It is very inspiring to hear about the success of people who started with nothing and worked hard to reach great heights. We all have read and heard stories about people who come to cities in search of better opportunities and with a hope to make it big in their lives. Ali Merchant is one amongst such entrepreneurs who saw a bigger picture. He dreamt the kind of dreams that was mostly thought of being impossible to turn into reality. However, he strongly believes that, "You must dream big, then put in your best to make it come true. Have a great vision for yourself and do not settle for anything less."

Today, Ali Merchant is the Founder & CEO of AM Infoweb. Started from scratch, Merchant now runs 2 companies, and has invested in 12 others, which he also advises, earning millions of dollars in revenue.

The Initial Phase
Ali Merchant was born in Gujarat and belonged to a business family. Right from a young age, he was very passionate about having his own business and began to assist his father. At the tender age of 12, he started his entrepreneurial journey by selling kites. He learned business and import-ant life lessons from his father and was success-fully managing his businesses in Gujarat. Before you can achieve anything in life, you first have to know what you want. Ali Merchant clearly knew what he wanted and it did not end there. His journey had just begun!

Building a Successful Business
Ali Merchant had big dreams which he turned into goals. Though he was from a family with a business background, he wanted to build a business from scratch. He moved to Pune and made every possible effort to learn about outsourcing. Ali's turning point in life came with the establishment of AM Infoweb in 2008. The firm was focused on integrated end-to-end outsourcing and delivering transformational benefits to its clients through right-sourcing led reduced costs, automation led productivity improvements, and insights led process re-engineering. His vision was to create a simplified global outsourcing platform and revolutionize the world of outsourcing.

Though he was passionate about business, entrepreneurship was never a joy ride. Gradually, with his constant hard work and zeal, he expanded the business and built an empire. With his sheer determination, he earned this multi-millionaire status and is now considered an Outsourcing Guru and Industry Titan, specializing in Health Information Management outsourcing. Today AM Infoweb is a leading Health Information Management out-sourcing company having a global presence, with state-of-the-art offices across continents. Ali Merchant's mission is to use the latest technology and apply a decade of experience, expertise and data, not only to reduce the operating costs of the customers, but also to ensure that they surpass their previous performance.

Facing Challenges
Whether in terms of your company, relationships, job, or disease, everyone faces obstacles in life. Ali Merchant too had obstacles. But that never prevented him from doing what he wanted. He believes that there are many things people want, but there are always obstacles to be met before you can succeed. He was always looking forward to ways to overcome the challenges and making them a part of his success story instead of feeling negatively and giving up on his goals. He also believes in the act of not giving up just because you are facing some resistance. The one thing that he followed was to have faith in life and do the best, regard-less of the situation and never give up. The result of which is AM Infoweb; it has now grown into a multi-domain out-sourcing service provider serving 50 states in USA and earning millions.

Values and Beliefs
Ali Merchant believes that strong ethics are the foundation of success. According to him, the one most important value for all the entrepreneurs and professionals is, "Always stay true to who you are. Irrespective of your success or failure, always maintain your integrity in your journey. He believes integrity is all about doing the right thing even if it is inconvenient. He also adds that to create a good reputation you may take a lifetime, but you can lose it instantly! So we must strive to stay ethical."

He emphasizes, a company's success is not determined only by its impressive financial statements; in fact, success has a lot more to do with ethics-based management, organization culture and business practices. This aspect eventually becomes a part of you and has a direct impact on your image in the market. He advises all the young entrepreneurs and professionals to realize that there can be no compromise when it comes to ethics and there are no easy shortcuts to attaining success.

Ali Merchant truly believes that honesty and integrity are the two most important ingredients which make a good leader. And he emphasizes that leaders succeed when they stick to their core values and beliefs and without ethics, success will not be possible. He tells the young generation to see the bigger picture when it comes to making decisions and to consider how the decisions will impact one's future.

The second most important value that he believes is, "Word is Bond". He also mentions that this was one of the valuable qualities that he learned from his father and this particular piece of advice has shaped how he has conducted business ever since. If you make a commitment, no matter what happens, you must deliver it. This is not just about running a business, but it plays an important role in your personal reputation too.

Philanthropic Work
Ali Merchant after attaining this position personally feels that it's very important to give back what we earn for the greater good of society. He believes that it is our individual and collective responsibility to give back to the society that has given so much to us. He also mentions that the society we live in performs a huge role in shaping us, and making us reputable, so we need to give back to the society even more than what the society has given to us. He believes that the journey of Individual Social Responsibility is a personal journey that includes emotional investment, ownership as well as gratification.

Therefore, Ali Merchant helps a lot of people through his non-profit organization Bande Khuda Trust. His trust primarily aims at providing expensive medical aid at free or minimal costs to people who need it the most, he is dedicated to improve healthcare for the poor by providing medical facilities, referral services, awareness and counseling on related issues. He seeks to accomplish his social welfare goals through network of doctors, medical experts, local organizations, community participation and volunteers in the

national and international space. He has helped over 1000 people and wishes to do more through charity and mentoring youth to become successful.

Ali Merchant mentions the importance of Individual Social Responsibility and says that "it is the need of the hour. Whether you consider it as a social welfare initiative or a social duty, it can contribute toward addressing various social problems. As a spin-off, it can improve the quality of life and develop a sense of bonding among individuals. From a cleaning drive to educating or helping poor and needy people or children, there are so many options to get started. Think of a social aspect and you will get to know how you can contribute to it for the betterment of society. More importantly, you can find it out without spending a lot of time. The only thing you need to consider is how you can contribute to it within your capacity".

Positive Attitude is the Key to Success
"Attitude does not emerge from what happens to you, but instead, it emerges from how you decide to interpret what happens to you", believes Ali Merchant. He emphasizes on having a positive attitude by getting rid of negative thoughts and behavior, and starting a happy life with optimism, energy, and zest. He puts forward his thought with a small example, let's say you receive an unexpected gift from someone which is an old automobile. Now some of you might think it's a piece of junk and a few may think it's a cheap transportation, while the others may think it's a real classic. In each of the above cases, the person is deciding how to interpret the event and controls how he or she feels about it. This is where attitude emerges from. He also adds that a positive attitude, optimism, and enthusiasm make everything in business and life much easier.

Today am Infoweb is a leading health information management outsourcing company having a global presence, with state-of-the-art offices across continents

Self-Belief is the Greatest Motivator
`Belief in your own self is one quality that kept me going forward in life, breaking all the barriers and obstacles', says Ali Merchant. If there is one quality that would keep you going against all obstacles in life, it is self-motivation. It is very important to keep in mind that trust we place on ourselves, is the greatest motivator. We must instill in ourselves the belief that we are responsible for our actions and behavior. All gets better when people accept responsibility, including performance, efficiency, relationships, and teamwork, and trust themselves.

Reputation and Character
Ali Merchant, with a decade of experience in running successful businesses and managing thousands of people, states the importance of character and reputation in life. He mentions how people are reputation-oriented and we do anything to keep our credibility intact. He concludes that reputation is the accumulated result of what people think about us, and we try different ways and means of maintaining it, giving one excuse or the other. We must transition from being reputation-oriented to character-oriented. We should be answerable to our conscience, and be our true self, come what may. For success in your life, he says, your character is critical because it defines you.

Finding the Guiding Light
In the journey as an entrepreneur or a professional, there are a lot many smaller components that go into building a successful company or a great career. During his journey, he has managed to narrow down certain skills like business acumen, patience, persistence, determination, etc. that he believes everyone must have apart from the obvious ones in order to succeed. He believes that in to-day's competitive environment everyone must consistently upgrade their knowledge by up-skilling and re-skilling themselves.

”Always stay true to who you are. Irrespective of your success or failure, always maintain your integrity in your journey”

Starting a business or working in a company that you admire can be very exciting. But it's equally important to do your homework, and take measured, meticulous steps. And as a successful businessman, Ali Merchant aims to help young people to be successful in life by providing mentorship and guidance. He believes that helping some-one deal with their personal and professional challenges by sharing his experience in maintaining a work-life balance and his journey of building a successful company while growing and sustaining the personal and professional relationships over time, would bring him immense joy.

Ali Merchant is an inspiration and an exceptional men-tor. He has led by example and through his actions he has exemplified that if one truly wants to achieve something, the aspirant must strive to make it a reality and work hard for it every day.

Optimism vs Wishful Thinking
You can surely experience the talent and positivity in every office of AM Infoweb. To be successful, Ali Merchant urges people to be optimistic without falling into the trap of wishful thinking. He says, "The superficial similarity between optimism and wishful thinking can land any average individual into confusion. Optimism perceives data, facts, and figures as the guide to help a person stay on track and decide their next course of action. If the data is negative, it encourages an individual to plan things carefully by taking the ground realities into consideration.

On the other hand, overconfidence sinks an individual neck-deep in pride and complacency. Despite the facts, figures or data not being favourable to them, an individual gets into overconfidence bias. They start living under the impression that things would fall in place without any effort or intervention. Result? They become adamant by nature and hostile to changes. By the time they realize their mistake, the damage is already done. This is just a precursor to the damaging effects of being a wishful thinker. The serious repercussions of living with it can literally raze an individual and their castle to the ground. Embracing the idea of wishful thinking ultimately proves to be a recipe for disaster for everyone in the end."

He believes, the standard rule for working out the solution to a problem is to admit that there is a problem in the first place. Optimists face no issue in admitting it by calling a spade a spade. As a result, they start looking for ways to address problems.

Ethics in an Organization
Ali Merchant consistently strives to make AM Infoweb's guiding principles a reflection of his ethics. He believes, a business organization must have all the moral ethics and beliefs which help in guiding the values, behaviours as well as the crucial decisions of any organization as well as the employees who work in the organization.

Ali Merchant believes, if a company follows ethical practices based on empathy and compassion, then it will surely add value in the lives of people. Organizational ethics help in taking decisions that will not only help them with work but also benefit the organization as a whole. "You can either be a manager, employee or company executive", he says" your position in the company doesn't matter. What matters the most is the way how you run your business. I believe that following an ethical business practice helps in sustainable business growth, better productivity."

He says, "I am aware of the fact that most of the employers are mostly concerned about the bottom line of the company. It is true, but they are also concerned about the long term profitability of the company as well. You should understand the fact that one cannot follow unethical behaviour for a longer period. Even if the unethical dealings get covered up in the shorter time, once it is discovered, the stock prices fall, and the financial peril worsens. Maintaining ethics in a company allows the managers as well as the employees to make long term investments which lead to the success of the organization."

A Bigger Purpose
He insists that the success of any company depends on the talent of attracting qualified people, but attracting talent is more than simply offering a good salary. People are driven by a purpose.

At AM Infoweb, he implores his qualified professional team to understand what value they are providing. To explain his thought process better, he cites the example of medical record retrieval. He says, "Imagine a woman who is the breadwinner of the family, unfortunately she got hurt and is now unable to work and support her family. Money to run the household is running out. She is dejected and desperate. She is seeking a disability claim, but only timely retrieval of the medical record can ensure that the person receives the benefits that she deserves. Thus, when we do our work right, it make a huge difference in someone's life." This thought process has helped AM Infoweb to become a leader in Health Information Management Outsourcing.

Following Ali Merchant's lead, every member of the AM Infoweb family is committed to adding value and making a difference through the professional expertise and commitment. He says, "We aim to reduce the operations cost of our clients, so that they can pass on the benefits to their end customers. Our mission is to make sure that medical insurance which means security for an individual, legal services which means justice for an individual and medical facilities which means health for individuals is within reach of everyone who need it. I believe these basic needs apart from food and shelter is everyone's right and we are going to help make it so affordable that everyone can have it."

Ali Merchant is leading his company and the business by example. Driven by a beautiful and bold purpose. He aims to continue making a difference in the lives of every-one around him.