When 250 People Said No |And Why I Am Grateful For Every Single One
By Jamal Ahmad Khan | Amal Academy Career Prep Fellowship B371
I never thought collecting donations would teach me more about leadership than any boardroom or tax tribunal ever has.
But it did.
This week, as part of the Amal Academy Fellowship, our batch was given a challenge: raise funds for the Abdul Sattar Edhi Foundation. No script. No guarantee of success. Just us, our networks, and the courage to ask strangers for something.
I want to tell you honestly what happened.
The Plan
I started with what felt comfortable. I drafted a WhatsApp message, posted on LinkedIn and Facebook with the Edhi Foundation bank account details, and reached out to friends and family. Within hours, the first donations came in. PKR 500 here. PKR 2,000 there. It felt good. It felt easy.
Then I ran out of comfortable
The Moment It Got Real
The instructions said to approach businesses and strangers. So I did something I had never done before. I walked into shops near my home and asked the owners to donate to Edhi Foundation.
The first shop said no.
The second shop said no.
The third shop said no.
By the fourth shop, I noticed something changing inside me. Not discouragement. Something else. A kind of quiet determination. I realised that rejection was not the end of the conversation. It was just part of it.
The fifth stop was Quetta Hotel. I walked in, explained what I was doing, and the owner listened. He donated.
Then I visited a local electricity company. The owner not only listened but transferred the funds directly from his own personal account in front of me.
Two businesses out of five. That is a 40% conversion rate. In sales, that is extraordinary.
The Numbers
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By the end of the campaign I had reached out to more than 250 people. Over 100 were friends and family. More than 150 were strangers. I visited 5 businesses in person. I published posts on LinkedIn and Facebook. I sent WhatsApp messages. I made phone calls.
17 people donated. Total collected: PKR 7,521 for the Abdul Sattar Edhi Foundation.
Some of the most meaningful contributions were the smallest ones. A stranger who sent PKR 10. Another who sent PKR 11. These were not wealthy people making large gestures. These were ordinary people choosing to trust a fellow human being they had never met.
That moved me more than any large transfer.
What Leadership Actually Looks Like
Before this activity, I thought leadership meant making decisions from a position of authority. Supervising a team. Representing a client in a tax tribunal. Standing at a podium.
This week taught me something different.
Leadership is asking when you are afraid of being told no. Leadership is walking into a stranger’s shop and believing enough in your cause to feel the embarrassment of rejection and still walk into the next one. Leadership is posting on social media about something that matters to you even when you are not sure anyone will respond.
Amal Academy calls it #JustStart. I now understand why.
The hardest part of any meaningful effort is not the work itself. It is overcoming the internal resistance to beginning. Every person who donated did so because someone started the conversation. That someone had to be me.
What I Am Taking Forward
I will carry three things from this experience into my professional life.
First, the willingness to ask. Whether I am pitching a client, negotiating a position, or requesting a meeting with someone I admire, the worst answer is no. And no is survivable.
Second, the power of consistency over perfection. I did not have a perfectly produced campaign. I had a simple message, a real cause, and the discipline to keep reaching out even when most people did not respond.
Third, genuine gratitude. Every single person who donated, from PKR 10 to PKR 2,000, gave something real. I am deeply grateful to each of them.
To Momina Malik, Snober Baig, Ahsan Adalat, Anis Idrees, Muhammad Shaheryar Khan, Muhammad Abdullah, Rubab Fatima Kiyani, Uswah Mubeen, Zohaib Sajid, Ehsan Muneeb Atta, Areeba Tufail, Muhammad Umar, and every anonymous donor: JazakAllah Khair. You made this real.
This blog was written as part of Project Work 5: Amal Academy Career Prep Fellowship B371, Spring 2026.
