The following is a presentation of a talk I gave on February 07, 2025, to a group of passionate startup and SME founders at Social Innovation and Incubation Programme (OSIIP) 2.0, an incubator program organized by Oxfam in collaboration with BYEAH and Exemplary Consulting.
I designed the presentation to draw attention to entrepreneurship's diverse and often unpredictable nature, offering insights from real-life stories, personal experiences, and timeless principles that have guided successful founders. I have been working in the space of entrepreneurship and business for more than ten years now. One important lesson is entrepreneurship is a function of learning. It takes a certain type of education to build a business, which many people call tacit knowledge.
I used stories of three entrepreneurial journeys—Sheikh Akij Uddin, iFarmer, and Moar—to illustrate different aspects of entrepreneurship—resilience, adaptability, and the relentless pursuit of opportunity. Through these stories, I explored the Hero’s Journey framework as a way to understand the entrepreneurial path, emphasizing the importance of embracing challenges, learning from failure, and staying committed to one’s mission.
I distilled key takeaways for founders, covering essential topics such as the life cycle of startup ideas, the value of tacit knowledge, the pitfalls of vanity metrics, and the critical role of self-awareness and authenticity in building a sustainable business. The presentation also delved into the importance of seeking out difficult problems, cultivating deserved luck, and maintaining a high-agency mindset to navigate the unpredictable world of entrepreneurship.
This presentation is a reflection of my work at Future Startup and the collective wisdom of the many founders, leaders, and experts I’ve had the privilege of interviewing and learning from over the years. I hope you’ll find the presentation useful.
On to the presentation.
