A session of the iLead project was held at the Institute of Business Administration, Jahangirnagar University (IBA-JU) with Sarwar Ahmed presiding over an enlightening session with more than 60 students from different departments.    

“iLead: Inspiring Generation Next” (IGN) is a Virtual Youth Mentoring Program initiated by Bangladesh Brand Forum (BBF) collaborating with US Embassy and EMK Center. IGN's vision is to inspire and groom the youth with proficient values through engaging the local leaders, experts and global Bangladeshi professionals and local youth.

Sarwar Ahmed is a senior management professional with over 20 years of experience in strategic management, human resources, training and development, marketing and IT. He is currently a business consultant at Sarwar Consult LLC and Adjunct Instructor at New York University.

After an introduction and Q&A session, the speaker shared his life long experience with students. “I went to USA at 57 years of age. While people think of going to retirement at this age, I started a new life there. I am doing pretty well there with the consultancy I provide to my clients,” he said indicating that entrepreneurs need no age barrier rather strong determination to follow their passion. He pointed out his mistakes at the start and how he got to where he is now. He suggested that students make best use of personal and social networking platforms. Network can be a strong tool for the entrepreneurs and career builders. He advised not to wait till graduation is complete, rather start working early and gather experience through voluntary work, internship and part-time jobs. 

The session was conducted by BBF and EMK Center, Google Business Group (GBG) Dhaka as IT Partner, SHOUT as Media Partner, US Embassy Dhaka and JCI Dhaka West as Patron, and IBA-JU as Knowledge Partner. 

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Mishu Rahman started her interactive session with the question “What do you mean by entrepreneurship?” to more than 100 students of Chittagong University, aspiring to be successful entrepreneurs. She defined the idea and mission of an entrepreneur incorporating the answers of the students.

Mishu Rahman is an award winning marketing professional with global market insights, a Fortune 500 background and is an expert in consumer insights, customer segmentation and messaging, shopper marketing strategy, data analytics, content marketing, digital strategy and UIX design, training and presentations. She is currently working as the Marketing Strategist of Din Ventures in Chicago, USA.

In the hour long session, Mishu Rahman shared her personal experiences of being an entrepreneur saying, “Rather than starting from the scratch it's better to get some experience first.” She took an assessment test of entrepreneurship compatibility of the students with 20 questions. She also modified the common belief that entrepreneurs are risk takers. According to her, entrepreneurship is not about risk taking, it's about taking an opportunity and making the best use of it to contribute to the society and personal life in a better way. Entrepreneurship is discovering an idea, making a concrete plan based on the idea and finally exploiting the scopes and opportunities from the plan. She conducted another test with the students to show them their entrepreneurship styles: Opportunities, Builders, Specialists and Innovators, the Mad Scientists. She suggested the students make a team incorporating members with each of the leadership styles to drive a striving business. The event ended with a Q&A session with the students.

The session was put together by BBF and EMK Center, Google Business Group (GBG) Dhaka as IT Partner, SHOUT as Media Partner, US Embassy and JCI Dhaka West as Patron, Chittagong University as Knowledge Partner.