Century Financial CEO Bal Krishen: From mopping floor to running trading floor

Gulf News

Century Financial CEO Bal Krishen who once worked as a hotel room boy in Dubai talks about his unexpected career path. Latest news from the UAE and around the world brought to you by Gulf News. See more at: http://gulfnews.com/videos

Transcript

00:00I belong to a district Doda in Jammu and Kashmir. It's a very far-flung area, very remote area,

00:08where till today that we have to walk to the native place more than five kilometers

00:14from the road to my native place. It's by walk. And back that time that, you know, we are four

00:22brother and five sisters. My dad was having a simple job like a teacher. And he was not, you

00:32know, able to, you know, to take us to in good schools. Okay. And then I start my, you know,

00:43start my doing job, small jobs from grade sixth. Okay. And they were in between an event that when

00:52you know, dad, he was very much sick. And then he said that, you know, that I would like to,

00:59you know, divide whatever I have. And he give a 16,000 rupees to each one. It was somewhere

01:11that I was in the eighth standard. Okay. And then from that, he made it clear to all of us

01:20that, you know, this is what we have. You have your choice. You want to spend it today,

01:26you spend it today. You want to buy a dress, you buy a dress. You want to buy anything,

01:31you do whatever you want. Or you want to save it and you want to start your career. You want to do

01:36your education with this money. You want to start some business with this money. So this is what I

01:41have. So don't come to me back that, you know, for money or anything. So you all have these things.

01:48And then an event happened. After that, I start small, small, you know, buying things from the

01:58city and selling it into the villages. I start my career from that time. In villages, we have a

02:05small, small festivals, like a seasonal festival. So in those festivals, I used to have my lottery

02:14shop, my like, small shop over there selling toys and any things. So I made it very famous.

02:25My shop was very famous. Why? That, you know, I have a fixed profit at that point of time.

02:30Let's say I was buying stuff worth of 200 and 300. And then I have fixed 50 or 100 rupees profit.

02:37Whatever is left, I sell it for free. Okay. And I sell it for free. And that is how that I got

02:45money. And, you know, whenever I have a time, besides the school, I do all these activities in

02:51my life. Okay. And that's how I made some money. Then it was in 1993, when the disturbances started

03:01in J&K. And then I thought, no, this is a time to move somewhere out. I went to Delhi. And then

03:09I had a visit visa from a travel agent over there. I landed up, down into the federal over here.

03:16And then I do not have much money to spend on taxi, you know, to come by cab to Dubai.

03:23Then I went to a petrol pump. I sit over there. We had a good lunch with them. And then they are

03:29the ones that brought me to Dubai, over there in Bur Dubai. And then I asked a gentleman over there

03:35that which one is the cheapest hotel over here to stay in Dubai. And then I stayed into the

03:41Blue Star Hotel in Deira. It was 20 dirhams per night. And then after that, you know, after a few

03:49days, I got a job into one of the hotels in Deira. Okay. I was washing dishes into the hotel.

03:57And then I write to my dad, you know, that I have got a job and I am washing dishes over here.

04:06So for my dad, the hotel is like, you know, like on the roadside dhaba. Okay. So he write me a letter

04:14that, you know, that be careful about, you know, the wood. Okay. And the hot pots and everything.

04:22So then I write to him from here that no, there is no wood, nothing. So it's inside the AC. Okay.

04:28And there is liquor, there is, you know, in the hotel, everything. So then he said to me that,

04:36you know, that please, as soon as you get this letter, can you try to change the job? Because

04:42we don't want these earnings to come and enter in our house. And as soon as I got the letter,

04:48then I found a job in Jabal Ali in one factory. It was a cotton factory. I was doing a loading

04:54and unloading every day. Okay. I used to unload the atta bags. Okay. Which was to meet for the

05:04gum. Okay. And then after that, okay. I went to a vacation. After three years, I went to vacation to

05:12India. And then I talked to my dad that, you know, that it's very hard to work outside. Can I have,

05:21can I do anywhere where I wish, where I get more opportunity. So then I came over here,

05:28then I found a job into the hotel lines as a room boy. Then as a room boy to bell boy,

05:35when I was working in a bell boy, I was working somewhere else, washing dishes in someone's place.

05:40So I was getting almost a double salary. Then from there onwards, waiter, I become a waiter,

05:47then waiter to a night manager into the, into the one of the pub. And then after that, again,

05:54I went to the vacations. Then I bought some stuff, some gifts for some, one of my friend bankers over

06:05here. Then the banker, he has shown me the way that, you know, that why not you change your job

06:12from a hotel line to a financial institutions. Then luckily then that time I found one company

06:21over here, which was century financial brokers owned by Mohebi families. But I write everything

06:27onto the CV that, you know, that I was doing a loading, unloading, room boy, bell boy, dish

06:34washing. So they refused me to, to keep into the organization because they said that either we need

06:40MBA or we need, you know, the ex-bankers, several years of experience of ex-bankers.

06:48But then after coming, you know, two days, three days, four days, continue into the company.

06:55Then I found, I thought that, you know, why not to write a letter to the, to the, to the boss,

07:00where I was not getting an opportunity to meet him. Then I write a letter. I went to the typist,

07:05then he type a letter that, okay, I will, I am ready to work free for you for six months,

07:13if you will provide me an opportunity to work in your organization at any job.

07:18Then, you know, I get an, I showed to the boss the letter. I went with him into the lift. I went

07:24into his cabin. That day I got a job into the century financial broker as a journal helper,

07:31dish, to make a tea, to clean, dusting, everything. That was my first job. Then after some time that

07:40I get an opportunity to, you know, on the dealing desk where they used to write the buy and sell

07:46deals throughout. My job was to, you know, to write that down them. Then I start thinking I was having

07:52my small recorder with me where I used to record the things, hold the day, what the activity was

07:59in the office. And the night I used to go and, you know, talk in front of the mirror that, you know,

08:05that, okay. I used to learn that, you know, how to talk to a client. So all those things by recording,

08:12I used to hear the recording several times. And then I used to talk in front of the mirror. And

08:17then once I got a bit confidence, then I thought that, let's say that if century financial is my

08:22own company, how I should work, what we should rectify, what is good in this one, what is wrong

08:28in this one. And then I got a very junior dealer job or there into the organization.

08:37And then I start, you know, that, you know, that, that we have a lot of what you call dealer into

08:43the dealing room, they speak English. Okay. But the most of the rich people, they have come over

08:48here in UAE long back, they don't speak English, but they got, you know, plenty of money to invest.

08:54Right. So though that that's how it clicks. And then there was a day that I was a very

09:02good dealer. Okay. One who was handling most of the deals into the dealing room.

09:08And then I saw the atmosphere in the dealing room, one point of time was not good.

09:14Then I requested to Mr. Mohib be the chairman of the company that, you know, why I'm going to

09:20resign from this post and I'm going to work into the sales. But I was not that good into the

09:26English. So I do not know that, you know, I can pick up a phone and call any big investor that

09:31we are working in century financial broker, we have a margin trading this and that.

09:36So I was not good in that one. So I thought that how I do my sales, then what I thought that,

09:41you know, that, that every day in the morning, I used to cook myself, and then I make five,

09:48six, seven chapatis, green vegetables, take it in my bag, I go whole day into the Gold Soak,

09:55I just walk one end to another end to the streets. So the people they know me, they ask me that,

10:01you know, that what you are doing, okay. And you know, that if you walk every day, you say hi,

10:08hello to each one of the the what you call the shop owner, okay, they recognize you. And that's

10:16how that you know, they start knowing me, they start asking me that what you are doing. And

10:21that time I give my card, I give my brochure, and then they start calling and it was a day,

10:26then I have a queue for a lot of people to open accounts with us, they will do investments with us.

10:32And that was, you know, the start of a good journey in my life in century financial broker.

10:40And slowly, slowly, that's how that I start getting more and more investment into my company,

10:46more and more client into the my company. I start growing from that and then I start expanding my

10:52team, I start teaching my team, work for them. And then today, we are, then we were into the

10:59Alkali Center, now we are into the Emaar Square. Today, this is what I am in front of you.

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