I’m here to talk to you about power of
friends this is a subject which is very
close to all of you because everybody
man I’m going to take you through again
well i’ma show what can you do with your
friends together I had good luck to work
with some of my friends and create a
charitable organization which is
changing thousands and thousands of
lives the context is Pakistan Pakistan
is a country with varying landscape the
tallest of the mountains and the deepest
of the balance
roaring rivers and quite desert it’s a
country where 57% literacy rate but in
cities you can get up to 90 percent 95
percent in village some villages and
tribal areas is only like 20% it’s a
country which is equal to learn which is
equal to grow I was lucky that I grew up
in that country I did my engineering
from Pakistan and then started to work
with one of the largest corporations in
the world who was leader in consumer
electronics industry and I had 33 years
two years spanning over three continents
I worked in Asia
I will go to Europe and I work in the
United States
and by the turn of century I was in
Silicon Valley in California where I
smelled the fragrance of innovation and
optimism it was year 2000 the market was
booming everything was going good for us
my family was happy I was happy I went
to my mentor excited and I told it told
him hey things are going extremely well
for me
thank you for mentoring Mirabal this
period and I cannot forget what he said
to me he said some get ready charge up
your batteries and he was so damn right
next year in 2001 the internet bubble
burst the market came crashing down lot
of economic problems for all the
companies hmm what happens next in
November 2002 I decided to take it early
retirement a very respectful word the
reality was I was laid out
but I kind of like this world early
retirement
I even began to thanks her oh I’m going
to help great life now so I told my
friends and they were all excited and
they welcomed me into their world of
relaxation and all but with my wife I
had another discussion now she has a
tremendous capability of summarizing the
most complex of the concepts into two
said not two sentences two words so when
I explained to her the scenario she said
oh you mean double the husband average I
remember that we had been married by
then about 25 years no idea more than 40
and I know that she knows me better than
I do myself and she told me come on
at the age of 56 I think if you retire
you’ll be unhappy think about something
new do something different and she was
terrified but we’ve moved together
I started a consultancy in high tech
which meant reasonably well now being
your own boss is a fantastic thing and
that gave me a little time to think what
did I achieve what did I miss in life
and how to spend the next years and as I
was working this
through two things came up very clear on
the table first one was that my becoming
an engineer back in 1968 basically
assured my financial success I really
believe that if I would not have been
become an engineer at that time I would
not have been standing here as a
successful executive the next thing was
I started to get the feeling that I was
something to somebody now when I really
searched and searched I found it for my
honker but what can I do I had very
limited resources but anytime I decided
to go to Pakistan and do some research
I’ve been to some universities
I went to some towns villages and what I
found in Pakistan was something very
unique
I found that brilliance was fighting
with poverty
hence hand-to-hand fight day to day
fight there were students whose life you
cannot imagine the children would walk
five miles to get to school three square
meals is a dream but the beauty was that
the choices these children and the
parents make in life in this situation
they would skip a meal and buy a book
this is their life
choice
I had these beautiful friends there are
very successful people they are CEOs of
corporations or basically businessman so
I went to them and I discussed these
things that you know there is so many
brilliant students who are the risk of
losing their dreams we can’t leave them
here can be to something and I was so
glad to see that actually that feeling
of death was present in each one of my
friends they would actually be much
healthy they were all really doing
something with medication but they’d
like the idea that I had been kind of
formulating they contributed to the
discussion and they all said yes we will
do it and my god
that day I felt rich I felt not the
limited resources that I had back three
months ago and I considered myself very
lucky I wrote to my children that I am
so lucky to have friends like this I
hope you would be so do we put a stake
in the gun we said that we would launch
professional Education Foundation a
charitable trust in Gaza and what would
it do simple poverty alleviation because
we believe that poverty is because of
audience how we will do it professional
education
because professional education has
changed my life
and I thought that it would change also
a lot of people who are in a situation
where they are entitled but they cannot
afford what do we do we pick up the most
able and the most poorest of the
students what we do is the aim of the
next five years or four years of full
education cost and in some cases also
they’re voting in lying now you must
understand that I’ll tell you the
numbers later on but all the students
that we fund almost work in style the
urn and study despite the fact that he
can pay for their hundred percent of the
education cost because you know they
have to pay for that voting a body we
initially focused on undergrad degree
engineering medicine II IT and Business
Administration
we provided interest-free loans and we
provided all kind scholarships
it’s very interesting that many students
refused outright scholarship when they
say that we would be happy with industry
looks that is there a typical values
coming from such a background to me I
mean first of all look at their academic
profile only 5% of these students who
apply in a professional college the back
span typically would get an education
and one of the conditions that we have
laid down that the student has to get an
admission on its own merit that means
that they are we’re talking about 5% top
talent but their financial situation is
what is best
we have gotten any indication they are
actually reading because they can see
how they can forget their parents faces
have dropped now my son my daughter has
gone and gotten an admission in a
medical college he or she is just four
or five years from bit away from
outright success but how do I think
look at these statistics U is per capita
income is $41,000 beer box and is
something like 1200 to 1300 dollars we
are talking of students from the family
the per capita income is just 360
dollars it’s like $30 a month
now look at the nether aspect my friends
who over are all for it they’re all
businessman they’re looking for
determine investment not themselves but
to the society and for us a lot of
people of why do you do professionally
why did you choose professional
education and the answer was simple
because it is the most fastest furniture
it is demonstrable emotional and it is
immeasurable look at the cost of
education it takes two thousand four
hundred dollars to educate an engineer
in a public university it takes three
thousand dollars educator dr. you might
say that this isn’t just looks any cheap
right just imagine thirty dollars a
month for a catheter these families have
never seen that kind of money it’s
marginal but look at the result just
four or five years later when they come
to the market and then we get their
first job David earn the entire body in
one year what we would have invested in
them even more
we started with seventy-five students in
2010 last year we did 1200 students
and by 2020 we shall be 3,500 students
all of them earn in study this is where
they came from
most of them this is where they are
today she’s a doctor this gentleman on
the left hand side is an engineer he
just told me that he had are in just in
two years seven times salary seven times
the investment on his education in the
four years
this is a story of dreamers believers
and achievers
it is a motivating story it gives me a
tremendous amount of motivation when I
talk to this now death is about learning
I guess so I’m going to summarize this
thought by saying what what are the five
things that I have learned and maybe you
can get some benefit out of it
first thing is you don’t have to be a
multi-millionaire to start thinking
about the charitable operation the
second very important thing is that you
must have a very clear and
differentiated value proposition we
focused on professional education when
nobody else was there are tons of
charities were working on high high
school and lower school systems
you but you’ve got to be passionate
you’ve got to be passionate in order to
inspire other another very important
learning for me was that if you have 25
percent of the story in your head going
or just taken together if stake in the
Quran has its own dynamics we didn’t
know much about how are we going to do
that when you were just a starter but it
started it gave us the impedance of
thinking how to do what to do
lastly but not released accuse reference
in a positive way reconnected and there
is an enormous amount of energy with
that I was initially excited by the idea
of just laying off the gender you know
but I can tell you this is what I enjoy
is enough these are my friends and we’re
lucky to have them I’m sure that you
would often have such good friends and I
wish you best of friends
[Applause]
friends this is a subject which is very
close to all of you because everybody
man I’m going to take you through again
well i’ma show what can you do with your
friends together I had good luck to work
with some of my friends and create a
charitable organization which is
changing thousands and thousands of
lives the context is Pakistan Pakistan
is a country with varying landscape the
tallest of the mountains and the deepest
of the balance
roaring rivers and quite desert it’s a
country where 57% literacy rate but in
cities you can get up to 90 percent 95
percent in village some villages and
tribal areas is only like 20% it’s a
country which is equal to learn which is
equal to grow I was lucky that I grew up
in that country I did my engineering
from Pakistan and then started to work
with one of the largest corporations in
the world who was leader in consumer
electronics industry and I had 33 years
two years spanning over three continents
I worked in Asia
I will go to Europe and I work in the
United States
and by the turn of century I was in
Silicon Valley in California where I
smelled the fragrance of innovation and
optimism it was year 2000 the market was
booming everything was going good for us
my family was happy I was happy I went
to my mentor excited and I told it told
him hey things are going extremely well
for me
thank you for mentoring Mirabal this
period and I cannot forget what he said
to me he said some get ready charge up
your batteries and he was so damn right
next year in 2001 the internet bubble
burst the market came crashing down lot
of economic problems for all the
companies hmm what happens next in
November 2002 I decided to take it early
retirement a very respectful word the
reality was I was laid out
but I kind of like this world early
retirement
I even began to thanks her oh I’m going
to help great life now so I told my
friends and they were all excited and
they welcomed me into their world of
relaxation and all but with my wife I
had another discussion now she has a
tremendous capability of summarizing the
most complex of the concepts into two
said not two sentences two words so when
I explained to her the scenario she said
oh you mean double the husband average I
remember that we had been married by
then about 25 years no idea more than 40
and I know that she knows me better than
I do myself and she told me come on
at the age of 56 I think if you retire
you’ll be unhappy think about something
new do something different and she was
terrified but we’ve moved together
I started a consultancy in high tech
which meant reasonably well now being
your own boss is a fantastic thing and
that gave me a little time to think what
did I achieve what did I miss in life
and how to spend the next years and as I
was working this
through two things came up very clear on
the table first one was that my becoming
an engineer back in 1968 basically
assured my financial success I really
believe that if I would not have been
become an engineer at that time I would
not have been standing here as a
successful executive the next thing was
I started to get the feeling that I was
something to somebody now when I really
searched and searched I found it for my
honker but what can I do I had very
limited resources but anytime I decided
to go to Pakistan and do some research
I’ve been to some universities
I went to some towns villages and what I
found in Pakistan was something very
unique
I found that brilliance was fighting
with poverty
hence hand-to-hand fight day to day
fight there were students whose life you
cannot imagine the children would walk
five miles to get to school three square
meals is a dream but the beauty was that
the choices these children and the
parents make in life in this situation
they would skip a meal and buy a book
this is their life
choice
I had these beautiful friends there are
very successful people they are CEOs of
corporations or basically businessman so
I went to them and I discussed these
things that you know there is so many
brilliant students who are the risk of
losing their dreams we can’t leave them
here can be to something and I was so
glad to see that actually that feeling
of death was present in each one of my
friends they would actually be much
healthy they were all really doing
something with medication but they’d
like the idea that I had been kind of
formulating they contributed to the
discussion and they all said yes we will
do it and my god
that day I felt rich I felt not the
limited resources that I had back three
months ago and I considered myself very
lucky I wrote to my children that I am
so lucky to have friends like this I
hope you would be so do we put a stake
in the gun we said that we would launch
professional Education Foundation a
charitable trust in Gaza and what would
it do simple poverty alleviation because
we believe that poverty is because of
audience how we will do it professional
education
because professional education has
changed my life
and I thought that it would change also
a lot of people who are in a situation
where they are entitled but they cannot
afford what do we do we pick up the most
able and the most poorest of the
students what we do is the aim of the
next five years or four years of full
education cost and in some cases also
they’re voting in lying now you must
understand that I’ll tell you the
numbers later on but all the students
that we fund almost work in style the
urn and study despite the fact that he
can pay for their hundred percent of the
education cost because you know they
have to pay for that voting a body we
initially focused on undergrad degree
engineering medicine II IT and Business
Administration
we provided interest-free loans and we
provided all kind scholarships
it’s very interesting that many students
refused outright scholarship when they
say that we would be happy with industry
looks that is there a typical values
coming from such a background to me I
mean first of all look at their academic
profile only 5% of these students who
apply in a professional college the back
span typically would get an education
and one of the conditions that we have
laid down that the student has to get an
admission on its own merit that means
that they are we’re talking about 5% top
talent but their financial situation is
what is best
we have gotten any indication they are
actually reading because they can see
how they can forget their parents faces
have dropped now my son my daughter has
gone and gotten an admission in a
medical college he or she is just four
or five years from bit away from
outright success but how do I think
look at these statistics U is per capita
income is $41,000 beer box and is
something like 1200 to 1300 dollars we
are talking of students from the family
the per capita income is just 360
dollars it’s like $30 a month
now look at the nether aspect my friends
who over are all for it they’re all
businessman they’re looking for
determine investment not themselves but
to the society and for us a lot of
people of why do you do professionally
why did you choose professional
education and the answer was simple
because it is the most fastest furniture
it is demonstrable emotional and it is
immeasurable look at the cost of
education it takes two thousand four
hundred dollars to educate an engineer
in a public university it takes three
thousand dollars educator dr. you might
say that this isn’t just looks any cheap
right just imagine thirty dollars a
month for a catheter these families have
never seen that kind of money it’s
marginal but look at the result just
four or five years later when they come
to the market and then we get their
first job David earn the entire body in
one year what we would have invested in
them even more
we started with seventy-five students in
2010 last year we did 1200 students
and by 2020 we shall be 3,500 students
all of them earn in study this is where
they came from
most of them this is where they are
today she’s a doctor this gentleman on
the left hand side is an engineer he
just told me that he had are in just in
two years seven times salary seven times
the investment on his education in the
four years
this is a story of dreamers believers
and achievers
it is a motivating story it gives me a
tremendous amount of motivation when I
talk to this now death is about learning
I guess so I’m going to summarize this
thought by saying what what are the five
things that I have learned and maybe you
can get some benefit out of it
first thing is you don’t have to be a
multi-millionaire to start thinking
about the charitable operation the
second very important thing is that you
must have a very clear and
differentiated value proposition we
focused on professional education when
nobody else was there are tons of
charities were working on high high
school and lower school systems
you but you’ve got to be passionate
you’ve got to be passionate in order to
inspire other another very important
learning for me was that if you have 25
percent of the story in your head going
or just taken together if stake in the
Quran has its own dynamics we didn’t
know much about how are we going to do
that when you were just a starter but it
started it gave us the impedance of
thinking how to do what to do
lastly but not released accuse reference
in a positive way reconnected and there
is an enormous amount of energy with
that I was initially excited by the idea
of just laying off the gender you know
but I can tell you this is what I enjoy
is enough these are my friends and we’re
lucky to have them I’m sure that you
would often have such good friends and I
wish you best of friends
[Applause]
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