| Danial Norjidi |
AS PART of the recent Youth Business Talk (YBT) 2018 at Universiti Teknologi Brunei (UTB), a plenary session was held on August 9 to discuss the topic of challenges facing youth in entrepreneurship and life, and setting ambitions.
The session was moderated by the Head of Youth Entrepreneurship Programme at the Youth Centre Pengiran Kamal Ghadafi bin Pengiran Haji Suhaimi, and featured a panel comprising DH-AW Sdn Bhd Director Dato Paduka Haji Hamdillah bin Haji Abdul Wahab, Progresif Cellular Sdn Bhd Chief Marketing Officer Devin Edwards, Geotrax Chief Executive Officer Mohd Reduan bin Yusof and Mohd Ammirul Hakeem bin Rahimeey, a final year UTB student studying Computer Network and Security, who also has a business called MixBros.
During the session, Dato Paduka Haji Hamdillah highlighted the importance of seizing opportunities.
“Even in school, even in university, opportunities are abound,” he said. “All you have to do is keep your eyes open, keep your mind open and grab the opportunity, even if you have to do it alone.”
Meanwhile, Devin Edwards advised, “Never rely exclusively on a single idea or a single income stream, because as an entrepreneur you’ll have businesses that do well, you’ll have businesses that fail, you’ll have businesses that do well for a period of time and then fail, and ideally you always need to have things to fall back on or alternative revenue streams to actually help you to stay propped up in times of uncertainty, in times where one business model may fail.”
Mohd Reduan underlined the need for perseverance. “Don’t look back. Don’t listen to negative comments, just go ahead,” he said, highlighting that it is important to keep going and not simply stop after a few days or weeks. “You are all young, you still have energy. This is the time to manage your business.”
Mohd Ammirul Hakeem spoke on how he managed to start a business while still a student, and said, “It’s not impossible as a student to discover what you can do.” He said it is important for students to learn communication, management and leadership skills.
The plenary session concluded after a question and answer segment, where attendees were given the opportunity to pose questions to the panellists.
The YBT 2018 at UTB was the first to be hosted there, and it is an entrepreneurship programme jointly organised by the Entrepreneurship Unit of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports (MCYS) with UTB.
In addition to the plenary session, the two-day programme also put focus on positive mindset, identity, leadership, marketing and branding.
The programme involved 100 participants from UTB, including students from the UTB School of Business, School of Computing and Informatics, Faculty of Engineering, School of Applied Sciences and Mathematics, and School of Design.