Mohammed Esmail
- President
- Esmail Financial Strategies
School Information
School: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
College Major: Business
Years at College Works: 2004
Career Information
Working For: Esmail Financial Strategies
Title: President
Industry: Finance
Brief Description of Duties / Responsibilities:
Financial planning, investments, and insurances for high net worth retail clients and small businesses.
What Has Been Your Proudest Accomplishment Post-CWP?Joining the family business and helping to take it to the next level. We’ve had sustained growth for 6 of the past 7 years, despite going through one of the toughest financial recessions in history.
College Works Career Impact
In one sentence, what has CW meant to you?
College Works Painting was my first experience running a business, and it taught me that all business comes down to developing sales skills and putting in the effort.
How did your CW experience impact your career? Immediately after graduation? Now?
College Works Painting helped me develop my sales skills, presentation skills, and time management, all of which I use every single day.
What do you want to tell your clients about what it meant to work with them and how it has helped you get to where you are today?
Thanks for trusting a college kid with no painting experience with doing work on your most important asset. Looking back on it now, the trust you showed me gave me a lot of confidence to continue growing with the rest of my career.
What was the greatest lesson you learned from your CW experience?
The key to success is to keep going after it gets hard and you are ready to go home and quit.
If you had to come up with a one line slogan for CW, what would it be?
Giving young entrepreneurs the skills and training essential to future success.
Advice
What advice do you have for potential CW participants? Current CW participants?
Give the College Works Painting internship it your true best shot. If you slack off, you’ll always wonder how far you could have taken your business.
What’s your best advice for someone interested in entering your career field?
Learning business skills, sales and presentation skills, marketing, finance, and managing employees will help you in every single position you may have in the future. You will have decades to master your target industry, but you won’t have a chance like College Works Painting again.
What’s your favorite memory from CW?
My first sale. You’ll always remember it.
Last words of wisdom?
Don’t know if I have any wisdom to share, so I’ll just say Thank you!