How I became an Entrepreneur.

Bonjour, I'm Dr. Zeeshan Qader founder and CEO of Averroes Advance Analytics that will launch operations next summer after winning @Yale Chinese Alumni run GIB contest. So suddenly I find myself setting up an organisation that does analytics work from Paraguay all the way to Japan using Blitzkrieg consulting. How did I get here? Here's my story, if you cannot read 2 pages, this is not for you, go back to your job!

Lets go back to 1988 the cold war is winding down, the Soviets are planning to leave Afghanistan the internet does not exist and Bon Jovi's Bad Medicine is number one on the charts. Henry Kissinger is a force of nature in geopolitics and Zbigniew Brzezinski is roaming the caves of Afghanistan supporting the Mujahideen. Its a Noble effort of free nations against the tyranny of the Evil Soviet Empire. TOP GUN has made everyone line up to join the US Airforce in the epic battle against international communism.

Thats me with a tonne of hair oil and "surmma" in my eyes at my village Nakka Kahut, Talagang, Chakwal. I hate it when people pull my cheeks. I'm 4 years old and my first report card has just come in the mail. I got 11th position out of a class of 57 in first grade (we could not afford kindergarten) . I am over the moon, excited I feel great. Then my dad asks me a question that took me 10 years to answer. He said "why are you not #1?" I remember it vividly, and that comment just took the floor from underneath my feet. For the first time in my life I had found out that there were people "better" than me. Up until then I used to think all the people in the world look like us. Thats me below, the tiniest one of the lot, so you can imagine I was bullied at school. Everyone else in class was 5 or 6 and I was only 4. Life was tough! I still have scars on my right arm and hand from the daily beatdowns of public school.

I had my moments, my dad offered to buy me a new mountain bike which was the craze back then so I got 3rd position in 5th grade. However I was inconsistent. I used to spend my time taking apart toys and motors, making new ones from them. In my entire neighbourhood all the kids my age group (below 10-11 years old) would gather at my house. We would clog the drain pipe on the terrace and make it into a swimming pool. We had no swimming goggles so we broke our sunglasses and used elastic strings to make our own. We used to make bridges that would connect our houses at night using metal pipes and wooden planks to sneak out when our parents were asleep and read archie comics in torchlight. Our biggest project was to build a tree house in the Margalla Hills during which we accidentally burnt an an acre of Himalayan forest...Smokey the bear was right, forest fires are a hazard! Lesson learned, using matches was bad. I stole my grandfathers British Army standard issue zippo for future experiments. Still have it!

Fast forward to 1998, I was 14, living in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. My father joined the Consulate General of Pakistan in KSA. My academic performance has declined even further. I've failed Chemistry and Maths in 9th grade. My father decides to put me in a more international school to try something new. Since my father was a prominent figure in the Pakistani xpat community. The honour of the family demanded I have good grades. I had never cheated before, I always thought grades were meaningless. Thats me in centre with arms crossed and sunglasses, I could outrun and outperform everyone #shukarAlhamdullillah. So I went from being bullied all my life, to being an athlete. The confidence boost was immense. It was my turn to bully the bullies, I protected the weak!

 #firstsevenjobs #CEOShowdown Lets compare with the CEO of LinkedIn Jeff Weiner.

So its test time, I look to my left, then to my right. I copied one answer from Bilal about lactobacillus leading to tooth decay and the other from Shiraz (have no idea where they are, had no twitter or internet back then in Saudi Arabia). The tests came in and I was 10/10 in biology. My dad was proud and everyone thought I was a natural genius. Its time for the next test and over the weekend my biggest concern as a 14 year old was how will I ever make this work? Then I noticed the biology book sitting on my table. I actually open the book and start to read. Nothing, its been an hour and I still can't understand anything. I'm about to give up but then I make progress. So the key to understanding is putting in the effort...Interesting. I spent the entire weekend going through all my books. Pretty much locked in with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan singing Kalam-e-Iqbal Qawwali on a loop. If that music was a man, it would look like Saladin.

Or if you are into Rumi, Kalam-e-Iqbal is the urdu version of his poetry. After the entire weekend of putting in the effort things started making sense. So classical music does help you concentrate #realisation. I am amazed at how easy it is to learn, if you persevere. Next test, I get 10/10 without cheating. That gets me curious about physics, can I be good at learning that. Next test 10/10 in physics, I begin to enjoy the admiration of my class, I was considered a jock since I played football and cricket. You can be good at sports and at maths? Yes. So the missing ingredient had been my lack of focus towards books and complete dedication to becoming a professional cricketer. The eureka moment happens, if you don't understand anything, keep at it. During my PhD I spent one year looking at 37 different scales of attitude towards the ad and much good did it do me. Just 2 hours of reading/day as a habit completely changed my life.

This is my reading list for 2016. I finished it last week #ShukarAlhamdullilah. You have to admit, for someone who could hardly read in high school, this is quite an achievement.

#1786

So two years later I graduate with 5A's and 2B's from Cambridge University O-levels with a A* (Distinction) in Physics with an offer to join the top private school in Pakistan. I've done all my education since then on a scholarship. I went to the top business school in Pakistan the IBA Karachi (founded by Wharton and run by USC). Got a 700 on my GMAT, Top National 0.03% on GAT (Pakistani GMAT). Received a scholarship from the Government of Pakistan to do my MS & PhD from the IAE Aix Graduate School of Management (The Kellogg of France). Got a French MBA scholarship worth 25,000 euros and got a PhD in Sex Appeal in Advertising with mention très honorable avec félicitations du jury highest award of merit for doctoral scholarship. My first pay check was $60/month in 2002 and my last pay check was billed at 50 bitcoin/h. 

So do the math ;)

...The answer is simple...become an entrepreneur with " PASSION!". An MIT Sloan study in 2014 found that 70% of startups in Silicon Valley fail due to " lack of inspirational leadership..."

Now for how you can do this too, if you read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell then you know that the advantage brilliant students have as children is experience. Consider two children as an example, Tim is 4 years 2 months old and Nick is 4 years 11 months. They are both in the same class despite Nick being 7 months older has more life experience. He has smelled more flowers, found more butterflies laughed and cried more than Tim. Basically Nick is more focused when you talk to him or share information compared to Tim. So naturally he has sharper cognition and better understanding of his native language as well. This advantage according to Gladwell lasts an an entire lifetime. Thats why 70% of successful people (top lawyers, bankers, physicists etc) according to him were born in Jan/Feb or March. 

So for the folks who are thinking of having kids, try to hit the Jan/Feb and March target;)

Psychologically speaking when a person is "programmed" or primed to think of themselves as "intelligent" they tend to act intelligent as well. This is induction based hypnotherapy, it changes human behaviour and habits at the core. This priming can be done artificially and is practiced by Tom Cruise, Beyone and Kim Kardashian. You take a piece of paper, write down all the best memories of you life on it and keep it. Look at it every day in the morning and try to add something to it every night. This way your confidence level will strengthen and your outlook will be positive. Every child is born with immense creativity, which diminishes over time since our education system shoves outdated information into our mind. When I cheated and actually felt the admiration and experienced how great it felt. I was hooked, so try it, cheat once and see how it feels, it might change your life. After all, hope is contagious and given the current state of the world, we need a global epidemic!

Still not convinced? You think YOU cannot do what you desire in life? Maybe you've wanted to start your own business forever but the time is not right. Perhaps you want to ask your boss for a raise but feel insecure about it. All these issues exist because you are giving the control of your life to someone for a small amount of money. As a recent CEO I am surprised how low people set their expectations. You can hire a PhD from Harvard for $3500/month. This person has spent $150,000 and is willing to work for a fraction of that for "stability". The first rule of Blitzkrieg in business is "disruption". Getting out of your comfort zone to experience something new. Still not making sense...

"Persevere"

This is real life IRON MAN Elon Musk. Elon is a doer! he does not let the small minds of ordinary people stop him from revolutionising the automotive and aerospace industries. Creativity, is something we all have. He's just "monetized 'it". He's a merchant of dreams and that is the best entrepreneur. So create a dream for a better world, monetise it and infect others with your passion. Build a dream team and take on a consulting project to see how it feels. Practice Blitzkrieg and take on the likes of Accenture and McKinsey, its David and Goliath and we all know how that story ends.#BeLikeElon, do what you always wanted to do, dare to create new jobs, become your own boss! I am writing this right from my office aka Temple of #UltraProductivity. If you find this article interesting, you can always message me, on Facebook, twitter or right here on LinkedIn. I #always try to reply back in person within 24 hours. Join me on my Blitzkrieg empowering the young consultants challenging giants all over the world. Lets become rich, #together! The politicians all over the world have failed us, we need to create growth opportunities using blue ocean strategies in all economies.

Just in case you are wondering if you should follow me on LinkedIn or twitter, the best MBA program in the world led by billionaire philanthropist Jack Welch follows me, its an honour for any business professional #shukarAlhamdullillah.

Over 1500+ CEOs follow me on LinkedIn and each of my posts gets 85000+ views.

I have made this article intentionally long, this way those who can't read 2 paragraphs will never know the secrets of success. If you are reading this you are 3% of the "#philosophical" accounts on LinkedIn. Let us keep this conversation going? Add me as a connection and become part of my database of the Global Blitzkrieg Consultants.

This article was written in Summer 2016, if you want to know what I am upto these days, Read This!

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