Ever have such a profound experience that it causes you to question the course of your life?

Too many people ignore those feelings, but Dr. Ambreen Zaman-Riaz decided to explore them, forever changing the direction of her life.

She’s originally from Pakistan. There, she built a successful career as a cosmetic dermatologist and settled down to have a family.

In 2008 things started to change for her after volunteering at an earthquake relief camp in Pakistan. That experience caused her to re-evaluate her life. She said she no longer saw a future on her current career path.

A year later she borrowed $4,000 from her mother to teach 5 young girls in a remote village how to earn a living for themselves. She turned that project into a social business enterprise called I Change Her Life.

Her organization today teaches life and business skills to young girls in 13 villages in Pakistan and through her network of partnerships, she has helped empower 88,000 girls discover their financial independence.

Last year her work was awarded the prestigious Gold Stevie Award, a global award to recognize positive contributions in business. She also delivered a TEDx talk about how she empowers young women.

She believes financial empowerment doesn’t begin by focusing on making money, but rather by focusing first on changing your mindset.

A few life skills to listen for in our conversation include finding your purpose, self-reflection, and planning for a transition.

Life Skills That Matter In This Episode

Explore your purpose.
Learn about yourself.
Self-directed learning.
Planning for a transition.
Building community.
Creating wealth.

How Dr. Zaman-Riaz Works and Thinks

Wake up time: 6am
3 core work habits: Discipline, scheduling, and motivations.
Peak performance period: 9am to 2pm
Definition of success: Making a positive contribution to the life of another person.
Ideal work environment: Very organized, very quiet and likes beautiful things around her.
Work/life balance: Very hard as a mother of two, but not impossible and she found a way.
Wants to meet: Keith Ferrazzi
Favorite productivity tool: Evernote for sharing information among her team and GoToWebinar.
Regains focus by: Looking at the word”Why” framed on her wall.
90-day goal: Reaching out to donors and building a new e-commerce website.

Inspirational Quotes

“Your purpose is unique to you. It’s like your fingerprint or your DNA. No two people have the same purpose.”

“When you ignore your purpose, it keeps coming back to you.”

“When you reach out to people from a place of authenticity, people do respond in the same way.”

“Entrepreneurship is a journey of self-discovery.”

Coaching Advice

How to transfer your skills from one profession to self-employment or another field.

Dr. Zaman-Riaz recommends exploring your purpose. She believes entrepreneurship and self-discovery go hand in hand. To find your purpose she offers three suggestions . . .

1) Pay attention to your instincts and to your curiosities.

2) As you become more aware of your interests, explore them further. The more you are able to let go of your ego as you explore your interests, the clearer your purpose will become.

3) Write daily. Write about your feelings as a pathway to discovering your purpose.