Everyone in the world is a consumer of various products, but the way they buy defines their purchasing power, and also the ability of their vendors. Thus, we generally believe that a person who is selling his products from house to house or in the streets, will never be able to travel even to sell his products to the most famous and powerful people in the world. But your thinking is wrong. Nothing in this world is impossible nor practically no boundaries, when you have the founder of Insigne Carpet Asif Rahman Like determination.
Asif was born and raised in a normal Kolkata-based family. His father worked in a jute mill that was proficient in Arabic and his mother was a housewife from whom he learned Sanskrit. Asif completed his graduation from Kolkata University in the year 1988 and started looking for a job, he desperately needed it.
Asif got his first job accidentally when he was standing and looking at a carpet in a carpet shop on Park Street, Kolkata. Overwhelmed by Asif’s curiosity, the shopkeeper called him in and after some initial inquiries offered him a job as a door-to-door salesman. Already struggling with his desperate job, Asif quickly said yes.
“My father was a laborer in a jute mill, who specialized in Arabic, mother was a Sanskrit master and I was unemployed, Asif told a conversation with Kenfolioz.”
After embarking on a career journey in the carpet industry, Asif only knew that it would be his constant hard work that would pave the way for his success. As a door-to-door salesman, Asif faced all physical and psychological challenges including extreme hard work and humiliation. Asif continued to learn and developed into an expert in the carpet business. The expertise soon gave him an opportunity for better employment at a carpet businessman based in Bhadohi and he worked there till 2003. In the year 2003, Asif had the opportunity to work with a carpet company based in New York.
In his long tenure of eight years with a New York-based company, Asif majored in the carpet industry from an international perspective and developed good contacts in the business. At the same time, he had the idea of starting his own business and he laid the foundation of his dream under the banner of Insigne Carpets. Asif soon received his first order – a small contract to design carpet for the entrance lobby of the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Mumbai. The Taj Group has strict criteria for its supplier, yet Asif received the contract only on the basis of reliability. IHCL officials took special permission to include Asif in the supplier’s list.
Since then, it has been a combination of creativity, precision and quality that made Insigne Carpets a leading carpet manufacturer. Asif made extraordinary efforts to connect carpet artisans across the nation. Today Insigne Carpets has a team of 13 designers and 18 offices worldwide and manufacturing facilities in India and China.
Insigne’s clients include large five-star hotels and airports, private and commercial jets, and assets belonging to the world’s wealthiest and most influential people. Some of Insigne’s best projects include carpeting the personal yacht of the prince of Abu-Dhabi. His client list also includes companies like Google, Louis Vuitton etc.
The person who ever sold a product from door to door, worked hard day and night, fought the situation firmly and today stands on the top rung of success. His story is really full of inspiration.