A Village Boy's Journey to Become an Entrepreneur

Arif was born in a small village in Bangladesh. He grew up as a farmer's son, but his dreams were limitless. Before going to bed at night, he would fly in his imagination. Sitting in a hut, he would write about his dreams in a notebook, what he wanted to be, where he wanted to go, what he wanted to achieve. His parents would bring old newspapers from the market on weekends, and Arif would look at those papers and see a new world.

One afternoon, Arif was walking in the field. Suddenly, he saw a plastic bag thrown on the ground and an idea came to his mind. "Why don't I build a small waste collection and recycling plant next to my house?" The thought made him lose sleep. He started searching everywhere - in books, on the Internet, on his phone - about methods of collecting and recycling plastic.

First Challenge: The Villager's Mindset

But obstacles began to arise from the very beginning. The villagers considered plastic waste as bad as rat poison. No one segregated it properly. When Arif took it to the market to sell, he did not get a good price. It was not easy to properly introduce the product and gain the trust of the sellers.

"If the dream is big, then there is no alternative to hard work and perseverance," Arif would tell himself over and over again.

## First failure: The problem of space

The first big failure came when Arif wanted to rent a house next to the village primary school. The monthly rent was 5000 taka, beyond his father's ability. A village uncle wanted to help, but asked for money in advance. Arif's pocket was empty.

He returned home and sat on the ground, tears welling up in his eyes. But he did not give up. The next day he called the school teacher and said, "I am a new student. If you give me some space, I will not inconvenience anyone by piling dirty garbage near the security gate."

Steps on the path of education

Arif realized that failure is actually a lesson. He focused on three things:

1. Convincing people: Not plastic bottles, the whole idea needs to be presented to people. Environmental protection, benefits of creating new products, financial savings—these are the issues. He went to a college event in Dhaka city and gave a PowerPoint presentation. He showed that plastic is not just garbage, but the potential for new life.

2. Raising capital: He met with various groups, campaigned on a small crowdfunding platform, and raised some money himself. He was able to raise 50,000 taka in three months.

3. Technical skills: He watched videos on the internet, went to a neighbor's factory and did a week-long workshop. Melting plastic, cutting, filtering, mixing colors—he tried to be perfect at each step.

Second failure: Gaining people's trust

Then Arif started a small pilot project. He set up a small booth in the village and started selling recycled plastic products in the nearby market. The first day, sales were zero!

Arif was upset, but he remembered his parents' words: "When the business grows, more people mean more trust."

The problem was—the product was smelling, the paint was leaking, the gaps in the bottle were not closing properly. Due to lack of experience, the quality of the product was not good.

On the path to innovation

Arif did not give up. He spent two hours every day sitting in his small lab and started testing plastics. He fixed a small machine, cleaned it with water, adjusted the temperature by controlling the thermostat, and tested mixing new colors.

He completely changed his process:

* He started giving the plastic an acid bath before melting to remove stains and contamination

He started burning the thin, porous part of the new material

He turned on the pneumatic filter to reduce the smoke from the melting process

At the same time, he started uploading videos of the work on Facebook Live. Everyone in the village and city saw it—"What is this happening?" "It's good to see!" Comments started coming in.

First Success: Victory of Faith

After ten days, 20 pieces of plastic tiffin boxes made by Arif were sold. They were sold at market prices—cheap, but of good quality. Orders started coming in from the village and the city at moderate prices.

One day, the school principal called, "I am planning to use your plastic products in the school. Students will learn about the environment." Arif's eyes lit up.

Bigger dream: Expansion across the country

Now Arif's dream is not just to run his own plant, but to spread it across the country. Where marginalized people can sit and recycle plastic and get a fair wage. His plan is spread across three areas:

1. Mentorship: Discussions with IT entrepreneurs in Dhaka, platform design, real-time order tracking

2. Micro-financing: Disbursing money with micro-loans from Grameen Bank and Sonali Bank

3. Community Architecture: Five members per unit—one financial manager, one technical worker, two filter maintenance workers, and one marketing campaigner

Current Status: On the road to success

Work has been going on for three years. Now, 350 pieces of various products are made by recycling 5,000 plastic bottles per month. Sales are also made all over the country—Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi, Barisal. Each unit employs 10-15 people, among them are female engineers, unemployed college students, retired teachers—everyone has a smile on their face, a sense of self-respect, and a sense of accomplishment.

Arif's Lesson

Arif now says, "The most valuable lesson in life is: If the dream is big, then the effort has to be even bigger. Failure will come; in fact, failure will teach you where to cross the line, where to go the extra mile. And never give up—because when your hand breaks, that's when you start thinking about new things."

Last words: Endless journey

From this story we learn:

Belief: First you have to believe in yourself. A village boy, despite facing difficult odds, sees that the value of plastic is not just garbage, but a new possibility in life.

Hard work: 16 hours of work every day, research, testing, repairing machines—this is the motto of life.

Learning from failure: From the first failure, I learned the importance of capital in business, from the second failure, I learned the secret of gaining trust.

Not giving up: The most important thing—if you don't give up, you will find new opportunities on the way, you yourself will become the winner of obstacles.

Dream big, work hard, consider failure as an opportunity to learn, and never give up. You can do it—if dreams and efforts are together, success will definitely come.

(Author: BCE Faruk)