“I was raised by a single mother and her support system. My chacha & dada being the most pivotal characters in my upbringing taught me everything I needed to know about the world at a very young age. I start my story with this introduction because I believe that a lot of what I have achieved today, as an entrepreneur, a woman & a human being, I owe to the angels who raised me.
As everyone else, I too grew up with the dream of becoming a Doctor. As luck would have it I became a pharmacist instead. I had always felt like I was an artist’s soul trapped inside a scientist’s body. A few years into a full time medicine career, marriage and one tiny offspring, I realized that I needed to do something more with my life. Something that allows me to let the creative juices flow. With the support of my husband & my best friend, I started a small design house called “Project Rich”. At first it was just for fun, we did home decors and accessories & held exhibitions around town, feeding our artistic souls. With time, it grew into something even more dear to me. I began to discover the amazing arts & crafts industry of Pakistan; the intricate work that our craftsmen did, the amount of talent we were brewing, and at the same time losing. I delved into jewelry making. Combining my aesthetic with their raw, undiscovered talent, we started doing gold plated jewelry.
This startup was completely unplanned but my degree in Science put together with my systematic (borderline OCD) approach towards life has brought me where I am today. I am a wife & mother with a full time career in the pharmaceutical industry, and yes, I am an entrepreneur. I spend my free time running a school & building a hospital for the under privileged children of a village called Kalawala & I am extremely thankful for that privilege that my time is spent doing something I love. If you ask me how I do it all, all I can say is, Allah is kind, none of this is me.
Sometimes, we let our mind take over our decisions completely while suppressing the heart and not letting it feel and explore. We think with the power of logic and reason; we can figure out almost anything. Well, that’s true – only partially. What’s more powerful is to connect with your heart and soul and let it feel who you are. More often than not, the answer lies within you. You don’t need to look outside or seek expert opinion; if it doesn’t come from your core, it won’t come from anywhere else. And for it to come from your core, you need to free it from inhibitions, fears and preconceived notions. You have to look past the bias of familiarity, of what you have learnt in the past, to create the future you aspire.” –Madiha Saail Ahmad Khan, Founder and Creative Director of Project Rich