About Pursuing your Dreams

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It’s 9PM, the train reached Maritz-burg, the capital of Natal. Beddings used to be provided at this station. A railway servant came and asked me if I wanted one. “No,” said I, “I have one with me.” He went away. But a passenger came next, and looked me up and down. He saw that I was a ‘colored’ man. That disturbed him. He went out and came back with one or two officials. They all kept quiet, when another official came to me and said, “Come along, you must go to the van compartment.”

 

“But I have a first class ticket,” said I.

“That doesn’t matter,” rejoined the other. “I tell you, you must go to the van compartment.”

“I tell you, I was permitted to travel in this compartment at Durban, and I insist on going on in it.”

“No, you won’t,” said the official. “You must leave this compartment, or else I shall have to call a police constable to push you out.”

“Yes, you may. I refuse to get out voluntarily.”

The constable came. He took me by the hand and pushed me out. My luggage was also taken out. I refused to go to the other compartment and the train steamed away. I went and sat in the waiting room, keeping my handbag with me, and leaving the other luggage where it was. It seemed that the railway authorities had taken charge of it.

But remember! The dream to set a whole nation free is seeding its ground when he, himself couldn’t guarantee his own freedom.

It is winter, and winter in the higher regions of South Africa is severely cold. Maritzburg being at a high altitude, the cold was extremely bitter. My overcoat was in my luggage, but I did not dare to ask for it lest I should be insulted again, so I sat and shivered (Excerpts from “The Story of My Experiments with Truth” by M. K. Gandhi).

As the man crumbling on the rough railway platform on a cold winter night, trying to pick himself up, a vision was born! A vision to set a whole nation free from slavery. Free from the clutches of bondage, subjugation, oppression and many other key words that might help describe South African apartheid in the 1920’s.

But remember! The dream to set a whole nation free is seeding its ground when he, himself couldn’t guarantee his own freedom. That’s the paradox, the logic of zero-logic! But dreams by default are to appear illogical and impractical, if not; they wouldn’t be called as dreams. Rather it would be the rotten reality on the glimpse of your eyes.

Well, I’ve been talking to people, especially youngsters on what their vision look like? The answer in most cases is a long pause. An indication of mind wandering in the air, with no end in sight or trying to figure out an answer to satisfy the questioner for the moment. But if you try to engage them in a conversation by asking deeper questions, the chances of you listening to phrases like these one are “I wanted to become an engineer or doctor” quite common. Rarely, I do have come across with people who wanted to start a new company, setup a business and so on. However, many a time, the answer, almost always proceeds with a dubious pause. You know, I wanted to start a new company but I’ve no capital. I wanted to get into Indian Institute of Management (IIM), but you know I don’t get enough time to prepare myself well, and so on.

 

I mean, when you speak to people about their vision in life or what they would want to achieve, people generally find it difficult to express themselves on what their vision is or what it would look like? The reason is, more often than not, people look at their vision from the current reality. While one should be aware of the current reality, it shouldn’t transform to be a bottleneck in the movement forward. If it does, then that brings up the critical difference between visionaries and the rest. Now, ask yourself, which side of the coin are you in?

I remember, having listened to, perhaps, one of the youngest entrepreneurs of the last decade, Mr. Sabirul Islam, where I find some common cords that surface the line of convergence. Sabirul was born in Tower Hamlets, London, England to Bangladeshi parents who came to London in search of a better life. But largely, he found himself living on state welfare and his neighborhood filled with violence, crime and drugs. However, at the age of 13, Sabirul Islam joined an organization namely The Royal Dragons (his cousin's company), designing and printing calendars for teachers. He was given the role of a production director, but he was fired after two weeks for not taking it seriously. Getting fired by your own relatives’ company and at the age of 13? Think about it...and while you are on a reflecting mode, here comes the story of Sabirul Islam.

 

In September 2004 Islam launched his first business venture, a website design company for corporate businesses called Veyron Technology, which he ran with six of his friends, all of 13 to 14 years old. They knocked on the doors of five renowned banks in the London suburbs asking to design their website to every employee who went passing by. The sixth bank was Merrill Lynch and the executive director took notice of them and gave them a chance and they made £2000 within the first two weeks. Two years later, when they closed it down, his company had several other major clients including ABN AMRO and Morgan Stanley and even had awarded for 'Best Inner East London Company'. On asking what motivated him? He said "Proving his cousin wrong was the motivation behind setting up his first business". So, those of you reading this and wanted to intensely pursue your dreams must be prepared to prove your cousins, immediate and close associates wrong. Else, you will end up pursuing their dreams and not necessarily yours.

Whilst still studying at school, at the age of 16, Sabirul got employed by Merrill Lynch as junior stock trader, which provided him with a two-week program to learn the basics about investment and trading in New York City. Three months later he became a part-time trader for a period of nine months.

In January 2008, using his own funds, after having rejected by 40 publishers, he self-published his first book 'The World at Your Feet'. The book offers young people guidance and encouragement to turn their entrepreneurial vision into reality. His book launch allowed him to become a motivational speaker as well. In the first nine months following the launch, over 42,500 copies of his book were sold. At the age of 18, he got it professionally published, the book is now sold globally, and over 60,000 copies have sold as of last year. The lesson is, if you strongly believe in your idea and you are passionate about it; don’t let other people convince you otherwise. You need to continue to believe it. Even if it takes you to go on different path nobody ever travelled. On the other hand it’s that new and undiscovered path that brings pearls to the shore. If you are still in doubt, ask the Pearl divers in Kuwait.

 

Sabirul invested £20,000 of his own money (it’s all that he had) and spent 10 months developing and launching a business board game with six 11–15-year olds. The game has sold over 300,000 copies in 14 countries world-wide. Alongside the board game, his second book The World at Your Feet: Three Strikes to a Successful Entrepreneurial Life was published. Over 100,000 copies of his books have been sold to date, available in multiple languages including Spanish and Bengali. The lesson is, if you are relentlessly obsessed with your idea, then be prepared to put all your money into it, that makes it difficult for you to think of an exit route, especially when pressure goes up and the heat is on, you will be left with no choice but to make it successful.

In November 2010, Islam launched Inspire1Million, a campaign to inspire one million people around the world and he received Outstanding Young Persons of the World Award, from Prince Charles. And that sums the story of Sabirul Islam, the young entrepreneur. Lesson is, don't aim for awards, pursue your passion/dreams awards will comeby and stand before you.

Here is the last story of the day...as told by Loren Eiseley, the poet, philosopher and scientist. Once upon a time there was a wise man, much like Loren himself. He used to go to the Ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking along the beach. One day, when he was sitting on the sea side pretty early in the morning, he could barely see a shadow appear to be a like dancing boy amidst thick morning mist. He cleansed hazy glasses and looked again. He was right, a boy in his teens running up and down. So he got up and walked up to this boy. As he approached, he called out, “Good morning! What are you doing?” The boy looked up and said, “I’m throwing starfish into the ocean”. “Why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?” asked the wise man. “The tide stranded them. If I don’t throw them in the water before the sun comes up, they’ll die” came the answer. “Surely you realize that there are miles of beach, and thousands of starfish. You’ll never throw them all back, there are too many. You can’t possibly make a difference.” The boy listened politely, bend down and then picked up another starfish. As he threw it back into the sea, he said, “It made a difference to that one.” His response surprised the man. He got upset, he didn't know how to to respond to that youngman. So he walked back to resume his writing.

All day long, the image of that youngman haunted him. He tried to ignore him, but the vision persisted. By the end of that afternoon, he realised that he the poet, he the sceintist has essentially missed the essence the of the youngman's action. He realised that what the young man was doing is to choose not to be an observer in the universe and watch it pass by but choosing to be an actor in the universe and make a difference! Now the question is, what difference you want to make?

That night he went back home with a heavy heart and spent the whole night thinking about it. The next morning, he got up early, knowing that he had to do something, he went straight into the beach and joined the young man and spent the whole morning throwing Star-Fish into the sea. So, to speak, while pursuing your dreams, do remember to make a difference, however small or little it may be, to appear! And that’s what counts, even if there are no coins left with you to count on! And remember again, as Joel Barker says "Vision without action is merely a Dream, And Vision with action can the Change the world" . Good Luck with your dream turning into action. Until next time, this is abdul Jaleel signing off, with a vision to get back (insha allah) with inspiring (?) stories. As always, thank you for your time and revert with your suggestions and comments.