May 2009 – I was fired from my job and was broke enough to literally die, family issues, financial issues, unclear future path and the list goes on. Somebody told me to start Online Quran Teaching startup. I downloaded an HTML template of 5 pages and was able to edit it in 17 days or so. It was my first ever website. I showed it to few people and they appraised it. I got 1 more project of a website.
I delivered that but I wasn’t satisfied as those were simple static websites and I wanted to do much more than that. Lacking in technical education in computer sciences, I didn’t know programming nor I had time to learn that but was desperate to do something bigger.
A friend of mine, Naveed Sikandar, working with a TV channel back then told me that there is a tool named WordPress in which one can make dynamic websites. That single piece of advice was on the most important pieces of advice I had ever had.
I came back home, did a strong friendship with Google & Youtube and started learning WordPress. It took me around 3 days and nights before I could make my first blog. Then another and then another. I started pitching dynamic websites to clients, started earning good money. Then started working with international clients, taught WordPress to my younger brother. Eventually, we started hiring a team in 2010. Back then very very few people knew WordPress. The problem was even computer sciences graduates didn’t know WordPress.
So I started to teach them WordPress, started recording lectures on my computer. Then I uploaded those video lectures on Youtube. I came to know that I was among the very first Pakistanis to upload “Learn WordPress in Urdu” lectures. Soon they become a hit, I started receiving thankyou calls from across Pakistan, mostly from small cities and rural areas. Another person called me and offered me a handsome amount to get him professionally recorded lectures of WordPress, which off-course I did. Those too expanded our visibility and outreach to thousands of people.
I was in LOVE with WordPress. Together me and my team did dozens of projects based on WordPress. Me along with my 2 other friends Kamran Shafi & Rehan Sheikh decided to teach freelancing & WordPress officially for the 1st time in Pakistan, the venture was called Freelancer Factory. It was a massive success, by the Grace of Almighty. Students got a very good hands-on WordPress and started getting paid projects right away in week 1. We got featured in local tech news websites and people get inspired. That project was then replicated by few other people across Pakistan and eventually, Govt. of Punjab (province of Pakistan) scaled that idea to a project for provincial level named ‘e-rozgaar scheme’, which was then also replicated by Govt of KPK (another province of Pakistan). Few big institutions in Karachi are now seriously considering of replicating the project here as well.
This is how a little piece of advice, hard work and sharing were able to make such a huge impact on the economy of people and the country. Being still in love with WordPress, I love to share this love with others and by sharing, teaching and facilitating others I contribute to the WordPress community. I really want to give back much more than what I have got till now.
Love you WordPress!