SA Franchise Warehouse is proud to host a series of articles by Dr Vijay Bahadur, during which he will share with us the secrets contained in his book “Succeed with Nothing”.
In this first segment of the How to “Succeed with Nothing” series we introduce the man behind the story.
Brand name, Dr Vijay Bahadur, conceptualised March 1971, qualified business professional with more than 25 years first-hand business experience holding a PhD in Philosophy from Atlantic International University (USA) and a Masters in Business Administration from Thames University (London), and currently a member of several professional and non-profit organisations.
While these are the hard core facts, allow me to share with you a little of the meaty stuff, the what and why of who I am and why you should or shouldn’t be reading this.
For years I was encouraged to “Succeed with Nothing”. Not by choice, but by default. Like 80 percent of families around the world, mine was a dysfunctional one. My father abandoned the family, leaving my mother with four children to support. Left to the care of strangers I never experienced the normalcy of a close family life growing up. Instead, what stands out is the pain of being ridiculed because I had trouble with spelling and for this reason was often considered slow. Today I have a close relationship with my eldest brother who is also my best friend and I am happily married, which I count as a true blessing considering the divorce statistics.
Over the years I have found comfort in my business adventures, even though it has hardly been a smooth ride. On more than one occasion I was required to pay the school fees for placing my trust in the wrong people. My hard-won degrees and qualifications I count amongst my greatest achievements.
My message to you is – build, develop, stand up and fight on. Do not let the hardships you are forced to endure bring you down.
Over the course of many lectures and consultations I have often been asked for an easy reference handbook, a step-by-step guide people can use to help them achieve their goals and this was the inspiration behind my book entitled “Succeed with Nothing”. In writing it I hoped to deliver a document that would support and inspire entrepreneurs to reach for their goals and never give up.
I am not promising that “Succeed with Nothing” will make you millions (I don’t have a printing press – yet), instead, my goal is to provide the readers with a road map to success. As an entrepreneur looking to succeed with nothing, or what feels like nothing, life can be extremely difficult. I wrote the book because I have experienced these circumstances first-hand.
“Succeed with Nothing” aims to help those individuals and business owners or potential business owners who want to know how to achieve success with the little they have. I encourage readers to bear in mind that “Succeed with Nothing” is at best part of the solution, it is not the entire solution.
“Succeed with Nothing” is a tool you can reference as and when required to help you achieve your goals for personal and business success. It is not a get rich quick scheme or an easy way out, it is mentorship that will turn your world upside-down, a way of doing and applying knowledge that will change your life, and reading it once from cover to cover will not be the best way to get the most from it.
Remember that faith is a doing word and that is what I encourage you to do – DO SOMETHING! Here is another tip, make friends, network and very soon 1 + 1 = 3. Here is a quick look at what I am busy with…
In general I assist businesses and entrepreneurs by using financial instruments to raise funding. I further provide assistance with business start ups, negotiations, management, marketing and the selling of businesses.
At present I am authoring several business plans while also working on completing 30 more business training modules for a New Business Qualification.
Here is a quick look at some of my previous projects…
Amongst the highlights in my career to date is my involvement in heading up the business solutions division of a company that reviews businesses, with The Swaziland Lotto project counted amongst our clients. The objectives for the R65 million rand project were to create a business model, business plan, to structure the project for sustainability and assess resource strategy and management.
Another sizable project was the Zambian Project, in which the Australian and the Zambian Governments participated. This project is worth USD 150 million with a reverse listing on the JSE worth around R500 million.
During the course of my career I have consulted independently as well as on behalf of RMI and MERSETA, and have facilitated thousands of interventions in the scope of enterprise development.
In the next instalment of this series we discuss how understanding yourself and passion go hand-in-hand with entrepreneurship.