TEDxNottingHill - Sabirul Islam - 10/09/09
well as you all know my name is cyber Islam and it's fantastic to be here and to to actually be the face of you know the the future of Enterprises not just for young people but also for adults as well because I think the importance of Entrepreneurship and Enterprise within young people is the belief the power to be able to see Vision in life and having that self-belief because where I grew up in the B of Tire hamlets in East London young people were full of full of you know skepticism about their life full of you know they they weren't having that belief in them they were seeking crime violence drugs and abuse and they weren't helped by their parents and I went through that exact same thing in life why this negative atmosphere within like within a young person's life has such an effect so it's about making a change making a change seeing Role Models seeing Inspirations and I've always followed life through like a through like an equation inspiration knowledge opportunity brings success now how can I use that to not just help myself but also to help other young people within my own local community on a national scale and then on a global scale and talking about inspiration talking about Enterprise I've always looked up to one person one person in my entire family my cousin my cousin was a real inspiration for me why because when he was 14 he set up his own business he was the managing director of a company at the age of 14 his idea wasn't the greatest he designed calendars for teachers put that aside but to have managed a company at such a young age really inspired me so I went out to him I went out to him and said cousin can I work for you can I be the one designing these calendars for these teachers and he said fair enough you're my cousin you can do computer work and so he employed me and at that time I was 13 and I was in in school do my SATs and gcses and all all those things and what really came to me was because he was my cousin and because what he did he earned 60 pounds in one whole Academic Year 60 and to me that felt like a being a millionaire because he didn't have to go and ask his parents for money to to to buy the crisp sweets and drinks he had it right in his back pocket and I thought wow if I earned that 60 you know the world is my oyster and that was my inspiration so I I was working for him but for a limited amount of time well apparently that's what I thought I was because he because he was my cousin I just sat back relaxed enjoying thinking that 60 would roll into my back pocket and what happened I've never received a letter through my post at that age at the age of 13 so my cousin wrote a letter saying dear Sab Islam and the first ever letter I I received with the with the company name his company was called The Royal dragons and what happened he didn't say much he said dear Cal Islam you're fired I was hired and fired by my own flesh and blood at the age of 13 now that made me think now that made me think the reason is because I I wanted to do something I wanted to be like him he was my inspiration but to have fired me was horrible was one of the most horrible experiences of my life at that time but what I learned from that was to for a young person to experience such a negative factor in life is how you see that inspiration how you turn it around and make it positive you see roots for yourself in life and young people don't often get that to to become a te entrepreneur to become a teenage entrepreneur to be enterprising and to see success in life you have to make mistakes mistakes come and go but you don't just fall under the first hurdle and so what happened that 60 he made I wanted to beat that he was a managing director dor I wanted to be a CEO so what happened when I turned 14 I set my own business called Veyron technology it was a web designing company so I GRE I got got a group of six of my friends together and it was an incredible journey I didn't know anything about web design yet one of my friends did so what happened he to he taught us all about the basics the very simplest things about web designing within the space of 4 or five days and because my cousin was selling to teachers in school I said I don't want to sell to teachers I want to sell to corporate organizations big big businesses the ab and emerald the JP Morgans the Maro lynches all these massive big Investment Banking companies so I went up to them and said we're young creative buddying entrepreneurs who can help you design a website are you interested we we approached about five or six and almost all of them apart from one rejected us Mero Lynch Maro Lynch said wow 14y olds have just come up to us and said they would want us to to design websites and it was an incredible journey and within two weeks I made over £2,000 profit £ 2,60 was like a million it but to have made 2,000 in the space of two weeks within with such a you know limited amount of resources it was incredible and so for two years I was doing this web design company but then sense knocked into me that hey web design is too common too many people are doing it it was great when you were 14 but 16 no way so with Maro Lynch being my first clients they came back to me they came back to me at the age of 16 and said c we've been following your journey for the past two years you set up your own business in the Barrow of tower hamlets where young people see crime violence drugs and abuse as a simple rote forward yet you did something different whil doing your GCS you've earned your A's and your a Stars fantastic but we want to give you another opportunity to go to New York and learn how to trade in the stock market and I thought wow to have been given such an opportunity because of what I've done is is something phenomenal and that is what young people don't understand that once you take one route in life Millions more doors open and that is opportunity and for me I thought it's an incredible opportunity to go to New York I went to the I went to New York in the Dow Jones in the New York Stock Market learn how to trade I was working alongside professional Traders for a two we program I came back and they gave me $100,000 $100,000 fantasy not real fantasy money to trade in the fantasy stock market and I lost all of that in one day in one day well in space of two hours actually to be precise but they he said hey you've made that mistake you've learned from it we're not giving you another 100K so I thought okay I spent three months in the fantasy trade market and in the fantasy stock market and I thought okay I'd want to live a Fant life I want to do the real thing so at the age of 16 I became a part-time Trader in the London Stock Exchange under my dad's name so but I was the one doing all the dealing all the trading and all and I made money out of that I lost money I made money but it was an experience to do something different whilst in studies I was doing my a levels at the time so what happened young people within my own area were coming up to me and saying cyber how on Earth have you managed to set up your own business at the age of 14 being an entrepreneur an investor at the age of 16 how on Earth is that possible and it did get really annoying that too many were asking me that question in fact it got so annoying that I just you know I I can't help you but then sense came back into me because I wanted to to follow an an equation in life that inspiration inspiration is very very big and that was the first thing that came to me how can I Inspire these young people from my own experience so when I turned 17 I wrote my first book called The World At Your Feet turning your vision into reality and it was a self-published book because I approached having written the book within a space of three months I approached 40 different Publishers 40 different Publishers to get the book published and I got rejected by each and every one of those four e Publishers at the age of 17 why for two reasons one first of all they didn't think that a 177 year-old could even write a good book secondly they didn't think there was a market for it but there were young people wanting my help my advice and so I pushed it Forward I self-published it myself I designed it myself marketed it myself sold it myself and within a space of 9 months I sold over 42 and a half th000 copies of that book 422,000 copies and he opened another door for me to provide more inspiration for young people public speaking so last year alone in 2008 I spoke at 379 different events of which 333 were schools which had teenagers young people and having inspired over 40,000 young people across the UK now that said something so what happened all 40 Publishers each and every one of them came back to me and said SA we now want to publish your book and that was a great moment for me to go I don't think so and it was the most beautiful experience in life to have rejected something so big and but what what happened was my cousin who initially who fired me at the age of 13 came to me and said don't get pride and arrogance wrong in life never get them wrong and I cuz I was being too arrogant I felt so good and so hyped up that I could reject Publishers when I needed their help so what happened Marshall Cavendish who weren one of those 40 came to me and said Sabra we want to take your book on a global scale and I signed a contract with them that 10 months later on June 18th this year the book will get published so I had this 10mon period to wait wait for so I was doing my public speaking trying to inspire these young people but what about the knowledge the knowledge of the business inspiration great now taking it to the next next step step of the equation the knowledge where does the knowledge come from and so I got a group of six young teenagers together and said what do young people like doing playing games they want to know what the world is about and so I created my own board game within a 10-month period called T entrepreneur to give young people the the their experience of what business is about what sales is about what marketing is about what the stock market is about running their own businesses and from from just a business from scratch and how you develop that business into an International International Superstar company you being a tycoon and that was just a an you know a phenomenal journey to have got six young 11 to 15 year olds with their knowledge of business put together and made a concept of a board game so you didn't need a 40 year old's ideas of what business is because young people find that very boring and that's true they do and so what happened on June 18th the new book and the board game was launched and that was just an incredible journey for me to have given the inspiration and now providing them the knowledge what happens next giving them the opportunity so before the opportunity came what happened I took a punt at something I took a punt at six I had to pay 600s for a magazine back in back in 2008 to advertise what I was doing and I didn't know anything much about marketing or advertising but that magazine went into universities across the UK that magazine went into every single University and it fell into the hands of a a person in in Lincoln University and that kept on rolling on and on and it fell into the hands of the wife of Nigeria's first the wife of Nigeria's first president and she gave me a call she gave me a call and said saal we've read your story on the magazine we've seen your journey it's an absolute inspiration and so she invited me to speak at a summit in Nigeria where over 3,000 young people attended and to have had my face on billboards and posters and magazines across the country was just I felt like a celebrity there and it was like the most beautiful thing I've ever experienced and now going back to the day I was fired the day I received that letter if I hadn't been fired by my own cousin I would not be standing here right now and for me every time something happens in life new doors open new Roots open and so what happened after I gave a talk in Nigeria almost each and every one of those young kids added me on Facebook added me on the academy LinkedIn almost everything and that was incredible and the Beautiful Thing is one of them came back to me saying he's wrote a book He's wrote a book and he said thank you to the likes of Barack Obama and all those big big names from history but he said the most special thank you for providing the inspiration was me and to have felt so proud at that moment I felt like crying because to to be able to provide such inspiration for a young person to to change the the perception of life from struggling to seeing success is just the most proudest thing you can ever earn in life that respect and for me it's just been an incredible incredible journey but it didn't stop there it didn't stop there because providing inspiration providing the knowledge now providing the opportunity because having gone to so many different schools across across the UK it's not just providing the inspiration and you know hear the talk CU he often goes through one here comes out the other and that is the problem with young people they read a book most of them don't even read books yeah I was I don't even read books yeah I wrote one and yet that was a problem for me I was facing a problem how do I actually grab onto these teenagers and make something happen for them and so I thought let me create a program let me create a program an interactive program that allows young people each and every step of the way to become entrepreneurs becoming what I call a twer for a young person to become a twer what happens they have a business idea they get mentored online once that happens the mentor will actually guide them into setting up their own business once that process is done because each and every teenager needs to be guided one way or another once that is done they're able to sell their idea online they're able to trade on a retail level online within this twf program once that is done once they're making their money they're able to ask for the investment through what I call the twers den and Everyone likes the Dragons Den especially the young people so I thought let me get my own dragons on board and so that's providing opportunity for young people to gain their investment to take their ideas so far in life that they can be a twer alumni that they can be someone who is proud to have used the twf network and been been so happy and so my journey continues because every time I go into a school the problem I face is I've stepped in and they think it's a 25y old given a talk a 30-y old given a talk and once I reveal my age when I was 17 they thought what you're not 17 and the beautiful thing is I've had so many wedding proposals as well that is incredible from even from girls aged 14 15 16 17 especially from Nigeria though that was that was incredible and it is such a beautiful experience to have a have a have a journey and then go on to actually inspire these young people because I always compare myself to to one person Duncan bantine from the Dragons Den he started his journey at the age of what 30ish and I started mine at the age of 13 so that is the message I provide to young people anything you achieve within that 17-year period you can call yourself a more successful more more enterprising entrepreneur than he is now you can take a seat in the Dragon's Den and in no time and there there is the inspiration coming from a teenager passing on to a teenager is more successful than Richard Branson himself going into a classroom and saying I'm a multi-billionaire doesn't work like that and that is the mind and perception of a teenager so I hope I've inspired you all to bring the world at your feet thank you very much