About me?
My name is Ashraf Ibrahim (Ash). I’m a physician by education and carry +25 years of experience in the field of executive management in the sophisticated world of the healthcare industry. I’m interested in the fields of self-development, performance improvement, and professional communication. I have 6 books in these fields, all are under review for printing. I’m currently settled in Canada and working on more disruptive and innovative theories in the field of business communication and performance theories.
Why do I write books?
I carry +25 years of experience, most of them at the executive level of the extremely sophisticated and complex environment of the healthcare industry. During this quarter of a century of experience, I had my share of successes, but I also had my share of mistakes and failures! Most of these failures were because I didn't have a mentor to guide me through the organizational labyrinth I was working in. I thought the right thing to do is to share this experience and my real-life lessons with those looking for guidance and support navigating their way to professional success.
What is my specialty?
Professional self-development and career enhancement is my area of passion and expertise. With special emphasis on the two areas of: 1) business performance improvement and 2) business communication.
What makes my books special?
Great question!
1) I write based on my experience, research, and readings. I'm not interested in theories as much as I'm interested in practical and actionable advice. I was blessed with two things: First, I made all kinds of mistakes one can do at work! Two, I was given the gift of learning from my mistakes and moving forward accordingly. These two points make my writings make perfect sense to those struggling in the organizational maze.
2) In my writing, I focus on the "how", not the "why". In most of my readings, I find authors, even the great ones, spending too much time explaining what should be common sense. When I buy a book about "being indispensable at work", then it goes without saying that I'm interested in this topic and I want to learn "how" to be indispensable. So, it doesn't make any sense to me to find the first three chapters talking about "why" being indispensable is important. This is where I'm different; I want to tell you how to do things better, not why you should do them better. While reading my books you'll find yourself grabbing a pen and a paper and taking notes about what you "should" do after reading this book. I don't leave you inspired; I leave you guided and ready for the action!
3) The way I present my work is quite different. Being a physician by education I learned the importance of drawing, illustrations, and mapping in delivering complex messages. So all my books contain illustrations to facilitate the delivery of my key messages.
As a matter of fact, my illustrations proved to be of a great impact that I'm collecting them in separate books! So, for each topic, I discuss there are two books: one is a visual and light-hearted that carries the illustrations and graphics that deliver my message, and another one that carries the hard-core data and the full message I want to deliver to my readers. Isn't this new?!
If your books are so good as you say ... Why aren't you that famous?
Each of us has their points of strengths and points of weaknesses, and one of my biggest points of weaknesses is my social media presence. I just can't turn my writings into posts on social media and pay ads for people to see them. When it comes to self-publicity, I'm a very traditional person and extremely classical author. Get one of my books, read it, if you don't like it from the first chapter you can throw it away, it will cost you less than a decent cup of coffee! And if you like it then you can check for my other authorships, but I can't compete with social media professionals trying to put my face on an ad or a newsfeed. It's just not me!
