaire and all overnight they become like successful just
05:39because they have got a lot of access to the social media and all and again if they have a
05:46like honesty, transparency and dedication ultimately it will work for their betterment
05:52that's what I feel like. On a final note do you have any word of advice for budding
05:56entrepreneurs here in the UAE there are a number of them including millennials.
06:00I will definitely love to suggest and advise for the people who are looking forward to become
06:04something in their life then they should work total like dedication they should give themselves
06:11be transparent be honest and be kind to your people look forward to your people and do the
06:18most possible community work for the people and all God will reward you ultimately that's what
06:24I believe nothing you know everything is possible when you think that you can achieve everything
06:29unless until you take the confidence and the prayers from the people it really works. It is a
06:34challenging market today and Mr. Tauseef Khan has proved that you can be successful in a challenging
06:39market there are ways to maneuver the challenges and come out successful and he is proving just
06:45that. If you want to read the entire story please log on to www.gulfnews.com you'll get the entire
06:52story of Mr. Khan his journey and his success you can as well catch our other series of
06:59millionaire stories. This is Anjana Kumar for Gulf News.