[Imran Khan gave a heartfelt talk to youth entrepreneurs at a start-up conference in Karachi today: The bigger the dream, the bigger the person... do not ever let fear defeat you, take hurdles as opportunities and learn from them and never compromise on your vision]
“Whatever your vision is, whenever you hit difficult times there is a temptation to downscale your dreams; you must never do that! Do not ever compromise on your dreams. Take your vision to the point where you never compromise on it. People always told us SKMCH would not be possible; these people told us to spend less on the poor... but that would have meant backing off from our vision. The struggles you go through equip you for your struggles you will face in the future. I will quote Changez Khan here; yes, he was responsible for a lot of bloodshed.... Changez Khan and Timor Khan even at the age of 70 were going on to conquer china. Every success every failure equips you to deal with the next hurdle. Despite all the disbelief we opened a bigger SKMCH in Peshawar... and now we will be opening an even bigger one in Peshawar. A person must never stop struggling. The day they stop struggling, it's all smooth sailing downwards. The biggest principle of success is that you are never afraid of failure, you learn from them.
When you start off that is the most difficult time; this is when you are facing tough competition by those who have more experience than you. But you must never let setbacks get to you. When I stared off cricket, there were many who came in with me as well... but they could not sustain their careers because they could not deal with the setbacks. You must apply this to your businesses as well; your challenges will be cyclical and they will come in waves. There were times when we came back to celebratory crowds after playing cricket, and times when we had to hide and sneak back into the country as well. So you must never let failures make you afraid; those who are scared of losing do not know how to win. Take political parties; look at the history of the country... so many well-known names made their own logician parties; AQ Khan, Farooq Leghari, Hamid Gul. But how many of them were successful? The 20 years that I struggled, imagine how much I was made fun of (I’m still made fun of), and how much I was ridiculed. But sports taught be about victory and defeat; even your own friends look at you differently when you are publicly defeated. They won't return your calls; they will avoid you. But those who pick themselves back up and who do self-analysis are the ones who will come back even stronger. This same concept would apply to your start-ups as well; but till you do not admit defeat you will keep bouncing back. The struggle teaches you self-belief; that no matter what life throws at me... I can deal with it. When you have this belief, you become invincible.
The hospital that we set up, this is my mission... but my passion is Namal university. When I was at oxford, I saw how far both oxford and Cambridge have taken Britain. Both the universities produced influentials in the entire British system. Knowledge cities like those become the backbone of the country. In the 1960s we had extremely high standards; students used to come from the Middle East to study at our universities. The children of the elite would go abroad, but they didn't care what happened back in the country. The three parallel systems of education in Pakistan has been the biggest injustice to the people of Pakistan and this is why I wanted to set up a university where the son or daughter of a poor man could come and get a foreign degree at par with any degree anywhere; we want to provide quality education to the poor students of Pakistan. This was the basis for the creation of Namal university.
Students at Namal university get degrees from Bradford university in the U.K. When I played cricket, all out sportsmen used to come from the poor sections of society. They were hungrier and they had more drive. The students from Aitchison could not compete with these kids. If you apply that same concept to education, those children are starved to excel and show their talent to the world. What I am saying is that we have been so cruel to our country, we do not give education to our children. health to our poor. This parallel of one system for the elite and one for the poor is the biggest injustice to our people.
A coward can never become a leader. Leaders have control over their fear and can make by decisions. This is the difference; leaders have the ability to take risk. Without taking risks, you cannot make big decisions. There is a famous quote; "I took the path less trodden upon and that's what made the difference". Those who can handle big pressure are the ones who are successful; for example, in cricket, a good captain and leader is one who takes a stand at times of crisis. He does not let pressure defeat him. So the more you challenge yourself, the more you will develop this quality. Leaders have control over their own fear, a coward can never become a leader may it be politics, business or in sports. Fearlessness and ability to conquer your fears is extremely important. He is not scared of failure. And he leads by example and he is just and believes in merit. Leaders who do not practice this are not respected. I'll use the example of Quaid; because he practiced merit and justice, people believed in him even when he spoke to the masses in English and they could not understand him”- Imran Khan
“Whatever your vision is, whenever you hit difficult times there is a temptation to downscale your dreams; you must never do that! Do not ever compromise on your dreams. Take your vision to the point where you never compromise on it. People always told us SKMCH would not be possible; these people told us to spend less on the poor... but that would have meant backing off from our vision. The struggles you go through equip you for your struggles you will face in the future. I will quote Changez Khan here; yes, he was responsible for a lot of bloodshed.... Changez Khan and Timor Khan even at the age of 70 were going on to conquer china. Every success every failure equips you to deal with the next hurdle. Despite all the disbelief we opened a bigger SKMCH in Peshawar... and now we will be opening an even bigger one in Peshawar. A person must never stop struggling. The day they stop struggling, it's all smooth sailing downwards. The biggest principle of success is that you are never afraid of failure, you learn from them.
When you start off that is the most difficult time; this is when you are facing tough competition by those who have more experience than you. But you must never let setbacks get to you. When I stared off cricket, there were many who came in with me as well... but they could not sustain their careers because they could not deal with the setbacks. You must apply this to your businesses as well; your challenges will be cyclical and they will come in waves. There were times when we came back to celebratory crowds after playing cricket, and times when we had to hide and sneak back into the country as well. So you must never let failures make you afraid; those who are scared of losing do not know how to win. Take political parties; look at the history of the country... so many well-known names made their own logician parties; AQ Khan, Farooq Leghari, Hamid Gul. But how many of them were successful? The 20 years that I struggled, imagine how much I was made fun of (I’m still made fun of), and how much I was ridiculed. But sports taught be about victory and defeat; even your own friends look at you differently when you are publicly defeated. They won't return your calls; they will avoid you. But those who pick themselves back up and who do self-analysis are the ones who will come back even stronger. This same concept would apply to your start-ups as well; but till you do not admit defeat you will keep bouncing back. The struggle teaches you self-belief; that no matter what life throws at me... I can deal with it. When you have this belief, you become invincible.
The hospital that we set up, this is my mission... but my passion is Namal university. When I was at oxford, I saw how far both oxford and Cambridge have taken Britain. Both the universities produced influentials in the entire British system. Knowledge cities like those become the backbone of the country. In the 1960s we had extremely high standards; students used to come from the Middle East to study at our universities. The children of the elite would go abroad, but they didn't care what happened back in the country. The three parallel systems of education in Pakistan has been the biggest injustice to the people of Pakistan and this is why I wanted to set up a university where the son or daughter of a poor man could come and get a foreign degree at par with any degree anywhere; we want to provide quality education to the poor students of Pakistan. This was the basis for the creation of Namal university.
Students at Namal university get degrees from Bradford university in the U.K. When I played cricket, all out sportsmen used to come from the poor sections of society. They were hungrier and they had more drive. The students from Aitchison could not compete with these kids. If you apply that same concept to education, those children are starved to excel and show their talent to the world. What I am saying is that we have been so cruel to our country, we do not give education to our children. health to our poor. This parallel of one system for the elite and one for the poor is the biggest injustice to our people.
A coward can never become a leader. Leaders have control over their fear and can make by decisions. This is the difference; leaders have the ability to take risk. Without taking risks, you cannot make big decisions. There is a famous quote; "I took the path less trodden upon and that's what made the difference". Those who can handle big pressure are the ones who are successful; for example, in cricket, a good captain and leader is one who takes a stand at times of crisis. He does not let pressure defeat him. So the more you challenge yourself, the more you will develop this quality. Leaders have control over their own fear, a coward can never become a leader may it be politics, business or in sports. Fearlessness and ability to conquer your fears is extremely important. He is not scared of failure. And he leads by example and he is just and believes in merit. Leaders who do not practice this are not respected. I'll use the example of Quaid; because he practiced merit and justice, people believed in him even when he spoke to the masses in English and they could not understand him”- Imran Khan
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment