Unstoppable Mindset

Prince Khan is all the above. Although he started out quite slow in school, he flourished in college. As he will tell us, in college, he decided to master his own lack of self-confidence and work at succeeding. He says it was his “unstoppable mindset” that saw him through.   Prince refers to his personal unstoppable mindset many times during our conversation. This is not something I even knew he was planning. You will hear for yourself that he believes we all can develop an unstoppable mindset and he will tell us how we can make this happen.   After college, Mr. Khan began working for a company first briefly in sales and then in other more business-related capacities. As he will describe, in college he discovered not only that he had an aptitude for business, but he actually liked the subject.   After working at a company for five years he began teaching entrepreneurial concepts to others, especially in the small business arena. You can hear the passion about this in his voice. Prince offers us many invaluable life lessons we can all use in our business, life and personal worlds.     About the Guest:   Prince Khan CITP|FIBP is a Business Consultant with the Halton Region located out of Oakville, Ontario. Collectively over the past 10 years, Prince has worked for a small business, run his own business, and advised countless small businesses on strategies on how to improve their operations, marketing, financials and more. He currently works for the Halton Small Business Centre/ Global Business Centre, where he provides advisory services on business start-up, domestic expansion, along with supporting companies look at opportunities to scale their business globally.   In terms of education, Prince is currently in the final stages of completing his Master’s Degree at the University of Waterloo in Canada where he is pursuing his degree in the Master’s in Economic Development and Innovation program. Prince went into this program with a passion for wanting to grow local economies, and understanding how the world can develop sustainable communities which drive local jobs, and investment. Joining the school of environment, and this program was a big step for Prince, who struggled academically early in his life. He proved himself and overcame his self-doubt by finishing with an 88% GPA in the program. In September 2021, Prince joined the University of Guelph-Humber out of Toronto, Ontario as a Sessional Lecturer teaching courses on entrepreneurship to third year business students pursuing their business degree. Prince has always had a passion to teaching, and mentoring others and is consistently looking for ways to help those in need. Becoming a lecturer at a University was a big dream he had in his late 20’s. After being rejected for a number of programs in the Masters of Education program, he thought his dream was over. Luckily for Prince, he was able to connect with an individual who he had a lot of respect for who offered an opportunity to teach at Guelph-Humber without a Master’s degree, and help his dream become a reality.   In his free time, Prince loves to volunteer for local not-for-profit groups and present on various topics of interest. He has a passion for helping others succeed, and does this by motivating and inspiring others to develop a mindset that can help them overcome the mental barriers that hold them back.     Ways to connect with Prince:   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ecdevprince/; Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ecdevprince/     About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children’s Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association’s 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app.   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.     Transcription Notes      Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i  capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Well, Hi, and welcome to another episode of unstoppable mindset. Today, our guest is Prince Khan, who lives up in Canada. In Ontario, as I recall, he is a business professional, he helps a lot of people who are in the business of being entrepreneurs or who want to be entrepreneurs, and does a lot of interesting things from what I've read. And I'm not going to give it away because it's more fun to let him talk about it. But Prince, I want to welcome you to unstoppable mindset. And thank you very much for being here.   Prince Khan ** 01:54 The pleasure, Michael, thank you so much for having me.   Michael Hingson ** 01:56 So I love to start by asking people to do something that you had suggested that you wanted to do anyway. And that is to tell us about the younger Prince growing up and where you come from and all that sort of stuff. Absolutely.   Prince Khan ** 02:10 So we emigrated to Canada in 97. I remember it's August and it was early August, around I think I was fifth or sixth. And we had come to Canada with about $10,000 in our pocket. And where did you come from? We came from Pakistan. Okay. Yeah. So we thought about the Canadian dream. And my dad had really had high ambitions of coming to Canada and finding a job in engineering, which he specialized in back in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, as well as Proxxon. We came here and we were struggling. And we were living in poverty like conditions for the longest time. And my dad was struggling to find a job we ended up my parents ended up working in factories, my brother ended up having to move further out to try to secure some rent for the family. So it was challenging times when I was younger. And one of the things that I remember is, we couldn't afford to really focus on my education, or like my entertainment. And majority of the time, I was really just on put on the side. And I really struggled growing up and going to school. I know if I was in grade six, I was reading reading at a grade three level. And it was quite the challenge and growing up, it's it was so difficult. But now that I'm 32 years old, I've actually completed my master's, I teach at a university. I also provide a lot of small support to startups and entrepreneurs within the local community in Ontario. And I've really come far from where I really thought it could have been when I was younger. Well, what   Michael Hingson ** 03:54 do you think the reasons were that when you all came over from Pakistan, and clearly with some very high hopes? Why was it such a struggle? In the beginning? Do you think the   Prince Khan ** 04:06 thing is, I think coming to a new country, the integration piece of new immigrants and even refugees, it's quite difficult because a lot of people don't see your experience from back home as relevant experience in the country that you come to. So when my dad came here, even though he had years and years of engineering experience, they still didn't take him because number one, his age, he was over 50 years old. And two, they didn't see his international experience as relevant Canadian experience. So the problem was that because they didn't see that he couldn't integrate well into society. So we ended up doing a lot of labor jobs. My mom never worked in her life, but she had you under working in a factory alongside him just to make things meet up the or make our financials meet at the end of the month and pay our rent and try to just survive. Did   Michael Hingson ** 04:55 he eventually or did they eventually kind of break through the barrier and did he ever get it? tends to go back into engineering.   Prince Khan ** 05:01 No, he did. And unfortunately, he ended up doing security until he retired. But fortunately enough for his kids, me, my brother and my sister, my sister became really big in real estate, my brother ended up working for a large bank for about 25 years now. And I teach now I worked for the government. So the kids were able to get established. And there was an interesting point one of my co professors made when I had a conversation with him. He said, um, generation 1.5 generation that doesn't get all the benefits, but still get some reward from the aspirations of the first generation.   Michael Hingson ** 05:38 Your brother and sister are older than you. Absolutely,   Prince Khan ** 05:41 yeah. 11 or 12 years old, my sister is 10 years older.   Michael Hingson ** 05:47 Yeah, it seemed like they were older since he's been in the banking industry for a long time. And she's been successful in in real estate, but you're getting there too, which is also important. But it is so sad that you had to experience or your parents had to experience not having any real level of acceptance for their international experience. And it's not exactly the same. But I know for me as a person who is blind, we get when you can either say diminished or demeaned or just negated a lot, simply because people think that eyesight is the only game in town. And it's so unfortunate that, that people do that. And I have yet to really figure out how to break through that. I think we're, we're talking about it more. And I think that's part of the conversation. And I would hope that people in Canada might think of future immigrants as being a little bit more able to be part of the culture, then maybe what happened was your father's generation. Correct.   Prince Khan ** 06:54 So there is a little bit of better education now that's coming across. In Canada, specifically, they're they're certifying engineers a lot more quickly. Doctors, same thing. So they realize that they brought in all these people with all these expertise, but they're all doing labor jobs. And unfortunately, we have all this talent, but that talent is going to it's not it's going to waste at the end of the day. So the Kenyan government has kind of figured it out that let's let's try to certify these individuals as soon as possible so they can get into the workforce and add to our professional economy.   Michael Hingson ** 07:28 Yeah, that's really the issue. And if there are certifications and programs that they have to go through, then Okay, great. But let's do it correctly. Yeah. And well, so again, I hope that in the future, maybe we've learned some lessons. I know, we've heard down here some news about some of the struggles of, of indigenous personnel up in Canada, whose children were sent to schools and taking completely out of their homes and all the challenges and horrible things that happened with that. We've, we've all had very funny illustrations and examples of where people aren't really using their vision or their imagination very well. I mean, vision in the sense of intelligence and imagination.   Prince Khan ** 08:19 Correct? Yeah. So at the end of the day, you have to realize that there are, there's more to society than just what's out there. You need to be inclusive, and understand the diversity of what makes your country so unique. And make sure that you're accounting for everybody that lives within society. Why   Michael Hingson ** 08:39 did you have a lot of challenges with reading and so on? Growing up, do you think?   Prince Khan ** 08:45 Number one, I didn't have interest. I didn't care. I remember, I don't tell my grade six teacher this, but I remember read a lot of my books. He read the books, he did the analysis. And, you know, whenever we would have these reading circles, I would have no idea what's going on. Because I didn't read those books. I didn't write my papers. So I really tried to wing it in the sense that I tried to fake it till I make it. And I realized that I failed at that relatively quickly. Because when we came into those group circles, and we were talking about, you know, what was the main message that we received and the chapters that we had to read, I would never really have any response. And the teacher would get us like, Did you not get the book EQAO or any of those, those sort of things where we were tested. I was always a C to D student and never could get B's. If I was lucky, I may get one or two b's. But majority of the time education was just not my priority. And I always found it to be at the very end of of whatever I like to do. And I was like to hang out with my friends. And that's all I wanted to do. It might have come from the fact that my parents couldn't really give me that education or that that handholding because they themselves were struggling   Michael Hingson ** 09:59 what turned into Around   Prince Khan ** 10:02 the unstoppable mindset. So I realized eventually, once I graduated high school, that I had to make something of myself because at a certain age, you reach a point where you have to make these life decisions. Do you really want to spend the rest of your life doing absolutely nothing? Or do you want to spend your life making something of yourself. So when I got into college, that was my first drive and my first ambition. And as I told you, I struggled with education. But in college, I was able to get a good, good grades, and I was able to actually succeed, it got better. And my undergrad even though I was still scared and nervous, I still found it to be challenging, I still came out with a high ranking in terms of my grades. And then recently, I just did my masters. So I just completed the full 360 In terms of education. And I got the best grades in my master's program only because I learned from those pillars that I had built. And it was that unstoppable mindset, I knew I could do better and better and better each time. So I built those pillars of success and eventually get to get where I am today.   Michael Hingson ** 11:09 So what degree did you get for your Bachelor's in your masters?   Prince Khan ** 11:13 So in my Bachelor's, I did my undergrad in business, more specifically management. And then in my master's I did in an economic development and innovation, where we look to support communities in terms of investment, attraction, expansion, retention, as well as entrepreneurship and small business.   Michael Hingson ** 11:30 What made you decide to go into business?   Prince Khan ** 11:34 Initially, I didn't really see much skills for myself, like, I'll be honest with you. I like I didn't really see myself in sciences, I didn't really see myself in art. I think I almost failed art in grade nine. So I realized very quickly that art was not my thing. But business was something that was more generic. I was like, Okay, let me go in. Let me let me try it out. See how I'll do. I was very nervous because going from high school to college, in any capacity is very nerve wracking. But I went there, and then ended up enjoying I took finance when I went to college. And then once I graduated MT University, took business there in terms of management. But what drove me there was the fact that it seemed like an easier option, compared to a lot of other things out there. And I just wanted to explore it to see if it's something I liked. And fortunately enough, it was something I really thrived in. And I ended up doing as a full time thing in terms of my career.   Michael Hingson ** 12:32 Did you think that maybe business was just going to be sort of slam dunk and easier to do not approach it that way at all, compared to like science and so on? Because obviously, it sounds like you had some fears and some concerns and so on? Did you just think business was going to be easier? It's just, you were nudged to go   Prince Khan ** 12:50 that way? Yeah, so my mentor, originally was my brother. And he said, You know what, the entire family has been in business, my brother's been at the bank isn't once you just try it. If you don't like it, then you can always pivot and change afterwards and get into something else. So I was like, Sure, why not. So I just gave it a shot. And I realized, once I took the finance program at the College, that business was something I actually was good at. I failed in school, in high school and middle school and elementary because most of the courses I was taking weren't really related to what I enjoyed. So when I got to college, I actually enjoyed studying because it was more related to some of the things that were specific to something that excites me, something that's a little I'm a little bit more passionate about. And that went into university as well as my mat and Master's program.   Michael Hingson ** 13:40 So you really liked the theory, it just really clicked with you. And there you are.   Prince Khan ** 13:47 Exactly. And if it didn't click with me, then I would have realized very quickly that I need to pivot into something else. But I really find it exciting, I really found it to be something that I could use in my practical life. So that's why I decided to pursue it. And   Michael Hingson ** 14:00 that's really the important thing, right? I mean, it's all about finding something that you not only discover that you're good at, but you discover that you really like and that you can make practical use of which is always a good thing. It doesn't really get a whole lot better than that does it?   Prince Khan ** 14:18 Yeah, you have to enjoy what you do, right. And you have to enjoy what you study if you're taking a degree just because your parents are telling you to take a degree. And you don't really want to do it because it's just not something you're passionate about or you really enjoy, then you shouldn't be getting into something that you're not going to find value in the future. But if you genuinely enjoy it, if you genuinely want to learn at that point, education becomes a huge piece and then you try to figure out what is it that you really enjoy as an individual? Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 14:47 So you went ahead and you got your business degrees. And did you have any thought as to exactly what you were going to do with them while you're going through it? Your whole college program or what?   Prince Khan ** 15:03 I had no idea. So when I finished my finance diploma, I'm like, Okay, I'm gonna get a job in accounting somewhere. And I remember I was being hired for a job by this entrepreneur named Steve Ostrovsky. He was he became a great, he became a great friend of mine. And I remember during the interview, he's like, okay, you've been, we've called you in for the council receivable Accounts Payable position, but I just want to let you know that the position has already taken, here's a sales job, you go do it if you enjoy it, and you can stay with the company. So it was a complete pivot. But you know, one thing I really admired about Steve was that he led me into the company, I did a job that that I hated for three to four months, only to get promoted to being the central person of that company, and then being able to really learn about entrepreneurship. And that's where a spark really came for small business. And when I worked at my company, and in Milton, Ontario, it was just so fascinating to learn about all the different facets of business from logistics, supply chain, Accounting, Finance Administration. And at that point, I knew that entrepreneurship was something that I really wanted to pursue.   Michael Hingson ** 16:11 And what exactly does that mean? What did you want to do with it?   Prince Khan ** 16:16 Coaching, advising, or running my own business, I knew I never wanted to work for a large corporation, I knew I didn't want to work for a big five firm of any sort. I wanted to work for a smaller company, because I knew smaller companies face a lot more challenges with respect to sustaining the organization, and always wanted to be that pillar that could come within an organization and help them grow to the level that they want to. So when I joined the city, and I joined the region, from a government perspective, the services we provide, they're absolutely free. And I'm able to go out there and support all the entrepreneurs and all the small businesses. And the benefit I get from it. It's not a monetary, it's more the respect and the passion that I see from these individuals. And I absolutely love what I do just because it drives me everyday to see their success. And   Michael Hingson ** 17:05 the the emotional rewards have you actually seeing success in your success comes from seeing at least in part success of others. Absolutely.   Prince Khan ** 17:17 That's what I enjoy more than seeing myself grow, to be honest with you, I love seeing others succeed, because allows me to be that back bone when I say you know what I was able to help them get to where they want to be. So in a way, it's kind of like life coaching, but for small business. So I've thoroughly enjoyed it. And from when I did my masters, I realized that I was in the right field, I knew I found my passion. And I knew I found what I was driven to do in my life.   Michael Hingson ** 17:43 Now you had an interest, I believe in wanting to be an educator, and that didn't work out well. For you. Initially,   Prince Khan ** 17:50 yeah. So I remember back in 2017, I applied to a number of different masters of education programs, because I wanted to be a teacher. And I struggled initially, because a lot of the programs rejected me. And I remember I used to sit at the table and look at the projection paper and say, No, I don't think this dream is ever going to become a reality I don't think I'm ever going to be able to teach. This is coming from someone who absolutely hated education, to going to loving education to the point that he wants to teach. So when I was staring at that rejection letter, I'm like, No, this, this rejection means I gotta try harder. And eventually, I got an opportunity to teach, but it was through a referral. And we were able to make it work. And I was able to find my passion. But if I decided to just give up and say, You know what? Teaching is not for me, people keep rejecting me, I would have probably not taken another opportunity. But even though all the odds are stacked against me, I still decided to do it. And I proved myself over and over again and now have become a solid pillar in this the institution that I teach and where do you teach? So I teach at the University of Guelph located out of Toronto, Ontario.   Michael Hingson ** 18:57 Okay. But the but the issue is that you, you got into it in a sense and a little bit different way, because you went to work for a company, you developed a lot of experience at that company, you learned about entrepreneurship. And somebody finally saw that, well, maybe Prince has really got something that we need. Yeah.   Prince Khan ** 19:22 And he doesn't need a master's of education to do so. Right. Prince has got that drive.   Michael Hingson ** 19:28 He got a master's and it's in a different field, which makes it all the more valuable in a way. Yeah,   Prince Khan ** 19:33 the Masters came after. That's the funny thing, right. I didn't have my masters when I started. Yes, no, it came afterwards. And it was really because one thing that I want to let everyone on the podcast know, the more you give back, the more you see in return. So students were a part of this program called DACA, which is basically a business competition for students. And I was heavily involved in the DACA competition with the students and mentoring and training a lot of these students at the University and a lot I then went on to win top three placements. And then the program had saw this and you know, he was like, wow, like, when are you going to come and teach? Are you able to teach? And I said, Absolutely, if you give me an opportunity, I will. So we figured a way around it. And even though I didn't have my masters, I was able to get into it. So if I had just said, You know what? I don't want to help anybody, I am so rejected I, I don't care about getting my masters anymore, I would have given up, right? But that's not me. I'm the type of person that's going to figure a way around it. So my way around, it was how do I volunteer my time? How do I give back to the community? How do I show myself my self worth to the people and the right people that will get me in positions where I need to be?   Michael Hingson ** 20:45 And to yourself? And to myself? Exactly. Which is definitely a part of it? Because if you're really not convinced about yourself, then how are you going to convince anyone else?   Prince Khan ** 20:56 Absolutely. So the confidence factor has to really be strong. And you have to be confident that you can pull through regardless of how many times you get rejected, or how many people say no.   Michael Hingson ** 21:07 Do you have any notion of why you got so many rejections? Did you ever ask anyone or try to get some feedback about what was really going on?   Prince Khan ** 21:16 No, because rejection is you know, when when people get rejected, they, they automatically assume they're not good enough, right? And I realized to actually over the over the past two, three years, that rejection is sometimes a good thing. Because it makes me realize that it's not that you're not good enough, it's just you maybe have made a mistake, or maybe you didn't live up to that expectation of what they were expecting, right. And I'll teach you to be more humble. Because if you think that you can get any job you can, you can get into any position because of all your the experiences and the knowledge that you have. There's people out there, they're always going to be better than you. Right and getting rejected doesn't mean that you're bad, it just means that somebody out there was better than you. So you just want to learn from those experiences. So nowadays, what I'm doing is I'm going back and saying, No, that's perfectly fine that you rejected me, I'm happy that you found someone that you know, fits your organization, or fits what you're looking for. Where did I go wrong? How can I improve myself? So I've learned to become more humble, through rejection. And that's one of the key skills you need. Rejection is actually becoming a skill for me now. Because with rejection, you learn and you learn and then you succeed. And   Michael Hingson ** 22:29 that's why I asked the question, I was just curious what you do, because you have grown a lot if you went back to investigate with any of those people, what their thoughts were, whether they would even remember about why they rejected you. And clearly, if you have faith in the system, you're going to believe that they've rejected you for reasons. But sometimes knowing those reasons can be valuable to absolutely,   Prince Khan ** 22:56 and I encourage everybody who's ever been rejected to find out why don't take it personally, but find out why. And I've learned recently, like I said that, to find out why you failed, or why you struggled or why you didn't get something that you really wanted. There's no harm in that. Right? You're you're learning from that experience, and then you're going to take it and you're going to move on. And then you're gonna do better next time, because you've taken that knowledge of why you struggled or why you didn't do the way you want it to do. So.   Michael Hingson ** 23:26 There you go. So the fact is that we focus too much on this whole concept of failure. And I agree with the people who say failure isn't really not only isn't a bad thing, but failure is just an opportunity for you to learn how to advance and grow and maybe do it better the next time. It's not a bad thing at all. And we shouldn't consider it a failure. You know, for years. It's a little unrelated, but I've been using Guide Dogs for well, it'll be 60 It'll be 50. Well, it is now 59 years. Wow, I got my first guide dog on I think like about the first to July of 1964. So what's over 59 years. Anyway, for years, the dogs that didn't make it work, all failures, and they were rechecks and all sorts of terms. And somebody at one of the schools finally realized what an unfair label to put on the dog because the reality is less than half of the dogs will make it as guide dogs. And that's because, like with any job in any one, you're not necessarily cut out to do that job. There are so many things that go into being a guide dog, like not panicking at sounds not not being distracted easily. So many different things, learning to really focus on all that. And what they learned is they should call them career changed, which is a much more appropriate term. Some of Don't go on to do other careers, they will work at us as service dogs elsewhere. Some have gone to police departments, some have gone to be seizure detection dogs or cancer detection dogs. And some just go back to their puppy raisers and become well trained dogs in someone's home. But regexes is really the wrong term. And we, we allow ourselves to dwell on that way too much in our own lives, it seems to me,   Prince Khan ** 25:24 absolutely, we all have our own special skill sets our own special way of doing things, and we can't white label everybody to be the same. Regardless of how close you are with someone or how competitive someone is in terms of their skill set with you, you have to learn that there are decisions that are made, it's not because you are bad, just like guide dogs, right? It's because maybe you were meant to do something different and something more unique.   Michael Hingson ** 25:54 And it can be the trick, but the opportunity is really to find out what it is you're good at, or in the case of a guide dog that is career change, and doesn't become a guide dog, what their real role ought to be. And they're not as much involved in other than by demonstrating their talents, what that decision will be. But we certainly can and we should look at what are we good at? What do we really want to do? And then go after it. Like he said, you have   Prince Khan ** 26:25 to enjoy what you do. Right? So some dogs may not enjoy being guide dogs because they're more outgoing, and they want to have a lot of energy. Right? That's one option. Yeah. Yeah. If you're the type of person that has a different personality, explore who you are, right? Don't assume that because society is labeled you as somebody who who's not capable, or, or whatnot. don't presume that who you are. That's what society thinks you are. But you can always create something of yourself by actually finding your passion and finding really what, what, where you will thrive.   Michael Hingson ** 27:00 And it's also true that society may view you in a way that you don't want to be viewed as, or in a way that's inappropriate, which really are to call you to look at what messages Am I sending that makes them think that? Right?   Prince Khan ** 27:14 So self reflection becomes a huge piece of that? Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 27:20 And it's important to really deal with that and grow. Absolutely, you know, I wanted to be a teacher, a different job came along, so I never had a rejection sort of thing. But I also learned along the way that when the other job came along, what did I end up doing more than anything else, teaching, the dealing with technology, and so on. And then I was put in a position where I had to choose to either be laid off from a company or change from more of a scientific research job that I was doing to go into sales, because the company didn't have enough revenue producers. They had moved me back from California to Boston to join the company. And I chose to do that, right. And then this VP of Marketing called me in and said, We gotta let you go, because we don't have enough revenue producers. And what you do is great, and you're doing well, but you're not a revenue producer, unless you want to go into sales. And I love to tell people, I lowered my standards and went from science to sales. But the reality is, once again, what I learned and I had the opportunity to really get some incredible sales training. What is sales? Sales is really teaching and counseling and advising and learning. So you get to be a student and a teacher if you're doing it, right. Correct.   Prince Khan ** 28:44 Yes, sales is one of the key skills you need in life. And I run a program for students that's funded by the government of Ontario, where they get a grant of $3,000. And I always educate my students on when you're when you're going door to door, you know, how are you going to do that pitch? How are you going to reach out to those customers and entice them to make a purchase? Right? So instead of going to the conversation of, Hi, my name is so and so and I clean cars, you walk up to the door and say that's a nice car outside? Do you maintain it? Or does someone that you know that maintains it? Or do you want someone to help you maintain that car going in with a different conversation? That's That's what sales it's it's it's a it's an art at the end of the day, and that art is very valuable in your life, because it'll help you get further in life, because people will believe what you have to say, more than if you're just talking about facts and fiction.   Michael Hingson ** 29:38 Yeah, I think it's both an art and a science there. There are components to both but you're absolutely right. Well, why is it that you hated sales early on? I gather you don't really hate sales anymore?   Prince Khan ** 29:50 Yeah, absolutely. So I was never the phone type of person. So when a company in Milton, Ontario, I used to pick up the phone and I had to do cold calls. cold calling. And there were all outbound calls. And I would talk to my wife every day. And at the time, she was my girlfriend, and I said, I hate my life, I hate my life, I hate my life, over and over again. But you know, that took a lot of courage. And no one said, sales is easy, you're gonna get things shutter speeds, you're gonna get people saying, No, you're gonna get people yelling at you and screaming at you, and making you feel degraded. But at the end of the day, if you can come overcome those challenges, and the hate that you get, it makes you a stronger person, you're not going to be scared when you go into a conversation, and someone says, Well, I don't want it. At that point, you're gonna be like, Okay, that's fine. And then you learn to maybe improvise in terms of your sales tactic, or if the person is really hesitant on making a purchase, then you move on. But sales is the core of core of this world, because how do companies generate revenue? It's the sales department sales   Michael Hingson ** 30:58 bar. And a lot of times when people are hesitant, or just say they don't want it, it's also appropriate to say, tell me more about that, what's the issue? Because a lot of times, people are in the habit of saying no upfront, and then you've got to and should explore it, which doesn't mean you're going to try to force something down their throat. But it's important to understand it. And I have found that when people say not interested, I will ask, well tell me more about why that's an issue. Because you're working for a company, I've seen many like what you do, and you need, or ought to have this kind of a product, tell me more about it. And you develop a relationship, you still may not make the sale, but you'll learn more, and you may make friends that will help you later on.   Prince Khan ** 31:50 Absolutely. Because it's it's a process. And you're right, it's getting someone to know you getting them to like you gain them to trust you, and then getting them to buy from you or at least refer you out to someone else. Sales is not about going in with the intention of selling sales is going in with the intention of building that relationship. And you've hit it right on the mark with those comments.   Michael Hingson ** 32:10 The best salesperson I ever hired. told me when I asked him, What are you going to be selling for our company, he said, The only thing I can really sell is myself, and my word. And I would expect you to back me up. The rest of it is stuff. The products are stuff, I can talk to you all day about the products. But that's not really what I'm selling, I can only sell me in my word. And he was right. And he's the only person in the number of people that I ever interviewed who was wise enough to say that, but he was absolutely right. And it was always the answer I was looking for. So needless to say, it was not a challenge to want to hire him. And I did. And he was the best sales guy I ever had working with me. Because I also believe that the other side of that is being a boss. And a boss shouldn't be a person that goes in and just tells people what to do. I always told him and everyone that I ever hired that as your supervisor, my job is to add value to what you do. And what you and I need to do as a team of two is figure out how I best add value to enhance you. Absolutely. Absolutely. And you know, and again, the people who got that did flourish, and used and learn the talents that I brought to them that could help them which is part of what it's all about.   Prince Khan ** 33:32 Exactly, right. It's really built on a value when people don't buy products they buy they buy people are what is the representation of the people in your organization, the culture of that organization, or the sales team. Right? So absolutely, the value has to be so so strong from not just a product perspective, but the people perspective as well. It's a it's a juggling game at the end of the day. But the people are what essentially make that sale happen. Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 34:03 My favorite sales story is Oh, I was traveling to Pittsburgh to see a customer. And we were supposed to be shipping some product to him. And it was supposed to arrive the day that I was going to meet him and I'd never met him before I talked on the phone a lot. And he called while I was in the air the day before and reached one of my colleagues. And she went and investigated and discovered that the product hadn't shipped. And he said, Well, wait a minute. I supposed to be meeting my kingsun tomorrow. And what's the deal? He said he saw it on the dock. And of course she immediately started laughing because she knew I was blind. And he said What's so funny and so she told him he said I didn't know he was blind. And he said, What do you mean he saw it on the dock so when he he finally met me he was he was fine. But of course he had to give me a hard time. What do you mean, you saw it on the dock, I said to see in the dictionary is not necessarily to be able to just use your eyes as to perceive, I went out and touch them. What's the deal? Well, they didn't ship. And so I called and found out that our president did something that he shouldn't have done, but he reallocated it, which was unfortunate. And we went, we worked through it and all that. But what, what he learned out of that was that when I say that I, I saw it on the dock, I went out and touched it, and made sure that the labels were right. And I had no control over what the president did, which is unfortunate, but it actually enhanced our relationship, which was cool. Yeah,   Prince Khan ** 35:37 let's see a scenario like that. It's, it was that relationship that you built from that conversation, that are probably was able to help you secure that, a client or just the product.   Michael Hingson ** 35:49 And years later, after September 11, I happened to be doing a presentation, the speech in Pittsburgh, he had retired and he came. And he said, I just had to come and renew acquaintance and say, Hello. And that was great. And he's you know, it's always kind of cool. When I talked about teaching, I did do student teaching. And some of my students, even years later, have come up to me. And of course, I now have voices that are a lot different than when they were in eighth grade in high school. But they remember me and boy, you know, that's as good as it gets them when they say kind things that's about a teacher, that's always good. Well, that's the way I've always felt about my teachers as well. So I appreciate it. Yeah,   Prince Khan ** 36:34 it's a very humbling experience. It's more of giving back as a teacher, because you really become a history and the students life and their journey for that year or two years, or however long they take you. Right, then once that journey is over, and they've moved on, they're going to remember you and if you leave a good impression, they're going to come back and respect you for everything that you've done for them. If you need a bad impression, it's going to be a different story. Right? So you always want to be that humble individual that can build a solid brand. For not just yourself but the community around you. Yeah. It's   Michael Hingson ** 37:09 it's so important to do that. We just don't need to be too full of ourselves.   Prince Khan ** 37:14 Yeah, yeah. And that's the worst thing you can possibly do. People love talking about themselves. But at the end of the day, you also want to learn about who's on the other side of the fence? Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 37:25 And it's important to learn about them, too. That's part of the whole science and art of understanding people. Well, when you got your mat, well, you got your bachelor's and so on, you said you went to work for a company, you worked there for six years, was it?   Prince Khan ** 37:39 So I worked at the City of Brampton for about five years?   Michael Hingson ** 37:44 And then what did you go off in? Are you I guess, you went off to do what you're doing now, which is teaching.   Prince Khan ** 37:49 So it's part part and parcel of it is teaching. But I've grown into becoming a business consultant at one of the regional level organizations at in Ontario. And what I do is I provide a lot of pro bono free consulting for companies that can just start their business, we go through budget forecasts, market research, marketing, and I work with mainly startups to really get them off on the right foot.   Michael Hingson ** 38:14 And that's really the time to work with companies because the inertia hasn't become so strong that you have to break through a lot of things. As difficult as it can be, as opposed to having people who at least hopefully are a little bit more open to listening to what you have to say,   Prince Khan ** 38:30 yeah, when you get to the larger corporations, they have a set structure. And if you come in with a different mindset, it's hard for them to change. And I watched this really neat video by a guy named Stephen Rossella back, and he talks about innovation and how smaller companies can innovate because they're very agile. But larger corporations can't because they have these set structures, and for them to create discovery and discover new innovation, it's hard for them. So it startups, they enjoy getting the feedback, taking it implementing it. And then if they succeed, great, they can sell that idea or grow that idea. If they fail, they move on with a large corporation, you have large stakeholders involved, and shareholders even that will hold you accountable if you have any sort of failure. So it gives startups more ability to really expand a lot faster. And it gives them more autonomy in terms of the control that they have. So that's what I really enjoy is coming up with a new idea, expressing that idea and then making a viable business out of it as well. And,   Michael Hingson ** 39:34 again, it goes back to establishing those great relationships.   Prince Khan ** 39:39 Absolutely. And all the clients that I deal with, it's always I make them my priority. I make sure that they get all the information that they need. And then they remember me I had one client reach out to me, I'd say a year later, and he said Prince, you helped me last year. I'm so thankful for everything that you did for me. And there was a long email and I was not not expecting it. But at the end of the day, it's the people to people relationship that you build, that's going to be in other people's mind. So the relationship you build with the people that you talk to, that's how they're going to remember you. And you have to remember to create a brand that is going to be memorable, but also a brand that people are going to respect. So I do that with a lot of my clients, I train them to the best of my ability, let them fly. And they always come back and always know, thank me for all the things that I've been able to do for them. And that's the biggest reward for their job that I do is they come   Michael Hingson ** 40:35 back sometimes and say, here's where we are in the scheme of things. Can you help us even grow more?   Prince Khan ** 40:42 Absolutely, I've had those situations and situations where they need employees, or they're struggling with revenue numbers, and they're trying to figure out new revenue streams. So we strategize all sorts of different things to try to figure out how can we really improved the bottom line for this company? How can we change their mindset to maybe think about not just hiring an employee, but maybe they need other resources, that may be able to supplement sort of some of the things that they're offering already? So it's really a holistic approach that I take? And, yeah, absolutely, I do get clients all the time that come back and say, I've reached my peak, can you get me to the next level? What   Michael Hingson ** 41:16 do you do to really work to make yourself the best that you can be every day?   Prince Khan ** 41:21 The best I can be, is based on a positive and unstoppable mindset. Right, going back to this podcast, I know that the individuals that I work with are there, because they're facing challenges, they're facing a barrier, they have a problem that, you know, they need to start a business because they can't afford to live on EMI anymore, or they want to turn their life around, or they have a business idea and they want to run with it. You're going to come up with all sorts of situations, some clients and good situation of the clients and positive or negative situations, but you always have to have that positive mindset and teach them that the value of entrepreneurship and where it can really take you and teaching them that. And when you start to run your own business, it really is that unstoppable mindset because you have to be consistently ambitious, consistently taking risks, and consistently having this positive attitude as well. So what keeps me up in terms of my job is having that positive energy and making sure that the people around me also feed off that energy to really help them scale and grow their company. So   Michael Hingson ** 42:27 even with all the confidence in the other things that you are experiencing, which is always a good thing, do you occasionally still have times that you end up facing challenges that you're not sure how to solve?   Prince Khan ** 42:41 Or a business perspective? Absolutely right. I'm not I'm not a master of anything. There are certain times where I don't have the answers. And unfortunately, you know that that happens. And we're human beings, and we're not digital technology, obviously, I mean, AI is out there now. But you have to look at other resources on how this person can get that same level of support is there someone else I can reach out to another network in my community that I can say, hey, I have this contact. And I generally do that if there are problems or barriers that I'm facing, I look out to external resources. And I'll be honest with you, because I've built such a positive relationship with the people around me, they're more than willing to just say, Prince, I got you, we're Prince happy to help you out. That's the type of person you want to be. And that's the type of person I am. And it's helps my clients because then they are able to get connected to the resource that can help them. What   Michael Hingson ** 43:32 gets even more exciting is the time when you have to reach out to someone who you don't even know. But you you are courageous enough, as some people would probably put it to reach out. And you get to build a whole new relationship, which is so cool.   Prince Khan ** 43:48 Yeah, I've done that many, many times. And there are contacts I'm thinking about in terms of our center and all the services that we offer for small businesses. And I see a contact and I just, for example, reach out and say, Hey, I'm seeing all the great things you're doing on social media or I see your profile, would you be open to just a quick 15 minute conversation so I can learn more about you. I build that relationship and a lot of these clients or these individuals that I meet, they end up actually becoming a great resource to the center. And I become sort of like a pillar of becoming that relationship builder within our center in our in our community. And I feel proud of that, right. It makes me feel better because our community has just gotten some more community champions that are able to support one another.   Michael Hingson ** 44:34 It is so fun. It's always fun to grow. It's always fun to learn and, and to try to do better and make yourself better because the more that you do, the more you can help others.   Prince Khan ** 44:48 Absolutely. The more you learn, the more you should get back. That's my mantra. I mean, I had mentors but I also did a lot of things on my own. You know, put myself up there constantly and I Learn from a lot of different failures in my life. So I want to make sure that people that do face similar barriers in life. No, I'm open to meeting them and just having a chat with them, telling them sort of the things that I went through some of the things that they can implement to have a better life and not have to struggle the same way that I was struggling, because a lot of us go through these, these periods of time where there's problems and problems or problems, and it just doesn't seem to end. But how do you overcome that? Right? So you sometimes need that individual to just say, it's gonna be okay. And yeah, it's, you're gonna overcome it.   Michael Hingson ** 45:34 Yeah. Well, you mentioned mentors, tell me if you would about some of your your mentors, your favorite mentors, and maybe some things that that they helped with along the way? Yeah, I bet you have stories.   Prince Khan ** 45:48 So Steve was actually my favorite mentor. So Steve was the person that first party for his small business. So there were a retractable awning company out of Milton, Ontario. And Steve taught me a lot of life lessons. So I used to sit next to him. And every time I would pick up the phone call, it was his company. So every time I've a blunder, or there's some sort of problem with what I'm saying, he'd always try to encourage me to use different words or use different languages. And every time we would have a conversation, he also gives me tips and advice. So I remember one time I was sitting down with him, and I was just asking him, how did you make such a successful business? Like, how did you come up with this idea? And he said, Prince, you know, there's the time is money, but cost is a constant. And I'm like, What do you mean by that? He said, either you have a lot of money to make the business successful, or you're going to be spending a lot of time trying to make it happen. And sometimes, you at the end of the day, you're going to actually end up having cost either way, because either it's either costing you your time or money. He said in his case, he was able to get an investor and the investor was able to support him. But if he didn't have that, then he'd be spending a lot of time trying this product out there. Yeah, and he was always looking for that customer, customer need versus sorry, the market need versus the customer need. So there's these things, these candidates that he still tells me to this day, and I'm still in contact with him, even though I don't work for the company anymore. So Steve was one of my favorite mentors. And then I had a couple of other mentors, Daniel Bishan, Jennifer Vivian, who were also great mentors of mine, when I worked at the City of Brampton, they really pushed me to become who I am, they really encouraged me to be more entrepreneurial, create events, do things out of the box, think like an entrepreneur, rather than just think, as a corporate individual. So they really became my good friends and colleagues. And they also pushed me to actually explore who I really am. And from that team, I learned that entrepreneurship was definitely for me. And I really enjoyed helping others and doing what I do today.   Michael Hingson ** 47:48 When you talk about entrepreneurship, what exactly does that really mean to you?   Prince Khan ** 47:54 The term means? Well, it could it can go a lot different ways. But that's why I asked. Yeah, so the three characteristics would be number one, someone who takes moderate to high levels of risk, someone who's ambitious, and someone who has the mindset of consistently trying to solve a problem. So when I define an entrepreneur, it really falls under these three categories, because entrepreneurs need to have that, if you're the type of person that's going to give up really easily. Entrepreneurship is not for you, if you don't have the ambition for what you're doing. Entrepreneurship is not for you, if you don't have the mindset of knowing that failure is going to happen. Entrepreneurship is not for you. People think it's easy. They're like, Okay, I'm going to start my own company, and I'm going to make it very successful, but you're working long hours, don't assume that you're going to work 40 hours a week, you're gonna work maybe 6070 hours a week, just become your baby. And people have to now start calling you constantly to get sales or get your products. And you're always going to face these barriers. And who's going to manage that you are a team member. But you're constantly on the call at that point. So entrepreneurship is not for everyone. It's for certain people that are willing to take that leap of faith knowing that your life will completely change if this product or service becomes successful, and you're going to be spending a lot of hours making it happen.   Michael Hingson ** 49:17 And that's fair. And as long as you understand that as the entrepreneur, then and accept it, then you should be able to be comfortable in your skin and move forward.   Prince Khan ** 49:29 Absolutely. And sometimes you do it and then you realize, hey, you know what, this is not for me. And that's perfectly fine. Right? Now, like like we were talking about earlier, you can white label everything that you do in your life. It's, you know, maybe you're passionate about it and you realize that it's not for you. That's perfectly fine acceptance of things in this sort of nature. When it comes to small businesses, especially it's perfectly fine, you look to move on and get into something a little bit more comfortable. And   Michael Hingson ** 49:57 yeah, the other part about it is that you may We face challenges. And they may cause you to doubt your self worth. And you have to really take the time to analyze that and see what's really going on. Because it may very well be a process that you need to address, rather than you're really not good at it, or you're not really an entrepreneur or it could be the other way as well. But too often, we don't really spend time every day, just in an introspective world, thinking about what went on, and how do we make it better and what's going on in our lives? And we really ought to do that.   Prince Khan ** 50:35 Absolutely.   Michael Hingson ** 50:38 There's, there's always time to think and we, we oftentimes I hear it so often want to busy, I don't have time to do that. Of course you do. You just don't want to make that a priority. And hello, let's talk about the challenges that you're facing.   Prince Khan ** 50:54 Yeah, so in terms of my personal challenges?   Michael Hingson ** 50:57 Well, I mean, anybody? Yeah.   Prince Khan ** 50:59 Yeah. The   Michael Hingson ** 51:00 general you not use specifically. But you can talk about you if you want. That's okay.   Prince Khan ** 51:05 No, no, that's fine. I know. I mean, a lot of people Yeah, you gotta learn about your own personal challenges and the problems that you're facing, and how do you overcome those? Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 51:16 it's, we need to, I think it's good to think about ourselves all the time. Where are we going? How are we getting there? What do we need to do to make tomorrow better than today? Right? It's okay, that's fair. Well, where do you see yourself in five years? I'm going forward. Yeah.   Prince Khan ** 51:36 So once I took my economic development and innovation program at Waterloo, I realized that economic development is some it's a space that where I really want to be. And I really see myself being a director in a company in the next five or 10 years. And I'm ambitious, I'm 32 years old, Director at 32 years old, it's happened in the past. And in the next five years, I'm going to make it a goal to actually get to a higher post, and really achieve that goal. So I want to set some milestones for myself in terms of things I want to achieve, and things I want to accomplish in terms of my education and additional certification that I might need. Or my end goal in life is to reach a high post within a government organization.   Michael Hingson ** 52:21 I would only say Don't ever forget that. Almost first and foremost, you're still a teacher. Right? And I think that's, that's really important to be able to do. So. I'm curious, you've used the term and I appreciate it a lot. Unstoppable mindset, a great deal. How does somebody gain that mindset? And for you, personally, how did you overcome a lot of the fears and so on, that really got you to have an unstoppable mindset and recognize it, which is, I think, very important.   Prince Khan ** 52:53 Yeah, so I didn't really talk about it in the session today. But I deal with a lot of mental health issues, or depression, anxiety, I've had a little bit of add as well. I've realized through all the challenges I faced in my life, that no matter what you do, life is not going to stop for you. No one's going to stop for you and say, Hey, let's rewind time and make a new decision based on what we've done in the past, because maybe we do want prints or maybe we do want to work with prints, I realized that you have to set your own path, and you have to set your own destiny. But if you don't commit to doing it every single day, you're not going to get where you want to be. It's just like going to the gym, if you go to the gym once for one time, and then you go there for about eight, nine hours, you're not gonna get fit, you're not gonna get no, you're not gonna get the muscles that you want. But if you commit yourself 30 minutes every day, you're gonna get somewhere, you're gonna eventually get the body that you want. It's the same thing with your mindset. Once you set your goal in terms of where you want to be. You want to make sure that your mind and your heart are driven to achieving those goals and you try to find ways to get there. No matter how many times you fail, you keep picking yourself back up, because eventually, someone's going to give you that chance that somebody's going to take the leap of faith in you and your abilities.   Michael Hingson ** 54:22 I think that one of the things he said though, that is extremely important is to always be humble, have humility. And when you're dealing with goals, when you're dealing with what you want to do make sure that it's something that's not only going to benefit you but I think it's important that it benefits other people too.   Prince Khan ** 54:40 Humility is probably an empathy are two of the most important skills are not skills, per se, but more assets that you need to own as an individual. It's fine. If you if you don't have humility, then you're not going to get the same level of respect. And then you're not going to get that same sort of record. Question from the people around you?   Michael Hingson ** 55:01 Can anyone develop those traits in themselves?   Prince Khan ** 55:05 They can, but they have to do a self reflection to figure out, are they doing things the right way? Do when they talk to people? Are they feeling apathetic? If a student is failing in a course, or if a client is struggling? Are you going to say, well, this, this person is crazy, or, you know, this person doesn't work hard, or you do try to find a problem, and then try to figure out how can I help this person achieve the results that they want to achieve? Anyone can do it, it comes down to the mindset of what you think you have versus what people think you have, and then trying to find that gap in between of what the optimal solution to that unstoppable mindset really is.   Michael Hingson ** 55:47 What kind of challenges do you still face every day that you have to work to overcome? Cuz I'm sure there are some. And you know, you probably don't talk about them because you work on them. And maybe it's become so automatic, but But you, you, you clearly probably have them. Yeah,   Prince Khan ** 56:03 surprisingly, I struggle a lot with confidence. And I've struggled with it all my life, I used to get made fun of when I was younger. To this day, it still haunts me, I've gained a lot more confidence. Now. However, it's still something that when something doesn't go my way, I feel like I let myself down. And I feel like I'm the one solely responsible. But then I pick myself back up and say, You know what, keep moving, keep moving. Let's let's try it again. It's a, it's a problem. But it's also one of my driving factors. If confidence is something I'm struggling in, I'm trying to figure out a way to make myself better. And it only comes down through self reflection that I say, Forget what my mind is thinking, let's move on, let's go to the next job is going to the next interview, let's go to the next student, whatever the situation is, we try to really hone in on how can I do better next time, and then try it again. So even though I struggle a lot with confidence, I'm always trying to make myself try again, until I really will feel comfortable, hopefully in the next coming years. And myself.   Michael Hingson ** 57:11 And that's really the key is you've made the decision, although you have to constantly work to to maintain it like anyone should. But you've made the decision that when something happens that doesn't go just as planned, you're going to pick yourself up and move on from it and evaluate yourself and see what you need to do. Exactly.   Prince Khan ** 57:33 And if you can do that, as a human being, you're gonna go really far, if you find where your struggles are, and then you're able to pick yourself back up. Nightmares never last and problems never last. Right? Eventually you wake up and they're gone. And then you're in a situation where you're a lot better than we used to be before.   Michael Hingson ** 57:53 As long as you keep that kind of an attitude and mindset. They won't last because the problems are only as big as you want to make them. Exactly.   Prince Khan ** 58:01 And if you make a small problem, a big problem, that's really your own mind playing those tricks. At the end of the day.   Michael Hingson ** 58:11 Have you written any books?   Prince Khan ** 58:13 Not yet. But it is something that I've thought about for a couple of years now. And it might be something that I do in the near future? Well,   Michael Hingson ** 58:21 you have to let us know when you have anything like that. So we can talk about some with you and certainly promoted as well. But how about since you're doing a lot of teaching and coaching and so on, have you created any courses? Or have you done anything or thought about online courses to also help businesses.   Prince Khan ** 58:39 So I haven't done anything like that specifically, but you know what my real passion is, I struggled with confidence when I was younger anxiety and just presentation skills overall. And actually want to create a business for kids in order to support them in terms of their own public speaking. So creating courses around that. So that's that's on the radar for me closer to retirement, I'm probably going to think about doing something like that, because of all the experiences I'm going to gain over the coming years. But I'm really passionate about really helping kids gain that confidence and build themselves into working professionals because I know myself I never had that. And I always struggled with confidence, I will struggle with presentation skills. And there's a lot of people out there like me, but I was able to overcome it. And I want to train other people, especially kids that you know nowadays with society, you know how depressing It is sometimes get them to overcome that and say you know what, you can be successful you can present you can be more confident in yourself and help them build those skills. So that's what I'm really seeing myself in the near future as well. Aside from the whole director role, sometimes,   Michael Hingson ** 59:47 you know, kids unfortunately get stifled by parents, so you have to train the parents as well. But kids are great sponges and they're a lot sharper than a lot of people give them credit for and if you can engage them and And pique their interest. It doesn't get any better than that. Absolutely.   Prince Khan ** 1:00:03 And they're fun. And they're really fun. Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:09 They're absolutely fun. Which makes a lot of sense. Well, you know, I think it's important to really work to make that sort of thing happened. When do you want to retire?   Prince Khan ** 1:00:21 Freedom 55.   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:23 Okay. 23 years.   Prince Khan ** 1:00:28 Yeah, and 23 years retire, and then follow some of my passion projects that I've always wanted to do, which includes helping kids overcome public speaking, fear of public speaking. Give them more confidence. And I think that, hopefully will become a reality in the next 23 years. But we'll have to see. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:46 see how it goes? Well, Prince, I want to thank you for being with us today. Do you have any kind of final thoughts or advice or words that you want to pass on to people?   Prince Khan ** 1:00:58 Sure. So my advice would be to maintain a mindset that's unstoppable. I love the topic of this podcast, because a lot of the presenters that come on here, they have that unstoppable mindset. And it's so valuable to keep going, regardless of how much life throws sand at you, or rocks at you, doesn't matter whether it's throwing at you, you got to keep moving forward. And my best piece of advice is, no bad times don't last. Good times will always come. Keep that keep your head up, keep a positive mind and keep moving forward. Because eventually you're going to get out of any problems or challenges you're facing. And you're going to see the bright light at the end of the tunnel.   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:43 And that is such great advice. And I think that's something we should all keep in mind all the time and use it to grow and move forward.   Prince Khan ** 1:01:53 Absolutely. And I look forward to seeing everyone succeed.   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:57 Well, thank you once again for being here. And if you know anyone else who you think ought to be a guest on our podcast, who can talk about some of these same things or other things, please let us know. Let them know introduce us. We're always looking for people to be on unstoppable mindset. So I would really appreciate your help with that. As with you listening out there, if you know anyone that we ought to have on, love to hear from you. We appreciate it very much. And we appreciate your comments. Please give us a five star rating wherever you're listening to unstoppable mindset. We value those ratings a lot. But I also value hearing from you. So if you have the opportunity, I would really appreciate it. If you'd send me an email tell us your thoughts. Tell us your observations. And as I said introduce us to others. You can reach me at Michaelhi m i c h a e l h i at accessibe a c c e s s i b e.com. Or go to our podcast page www dot Michael hingson.com/podcast. Michael hingson is m i c h a e l h i n g s o n so Michaelhingson.com/podcast and Prince how can people reach out to you if they'd like to talk with you more or maybe explore consulting with you?   Prince Khan ** 1:03:04 Absolutely. So they can reach out to me via LinkedIn. So Ecdev Prince is my tagline. What is ECDEV Prince E C D E V Prince P R I N C E Okay, or email at prince.kahn k a h n@holton.ca holton   Michael Hingson ** 1:03:25 H a l t o n? O n.ca? Well, great. Well, I hope people will reach out I hope people will reach out to me I'd love to hear from you. And again, love those five star ratings and, and all the inputs that you want to provide. And one last time prince, I want to thank you for being with us. And looking forward to doing this again and certainly hearing about your new book when you start to write one or when you finish it. I appreciate it Michael,   Prince Khan ** 1:03:55 thank you for having me today.   Michael Hingson ** 1:04:02 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com. accessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.