A couple of weeks ago I wrote an email that made me $25k.

Today I’d like to tell you how.

For many years I had bought into the myth that pursuing humanities was a recipe for a meager existence. I didn’t just buy into it, I lived it.

My first career was in Islamic Finance. I knew that my Harvard degree was supposed to unlock the “good life,” but I had my eyes set on the true prize of succeeding in the akhira.

When I discovered the nascent field of Shari’a-compliant investing, I thought I had solved this dilemma. Islamic finance was a way for me to “have my biryani and eat it too” — to build wealth and plant seeds to be harvested in Janna at the same time.

Within a short time, however, I realized I had made a mistake. I was a man of letters, not numbers. I thrived on ideas, not Bloomberg spreadsheets.

The Pivot: From Islamic Finance to Education

In 2003, just two years after graduating, I made a pivotal shift—moving from the corporate world of Islamic investing to the more humble world of education.

I told myself that I was giving up a life of wealth for one of purpose.

My classmates used to mock my choice of major at Harvard: Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.

They would say things like, “Studying ancient Islamic philosophy and theology sounds like a real money maker.”

I would dismiss these barbs with vague statements about how I would leverage my position as a westerner fluent in Arabic to connect the Middle East with the West.

Deep down, however, their words ate away at me. By the time I made the transition to education, I had emotionally embraced the starving artist trope.

For 20 years I pursued a deeply meaningful career as an English teacher at international, private, and Islamic schools. Alhamdulillah, I helped close to 1000 students deepen their understanding of English and themselves.

I led a “good life,” marked by ample time for tennis, long walks, and summers in Maine.

I don’t regret my decision one bit.

But I never earned a salary above $60k.

Eventually the financial realities of raising two children in the States as well as the daily frustrations of a teacher’s life—administrative red tape, unruly students, lunch duty—started to chafe away at me.

I knew I needed to make a change, but I was held back by what I call “altruistic anchors.”

Every time I contemplated leaving, I would tell myself things like, “These kids need me,” and “If I leave, who is going to replace me?”

The Entrepreneurial Awakening

But an entrepreneurial idea that had long been germinating finally sprouted during the waning days of the pandemic. I could take my expertise of helping place Muslim teenagers into the country’s top colleges and start a company to deliver these services to the umma as a whole.

On a whim, I called up another Muslim convert who had also gone to Harvard and had also followed his heart, buying a farm in Western Mass where he sold organic vegetables and pasture-raised Zabiha poultry.

“How’s farm life treating you?” I asked.

“The farm went bankrupt a few years ago. The business model was broken. I didn’t realize that being a business owner meant more than just doing good work.”

“So, what are you doing now?”

“Copywriting for an Islamic publishing house.”

“You mean like getting patents and stuff?”

“No, no, that’s copyrighting, I’m copywriting.”

“Copywriting is the art of using words to spur action. It is a way to use your English skills to sell things and translate your writing into money.”

Those few words changed everything.

The Power of Copywriting: Turning Words into Wealth

For so long I had seen writing as a mere hobby, a way to explore my creative genius, but never as a vehicle for monetization. Sure, I could write a book or become a journalist, but I told myself that it was highly unlikely I could ever make real money from it.

But here was a way to leverage my greatest strength to financial success.

Almost exactly one year from this conversation, I wrote an email that brought me $25k in revenue.

After a year of studying copywriting, hosting webinars, writing an eBook, sending two emails a week, writing this newsletter, and turning on a low-budget FB ad, I had built a “tribe” of thousands.

It turns out that all this patient groundwork had built up a lot of pent-up demand within my audience.

I enrolled in a life-changing course called High Impact Coaching, and my business coach urged me to send out a "blunt post," a short email stating my offer in plain terms.

And so I did. I used all I had learned about copywriting and composed one of the shortest messages I had ever sent to my audience.

Here is the $25k email:

I was aiming to build a cohort of 12 for an 8-week program called “Find Your Qibla.” Within two weeks, I had scheduled 25 calls with prospective clients.

Anatomy of “Find Your Qibla”

FYQ is designed to solve the very problem I had been suffering from my entire professional life—how to design an akhira-focused career that both aligns with your values and gives you financial freedom.

The goal of FYQ is to guide students in identifying two qiblas.

First, it instills the “qibla” of the akhira: the conviction that true success is solely achieved by pleasing Allah and securing a place in Paradise. Second, it helps students discover their dunyawi “qibla,” a ‘big’ vision for their future that will become their north star, allowing them to unlock tremendous success in their worldly lives.

With those two qiblas identified, the students then work backwards to design a “Saturday Morning Project” that harmonizes with their vision.

It could be a podcast, a YT channel, an entrepreneurial venture, an NGO, or any other heart-centered enterprise. This Saturday Morning Project will become something so exciting to these teenagers that they will eagerly wake up early on weekend mornings to work on it throughout high school.

The benefit of FYQ is that they will have developed an impeccable character inspired by the sunna, a compelling vision of how to achieve worldly success, and a fully fleshed out project aligned with their qiblas that will wow admissions committees and get them into the college of their dreams, inshAllah.

The message clearly resonated with my audience because, by the end of a frenetic two weeks and 25 inspiring conversations, I had filled the cohort of 12 and brought in a revenue of $25k.

Why, oh why, is copywriting not taught in high school and college English classes?

Who would have thought that I could earn nearly half a year’s salary by following my heart and leaning into my strength as a writer?

Far more important than the money, however, is the life-changing impact that FYQ will, inshAllah, have on those teenagers.

The Broader Lessons and Moving Forward

So, my message to parents and students who believe that the only path to financial stability lies in pursuing STEM education or becoming a lawyer is clear: words can be just as lucrative as numbers.

If you believe in Allah and believe in yourself, you can move mountains.

You just have to find your qibla first.

If you found this article insightful and would like to know the next time a spot in FYQ opens up, join the thousands of readers just like you on my Five Before College email list. Every Monday and Thursday I send out college and education tips interspersed with Islamic wisdom to help teenagers succeed in this world and the next.

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