Biography 223: How to make a company successful.

 Once, I joined a company whose owner was living in the UK. He came to Bangladesh, established a company, and returned because of his main job or business. He asked his brother, who was living in the USA, to join the company. His brother came, and I have given an interview with this brother. I got selected and joined.

It was a new company, and I was really scared about the way this brother managed the office. He recruited people, and then he fired them within a month or less if that person failed to show good enough performance. All employees became very scared; no one knew when they might get fired.

I didn't like this idea. But now I was thinking this is a good way actually. He knows people lie in resumes, so he was giving chances to people to prove themselves. If they are not good enough then let them go and let a qualified person join. And also that person should find a suitable position for themselves.

Another thing I learned from him is focusing on marketing. He built a marketing team of 10/12 people. He trained them and met with them every day to know how they were working and give suggestions. That's why from the very first day the marketing team started getting deals, when even our product were not ready. Within a month they bring 1.5 crore deal.

You must be thinking the company must become a very big company soon. No, it's not that brother's fault. It is the owner. The brother said he would give his 100% to this company. Even he might stay permanently in Bangladesh. But he needed more than 50% of the share of the company. But the owner wasn't ready to give his company to his brother. So, this brother went back to the USA. He created his own company over there and is now living there with his wife and child.

The UK living owner couldn't run the company well.

You just need to move on

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step… Lao Tzu

In life, we can face so many things. Sometimes we fall and don't find any way to get up and move on. Sometimes we feel we need to do something about a matter, but because of many issues, that has never been done.

No matter how big and tough your journey is, it will never be done if you do not start. So, just need to move on; let's start with one step.

Look at the real-life situation. One man single handed cut a hill and made a path. He kept going from one step to another.

Biography 116: I didn't get selected

My life was very easy. I never try hard to achieve anything. I mean I just take a chance, it happens that's my luck mostly or by born whatever the quality I already had. Now I know, everything actually depends on Allah. If it is meant to happen, it happens. And Alhamdulillah, most of the time, somehow I had achieved success.

I had given the school admission tests without any preparation. I succeed even after admission to college (Viqarunnisa noon college) and university (The University of Dhaka). I never went to any admission coaching centre like most Bangladeshi kids go or study at home.

I had attended many competitions in Dance, I never failed. My name was always there from 1st to 3rd.

Somehow I knew, I will never fail. I'm a very qualified person on this earth. And I was wrong. Now a day, it's become impossible to see any success. Anyway, let's go back to my school life.

In Bangladesh, in grade 8 (Class 8) students get a chance to get a government scholarship. The money amount wasn't very good, but it was a prestigious thing. My older sister achieved both scholarships grade 5 and grade 8.

To achieve this scholarship, kids need to sit for an exam. So, every school first takes a test in their school and selects only meritorious students to sit for the main exam with all other students of other schools.

As usual, I sit for the exam without any preparation. And for the first time, I didn't get selected. This made my whole world upside down to me. How did this happen? I stopped all activities that I used to do regularly. Like watching TV, cooking, doing household work, taking care of my younger siblings, reading novels, drawing, talking over the phone, playing with siblings etc. I felt this world is not for me, how did I get failed.

It was a few days earlier than our final exam of grade 8. Every year in Bangladesh students need to sit for the final exam of the year, if they pass they get a chance to go to the next grade. I have already failed to sit for the scholarship test, so I put my full focus on the final exam so as not to fail.

Our school used to give syllabus of the year in the class, students use to write it down in their notebook. As I wasn't serious on study, I didn't have that. So, I called my class friend Bably over the land phone. And took the syllabus. This way, I use to call her after every exam night to get the next exam's syllabus. Then didn't waste any single second of time, just did the study. I never study like this before or after. When I was returning home from school, I even stopped looking at the outside from the rickshaw, the only word that was repeating in my head is, "I have failed". 

In my class, my teachers and friends knew, I am not a good student. I never could fulfil homework or study. So nobody expected much from me. But I have always surprised people around me. Either by succeeding or by failing.

This time I did that too. Not only did I pass, but I also ranked myself in the second position (After adding the previous 2 quarter exam marks, which weren't good). From grade 9 Bangladeshi schools were divided into two groups. One is the science section another was the humanity section. The 1st girl went to the science section and I went to the Humanity group. This way, for the first time in my life, I have put myself at number 1.

Options

 I think people make more mistakes when they have more options. It is very difficult to understand which option will be the best for you. No matter what you choose, you will get some negative side of that thing too. You never know which one could be the best suited for you. I can't use all options to get the right one.

People took the right decision when they don't have options to pick. Then they can think clearly. Nothing is there to distract their mind. They know what they need, want, possibly can have, can live with it, what are the consequences, what can be the future of that option etc.

Maybe that's why most of the successful people came from those families who doesn't have much to choose from.

Who makes others successful?

 When we see anything, we first judge by its look. That's very natural. Like we try to have an idea of how a book will be by its cover. Though we all know, this can't be a good judgement, but we still do. Our brain is like that. Before it sees or understands the whole thing, it started to have an idea with whatever information it got first or see first.

Another example can be a movie. In movies, it is not the actors who always work best or do the best. But when I see a movie in our mind we give all credits to them. They became the most famous in the movie. But they couldn't do the movie all by themselves. There are other people who are working behind and make or help to make the total movie success.

Now, let's come to the main point. We always see people who are successful in life. In most cases, they were not alone who make them successful. We all know about scientist Albert Einstein. He could concentrate on his work and work better after having his second wife. She wasn't a scholar. But she loves him enough to take good care of him and let him concentrate or work better. No one will say she was successful. But she helped a man to be more successful.

Most of the woman do whatever it needs to do to make other (Husband, kids, brother, lover and father etc) successful. It's very rare that you will find a woman who doesn't care about these people, but concentrate on her own success. After caring for all, it is very difficult to take some time for any person's own. But by using this limited-time there are some women who are successful. This situation is very rare for a man. If women didn't need to think about cooking, managing household work and problems, I'm sure they could do better. I am not saying they shouldn't have done this, if they don't look family like this, no one is going to do so, the family life will be scattered. 

Today I am saluting those women also, who may not look like to have a successful life, but they made others life successful. Happy International women's day.

Hard working isn’t everything

If you want to succeed, then hard work isn’t the total solution, you have to work with brain. Otherwise it will take too long time to see any light of success and by this time you will be frustrated.