It was the time of the year when Miss Nepal was going to be held. I don’t remember the exact year but I was a school-going girl then. As I was going through the profile of all the participants on TV, there was one contestant who caught my eye. With a sleek long hair and a smile on her face, she said, “I aspire to be an entrepreneur” and mind you, her pronunciation was on-point with a very fine accent. I immediately turned the pages of my Oxford Pocket dictionary to find out the meaning. What I understood was – an entrepreneur is a businessman.
Time went by. During the final days of high school, all the students naively gathered in school auditorium for the ‘career counseling’ session that was organized by our school alumni. It was in February 2013. It was just a small talk program that invited a few guest speakers who gave half an hour of speech each on their respective careers. But, this small talk program was big enough to excite all the young minds to become a banker, a doctor, an engineer, environment analyst, IT expert, Chartered Accountants, or entrepreneurs.
And then, I joined an undergrad program. Learning constituted exploring and experimenting as well. My curious head led me to many programs and events. Eventually, entrepreneurship became the most familiar word. From that little introduction of entrepreneurship to a little more understanding about this fancy word, I am gradually growing.
Today, it is not just a fancy word. I consider ‘entrepreneurship’ a dream. It is the dream of seeing the seeds sown reap the sweetest while adding value to your society and country. It is facing and crushing the challenges. It is about experiencing failures, learning lessons and paving the path to success. And most importantly, it is all about following your interests and growing with the working and that too for a cause.
These days, I see many organizations and facilitators that conduct programs and form policies for the development of entrepreneurial culture and promote entrepreneurship. The startup culture is rising. Youths are considering entrepreneurship not just an alternative to make money and discard the traditional career paths, but a way to follow their passion as well. And what could be a better way to live and lead your life than to follow your passion?
By Anusha Kadel
The writer is a 4th year student of BBS at Shanker Dev Campus. She can be reached at anushakadel28@gmail.com
