The professor, then, gave us an example of an alumnus, a Peruvian, who had found opportunities in most of the problems we mentioned. Instead of complaining about the lack of public transportation, he bought a used car and started ferrying students needing a ride to malls, grocery stores, bars or airport for a reasonable price. The cheapest haircut at $10 was still expensive; he bought a pair of clippers and did the job for five bucks. He mustn’t have made loads, but he sure was making extra money with his small investment and not to mention the service he was providing to the needy ones.
After about a year, when I had an opportunity to meet this Peruvian student, I was re-enlightened on a few things.
First: Most of the problems have opportunities in them; some are easily identifiable while others require some kind of skills. Second: Whatever he did wasn’t any rocket science nor required any additional skills. Third: Everybody sees the problems; few see the opportunities in them; and very few take the risk to convert problems into opportunities. Last and the most important: Gone are the days when opportunities would come and knock on your doors; in today’s competitive world, one has to go and find the opportunities and fortunately there are still plenty of them all around us.
I write I was ‘re-enlightened’ because none of the things we discussed were unknown to me. Whatever I am going to mention in the next few paragraphs aren’t new ideas either. Let’s see some of our problems, which, I believe, also have some kind of opportunities in them. Some of our major problems like municipal waste – 80 percent of which can be converted or recycled, thus creating jobs – have opportunities in them. But since these mega projects require huge investments and also need ‘political will and blessings’ to get the green signal, let’s focus only on the small/doable projects. So, for those of you who complain about lack of opportunities, here’s something for you to chew on.
Instead of working hard and rising through the ranks, majority of the educated youths feel that they are ‘entitled’ to certain things, which is becoming an epidemic lately.
FARMING
Lately, farming is becoming the most neglected profession and it is a pity that a country that considers itself agrarian discourages farming by limiting the size of land one can own. No matter how much the young generation hates, there is tremendous opportunity in farming. But the traditional way of farming should be replaced with new scientific approaches and this includes breaking the age-old mentality that farming is the vocation of uneducated or undereducated people. Except for a few exceptions, most of our farming is still done in a traditional way – without any regards to the soil type, rainfall pattern, climatic conditions, crop rotation, etc. Forget about identifying a market for the produce or focusing on cash crops or organic farming, even some of the educated farmers – knowing it’s detrimental to environment and public health – do not hesitate to add ‘extra’ dose of chemical fertilizers or pesticides for ‘better’ results.
The reason there is opportunity in farming is because of the growing cities and its residents. Every now and then, we hear news reports about some farmers making a fortune out of cash crops. Instead of complaining about the lack of opportunities, why can’t some of our youths start cash crops farming or organic farming? Dairy farming provides a similar opportunity. City residents – mostly outside the capital city – tired of adulterated milk from the milkmen are always willing to pay extra price for good quality unadulterated milk.
Okay, now if this actual fulltime farming in the field and rearing cows is too traditional, too much work and not so ‘hip’ for some of you, how about supplying goats temporarily to meet the demands of Kathmanduites during Dashain?
Dashain is around the corner and every Dashain sees the shortage of goats and some families will have to get away with Chyangra meat during this festival too. There you go, another opportunity in the problem. Goats are usually brought to Kathmandu from various nearby areas or cities and villages in Tarai. Like any other job, bringing goats to Kathmandu – that too during Dashain – is not an easy task but if you have some negotiating skills, know local dialect/language and have a concrete plan, things will be easier.
A working plan for this project includes a group of youths (preferably five or six), with cell phones, willing and capable of chipping in around 100,000 to 150,000 thousand rupees. Each of these youths will have to head out to potential goat-rearing places – villages near Biratnagar, Birgunj or Bhairahawa. After a few days of reconnaissance of the area and negotiations with goat farmers, the group will have to communicate with each other on the pricing, quantity, quality and availability of goats. They will then have to make their final decision, rent a truck, make a round to all these places and bring the purchased goats to Kathmandu. Once in Kathmandu, they need to rear these goats for a few days in a temporary pen and sell them to buyers.
There is no denying that the price of goats in Kathmandu – especially during Dashain – increases to one-and-a-half times the regular price. Let’s do a conservative estimate – say that 200 goats are brought and after deducting all the expenses, the group makes Rs 500 on each goat, which means a profit of Rs 100,000. If the group has five individuals, it means a profit of Rs 20,000 per person in less than 15 days. The more goats you bring, the more profit you make.
Floriculture is booming in Kathmandu these days. However, every Valentine’s Day sees the shortage of roses, which according to news report is a 5 million rupees business, and the demand is met by importing roses from India. Why can’t we farm roses? One doesn’t have to be a florist or a botanist to farm roses. In fact, anyone with an average knowledge of internet search can get all the information needed to farm roses in the climatic conditions of Kathmandu or nearby areas. Even if a quarter of the rose demand is met, that means an income of 1.25 million rupees – averaging over 150,000 rupees per month. Which job pays this amount and that too working the hours you want and the way you want? And not to mention the employment opportunities to a few of our youths and home-grown roses to our Valentines.
HARD WORK AND RISK-TAKING
When it comes to hard work, we fail miserably. Most of us are used to taking short-cuts or cutting corners. Instead of working hard and rising through the ranks, majority of the educated youths feel that they are ‘entitled’ to certain things, which is becoming an epidemic lately. I would also like to respond to a few of my readers who said that they cannot do certain jobs as it is considered ‘lowly’. Therein lies the problem. The youths who are ready to go to some far-flung land to do difficult and dangerous jobs will not do similar jobs in the home country just because it is considered lowly.
Most of the opportunities mentioned in this article are being tapped into in one way or the other. The intention of this article is to encourage youths to do the same in a more scientific and proper way and look for opportunities in the problems. There are plenty of other similar opportunities. But most of our youths won’t consider or even comprehend this. Why? Because we are too conscious of pleasing everybody and too worried about what others will think of our undertakings. Our education system, which ‘spoon-feeds’ us without inculcating a critical-thinking and problem-solving attitude, is also to blame.
The only thing one needs to do is to identify the problem, look for an opportunity in it, do some homework to see if the opportunity is achievable/acceptable or not, get some advice from seniors or experienced individuals and take the risk. Well, once you have already done the homework and taken advice, it’s no longer a risk – it´s calculated risk. Calculated risk along with hard work, more often than not, yields positive results.
kc.shandip@yahoo.com
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