Two weeks back, few students told me about “Invent – The Entrepreneurial Challenge” being hosted by IBA Entrepreneurship Society (IBAES), Karachi. This business plan competition is unique in the sense that it includes steps that attempt to stimulate real life such as having teams that have members both from marketing, financial, management and technical background. I remember during my undergraduate study, Mr. Zia Imran (MD, PSEB and Ex-Chairman, P@SHA) used to discuss with me that we should change the concept of final year projects so that instead of ending final year projects after graduation, students can take their projects forward and convert it to companies. The idea seemed great because it would change the concept of traditional “Job Hunt” and everyone would enjoy their work. Also it would create opportunities for other nationals.

I have just received an email  (more…)

Today i am sharing one of the most inspiring videos of being an entrepreneur. Saw it like 11 months back on GrassHopper.com and whenever i feel down, it helps me in standing up again with new hope. Definitely an energy booster.

A lot of young graduates seem to focus on the wrong things in the beginning of their careers. While they should attend to learning the arts and crafts of the industry, somehow their main focal point remains the salary being offered. This diverts them from entering a golden period of learning the practical tools in the start of their jobs, a training which will essentially translate into their future growth. Instead, they visualize getting a higher starting salary as an effective achievement; and to obtain it, they often make wrong choice of leaving good job offers, just because they pay less.

Perhaps I would not blame the fresh grads for this. Having the sense mentioned above, is a judgement which is required to be given to them by their institutes before spilling them into the job market. But they are too busy making big amount of money from the students. It is but natural, that a graduating student will assume that it is ‘his turn’ now, since he has already paid few lac rupees to the institutes over the past 3 or 4 years. To their disappointment, this is not the case.

For all corporate, a graduating student is a piece of lump which they have to shape up and customize. The knowledge about the industry he got from the school, comprises of only 10% of what is required to do his job. In short, they hire a plain guy which they have to train according to their needs, which required time, money and effort. Do you think in addition to the above hassles they have to face, they would consider giving big amount of money to the trainee? If your answer is yes, think again!

As a fresh graduate, you have to fully and only focus on your immediate target: TO LEARN. Forget about the earning for the first 2 to 3 years of your career. Your job is to learn whatever you can, without worrying about the salary and benefits. Once you are out of this period, you will discover a secret. The organizations will handpick you themselves. It all depends upon how good of a gem you have become by the virtue of your learning. But to get the best, you have to be the best. Remember, there are no shortcuts for experience!

Not only our regular education system keeps falling short of providing a generation fully equipped with industry knowledge to the corporate job market, it also passes on a much bigger challenge to the fresh graduates to cope with in their nascent careers. While they are already struggling with adjusting into the practical world, they find themselves up against a tough task of making themselves compatible to the job market as quickly as possible, because their education gives them only 20% thrust to enter the market. The rest 80% is upto them to conquer, with no helping tools whatsoever.

This shortcoming of compatibility is the first step in killing the motivation of the fresh graduates. Their immediate target; to be accepted by ANY multinational company; is a very short-term aim which drains their energy and out-of-the-box thinking. By the time they are successful in making their way into the job mainstream, their whole thinking pattern has been transformed into doing-only-what-you-are-being-told. No one dares to challenge anything, thanks to the corporate culture. Good bye innovative thinking!

While this methodical suppression exists pretty much everywhere, there are a few mavericks who dare to break the spell. Although most of us focus on ‘what’ they did to get such success, a more interesting insight would be on ‘when’ they started to separate out themselves from the rest of the herd. You will find a majority of them having a clear vision of their dreams inside their academic institutes, and accordingly aligning themselves before they graduate. This gives them the courage and dare required to pursue their innovation, a must-have tool to start any new business.

Do not let your innovation go down. Do not let yourself get sucked by the whirlpool of job finding. Creative thinking is a blessing; do not let it go to waste. Dream high and act in time!

EntrepreneursPK Team is glad to inform its readers that 5 Pakistanis have been honored with the Young Global Leader 2010 title by the World Economic Forum. Those who have made us proud this year are Mr. Amir Jahangir (CEO, JAAG Broadcasting (Pvt.) Ltd.), Mr. Hamid Yar Hiraj (Federal Minister of State, Commerce), Mr. Muhammad Ali Tabba (CEO, Lucky Cement), Syed Mustafa Kamal (Ex-Mayor/City Nazim, Karachi) and Mr. Umar Saif (Founder, Saif Center of Innovation (SCI) ).

It feels great to know that our fellow country men are part of the list that includes Roger Federer, Professional Tennis Player (from Switzerland), Evan Williams, CEO Twitter  (from the USA) and Mandla Mandela, Member of Parliament of the South African National Congress (from South Africa) etc.

This Forum of Young Global Leaders is a unique, multi-stakeholder community of exceptional young leaders who share a commitment to shaping the global future. Each year the World Economic Forum identifies 200-300 extraordinary individuals, drawn from every region of the world. The individuals recognized are under 40 years of age and are evaluated on the basis of their professional accomplishments, commitment to society and potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world. Together, they form a powerful international community that can dramatically impact the global future.

WEF on 3^rd March 2010 has announced the names of 197 people from 72 countries who are to join the Forum of Young Global Leaders in 2010. Those selected are all stakeholders of society (business, social entrepreneurs, political&government, arts&culture, and opinion&media). They represent all regions: East Asia (43), South Asia (21), Europe (46), Middle East and North Africa (14), sub-Saharan Africa (17), North America (38), and Latin America (18) and this year’s selection has more gender parity than ever with 38% women.

Drawn from a pool of almost 5,000 candidates, the Young Global Leaders 2010 were chosen by a selection committee, chaired by H.M. Queen Rania Al Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, comprised of eminent international media leaders.

The 2010 honourees will become part of the broader Forum of Young Global Leaders community that currently comprises 660 outstanding individuals. The Young Global Leaders meet annually and this year’s summit will be held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 2-7 May. It is the first time a summit will take place in Africa and it will also be the largest gathering of the community.

We wish and hope that the trend continues and 2011 YGL Honourees list contains names of many more local impact makers.

There have been some queries majorly “How are we different from http://StartUps.PK?” If I answer this in one sentence, it would be “Give us time and you’ll get to know yourself.”  The people at Mezino Technologies are great friends and they even allowed us to use their feed for News Aggregation but let us clarify that we have a different agenda onboard. Also a request was made to us not to restrict this to only technology ventures thus we have decided to lift the bar and now professionals from all walks of life can contribute.

Adding to it, it’s not about us writing for our favorites. We welcome other fellow entrepreneurs, mentors, professionals and organizations who wish to be part of the community to get in touch with us and we’ll issue them personal or company accounts to log in their stuff.

I feel so privileged to have so many high achievers and outstanding mentors around me. Perhaps my association with a top educational institute of the country has something to do with it. I thought and still think that networks like P@SHA, CIO, TiE, Google are doing great work in making people aware about how they can change their lives and have great contribution in the developing the current entrepreneurial culture amongst the youth buy doxycycline without prescription and within different organizations.

However, a recent lecture to university students of far flung areas of NWFP and Southern Punjab made me feel that we are going somewhere wrong. The students didn’t know about great platforms like IEEE, TIE, TED, Rozee, WebStudio or even blogging world. Following this experience, I got a chance to mentor few students from Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences (BUITEMS) for their final year projects. The way they narrated their stories and how difficult it was for them to reach this point made me cry my heart out. Even their universities didn’t support their travel and they came cialis reviews all the way to see what’s going on here at elite institutes.

Analyzing this, I reached the conclusion that whenever any of us is asked to deliver lectures or inspirational speech at any university outside the business cities, most of us are unable to commit time due to our busy schedules. We are restricting our activities within Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi or max Faisalabad and it’s now high time to reach out people of other cities. Perhaps the slogan “There is a world outside Pakistan” should be a bit modified to “There is a world outside ISB, KHI and LHR” because I feel we are trying to reach out the international market without exploring the national market.

Though Startups.Pk is already doing a good work making a Wiki of Startup Companies & Entrepreneurs in Pakistan, we are establishing it as a side forum for all the entrepreneurs and startups to share their experiences and promote their products amongst the community. We aim to provide visibility and meaningful networking opportunities to first generation Young Pakistani Entrepreneurs, Start-ups and all the Self made professionals. Also our plans are to identify the real Pakistani Heroes especially from smaller towns and cities, and showcase their ventures, motivations, challenges and successes.

All of us have a story to tell. And like a Bollywood flick each story has a lead actor, a protagonist whom we all love, the one who fights against all the odds and finally emerges a winner. EntrepreneursPk chronicles the lives of these heroes, who have charted their own path and scripted their own story. We will try to bring you stories of entrepreneurs from across Pakistan who are continually redefining their lives and, in the process, changing our country’s story. We want to show the world especially our own youth what great work we are doing and whom they can look up for help when required because it has become a norm amongst us to give examples of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg. Why can’t we give examples of Mian Mansha of Nishat Group, Javid Saifullah of The Saif Group, Gohar Ejaz of Ejaz Group, Saleem Ghauri of NETSOL and those who have made a difference while being in Pakistan? If we want to change Pakistan, grow as a nation, we would have to encourage “problem solving” and open up minds instead of opening more and more software houses because there are lots of people in Pakistan who have very successfully rolled out high-tech startups, acquired funding and established themselves in the local and global market.

With this I am signing off with the first post of the blog. We want every one of you to contribute in making the initiative successful. All the innovators, technologists, entrepreneurs, product idea throwers are welcome to write to us on editors@entrepreneurs.pk and subscribe to our newsletter at http://entrepreneurs.pk/subnews We value your story, and so do our readers!  🙂