← Notebook · Session 22 · 2026-09-03
Guest Lecture · Dr Shahid Qureshi
The decision this session forces
A business does not start with market research. It starts with what is already in your hands, a first small sale, and the research after it.
The short version
- Entrepreneurship, as defined in the session: going after an opportunity whatever resources you do or do not have.
- The mindset is behaviour, not a feeling. Do you see the opportunity other people walk past, and do you act on it?
- Bird-in-Hand is three questions, in order. What do you know? Whom do you know? Who are you?
- What you know is your skill and knowledge. Whom you know is your network, and what is physically in your hands, like a phone or a bike.
- Who you are is your hobbies, your passion, and the pain you can remove for other people.
- An idea is worth nothing until a first small version has sold to somebody.
- The hard part is not having the idea. It is believing in it enough to go and sell it.
- Standard marketing researches first and launches last. The founder's way runs backwards: sell first, then fix the price and the customer group.
- Start with a loss you can afford. Investment comes after the homework, not before it.
Who was speaking, and his definition
An engineer by training, with a doctorate from Berlin on how businesses actually start. He ran the entrepreneurship centre at IBA Karachi for twelve years and took it into villages in Balochistan, Sindh, Punjab and KP. He has watched thousands of founders pitch.
His definition of entrepreneurship: pursuing opportunities whatever resources are available. The mindset is your own behaviour and action. It is whether you can see the opportunity that other people walk past.
The founders who survived, in his account, share three things. They started with limited resources. They took small risks they could afford. And they went after the opportunity whatever was or was not in the bank.
What the founders who folded had in common is not in the notes this was written from, so it is not claimed here.
Bird-in-Hand: three questions about what you already hold
What you know: your skills, your competence, your knowledge. Whom you know: your network and the people around you, and also what is physically in your hands, like a bike, a phone or a laptop.
Who you are: your hobbies, your passion, and the pain you are able to remove for somebody else.
It is not a plan you finish on paper. You test, sell and refine. The answers keep changing through action until a customer group forms around what you do. Investment comes after that homework, never before it.
The one action the session asks for: write out your own three answers, in detail, this week.
Selling first, and why the order is reversed
Standard marketing works through four Ps: product, pricing, promotion, placement. It defines the market, researches it, and launches last.
The entrepreneurial way does the opposite. It starts by selling. Pricing and the customer group are refined only after real customers have already said yes.
Behind it sits one test for any idea. It is worth nothing until a first small version has sold to someone. The difficulty was never having the idea. It is believing in it, and loving it, enough to sell it.
Affordable loss, and the cases told
You start with a loss you can afford, not with a big bet and a round of fundraising. The idea has to solve a real problem, and there has to be a purpose behind it.
Cases were told to make the point. One was a Karachi food chain said to have started on 700 rupees and to be worth over a billion dollars today. That is a story told in the session, not a sourced figure, so hold it as the shape of the argument.
He also framed a business as service. Honour God in the work. Help people grow. Deliver excellence. Stay profitable in a way that lasts. And treat staff as people, not as objects.
Your note
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Credit Taught in Gharebon Ka MBA · Dr. Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani. Used here with credit, not as my own. https://www.zeeshanusmani.com/career-growth-accelerator/