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1. Tell
us more about your company and your journey.
BADFEW is a student organization
that is to work in different colleges and universities in the country. Like
many student groups in colleges and universities where some call them "Student
Clubs," "Student Society," etc, we also plan, organize and
manage events in our institution but the difference is that we are not limiting
it to one educational institution and we work with common agendas including the benefit of students and society.
We are an individual group of
students who are oozing to learn by doing and so far by the combined efforts of
everybody associated with it, we have been good at it.
The name BADFEW is derived from 5
animals and a bird representing the qualities that we have adapted from them in
order to form this organization.
B stands for Bear which
represents the organization being "Strong yet Joyful..."
A is for Antelope which is to
make sure we are "Fast and Swift at the same time..."
D is taken from Dog for we
believe that "Faithful and Loyalty are the bond that gets us going through
everything we do..."
F is from Fox which says that
"We are sly enough to get out of the trickiest situation that
arrives..."
E represents Eagle which makes
sure that "we have our keen eyes focused on our target no matter how high
we're flying..."
And
W is from Wolf which is a symbol
of our Team spirit. We strongly believe in the saying about wolves which is
"One for the pack and Pack for the one..."
2. How
did you come up with this idea and go about executing it?
At my University (LPU) I was a
member of an organization and I also was a host of an educational club being
run by professors there. I became a part of many cultural, social, and
educational events and activities and also started to manage them when I was
promoted as an executive head at the club I was in but being told to plan
events, one day I came up with an idea to organize an event called NAAQ which
stands for Never Asked and Answered Questions.
This event was for students to
ask questions and queries related to their university life straight from the
authorities of higher to lower level but this was meant to be a 'Face to Face'
session where a student could ask anything related to the university from any
authority and they were to be answered without an escape.
The idea of this event came from
a necessity because there were a lot of things we were having to follow without
having a clue of why we have to follow them for example, we always had to sit
according to our roll numbers in the class which was not a good thing to follow
especially when you're studying in a university as an adult having your own
liberty of choices. In the university, girls were not allowed to stay outside
of their hostels after 6:30 PM where boys had no restrictions about it.
Many times students tried to ask
these things to teachers and wardens but every time they just heard that
"This is from the higher authority"
In order to know the answers to
these questions, I came up with the plan of NAAQ. But unfortunately, no club or
organization was willing to accept this event proposal as they were afraid of
messing up with the higher authorities of the university. Worst part: no one
even tried to organize this event.
Tired of dodging from
organizations to clubs with the plan of NAAQ, I decided to start my own
organization which could fearlessly ask what we needed to know from anybody who
was answerable.
By that time I was already a
speaker for the university so I had people with me as a backbone supporting my
motive. We decided to start a new powerful organization and A friend of mine
'Mason Jones' from California gave this beautiful name BADFEW which was a
perfect fit for our agenda.
That is how BADFEW came into the
picture.
3. What
has been your biggest challenge that you faced and how did you overcome
that?
The biggest challenge I faced was
doing something that others don't. In simple terms, doing something different
has always been a challenge and when it is an organization with many people and
many authorities, it has always been difficult to get the proposals accepted by
authorities and many times our own members hesitate to put their feet out of
their comfort zone.
But the only way to overcome
that, according to me is to never give up. I kept reaching out to authorities
again and again always with different presentations of the same thing until
they finally accept it and for the team, words of motivation work really well.
The advantage I had was that I was a speaker at my University so fortunately,
people used to listen to me. However, I had big support from
2 other organizations which were 'Ample' being led by Ms Bhavya and 'Ritzzy'
led by Mr Rishabh Mishra. I'll always be thankful to them.
4. What
do you think are the most important qualities of a successful
entrepreneur?
As per what I have learned, there
are many qualities that an entrepreneur must adapt to be a good leader and to
run the business well.
Patience is one of the most
important qualities that I think an entrepreneur must-have. We are needed to
wait and wait a lot and losing patience is a very common issue in young
aspirants which can cause some serious damage to their project.
Perseverance is another quality
which is a must for anybody who is trying to bring up with something new as
establishing a new business. We might not get the expected results or it might
take much longer than we expected even then we have to stay put to our plan,
our motive, and just not give up.
Similarly, Generosity, Honesty,
and Ethical behaviour in work and with people contributes to forming you up as a
better leader and a successful entrepreneur.
5. What
are some of the most important factors for running a successful business?
To run a business, one must first
of all be independent with his decisions. Decisions came with influence mostly
puts the plan in dilemma. We must be independent with our thoughts and should
be able enough to make smart decisions by himself even if a crowd standing in
front of you is against it.
Another factor is that you must
have a good company of people around you if you have it.
Our social life plays
an important role when we put our efforts to climb up the ladder of success so
if you have friends around you, make sure they are loyal to you and support you
even in the decisions that went wrong.
The financial track is also a
huge input in the business. We must keep track of the smallest to biggest
transaction that we did individually or collectively. You would probably laugh
at it but our treasurer noted it in the book when a member of our organization
lost 2 rupees from the organization fund while he purchased some goods from the
market.
6. What
are your tips for the first time and aspiring entrepreneurs?
Even though I have said a lot that they must be very keen and focused on their work.
There will be many distractions,
many hurdles, many of your own wishes would play puzzles with you but you can
not be distracted, you can not give up for there is a lot you have to still
achieve. Small success sometimes makes you
fly high in the sky of pride.
This is my request that if you ever feel like you
have achieved much, look at other people who have successfully registered their
names in history yet they are down to earth.
7. How
can one overcome a hurdle of lack of funds when starting
All I can say resilience
and patience are the keys to success. You can conquer any obstacle with these
weapons.
Interview by - Mahi
Social