Mahendra K Asher: The man who gave up his US green card only so he could live in the UAE

Gulf News

Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/2YuNLia  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos  Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  From Dh2,500 to a multi-millionaire, see this man’s growth and love for the UAE  #GulfNews #business #US #multimillionaire #people #greencard #UAE #Dubai

Transcript

00:00The best place was Dubai and that was my destiny.

00:03So again I came back to Dubai and I gave up my green card also just to live in this country.

00:09My journey started from Mumbai, India, Bombay those days.

00:13I was born and brought up in Mumbai.

00:15My education was done in Mumbai all the time.

00:17I was in the last year of my chartered accountancy course.

00:20I was selected by SEBA of India and I was in the planning and control.

00:25At a very young age I was having a very good salary.

00:281,200 rupees, that time it was a luxury.

00:31At the same time I wanted to go to USA to join American University, some of the Ivy League colleges.

00:39Those days per annum the amount of expenses for the college education was US dollar 4,000.

00:45And I wanted to raise two years fees for 8,000 because I didn't want to have any scholarship or assistantship.

00:51In India I would not have made that kind of money.

00:53So naturally I was looking outside to go and here was a good opportunity.

00:58So I joined Almula Contracting Company, my first employer.

01:02When I came this was no UAE, UAE was born after I came.

01:07So 1971 I came in July, August.

01:10December 2nd United Arab Emirates was formed and then there is no looking back actually.

01:17So this is how my journey started in Dubai and I joined Almula Construction Company as a finance and administration manager.

01:26That was my first job but immediately thereafter Chase Manhattan Bank invited me to join Commercial Bank of Dubai.

01:34Actually my dream came true when I got my third preference immigrant visa from US.

01:41Now this visa was given by people with exceptional ability and high qualification without requiring any local sponsor in America.

01:48So I landed in America in 1978 and I got a very lucrative job with Merrill Lynch New York.

01:54Because Merrill Lynch when we joined the institution it is one of the highest rated company in Wall Street.

02:03So Merrill Lynch gave me an offer that you write your own check.

02:07Now that was what the figure of that say because it was commission income.

02:11So whatever you produce you are getting certain percentage.

02:14So it was a windfall for me that from fixed salary to flexible salary based on whatever is my production.

02:22And I was very happy and I spent five years with Merrill Lynch very active between Dubai, New York, London all the offices I was travelling.

02:30And this was good opportunity for me to earn a lot of money.

02:35But in the same time during this time my family circumstances changed.

02:40I wanted to settle down in America.

02:42My wife also came we both of us were there in USA.

02:45We lived in New Jersey and I worked in New York.

02:48But in the meantime you know I had to leave because I could not call my mother in America.

02:55After I lost my father my mother was to live with me because I was the only my eldest son was in already America.

03:02And then I thought maybe I will be the best person to look after.

03:05Best place was Dubai and this was my destiny.

03:08So again I came back to Dubai and I gave up my green card also just to live in this country.

03:14Otherwise people were asking me why are you leaving green card people don't leave the green card.

03:18Anyway now I'm looking for the gold card or whatever they can't give me in the UAE.

03:23So no regret life is good.

03:25God has been rewarding and then we only believe that work is worship.

03:30If you work properly then God will be rewarding you.

03:33I had the opportunity of serving the community very well.

03:36The honorary service always I have given to Indian school, Indian association, India club.

03:43Wherever I got the opportunity this brought me very close to the Indian community vis-a-vis local community.

03:49Our network is not counted in dirhams or dollars.

03:53Our network is counted in the professional services we build.

03:58The expertise which we have that is our strength.

04:02My assets are our professionalism, our people.

04:05We have been told from day one that honesty is the best policy.

04:09And not only hard work never goes in vain.

04:13So if you are dedicated to your profession, your job, your work you are going to be happy.

04:18And if you are internally happy then money comes secondary.

04:22This is in my case and professional it may be the same.

04:25There is no one success mantra as such.

04:28What is required is that you have to be dedicated to your job.

04:33You should have the knowledge to deliver what you are doing.

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