'Have a foot in the door, the path will clear up': EdelGive Foundation's Naghma Mulla
Naghma Mulla, CEO at EdelGive Foundation spoke about the initial phases of her career where she was unsure of what she wanted to do in her life at Storyboard18's Share The Spotlight event.
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Storyboard18’s Share The Spotlight event was a resounding success with women from all walks of life shared their diverse experiences and achievements with one another, illuminating the power of sharing experiences.
Share The Spotlight calls on us all to come out and share words of praise and encouragement for each other, appreciating and acknowledging the contributions of so many people who make businesses, brands and workplaces better. Learn and understand how to face challenges and seize opportunities while bringing along others on the path to progress.
Naghma Mulla, CEO at EdelGive Foundation spoke about the initial phases of her career where she was unsure of what she wanted to do in her life. She shared that she was a chartered chartered accountant who realised after working as one that she didn’t like it at all.
Fortunately for her, she was in a position where she could quit and take some time off, she said. “I know when I don’t want something. I thought that will get me far enough. But it doesn’t. Sometimes you have to step out and figure it out,” Mulla said.
So, after a lot of waiting around and removing options that she didn’t like, Mulla learnt that she needed to go out and explore what she wanted to do.
“Instead of emailing people, I put a 1km path on my map and decided to walk into every office and see what they do. That’s how I’ll know what I want to be a part of,” she said.
She shared that with a printed CV in her bag, she visited multiple offices and made friends with the receptionists, the guards, the staff around to understand what the company was doing. “Otherwise it was just another car company or a hotel, etc.”
Additionally, apart from figuring out that she wanted to do, Mulla also wanted to figure out how she wanted to feel when she got back home from work.
She said, “I wanted to fell like I’d talked to a lot of people, made a lot of people happier, and come back richer with stories.”
“What that made me realise is that I wanted a foot in the door. That’s the biggest learning I’ve had in the lat 10 years. You may not know where you’ll end up but having a foot in the door is important, then the path will clear up,” she added.
“I entered Edelweiss as a program officer at a ripe old age of 35, something nobody does. But, it was a remarkable entry point for me and then it just took off from there,” Mulla said.
