Profile

I was determined to not start this profile with the usual "Hi! my name is Samad and I am 27 years old" cliche so instead I'll start with another; a Confucian quotation.

"He who wishes to secure the good of others, has already secured his own." - Confucius


If there is a line that in very simple wording describes my attitude towards the service industry, it is this one. Getting to this point has been a journey of 27 years, which included some harsh realities that life can throw at you, a few career twists and finally that feeling of confidence that can only occur one a human being finds his true calling in life.

Born in Karachi, Pakistan on November 23, 1982 under the whole name Syed Abdus Samad Shirazie, I was the eldest of two children in a pretty normal middle income Pakistani family. The family itself was actually Iranian but over the years, this particular section had moved to Pakistan. Therefore I have always identified myself first as Pakistani by birth and Iranian by descent. 7 years in Karachi followed by another 9 in Dubai means that I didn't come to Canada until I was 16.

By the time high school ended, I was convinced that journalism would be the path for me but in what was the first of many rash decisions, I decided to switch career lines last minute heading to Niagara College for Art and Design Fundamentals hoping to begin a career in Graphic Design. Now I'm not going to go into the elaborate reasons for this dramatic switch in thinking, but to make a long story short 3 years of graphic design only served to further my appreciation for good art and design. As far as my career aspirations went, I found that while design was an interesting career line my lack of any genetic artistic skill meant that I was always playing catch up to the rest of the class. After deciding that this was not how I wanted to feel for the rest of my working life, I made another rash decision to pull out of design school. A year of hard thinking, research and self-reflection (things I should have thought of in high school) finally saw me settle on two personality traits. One was my need and desire to see the world we live in, the second was my fondness of meeting new people and getting if even just a glimpse of their stories. That is how I ended up in the BABS Hospitality degree program.

I'm an average guy...love my sports, love my music (I DJ as hobby), love to read, love my family and love my girlfriend Lauren. I pride myself on open mindedness and am rare to judge someone based upon appearance or first impressions.

This is now my final semester at George Brown..yes it is September but I can see the end of the line. My plans are as yet undecided - but its safe to say that the world is beckoning.