I was invited to give a speech last week about my experiences of local and overseas work life. Following is the jist of what I came up with on my way towards Business Incubation Centre, Park Road, Islamabad. All of this may sound cliche to you but these are the true lessons from work that I hated, horrible bosses, low salaries, and then amazing mentors who changed my life.

1. Take on big goals and huge dreams. Thing bigger, be a dreamer and work harder.

2. Change yourself today. Start working harder today. Don’t wait up for that perfect time because it ain’t coming. This must be very clear in your mind.

3. The world is not just meadows and rainbows. Its hard, really hard. You have to create paths and opportunities for yourself.

4. Don’t play the blame game. Instead, play the reality-check game. No regrets from the past, only lessons. Plan more and do more.

5. Don’t be average. Average people are never phenomenal. Be special. But how? Never let anybody tell you that you can’t do what you wanna do. You gotta push yourself beyond limits and never stop trying. Challenge yourself everyday, you must be your own competitor.

6. Every time you fall, you must get up. If you can look up, you can get up. People will tell you failure is bad and stay away from trying out new things. Let me tell that they are wrong. Every failure is an opportunity to learn, grow up and initiate a new beginning, a blessing if you will.

7. Don’t settle for less. Don’t stop looking. Stay positive, keep moving forward.

8. I was told that most of you are fresh grads and inters. The major advice that I have for you today is ‘start saying yes’. Yes to life, yes to courage, yes to hard work, yes to dreams and ambitions, yes to your potential and yes to a great future ahead.

I welcome you all to ‘riwajify.com’, ‘Eta Technovations’ and ‘i2s labs’. We provide life changing opportunities to positive minds like you. Are you ready for it?