In life your only job is to find something you love and then dedicate yourself to it. However, the problem lies in somewhere else. Most people don’t find something that they love. In fact, majority of people don’t try to find something they love. They just keep living as days go by. Very few people work hard to find their passion. From this insignificant number, few people find what they love early and relatively easily. Rishad Ahmed is one of those people.
Rishad fall in love with design when he was at school. Looking at a great art work he wondered what makes great design. Once he started college, Notre dame College Dhaka, he got opportunity to apply his design skill. It gave him popularity and access too many places where otherwise he would not have access. His teachers encouraged him for his skill. These encouragements and acceptance helped Rishad to keep going with his passion.
In life you need side kicker, mentor and people who would push you a little, inspire you during your moment of doubt, and support you when it feels like there is no light ahead.
In life your only job is to find something you love and then dedicate yourself to it. However, the problem lies in somewhere else. Most people don’t find something that they love.
It is one thing to do something out of passion and entirely a different thing to make same thing your living. And once you are young and yet to complete university or just completed your university it becomes a bit stingy. But Rishad chose to be courageous and experiment. He started to work as a freelancer and that experience has become the goldmine of his confidence. For the first time Rishad realized he could make money by doing what he loves. He started to do more of it.
This opportunity to make money worked as a great liberator for Rishad. He started to attend business plan competitions. Won few prizes and saved few bucks. By then he convinced his family that he can do whatever what he wanted to do and survive as well. This gave him opportunity to think beyond his limit.
Rishad loves detail. “I try to observe things, find differences and inconsistency wherever I go, said Rishad, that’s how I found that there is no comprehensive marking and branding company for small and medium enterprises whereas this segment is quite big in our country and their contribution is also not something you can write off.”
He found out that SMEs are losing their market share to big companies in every market. According to SME foundation approximately sixteen thousands SMEs failed to survive every year due to expansion of big brands. He also found out that inability to place themselves properly in-front of customers as a lucrative option is one of the reasons for SME failure.
This is when he came up with the idea of his branding and design startup ‘Horin Branding’. Once he realized the potential he decided to give it a try. After his BBA Rishad resolved not to pursue an MBA and instead go full time in his startup. At the beginning my family asked questions and did not wholeheartedly approved what I was trying to do, said Rishad, but once they saw I was making progress and also earning my living by doing the things I was doing they let me go my way.
Our struggle is often with ourselves. More often than not, we can’t choose either way and get confused. Once we feel confused, we choose rather less risky and little more certain option. But life is all about making the hard choice with courage and hope. Once you are resolved with yourself, the world will come to your way.
‘I want to start my own but how do I manage fund’-this is a common complaint from young people with an entrepreneurial ambition. Rishad’s story has a lesson for them. To start his company Rishad put together money from his own savings from freelancing and prize money they won from attending several competitions.
‘I want to start my own but how do I manage fund’-this is a common complaint from young people with an entrepreneurial ambition. Rishad’s story has a lesson for them. To start his company Rishad put together money from his own savings from freelancing and prize money they won from attending several competitions.
Since we call ourselves a team, said Rishad, we don’t use an office. It has both advantages and disadvantages. It saves us money which is a huge advantage as a startup. But at the same time it makes people doubtful of us because as you know in Bangladesh we have credibility problem and not having an office means if you elope your client would not find you.”
But Rishad and his team is making this tick by their works. So far they have worked with three clients and all of them are super happy. “Our aim is to make our clients our advocates, Said Rishad, we understand that we serve a special category of clients at a cost which is 20 times less than a big branding firm. But we want to provide world class service and work. One of the ways to do it by cutting unnecessary costs”.
Team Horin Branding want to consistently grow big and serve more SMEs to stand out in market and fight back big brands and reclaim their place. We want to keep the growth up, said Rishad, and only ways to do it by doing great works.
It’s incredibly hard to make something from scratch. Unfortunately, we mistake success stories as chances and good fortune and miss all those hard work and midnight toil behind every success.
Our struggle is often with ourselves. More often than not, we can’t choose either way and get confused. Once we feel confused, we choose rather less risky and little more certain option. But life is all about making the hard choice with courage and hope. Once you are resolved with yourself, the world will come to your way.
Really awesome.
I've learned a lot. Thank you Ruhul Kader.