This year Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) was a big week for Bangladesh. Events like SparkupBD and Innovation Xtrem marked the week with glamour and fanfare. We hope impact of these events will last long. Bangladesh has seen a lot in last couple of years in terms of promoting and building the eco-system for startups and entrepreneurs. Still we are at infancy. However, we are hopeful for things are moving fast.
Entrepreneurship, as journey, is immeasurably excruciating. In his wonderful book ‘The Hard Thing About Hard Things’ Ben Horwitz says- it is so hard that he never choose to start another company. Even then the reward is way powerful.
Understanding entrepreneurship takes a life time. One needs to walk the path to know the path. Even then we require compass to navigate this tough journey and life and lessons from past fellow travelers are the sources we can rest on for directions. There are wells of knowledge and lessons in the life of successful entrepreneurs.
On the eve of GEW we took time to compile 7 lessons from the life of 7 Bangladeshi entrepreneurs who not only built successful ventures but also changed lives of many people throughout their journey. We hope these lessons will help you to navigate through your journey.
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Professor Muhammad Yunus, Founder, Grameen Bank
So my advice is: stay tough, stay focused, and make it happen. And you can do that; have the confidence- that’s the most important thing. You have the capacity to do that. Just because you could not do it in first time does not mean you don’t have it. It is the question of unleashing that energy, unleashing is always a process, unleashing does not happen just suddenly without anybody’s notice. It needs lots of efforts. So you have to have the efforts and be focused and you will make a wonderful beginning. Be tough, be obsessed, be stubborn, and don’t give up. ~Professor Muhammad Yunus
Read more here.
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Samantha Morshed, Founder, Hathay Bunano
"Every entrepreneur fails through their path! We all fail periodically but for me it’s not about failing but about building on all experiences and using that experience to make things better going forward." ~Samantha Morshed
Read Samantha's Interview here.
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Bibi Russell, Founder, Bibi Productions
For any one, it’s important to know what you are up to before embarking on a journey. ~ Bibi Russell
Read Bibi's Interview here.
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Fazle Hasan Abed, Founder, Brac
Find new ways of responding to the needs of the people you serve”, and always remain a learning organization. ~ Fazle Hasan Abed
Read More here.
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Samson H. Chowdhury, Co-founder, Square
If you stop you will run over ~ Samson H. Chowdhury
Read more here.
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Iraj Islam, Co-founder, NewsCred
I believe the two most important things for an entrepreneur are passion and perseverance. Passion means finding something you really love to do. Your work will occupy a large part of your life so it’s important you choose a line of work that you’re very passionate about. Perseverance means never giving up on your dreams and visions. Entrepreneurship is tough, and you need to persevere through the bad times in order to get to the good times. ~Iraj Islam, Newscred
Read Iraj's Interview here.
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Fahim Mashroor, Co-founder, BDjobs
Patience is critical. It is a long and tough journey. Patience and dedication are two elements that seldom fail. As I said earlier, we want to be rich overnight which is certainly not a good idea. You may find example of shortcut success which is prevalent in our society but you should also look at the definite peril of this approach. We have tried to walk the path instead of seeking easy way of making money. ~Fahim Mashroor Khan, BDJOBS
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Sounds Exciting!!!