Innovation v trading: some personal reflections.

Byline: Sunny Ali

This article is an argumentative piece which largely relies on my personal observation and experience of more than two decades. It may look more opinionated in tone but carries out some objective points of departure for those young Pakistanis who are interested to learn a thing or two about the business. At the outset, let me put a simple question: do you want to earn money and become rich? Probably a large majority of human being in Pakistan and beyond would say, YES. So the next question may be: how can you earn money? Now it demands serious effort to be explored and understood before you decide to take any practical step towards your un-ending journey of accumulation of wealth.

Theoretically speaking, innovation is a by-product of creativity. Trading is a by-product of hunger. Does it look odd? Perhaps, yes. Some of you may not want to agree with me. That's how the world is. However, this is what I hold after facing many challenges, failures and loss of hope in my professional life. To be precise, you cannot be creative and innovative when you are hungry. Hunger does not make you creative. Because when you are struggling for basic necessities of life; you do not think beyond a certain level. In other words, empty belly cages you and demands limited recourses to ensure some food and a place to take some rest.

I vividly remember that I was 18 years old when I used to carry heavy cans of fresh water on daily basis. It was a couple of kilo meter away from our residence. Honestly, I do not come from a privileged class. I come from a class where I along with my parents was struggling to ensure the provision of the basic life facilities. Those moments of less food and more depression still continue to be part of my childhood/adulthood memories. In those days, I do remember, all my worry was to arrange food, water and electricity for the family. Thus, I believe innovation usually and mostly works well for rich kids. Or for kids in the eco-system. An eco-system that is designed for innovation with adequately available funds, mentors and a lot of time in hand to come up with something creative. Maybe I could have made Amazon dot com when I was 18 years old. Just may be. May be if I had that environment, access to funds, mentors, 'bhara howa pate'. Then might have been possible. However, God knows better. But the point I want to make here is that it is higher likely for a rich kid to innovate something than his/her counterpart...

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