Versed Blogger

  Today we had a visit to the DBL group’s sister concern ‘Color City Limited.’ There, the general manager Mr. Suja Uddin vented for not starting a business at an early age. He said, “if you are a job holder, even if you rise to the topmost positions like CEO/ MD, your children have to start from 0. If you are a businessman, for example, you sell samosa with a van, you are earning everything for your own. In your late years probably you managed to start your own restaurant business. Now your children won’t start from zero, they are already the owner of that restaurant.” We’ve been restless recently. Moving here and there. Doing site visit. So far, 0 sales have been closed.  Employee motivation is a fickle concept, that loosely depends on monetary compensation. Saddam bhaia told us that he takes unpaid interns, who come 6 days and do 8 hours office. And we can’t manage our paid interns to work from home. Which spectrum of the world we are living in. We are a long way to go in te...

We had an AC installation project today at Manikgonj. Our technician team went to the site, saw a 30'' thick wall that has to be pierced for copper piping. And they backed off. I was communicating over the phone with my PSL, with a heavy voice, pretending everything is under control.  Those are miniature life hick-ups that an entrepreneur has to face, regularly, and for me - intentionally. Only a few have the guts to continue after all these. I want to be one of them of course. January 2022 Update: Another year has gone by without any fruitful progress. Still, we don't see any tangible source of revenue. We are kinda parasite of Muspana. This burns me like hell, I wanted to live an independent life. That's why I chose to be an entrepreneur Now is the real challenge. What value am I providing to my users? What is the one big vision that can change the lives of billions? Can I acquire a big investment ever? Why am I so self-centered? Am I all after money? Today a kid 10 y...

Think, rethink, and don't think you are always right 1. I've been diagnosed with Mild Fatty Liver (November 2021). I was searching for the reason for a month, why me? A guy waking up early in the morning, doing exercise, and not having any bad food, tobacco, or alcoholic habits, neither having a sedentary lifestyle - has been diagnosed with acute liver disease. Then I realized, actually, I have been fooling myself for my entire life. My exercise doesn't quite hit the optimum level. I don't wake up early regularly, and even sometimes go to sleep late and don't have enough sleep hours. I sometimes eat fast food, which is quite fine. But I have not done anything to boost my metabolic power. I have been complacent to fool myself that I have a healthy lifestyle. Which actually I don't have. I am the kind of guy who needs a regular gym subscription to stay motivated. I wish I could be self-motivated like my dad! 2. I had written a blog post earlier saying - I have not...

Need to boost up my networking skill So far I have been a socially awkward person. I don't like public gatherings, I avoid phone calls, even I don't have any active social media account. For me, deciding to do business was an internal soul call, which I hardly could relate to my shortcomings. Almost three years back when I was an employee of LankaBangla Finance, my SME head told me, ''Why don't you laugh man? There is a Chinese Proverb you know - if you can't laugh, don't open a shop.'' I thought a smiling face is a mere redundant verbal expression. Unnecessary, showy, sycophantic.  At this moment, after almost a year in the business world, I am to words changing my mind. In fact, a smiling face can win million hearts, and those million hearts are money in business. Am I sounding too commercial? Probably am, but smiling is also prophylactic. If you love yourself, you should smile. Another reason behind smiling is - human nature is precoded to accept ...

I have been asked several times what is the secret sauce of my success during the HSC period.  I consider that time (2010-2012) to be my golden era. I was a driven individual back then, a man focused on purpose, a person with a clear goal in his mind. I will call it tenacity. I failed several times, I was humiliated, I was called off as a poor student by my tutor. But I refused to quit. 

2010 World Cup Final, July 11. Our class at Notre Dame College (NDC) had just started 10 days back. That night I was watching Spain vs. Nedarland's final with my dad.  Match went in the tiebreaker after both teams finished 90 minutes without scoring. As far as I remember, just a few minutes before Andres Iniesta scored for Spain, I accidentally threw a glass jar full of tomato catchup on the floor out of excitement, and tried to collect those broken pieces from the floor. In no time, I had a quick deep cut beneath my left foot from broken glass. And I missed an entire week from going to college. That's the only time in my entire life when I regretted not going to an academic institution (I was happy to bunk my school/ university). Why do Notredamians always put their college first before other institutions? I had the privilege to be a student of the best (at least so-called, you may differ) academic institutions in Bangladesh. What is so special about NDC? In a word - Disciplin...

Invest in good stock... Being a finance student, I have always been told that investors make much more profit compared to traders in the long run.  In a sense, that statement is apparently true. If you take the historical gain reference of traders vs. investors, the latter will come triumphant without any confusion. But remember, few traders make much more profit compared to investors.  For the traders, the profit curve is seemingly positively skewed, only a few can truly make a profit, but most of them lose money and cancel out the average profit. For the investors, the profit curve follows a normal distribution and returns an average profit to the clients in the long haul. And most importantly, it is always the small ticket-sized shares that give you the best return. For instance, a stock priced at BDT 10 has the potential to go up to 20 or 30 TK, giving you a return from 100% to 200%. But imagine a good stock that is already priced at BDT 600, how much can it go up? I alway...

Several weeks ago one of my friends was texting me, ''You know what, the stock market has gone bull in the last few days, I should have invested a year earlier.'' I replied, ''So be ready to invest now, it will come down again no worry...'' ''But I am too late you know, now I have to start from scratch.'' You are stopping yourself from success Imagine a highly successful person, who had completed her Ph.D. by the age of 25, had become a CEO in her mid forty and died from stress in her late fifty. Her friend who had completed her graduation in her late 20s is now 65 and running her own pet shop. Which life would you prefer? Even I don't know, it's hard to tell whether the later lady has been more successful in her life. Success subjectively depends on the human perspective. Perhaps, a high achiever at an early age is revered for her steep success curve, but I'm pretty much sure those high achievers would have wanted to be a per...

SDG Chart Topic: Sustainability, Research, Policies, and Practices Written for Dr. Abu Yousuf Mohammad Abdullah, Professor, Institute of Business Administration, University of Dhaka Honorable Chair of today’s panel discussion, respected panelists, moderators, and dear participants, thank you all for allowing me to share my thoughts on Sustainability, Research, Policies, and Practices organized by the Social Acceptability Study Network of Aalto University. Being an alumnus of this prestigious university, I am honored and thankful for your kind invitation. As a researcher of international business and circular economy, I have written myriads journals and research papers on economic policies and marketing practices. Referring to my humble experience in industry and academia, I want to emphasize that no research, policy, or practice is complete without a proper guideline of sustainability. The word ‘sustainable’ itself signifies whatever we do to advance civilization - that cannot harm our...