Slow Movement

I found a video promoting slow movement a couple of months back:

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/carl_honore_praises_slowness.html

Quite interesting, if you have moderate internet speed to watch this :).

My take? Europeans can afford the slow thing. We can't. While we, Bangladeshis are inherently slow, we top in corruption, poverty, bureaucracy, procrastination -- last thing we need is to be preached about slowness.

Yes, I know the Europeans... I've seen our CXOs and consultants in GP leave office during the daylight, while we are staying till 10 pm for next day event. For outsourced job, we stay up here at any odd time of the day and night, while they pick the time of their choice for product meeting. They remain unreachable for about a month during Christmas. Some of them are unreachable for almost a couple of months during summer, Easter, or god knows what.

Can we afford that?

If we are unreachable for a fraction of a day, we are labeled as 'unprofessional' . The next day the work and fund move to Indonesia, Vietnam, Brazil, Argentina or any of the myriad options they have.  

Slowness thing has some merit. But let's not slow down while we live in this dirty, problem ridden, unorganized jungle of homo sapiens. We need to be fast and real fast to make this country a better place.

Now is not the time to slow down. We are at a war -- an economic war, a war to make our country a decent living space. The people who are preaching about slowness, eradication of child labor etc. were really fast when they were at war. And they defeated the slower part of the world time and again. Now that they have a good system, they can afford to be slow. There is this stupid third world who works fast, cheap and stays up to take care of the price of their slowness. 

We, on the other hand, don't even have a system. We shall have to try many things, learn form mistakes with a hope that down the line we will have one. Riding on that we will be able to be slow some day; give time to family, friends -- play golf, switch off cell phone in weekends etc.

I think it's a crime for us if we be slow right now. We are supposed to be the leaders of the nation. We are the creme de la creme of the country. (The point that you are being able to read this post proves that you belong to the super privileged part of the population.) The nation does not need another "slow leader" now.

Japanese are workaholic. They work 16 hours in a day. They are super productive, innovative, fast and professional. Americans work hard, fast and long hours, too (we get quick feedback from them :-)).

So, let's not confuse by choosing the wrong idol. We don't have luxury to be slow, my friends. I mean... look around you!

Who are the heroes of our time?

Entrepreneurs are heroes. They are the value creator. They see opportunities while others see emptiness. They are the engines of today's economy. They are risk takers, the dreamers and the doers.

You agree with it or not, no matter what your mother said about the business people, no matter how high your father talked about the government  service, or however glorified your friend’s job in MNC seems, or how your brother bragged about his life in a developed country, how every children grown in this country with a dream to be a doctor or an engineer; entrepreneurs are the super heroes of a modern country.

They are the seeds, the organizers, the believers, and the challengers.

Good for Bangladesh that it has just started to know that. If it wants to prosper further, it must recognize the heroes and start honoring them every way it can. Citizens should better cherish to be one of them.

Not every person can be or will be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs are the smartest, the wisest, the different and the rare breed of a society. You may not end up being one of them, but if you can, rush to be one.

What is there of more fun and rewarding in life than to dream of something, involve a team in your dream, work to materialize that, live to see your dream come true, live to see how life of many transformed positively  because of you, live to see your creation changing the society and transforming the country? And finally when you are not here, your baton is passed, things become larger and greater, and you still are the seed of a great entity. No one can take that away from you.

So, you the mortal and the small one! are you ready to be someone to create immortals — to create entities of limitless size?

If you don’t think you have the guts to be one of them yet; start by honoring them as the super heroes of your time.

This post is dedicated to Syed H. Rayhan, and all the entrepreneurs and wannabe entrepreneurs of Bangladesh.