12/11/2021
DON’T STOP BELIEVING…
I am humbled to accept the UNESCO Bangladesh Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Prize for the on behalf of my team at Motiv, the creatives and partners that have believed in us from H.E. PM and Audrey Azoulay the Director General of UNESCO at the
For young people building something, I just want to say-don't stop believing. Whatever your dream - don't stop believing.
My own story is a story of believing. I graduated university thinking I was going to change the world, It took me 80 job applications to get my first job.
Eventually, I landed my first job teaching economics and entrepreneurship earning $80 a month. It dawned on me that I couldn't raise a family on that.
Deep down, like many entrepreneurs, I believed I had something to offer, so I started believing…
But its not that easy
⁃ The default state is failure. Your tolerance for pain must be high
⁃ The hardest part is not when no one believes, its when you don't,
- Its not when others tell you its impossible, its when you don't have evidence that its possible!
But sometimes you have to believe in someone's belief in you before your belief kicks in. At that point the only people who believed in me were my mother and father. They are the first entrepreneurs who taught me how to dream and believe!
As our belief grows, we begin to believe in others. MoTIV is a story of belief in the creative potential of our young generation. That if we teach them to believe, they in turn will teach others to be bold and to believe.
This award is dedicated to everyone who believes in something but more important to those who have made it their life mission to believe in the potential of others, you are the real life heroes.
If you are lucky enough to be in a position of power, government, international space - your belief is the fuel that keeps creative entrepreneurs going.
Grateful to my team (who tolerate me 😊) my mentors who I feel I let down more than make proud. Thank you for believing-don’t stop believing.
To every entrepreneur. You are the ones we have been waiting for!
