Meet Noor Hamid

We recently connected with Noor Hamid and have shared our conversation below.

Noor , we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

The path to purpose is multifaceted. It’s never a straight line from start to finish. I’ve always admired, and yet disdained the predestined life of people who chose a straight forward career path, like my husband. He’s a dentist, and the framework for his career was paved for him, every step of the way handed to him in a syllabus of life. So many before him that could guide him and tell him of the next step to make.

I however, was not so “lucky.” I married my husband quite young, and while he started dental school, I was half way through college, flying through my coursework since I was a diligent student and maxed out my class load every semester. At 16 years old I had graduated high school with 24 credits of college under my belt. By 17 I needed to pick a major in college since I had completed all the general prerequisites. Who was I at that age? What potential did I possess that I hadn’t ever tapped in to? How does one figure out who they are, and who they could be so young? I knew I liked the arts, but I didn’t want to get a degree in something that was not a solid four year college diploma. That eliminated the possibility of pursing any of the creative fields I had an inclination towards. I knew even at that age that I shouldn’t do culinary school or fashion school like my heart desired.

I wanted a stable career I could lean on, and could work easily once I was a mother, and have the same schedule as my children, and would be able to find a job anywhere we would end up living. My father suggested I go into education since I loved teaching little kids at Sunday school. I knew it wasn’t perfect for me, but I knew I hated wasting my time more than anything, so I went ahead and signed up for the courses and the rest was history. I graduated with my bachelors in Elementary Education the month after I turned 19, the youngest graduate ever from FAU at the time. I found a job immediately and started working right away. I can safely say that I knew better than ever that I had picked the wrong career to pursue, and deeply regretted my choice. I had a difficult first job, wrangling a fourth grade class that was notoriously the worst class in the entirety of that Pre-K-12th grade school. There were days I would be crying by dismissal, and would dream of being able to leave the profession. The second job I had was in a much better school, and I enjoyed teaching more. The students were sweet and I was able to focus more on the education rather than the classroom management, but ultimately, I knew that the second I didn’t have to work to support us anymore, I would not be returning to any classrooms.

My short-lived career as an educator came to pass when my husband graduated and we moved back to his hometown of Tampa. We had our first baby about a year and a half later, and I reveled in spending my time being a first time mom. I enjoyed every second of having her and raising her. Joined every baby group and went to all the playdates, and prided myself in being the best mom I could be, but ultimately there was a part of me that remained unfulfilled. I needed a business for myself. I needed a creative outlet, and to have an identity for myself outside of the house and being her mom. I knew I was capable of a lot more than what I was doing, and as much work as that was, my mind was unchallenged. The monotony of day to day routines made me dream of who I could have been outside of the thankless tasks I was completing day in and day out. Around the time my daughter was one and a half or so I started two side businesses: Lush Desserts, and Noor Hamid Designs. I started baking for Lush Desserts, and embroidering for NHD. It quickly turned into more work than I anticipated, and very little profit. Neither were set up with a solid business model to be able to scale or truly succeed, and I had drained myself completely by spending my precious extra time on either endeavor.

Quitting both businesses came with a mix of emotions. A part of me knew they were never going to be more than what they were. I felt a sense of relief and excitement to be free of those commitments, but still craved the ability to be creative and run my own company. That was all put on the back burner for the next almost decade, while I raised my family. We had another pregnancy when my daughter was two and a half, that was a Turners Syndrome baby girl. We kept her for as long as we could, giving her a fighting chance, but her survival rate was less than 1%, so we were just biding our time. We had her at 21 weeks 3 days into the pregnancy, just enough for her to be considered a stillbirth, and earned her a burial plot with her very own plaque that reads Jenna Hamid Mubarak. After processing that loss, we went on to have our first of three back to back boys. I enjoyed staying at home with him too, but he was a much more difficult child. As much as I would have preferred to keep him home until he was four like his sister, I knew he and I both needed him to be in a structured environment. The month I sent him off to school I fell pregnant with our second boy. That wasn’t exactly planned the way I had hoped but we took it in stride. We had him and I continued on my motherhood journey, until he was nine months old and I found out I was having baby number four. That was a curve ball that I was not ready for at all. I was barely getting my head above water with the three kids, and now there was another one coming. The biggest thing I felt that was slipping from me was myself. My identity. My capacity to do anything more than cook, clean, and change diapers. I decided that I was done waiting for an easier season of life to start another company. The issue was, in what field. Again, I knew I was good at designing, but the question was designing what? I was fully split between pursuing a fashion line and starting an interior design company. The amount I prayed over it was exhausting, and I felt like I had no clear answer. It was a coin toss, so I actually chose fashion.

I flew to Turkey at 23 weeks pregnant with our youngest baby, and met with a production team to start getting some samples made. We made fabric selections, designed and produced a few beautiful samples that I still own, and I was quite ready to begin my fashion journey. The production team told me they would need to block off two weeks from their schedule for me to come back and for them to focus just on my line. I was to go home, have the baby and contact them when I was ready to come back. I went back home and had my last baby, got him a passport and contacted the team that I was ready to fly over to start the line. I heard nothing back for months, then a short message saying they were sorry, and that they had a busy campaign they were working on and for me to tell them when I could come. I messaged them back again saying I was ready to come, and I heard nothing back. At that point I knew that it wasn’t meant to be. I’m very much a believer that when something is not going smoothly, even while I’m working on it, that it wasn’t meant to be and to pivot. I decided that the answer to my prayers was to choose interior design instead. I started my company Noor Hamid Interiors in April 2020, right at the start of Covid. It seemed like the absolute worst time to start a company, right when the world shut down and everything was so uncertain, but it turned out to be the best industry I could have pursued. If I had gone through with a fashion line it would have most certainly failed without even having had a chance at success.

I see life as a series of conscious choices, and some curveballs being thrown your way. You can either take it in stride and figure it out within your circumstances, or become a passenger in your own life. I prefer to live consciously. If something doesn’t make sense, let it go. If something does make sense, try your hand at it for a while, and if it’s not working, pivot. And for the love of God, pray. Ask His guidance, and listen to the whispers of answers that come your way. Finding purpose is a life long venture. It changes with every passing season, but it should be something that is done with the consideration of your responsibilities, priorities, morals, natural abilities, and dreams. When it all converges, that’s when you have magic.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

A part of my journey in the past few years of living consciously was to analyze my life. I needed to identify the aspects of my current life that I was not satisfied with, and to take steps to mitigate them. I knew I wanted to be more involved in charity and the community, so I joined a group called 200 Muslims Women Who Care. After joining that, I was asked to be the chair for 200 MWWC for HOPE, Hillsborough Operation for Peace and Equality. I felt that I’m able to make a difference in my local community.

I also felt that there were areas in my career where I could grow. Being a designer for four years, I have identified some gaps in the industry that I’m working on mending. I’ve realized here in the US and Canada, most retailers share a lot of the same sources of furniture, and everything has become mass produced, and it’s frustrating shopping for unique pieces. It’s been the most frustrating when you see the prices of furniture when you try to go custom. You’re charged an extra 30% right off the bat just to change the size of a sofa that’s already overpriced. You’re penalized again when you want to use your own fabric for upholstering one of their frames. It’s like this across the board.

As a designer, half the job is the curate your list of sources, whether that’s for products or services, that can help you execute your vision. That’s why I’ve started another company called Interiors Source. The company is open to the trade only, and aims to aid designers, retailers, contractors, and developers with everything they need regarding interiors. We are your one stop shop for interiors sourcing. We carry everything from furniture, cabinetry, woodwork, stone fabrication, lighting, rugs, flooring, window treatments, wallpaper, decor, hardware, 3D renderings, and design services.

Building a house and the customer needs custom window treatments that match the furniture they want custom made, we can make that happen. We have custom furniture manufacturing and upholstering. Want to custom order lighting, carpentry, cabinetry, rugs, etc, we have all our sources ready to go. Need to source lighting, rugs, decor, furniture and wallpaper for a job, we can source it, put it together in a presentation for you, and send it to you to present to your clients. Do you need someone to make it a 3D rendering for you, we can get that done too. This is a service that would have helped me a lot, and still would until now. We work directly with the manufacturers and tradesmen so the prices are much more advantageous than the trade discounts designers or contractors receive at retailers. The goal of this company is to be a marketplace for everything one would need to complete a design job, from multiple manufacturers per category, and a variety of aesthetics.

Another aspect I would like to pursue is property development, whether for myself or with a developer. I would love to get my hands on some massive projects that need complete designing from beginning to end, from commercial to residential projects. Being from Atlanta, and traveling so much in my life I have an eye for design that is quite confused as to why so much construction in Florida is cookie cutter and unimaginative. Give me character, give me refinement, give me sophistication, give me timelessness. That’s what I crave when I design, along with ensuring the design’s durability, comfortability, and livability. An achievable sophistication and refined lifestyle is what I strive to focus on in my designs.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I think looking back the most impactful skill I had was to challenge the status quo. I knew to marry early I needed to finish high school early. That was my motivating factor to taking night classes, summer courses, and dual enrollment in college while still in high school. I had to get permission from the school counselor to be able to do that, and she said no. I had to challenge her all the way up to the superintendent to be able to change the way things had been done. I’ve never really seen rules the same since then. If something is a certain way and it doesn’t make sense, I will question it and challenge it. I see it now with my work, and career, and I see it in how I view life.

Another impactful skill I believe has helped me a lot is to be diligent and persistent. Trying and failing and trying again has taught me the need to be able to get up and try again in a different way. Learn from my mistakes, and the mistakes of others. Be able to put your head down and do the annoying or overwhelming work that you’re trying to avoid. Think of it as the tortoise and the hare. Be the tortoise. Be consistent, and diligent. You’ll be surprised at the amount of progress that brings.

The last quality I would say that would have helped me a lot is to be flexible. I truly believe that everything happens for a reason. And sometimes those reasons can be quite obscure to us when we’re blinded by the emotion of a certain situation. Take in advice, and listen to the universe when things aren’t going your way. I know at the end the right thing will happen, so long as I prayed about it, and listened to the answers.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

I am open to looking for a partner in Interiors Source. Ideally they would have expertise in sourcing directly from manufacturers internationally and have experience with shipping, logistics, and customs when importing from different countries to the US. If you’re interested you can email me at contact@noorhamidinteriors.com.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.noorhamidinteriors.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noorhamidinteriors/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/noorhamidinteriors
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noorhamid/

Image Credits

Photo of the pool is by Jesus Trevino.