Newaz & OutBoi

Till the 10th grade, my mother was in charge of my education. She always shared one thing that in life if you want to do something big, “you have to be highly educated”. I was under her close supervision, but I never had to read any novel putting inside a textbook which people of our areas used to call OutBoi!! Both my father who was a college teacher and my elder brother who is a journalist had wonderful collections of out-books mostly on literature and religion. Till the 10th grade of my education, my father never asked anything about my study as my mother was in charge of that. Upon completing SSC (10th Grade), I fall into a critical decision of where to get admitted and of which academic subject to pursue.

Then, my father came into the scene and my mother handed over the baton to my father saying that “now he (me) is going to explore the bigger world and you (my father) know the world better than me so it’s your turn to guide your son”.

That time after completing the 10th grade, most of the people used to get admitted into the local college where my father was a teacher and some students from progressive families go to Rajshahi. But my father said, “look if you want to do something big in the future, you better start from the capital ”. Although I was a student of science at that time I realized my science base is not that much strong to compete in Dhaka so I asked my father to change my subject with a shy voice (since my entire perception built that those who study science are good students !!) and he said: “look it’s your life you are to decide your path”. Then I happily got admitted to Dhaka City College in Business Studies. Whereby I met a wonderful teacher Shamsul Arefin Chowdhury who used to teach Accounting as if Literature.

Being inspired by his charismatic teaching style, I thought to become an FCA. Upon completion of HSC (12th grade), I tried to get admitted to Dhaka University but failed!! However, I tried for Rajshahi University and became second in the admission test of BBA in Accounting. (Secret: Mr. Samsul Arefin Chowdhury made my Accounting base strong and the admission test of BBA accounting was focused on Accounting only).

Again I went back to reading out-books and Accounting started to become boring to me. I asked my father that I want to seat for the admission test of Dhaka University again and want to change my subject. He replied “choice is yours” and I started taking preparation for admission. This time, I succeed to secure my position on the merit list whereby got 3 options to choose from; Accounting (I already studied for a semester at Rajshahi University), Management (I didn’t know much about) & Marketing. As my close friend Le Gypsy took this subject, I choose marketing. Since at Dhaka University, one can do a lot of things other than study, academic courses became my second priority.

I unleashed myself to dive into different courses from Photography to Documentary Film making, from Art Appreciation to Poem recitation. I started reading and engaging in many things without any aim. At the end of my MBA, I found along with academic knowledge, I can apprehend a lot of other things e.g. I can understand literature critically although not good at writing; I’m not good at movie-making but Ritik Ghotok has become my favorite movie director; I’m not that good at photography but I understand what is a good composition.

I realized I became a jack of all trades and master of none!! When I started my career as a Brand Marketer, I began to realize that marketing is the job of such a person who is a jack of all trades and a master of Marketing. And as a keen enthusiast of many things, I just need to be a master of marketing to become a good marketer. Then I decided to continue my journey of learning different things for my inner me and to keep myself updated on recent marketing thoughts. As I have been working in the marketing field for a long time, every day I learn something new about running a business and doing it better.

And my inner me continuously forces me to go for a Barista training, learning Python, getting admitted for R software and quitting at the middle of the course, meeting people in different contexts and different countries, and the endeavors to know the unknown go on.