Nausheen Mujeeb

I attribute my success to never backing down and working with consistency and hard work. When I first came to America as an immigrant, I had to establish myself in a completely new country where nobody knew me. I did many things without getting paid - making SOPs, doing ISO visits, conducting audits - just to prove my sincerity and the quality of my work. I believe you cannot think about the reward when you're trying to progress. You just have to work without thinking about what you're getting back. Even at 43 years old, I had to keep going and taking baby steps every single day to achieve something. I worked 13-15 hours a day at our franchise alongside my husband when we first started. I had to first establish myself as a personality, as a person, as a company, and only then could I think about what I was getting back. I still feel the same way even after four and a half years - it's still a long journey because your goals keep changing. Once you achieve something, you aim for the next thing. I work sincerely and I don't expect rewards until I'm satisfied with myself that I've delivered quality work. My consistency is key - I keep doing everything, every day. It's my discipline. I would consider it my failure if I saw myself in the same position as I was one year back. Every day, every week, every month, every year, I must have achieved something, even if it's a little thing. If I'm doing that, then I'm in the right direction. If not, then I'm stagnant, and stagnant water stinks, so I don't want to be stagnant.

The best career advice I ever received was from one of our CRAs who told me that after every 2 to 3 years, you have to jump from your current position to a higher position. You have to try something new because you cannot be satisfied with your current position. If you are satisfied, then you won't move. She told me to never be satisfied about whatever position I'm in and to keep aiming for the higher. I think that when you are unsatisfied, you always work hard, you always search for options, you always try to move and think 'okay, if not this, what's something else for me?' But if you are satisfied, you just stay where you are. Now, unsatisfaction is a double-edged sword - you can achieve great things with it, but at some point in life, you have to be settled down and satisfied with your life and everything you've done. That satisfaction comes when you can speak truth to yourself and say 'hey, I have done everything with sincerity, what I could have done as being a human.' If I look back and know that I haven't done anything wrong, I have worked hard for whatever situation was there, I have given my 100%, I have tried my level best, then I think I would be satisfied. But at this point, I cannot be satisfied, because if I'm satisfied right now, I won't move from here. I want to achieve more. I don't know if I would be able to or not, but I want to at least have that spark where I would do something about it.

My advice to young women is that it's never too late. I know that being a female, we are juggling with multiple roles - we are moms, we have families. I have 4 kids and a full family. Even if you are in your 40s or 50s and you have never done anything for your career, it's never too late. Just start doing what you want to do when you want to do it. Even if you think 'oh, I'm not doing anything, really, whatever I'm doing, it's not making a difference' - no, it is making a difference. After 2 years, 3 years, you will see where you started, and you would be very far from that point. So just keep going. Whenever you are free, whenever you think 'okay, I can now invest in myself, I can do that' - just do it. It's never too late. Invest in yourself and work hard for yourself. Time would show you that you have done a great job at the end of the day. Whenever you want to start, just start.

The biggest challenge I faced was establishing myself as an immigrant when I first arrived in the United States. As someone who had been a physician in Pakistan, coming here I felt like 'I'm nothing here.' I had to figure out what to do in the medical field since I wasn't practicing as a physician anymore. The first major challenge was grabbing a good business and establishing our first line of income. We started with Car Investments and the Denny's franchise in October 2022. Being an immigrant, I had to learn all the rules and regulations here and manage according to the expectations of the local community. Initially, it was extremely hard - my husband and I both used to work starting 9am in the morning till 2 o'clock at night, working 13 to 15 hours every day at the franchise, managing everything while we were learning on the field. The second big challenge was figuring out what to do in my medical field since I couldn't practice as a physician. I researched, talked with people, and discovered that clinical research had a career path where I could do business or take a job or work for sponsors. But getting that first role in clinical research was difficult - that was a real challenge for me. As an immigrant in a new country and new market, I had to prove my sincerity and quality of work because nobody here knew me.

The values most important to me are sincerity, responsibility, and doing your very best. Whatever you agreed upon, you have to deliver it - even after agreeing, if you think 'oh, that's not a good situation for me,' it doesn't matter because you agreed to it knowingly. You cannot whine afterwards. You have to deliver it, even if it's harming you financially or requires more physical work. Whatever it is, if you agreed to the client, you have to deliver. You cannot back out, and if you do, you are doing harm to yourself and to your company. Whatever responsibility has been given to you, or you have taken, you have to do it - no excuses. That's it. No excuses. Even if my workers are not doing something, it's me who has to take work from them. I cannot digest any ambiguities, any lies. Sincerity, doing your best, working hard, and meeting your deadlines - that's my value. All other things don't matter. At the end of the day, the product that you are delivering is what matters. How you are delivering it, what hard work you had to do, how many sleepless nights you have done - that's out of the equation. I work on these principles.