Shaikh Khalid Raihan
MSc, MBA, CSCM.
Office Depot, Europe HQ, Netherlands
Solutions are not as simple as targets; there are no silver bullets to penetrate conflict without consequences and there are no rigidly defined solutions. Throughout life, there will be individuals from whom you can learn a valuable lesson but there will never be someone to guide you through the entirety of life. Each person’s life is in their own hands and it has its own set of consequences based on the circumstances that have been dealt and the choices that have been made.
Following my drastic decision to venture outside the Army, I worked my way to succeed in the corporate world. Upon entering this new world, I realized that I would have to abandon my methodology of assessing matters with the standards of the BMA or the Army. Given that I had chosen a completely different life for myself, it was imperative that I adapt to the different values of that environment.
Nevertheless, this was no indication that I was violating my sanctity or compromising my standards, norms, and ethics as an individual. It was more so about learning and administering new lessons from life. I made myself flexible, open to criticism, willing to learn every single moment from every single person and most importantly, I started listening to people.
I made myself flexible, open to criticism, willing to learn every single moment from every single person and most importantly, I started listening to people.
As I thrived through my hard work and ambition, two aspects flourished within me; the need to lead a life in the context of international standards and the self-confidence that I would have the ability to create change. For the second time in my life, I felt the necessity to bring profound changes. During this point in my life, the progress that was necessary was much more comprehensible:
• I wanted to make an impact on an international level
• I wanted a more secure, financial sound and systematic life
• I wanted to test my boundaries beyond the country, and cultures of my world
Most of us are aware of the need to progress, we know that we are not satisfied and want more. Nonetheless, we fail to define a clear goal of where we want to reach and what changes we want to make and forget to ask ourselves what exactly is leaving us dissatisfied of the present life. This is a situation where we remain lost in a deep dissatisfaction, doing nothing and hoping things will change somehow without any effort, just like that. This is unworthiness taking over ourselves.
In order to not fall victim to this phenomenon, I made a time and action plan; I had no money, no mentor or no support to make this move. I resorted to a couple of unconventional decisions based on gut feelings. I invested the whole amount of my retirement money in the business of my childhood friend as an angel investor over a verbal consent without any written form of proof. I gave him the money with a promise of a high return. Everyone doubted my mental state but it worked out. I got my return with an unbelievably high and fast ROI. This additional money provided the budget for my foreign education. Leaving aside common options like USA, Canada (despite my wife being a Canadian passport holder) or Australia, I researched and chose a country where the entry requirements are easy and would suit my qualification. Basically, where the immigration process is much faster than the countries mentioned above. In order to do so, I had to start from scratch as a university student again at the age of 38 to compete with young and talented students coming from all over Europe. I sold my expensive car (the only property I had), quit my big job, vacated my apartment, sent my wife and kids to Canada and against the warnings and inquisitions regarding my sanity, I flew off to Europe.
The walks around Europe are another tale to tell and elaborating upon that stage of my life would require much greater detail. Long story short, I will just touch upon few incidents, which are hidden beneath the apparent glittery success you all see from a distance.
Before leaving Bangladesh, I established my startup with my European partner. We didn’t invest any money in it. This was our brainchild from a three-year-old research we had both carried out.
As I continued to study my MSc, bit-by-bit, my partner and I developed it; we dreamed largely and wanted to change the world.
Due to internal problems, I chose to quit the start up at the end of 2015. This made me plunge into the harsh reality of Europe without any protection. After my MSc, all of my money ran out. I was rejected from more than 100 jobs. I was either over qualified or unknown to the local job market. I ran on a €10 per week budget, eating only rice and eggplant for more than 8 months.
I spent the whole day applying for jobs and the entire night I browsed through job seeking websites, losing around 11 kilograms weight during this time. My wife and kids were in Canada. I almost stopped communicating with them because of my failure as I blamed myself hugely. There had been days and weeks I locked myself in my room and avoided any human interaction. Alone, out of money and options, frustrated and almost broke, I changed the rules for myself again.
“Today, I equate my faith and the support of my family as the backbone that allowed me to persevere. My struggles have brought about memorable experiences that notably include representing my country in the European business stratosphere.”
I bought a pair of safety shoes and joined the local warehouse as a day labor. The retired Major from Bangladesh Army, who was once head of administration of the largest workforce in the country (28,000 people), having two Masters Degrees, founder of an international startup, now joined the DHL warehouse as a day labor. I lost my identity of who I was and who I am. I turned into another face in the crowd soon to vanish. When my startup won the Global Change Award in Sweden and my partner was walking the red carpets to receive the award with a €150,000 grant from the Crown Princess of Sweden, I (the other co-founder) was unloading boxes down the truck, earning €7 euros/hour (the minimum wages in the country).
But I never gave up. I crunched my jaws and kept pushing my limits and my determination paid off. The Operations Manager for DHL-HP Supply Chain recognized me on a surprising happenstance. He threw me the challenge of making a process optimization project in 4 months time, which was meant to renew the contract with HP for next 5 years. I accepted it. It took me three months to plan the project in DMAIC method and one month to write and experiment it through simulator test environment. The project went live on the 5th month. It was a big success and ensured DHL’s contract with HP for another 5 years. The DHL management promoted me from a warehouse operator to a supervisor of the 120-member supply chain team, the second man to the Operations Manager. One year later, we ran into some difficulties due to some business failures in other units. This occured during a time when I had only one month to quit DHL and get another job. If I didn’t succeed in securing a job, I would have to return to Bangladesh due to failing the visa requirements. DHL offered me a job contract but it did not suit my requirements, so I joined Office Depot later as the head of one of their departments for the entirety of Europe. During this time, my small startup had gone global and I had rejoined as a co-founder. It aimed at creating an online marketplace for textile pre-consumer waste, specially from Bangladesh and China. It has won the H&M Global Change award in 2016 out of 1500 start ups from all over the world and is moving full steam ahead now. This was one of the prime motivating factors for me to set foot and see the world.
Today, I equate my faith and the support of my family as the backbone that allowed me to persevere. My struggles have brought about memorable experiences that notably include representing my country in the European business stratosphere. The determination and flexibility I had retained have allowed me to visit 58 nations, give motivational speeches, mentor people and disseminate advice.
Upon reading just a glimpse of my story, I ask you, as the reader, to question the following facets of your life:
• Are you dissatisfied and frustrated? If so, have you planned or taken any action to foster change in your life?
• Have you ever considered pushing the boundaries of your life in order to unleash what you feel is your true potential? Have you even opened a dialogue with those whom you are close to in consideration of this change?
• How much can you take on? Are you confident of your ability to rise once you’ve hit rock bottom?
• Have you ever failed in any assignment in your life which challenged your existing life? Have you survived? If so, how?
Words of Wisdom
– Learn the lessons which the greater world and larger society teach you.
– Stop whining about being unhappy yet unable to define what makes you unhappy or what will make you happy. Know yourself better. Ask yourself why and how. Set clear goals and go all out to reach those goals.
– Shred all negative thoughts. Remember, there will always be struggles. But how you deal with them is the most important thing.
– Rise to the challenge and unleash your true potential. You will eventually know the reply yourself. But, unless you make a move, you will be stuck in the same position. You will never know what you could have done.
– Make an approximation of your probable course of actions for the big change you want to see in your life. If I were you, by now, I would already be researching the international economic indexes of all the countries I want to see myself in, future growth patterns, population, employment and state benefits, immigration policies and future trends.
– Take the first step and get moving by acquiring online information. Conducting this research will not cost you anything more than your regular internet bills but will lead you to new horizons.
The writer is is currently working in Europe and is a senior consultant regarding Supply Chain Sustainability and Textile pre-consumer waste Upcycling.
