Guest Speaker Session by Mr. Nadeem Ahmed, CEO Searle Company Limited

Students of the leadership class eagerly awaited the arrival of, and warmheartedly welcomed Mr. Syed Nadeem Ahmed; a proven dynamic, and a successful business man whose contribution to the pharmaceutical industry as well as Pakistan is definitely substantial and admirable. His delivery on leadership was not only inspirational, but thought provoking as well for the congenital leaders alongside the leaders in making present in that class.

The session took off with Mr. Nadeem approaching the leadership topic by initiating a task of collecting the viewpoints of the students sitting on the other side of the room, rather than discussing how he views who a leader is, or what it takes to become a leader.

Amidst the number of answers provided, he received what he was looking for when he initiated the discussion. The first thing taught to us with association to the topic was that in order to become a leader, access to business schools or education is not the key factor, although an effective mean. But, there are three main elements that a person should be in possession of, if he/she wants to become the embodiment of a successful leader: Passion (Junoon), Consistency and Hard Work.

Do you dream big? Do you have the capability to transform the small hunger pangs into raving starvation where you can scarf down all the resources at your disposal to achieve the grant dream that you dreamed? If yes, then it means that you have that junoon; that craziness to do something, something that does not only impact your life, but also the lives of those around you.

The process does not end here. Being just passionate about a goal is not good enough, until and unless you starting executing your targets, but with consistency. Once, you start the venture of molding and shaping your dream, there will be several challenges, failures and disappointments erected in your way, but come hell or high water, you will not break down midway in approaching the light at the end of the tunnel. As Mr. Nadeem succinctly said “An intelligent individual does not steer away from his/her goal”.

The third element that we talked about was hard working. There’s a slight difference between consistency and hard work; and that is if you want to pursue your target, albeit a little faster, then you don’t back out from hard work. Where being consistence, in layman words, gets the job done, there hard work ensures that you get to your achievement at a rapid pace. Thus, any smart individual with an array of achievement to achieve will be portraying consistency as well as hardworking at the same time.

For illustration, Mr. Nadeem walked students through the journey of Nelson Mandela from a child at a tender age to the man the world came to know about. His passion for the sovereignty of South Africa was inspirational, especially in the face of all the challenges he had to face. His dream to free South Africa was backed by years and years of hard work, which showed consistency as well. Even as a man behind jail for more than twenty five years, he did not steer away from his goal and designed educational, healthcare and developmental plans and reforms for South Africa.

Continuing with the session, the speaker tapped gently on the topic of personalities and attitude, ensuring that the said things keep changing into different roles and perspective as per the situation. He connected attitudes of a common man with those of a leader by drawing out the picture that where a common man plays the role of son, brother, husband and coach in his daily life, there a leader plays the role of catalyst, commander, chairman and coach, respectively, in his professional life.

Mr. Nadeem winded up his session by imparting some of the most significant and insightful tactics for a successful life. He enforced on the presence of three main factors throughout a person’s life; factors that should not be left alone in any period or step of life. The first thing is parents; it’s their existence, hard work, irreplaceable trust in us, despite our inhibitions and above all, their blessings that makes us what we are today, so respect and love them because they are invaluable.

Furthermore, there’s only one factor that destroys one’s life if inculcated in our routine and that is lie. Harness the quality of not lying, no matter what kind of situation you are going through. Once, you get addicted to this factor than there’s failure ahead in your life and if by any chance you do win, then it’s an empty win that you’ll have.

The third factor he pointed out was your attitude. It’s not your degrees, your qualifications or your designation that makes you a bigger person, but your humble attitude, so being respectful to those around you is imperative and not just an option.

Thus, the class ended with few promises being exchanged; among which, one was for the students to treat their parents with a few candies on behalf of Mr. Nadeem as a way to say thank you for making us who we are today. And in that respect, we really do have a lot to thank them for.