In the scenario where many Nepali youths are choosing a life abroad, so many entrepreneurs here back in Nepal are doing something praiseworthy. All of us have dreams of course and we all chase dreams in our respective ways. Today’s story is about a person who saw probabilities here with the same privilege like average of us have. Mr.Anup Baral made the most out of every small opportunities he got.
In 2000, when he first came to Kathmandu from Chitwan for his further studies, he started his first job in an event management and educational consultancy. His first job offered him a salary of near NRs.3,000 which was a small amount of money for a guy with family to look after. Life was tough for him.
It’s not that the idea of getting abroad didn’t strike him but accountability towards nation kept him motivated to do something here. In those times, Kathmandu was a center of business for people with business as a family occupation. No one else was willing to start a trend. This interested him to do something on his own. At times, he didn’t even have money to have a cup of tea. He didn’t want to rely on his family for small needs either. Meanwhile, he got a chance to work with TATA Automobiles’ Sipradi Trading Pvt. Ltd. in sales department. He passed the interview and got appointed as sales assistant. Back then, passenger vehicles were less used than commercial vehicle. He strongly believed that only his performance could drive his career. At the time period of 8 months, he got certified as an outstanding employee. This boosted his confidence and made him self-motivated towards doing better. He got promoted as sales officer. He says that schooling is extremely important for the performance outcome. The humble and motivating environment of the workplace had him driven to his goals which got him promoted as Assistant Manager. During the Maoist insurgency, while the sales graph were supposed to go down, he and the team worked a real hard to maintain upper graded graph. In 2005, he got to work as Head of Passenger Car Building Unit. This period was a transitional period for him. He got an international exposure. While all this was happening, he lost his father.
He worked in radio and television since he was passionate about it and even worked as a teacher in some colleges to sustain himself. He took his passion and career parallel. He devoted his time to automobile industry. And by 2010, he realized that he should jump and get into startup and entrepreneurship.
Startup was a fascinating idea but he had no business background and abundant capital to start a business on his own. So, he decided to talk to CEO of the company he was working in regarding this idea. He thought of starting a business as an authorized dealer. He got the dealership of Sipradi company for Kathmandu and Lalitpur. He says that he could do this all because of faith and honesty.
Talking about his academics, Mr.Baral did his post graduation in Business Management and Master’s in Mass Communication and Journalism. He ran a show called Musical Drive in Radio Nepal, ‘Yo Raat ko Katha’ in a radio and also ran Business Talks in NTV Plus.
Mr.Baral believes that Nepal is a fertile land for startups. Being an industrialist himself, he says that Nepal is a home to infinite concepts. “Every startup is trying to fit in, why can’t you fit in?”,says Mr.Baral. It’s all about perception. Mr.Baral sees the possibility in minor things from helmets to lentils. Mr. Baral says, “All it takes is will. A journey starts only when one accepts a challenge. You are a brand yourself. It takes a capacity to build an empire. All you have to consider is the norms of financial discipline.”
Every business has its own highs and lows. However, he faced loss in every terms initially. When he had just started his journey, two of his showrooms went down because of road expansion campaign by the government. It was disheartening for him. But, “My showroom collapsed, my hopes didn’t”, was his reaction to the incident. He didn’t give up. His dreams were so important to him that incidents as such didn’t much affect him. He ran his business under a tent for about 15 months. Then, he opened a showroom in Naxal. Everything was going well when earthquake occurred. His showroom collapsed. The disastrous event followed by an economic blockade in the country challenged his journey. He felt discouraged but then realized that the whole nation was in crisis and he was just an individual. He was at his lows but had not given up yet. With lots of difficulties, he’s opened a showroom in Balkumari now.
It is overwhelming that foreigners see possibilities in our country whilst we ourselves are ignorant towards it. Many youths have a mindset of professional hierarchy here in Nepal that leads them to believe that certain jobs are supposed to be done by people of specific profile which is the major reason we’re lagging behind in terms of youth mobilization and empowerment. Nepal is a place where a business can be run with a small capital. There are abundant possibilities, we just need to see through things. One can do anything and everything here. If not much, at least one can work with pride and satisfaction for the country.
From his working experiences, Mr.Baral believes that with consistency, passion and determination, Nepal is a home to startups. Will overpowers everything. One should see above minor falls and look over the bigger picture. The country needs youths who are passion driven and are optimist about the power of individual’s contribution to the nation.