Chief Mentor’s Speech

Date: 15/04/13

Place: Hearty Mart Enterprise

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

My dear friends and colleagues.

My old colleagues and those who have joined recently.

Those who know my story and those who don’t.

Let me start this speech with the story of failure as I believe that every story of success is actually a story of failure. I have seen people getting scared of failure, but it is failure which ignites fire in you and inspires you to do better in future. 

Failure is the first stepping stone to success. I failed to secure distinctions in my higher secondary and I could not become an engineer; instead today I am an entrepreneur working on my own terms and am independent. Had I been an engineer, I would have been still working with a blue-chip company……may be. I gained a lot when I failed. Today, I feel it was an opportunity in the form of a failure.

Hearty Mart was a loss making store few years back. Today, it is a case-study of integrated business. We could achieve all this as we remained focused and channelized our energies for the common goal. This miraculous success was achieved by your efforts and this is ofcourse the success well-deserved.

The year 2012-2013 gave us growth in a turbulent time of the economy which means that Almighty Allah is happy and pleased with our dedication and efforts. We need to strive in this direction every year and remember that the success achieved through right means and efforts is the success Allah wants us to have. If we do so we would always be under His Shelter and Guidance. Yes, there are temptations all around but during such a time we need to look back at the path we have travelled and it would help us not to deviate from the right path.

Hearty Mart – a community initiative is slowly shedding its image and is coming out in the mainstream. I would like to specially thank the presence of my friends from other communities who have accepted the business and working with me as a part of my extended family. Their efforts are really wonderful and I pray to Allah to always guide us that we remain fair and just with them and all friends and employees of Hearty Mart.

We, the citizen of India should shun our personal biases and differences and should work collectively for the growth of this great nation and let us begin this journey by working collectively at Hearty Mart.

I have brought few leadership & motivational gems for you which I would be sharing now: 

Leadership & Motivational Thoughts: 

•  "Encourage your people to counter your arguments and indulge in healthy debate. This would help you gauge the strength of your arguments and allow you to rectify errors in the process."

• "The word 'success' is deceptive and it’s meaning changes from one person to another. The best way to describe success is to feel it. A truly successful person would be satisfied with his efforts and would be at peace with himself."

• "To born in a family with a good name is a gift of God. To strive and achieve your own name and space is being grateful to the Almighty!"

• "If a person inculcates humility of a learner and confidence of an expert the success would always be loyal to him."

•  "When you feel that you have reached bottom of your failure in personal and professional life keep the faith that success is just round the corner."

Spiritual Thoughts: 

Mawla Ali’s (as) advice to his children:

•  "I advise you (both) and all my children and members of my family and everyone whom my writing reaches, to fear Allah, to keep your affairs in order, and to maintain good relations among yourselves for I have heard your grandfather (the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.)) saying: 'Improvement of mutual differences is better than general prayers and fasting." 

•  "(Fear) Allah (and) keep Allah in view in the matter of orphans. So do not allow them to starve, nor allow them to be lost in your presence." 

•  "Be an enemy of the oppressor and a helper of the oppressed."

And at the end a piece of advice by an advertising guru-friend (Prathap Suthan) of mine:

"Keep observing. Keep assimilating. Be a student forever. Learning from life is key. And learning something new daily is master key. Like Einstein said, ‘my knowledge is nothing compared to my ignorance’. Think about it. It’s a huge truth, and it doesn’t get more awesome than that." 

Thank you