Success Map

We met with Murad Mammadov during the presentation of his book “Success map” in which he talked about how young people, regardless of physical limitations can achieve great milestones. We decided to continue our conversation in one of the city's cafes.

About the book

“Actually, I was thinking of writing this book for a long time, but waited to be morally ready for it” - says Murad. It was not a problem for him to choose the topic of the book. Despite the many difficulties in his life, he had enough success stories. That is why the hero of our story decided to share his life achievements with his peers. In the book, Murad tells the story of the problems that arose on his way, including education, career and daily life, and the methods which he utilized to sole them.

“I do not believe that any person having a purpose in life, will not be motivated and will not be able to succeed. And in the book I give a lot of real-world examples from personal life. Here we do not have hypothesis but rather experience”- says Mammadov.

About career

Murad had a disability since childhood, he could not walk, and therefore did not receive education at school. When he was 18 years old and his peers had graduated from school, he was going through a difficult period. He had neither a profession, nor work skills. Thinking about a future career was unthinkable. Therefore, he decided to start with something simple – to work as a cashier in the computer center. The daily symbolic salary was about 1-2 manats (1-2 euros), just enough for 1 sandwich and a bottle of water. Several years passed, and Murad learned that there was a local public organization (“Müstəqil Həyat” İnkişaf və Dəstək Mərkəzi - “Independent Life” Development and Support Center) addressing problems of people with disabilities and joined its ranks. For a long time he was a listener of the various thematic trainings for trainers. Also, from time to time he participated in local and international events related to the protection of the rights of people with disabilities and their integration into society. All these helped the hero of our story to get a lot of experience and skills in this area.

“It was very difficult to use not adapted for people like me, public transport to get to the office, to the venue of the event. At times it was unbearable. But there was no choice for me. To achieve a successful career, it was necessary to overcome these obstacles,”- says Murad. And he succeeded. As a result, years later, he became a coach in the non-governmental sector on disability issues and has achieved a number of successes as an expert in this field. For the last 5 years, he maintains his own blog, conducts seminars and trainings on motivation, where he shows personal life experience on how you can be successful regardless of physical and material constraints. Moreover, now 26-year-old Murad works at the information center in one of the commercial banks in the country.

“For me the most important thing is to get pleasure from work. Today, having a sufficiently large number of my own readers, listeners of seminars and trainings, I am very glad of being active in the public sector. In addition, I believe that I also do a good job helping the customers of the bank where I work”- Mammadov says.

About future

He is convinced that his example will have a positive impact on the society to break the stereotype, formed over the years with respect to people with disabilities. It will also give impetus to their personal development, garner support from the government and the citizens.

His main dream, of course, is to assist in solving the social problems of people with disabilities. To do this, he will try to help using his experience and skills. Well, if the reader will enjoy his first book, he very willingly will start working on the second one.

“Moreover, - to save money for a car to quickly and easily move around the city” – laughingly conclude Murad.