Hisham Sarwar
Ever wondered why most startups in WEST, USA in particular succeed?
In Pakistan (only a handful number of startups succeed) because the word “FAIL” is encouraged in USA where as in our schooling system, and society often criticizes and instills a “FEAR” of failure in the kids as they are growing-up.
The very idea of stepping up, encouraged to come on front and take an initiative of opening a startup company requires a lot of mental strength, appreciation and encouragement. Coming purely from a schooling system where the entrepreneurs are not “build” therefore openness to explore new ideas and finding a solution to the problems is not practically taught.
Another reason that startups are unable to actually “start” and if they can – find it hard to take their initiative to the next level is because of shyness to reach out to the mentors from respective fields.
These mentors have a successful history of doing business and and are willing to transform the knowledge to others; after-all knowledge when transformed becomes wisdom.
Here is a list of few (out of many) must follow successful mentors on Facebook from Pakistan.
Mir Muhammad Ali Khan
Salim Ghauri
Jehan Ara
Umar Saif
Ashraf Chaudhry
The startup wave has just started in Pakistan few years back and there are few startup events conducted all over the country that encourage new ideas and even fund them. Opening of co-working spaces is another positive thing. In order to avoid false start, start-ups should be willing to reach out to Mentors/Facilities and seek valuable advice and be open to suggestions.
Taking a quick glance at few of these USA college drop-outs who started doing successful business and made good names for themselves in global stage, we find one thing in common; they believed in themselves and were not discouraged by the people around them telling “this can not be done”.
The likes of Bill Gates (Microsoft), Steve Jobs (Apple), Matt Mullenweg (WordPress), Arash Ferdowsi (Dropbox) and ofcourse Mark Zukerberg (Facebook) were all mis-fit in education system but an instant hit in business because of their uniqueness of idea and proper access to the facilities.
The burning desire, attitude, dedication to succeed and access to proper facilities are pre-requisite for a startup success.
Here is a list of must follow places on Facebook in Pakistan for Pakistani Startups.
“Pakistan Startup Group”
is a must follow page on Facebook where lots of ideas and opportunities are shared.
“The Hive”
is a fantastic addition to the co-working spaces. It is a state of art co-working environment for business, freelancers. The Hive also provides community space to entrepreneurs for idea sharing, learning and expression. They also plan to start incubation soon.
“The Nest i/O”
is a technology incubator launched by P@SHA, with its global partners Google for Entrepreneurs and Samsung.
“Plan9”
| Pakistan’s Largest Technology Incubator | Where ideas take flight.
One can only plan to start their own business by not letting fear of failure, external oppressing voices stop them from unleashing their dreams. Pakistan is setting up its foot print into the new age of business accomplishments with the help of seasoned mentors, co-working spaces. Are you ready?
