An entrepreneur can often end up spending a lot of time by his or her self. One way to keep busy and motivated is to have an active reading list. Reading about, and understanding the perspectives of, entrepreneurs and individuals willing to share the ups and downs of their journey can be extremely valuable for any businessman. The difficulty, however, is filtering through and finding the right substance. Azhar Rizvi’s Entrepreneuring Pakistan: 27 Stories of Struggle, Failure and Success is one such book. It condenses the aspirations of some two dozen local entrepreneurs and presents their stories so simply and lucidly that anyone — even those with no background in business or entrepreneurship — can learn a great deal. I found the stories very ‘real’ compared to the overnight success stories that are usually at the forefront in the media. Simply put, this book describes the journey of the real Pakistani entrepreneurs.

Rizvi, a highly educated professional having studied at the University of Houston and the MIT Entrepreneurship Centre, has done an admirable job in putting together so many stories in a nutshell. Each of the cases discussed is concise enough to be on point, but does not bypass the important issues of setting up and running a business in new technologies. The selection of the cases must also be praised — it covers a wide variety of technologies and some well-known ventures. Many of the people profiled, I’m sure, Rizvi has either mentored or worked with or met through his network.

However, towards the end of the book, it gets a little boring as all the stories seem a bit alike. Also, the technical material it covers is a bit more than necessary. The personal stories of the founders are not detailed to a great extent, but overall, it is an interesting read for budding entrepreneurs and students of the subject. Rizvi has sincerely tried to make people mindful of the fact that no matter where you come from, or what your upbringing, or what difficulties you have faced in life, you can still be a very successful entrepreneur.

Setting up a business is not easy, but the stories in this book can instil some hope in even the most disheartened of entrepreneurs

The self-published book details 27 businesses and their founders, grouped by the four different paths they followed: Technopreneurs — technology geniuses who created new products, services and businesses through the use of technology; Socialpreneurs — who created a businesses to remedy some of society’s problems while still making a profit; Silverpreneurs — senior entrepreneurs who leveraged experience and made impressive comebacks; and Futurepreneurs — future innovators and aspiring young business owners. Each profile takes up about 10-12 pages and includes key takeaways along with the ups and downs of each journey.

From Farhan Masood to Shahzad Qureshi, from Maria Umar to Umair Malik, and from Dr Syed Ovais Masud Naqvi to Maha Yusuf, the book takes you on a promenade into their kingdoms. Each story is like deep-diving into a different world, with its own flavour, business models, challenges, landmines, mistakes, problem-solving, lessons learned, and lasting impressions. I personally enjoyed the chapters on Masood, Umar, Yusuf, Khurram Samad, Arslan Khakwani, Abrar Ahmed, Humaira Bachal and Travly.

Every chapter ends with advice for aspiring entrepreneurs and business students — learning how to dream, then working to make it come true, following a passion and thinking big, creating your own destiny, facing challenges head on, taking failure as a learning experience, being patient and taking one step at a time, keeping faith in God and so on and so forth. There is plenty of business-specific advice as well, such as the importance of maintaining proper legal agreements, marketing, branding, financial management, networking and cultivating relationships, developing systems, etc, although some advice differs from one entrepreneur to another.

To give a glimpse of what the book contains, here’s a short rundown of one entrepreneur from each group.

Farhan Masood, Founder and CTO, SoloInsight Inc.

A bold and rebellious teenager with a passion for computers from an early age, Masood felt unappreciated by his parents and teachers and bunked classes to spend his days at Hafeez Centre, Lahore’s hub for computers. His fascination for computer programming led him to create software for a textile manufacturer while still studying — once he was caught by his father designing a website on the eve of an exam. He eventually dropped out of college to pursue a career in software programming.

“The idea is sound and, if it were to be marketed and executed properly, could compete with firms like Elance. [...] this could fly.”[...] I told myself I would be a fool if I didn’t pursue it. — Excerpt from the book

At the age of 20, Masood was recognised by Voice of America as the originator of Urdu-Persian-Arabic language word processing on the internet. From 2000 to 2005 he worked in Dubai in senior positions on numerous projects, eventually starting his own company, Quick Fix Advertising Technologies. Setbacks in his personal and professional life led him to close the company and brought him back to Pakistan. In 2006, he set up SoloInsight, which is today considered one of the fastest growing biometric and IoT (Internet of Things) companies working on advanced technologies in the world. The company is currently valued at $15 million dollars and has offices in the United States, Pakistan and China.

Maria Umar, Founder, Women’s Digital League

An appetite for success, inspiration, meticulousness and perseverance are also the hallmarks of entrepreneurial success in smaller towns and villages where the excitement of larger cities may be missing, but where a peaceful and humane way of life — as well as a strong desire to help others — are valuable in their own right.

Umar was born in Bannu and brought up in Dera Ismail Khan, Kohat and Peshawar. After completing her Masters in English Literature in 2003, she got married and with the support of her husband started teaching in a local school. She was let go while having her second child as the school had no maternity leave policy. Frustrated, Umar started working online from home through Rozee.pk and realised how big the opportunity of telecommuting was. She eventually launched the Women’s Digital League (WDL) in 2009, aiming to empower women to work from home.

A meeting with Rizvi led her to participate in the Global Innovation Through Science and Technology ‘I Dare’ competition in 2012. Competing with teams from more than 40 Muslim countries, she made it to the finals and the encouraging words from the judges — who compared her model to Elance and oDesk — propelled her to further expand her idea.

Today WDL provides training and work for women in fields such as content writing, transcription, medical billing, ghostwriting, graphic design and data entry. Umar has a full-time team in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa working on the Digital Livelihood programme along with hundreds of women from remote areas who are part of the network, and plans to take the WDL platform to a level where women can be trained throughout Pakistan in both rural and urban settings.

Retired Brigadier Saleem Ahmed Moeen, Founder, Secure Tech Consultancy (Pvt.) Ltd.

This is a person we can all be proud of. A great role model for both retired servicemen and civilian professionals, he is the man behind the International Defence Exhibition and Seminar (IDEAS) and the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra), for which he also received the Sitara-i-Imtiaz.Having been an army veteran of 30 years, Moeen’s entrepreneurial journey started a bit late. In 1997, while working on a high-profile project, he suffered a heart attack. Although he recovered quickly, his low medical rating limited his promotion prospects in the army. In 1998, Gen Pervez Musharraf entrusted him with the responsibility of organising a defence exhibition, now known as IDEAS — Arms for Peace. It became a huge success for Pakistan and continues to be held regularly.

In 2000, Pakistan’s national identity card system needed streamlining. Again the responsibility was given to Moeen. Over the span of a few years, he completely transformed Nadra and by 2004 it was fully self-sustaining. Seeing the success of Nadra, he began receiving consultancy assignments from around the world, prompting him to form Secure Tech Consultancy with three other partners. Today the company boasts revenues of $10m and a valuation of $30m.

Umair Malik and Abdul Samad Sahito, Co-founders, Zaraei Ootaque

Malik and Sahito were students at IBA, Sukkur, when they decided to improve the lives of farmers by helping increase their agricultural output. They came up with the concept of Zaraei Ootaque, that would provide agricultural products such as seeds, fertilisers and pesticides as well as training to farmers on modern methods to increase yields.

Hailing from humble backgrounds and compelled more by necessity, the young boys acquired the support of Nisar Ahmed Siddiqui, director IBA, Sukkur, who provided seed capital for the venture. Zaraei Ootaque received a positive response from farmers when it was launched in 2012. The co-founders won the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award at IBA, Sukkur, and were runners-up at the Discover 2013 Business Plan Competition.

Today, with a headcount of 70 employees, they provide consultation to 600 farmers and 114 farmhouses with revenues of $457,000. The company is growing and looking into the option of opening its own retail outlets and franchises in other areas of Sindh and Punjab.

Entrepreneuring Pakistan is an engaging book loaded with takeaways. It celebrates ambitious goals, exceptional leadership, undivided focus, and hard work. It is also enjoyable; I was moved and inspired by a number of stories. Some entrepreneurs started with zilch, some with far from ideal settings and some were at the point I’m going through right at this moment: failure. The conclusion we can derive is one of true enlightenment. For me, it’s “Just keep swimming.”

The reviewer is a marketer, writer and publisher

Entrepreneuring Pakistan: 27 Stories
of Struggle, Failure and Success
By Azhar Rizvi
ISBN: 978-9692319904
352pp.

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, June 11th, 2017