‘Close Encounters of the Entrepreneurs Kind’ at ‘Rachana Entrepreneurs Day’ Bash
Mangaluru: It was an evening where the crowd was predominately of the mixed kind, comprising of professional and well-to-do entrepreneurs, amateur entrepreneurs and young Catholic youth who are eagerly looking forward to follow in the footsteps of the successful entrepreneurs to be “SUCCESSFUL”. As part of ‘World Entrepreneurs Day’ (WED), Rachana organized “Entrepreneurs Day Celebrations” – a unique evening for businessmen, Professionals and Agriculturists on Saturday, 25 November 2017 from 6:00 pm onwards at Milagres Golden Jubilee hall-Mangaluru. The fun-filled evening comprised of games, prizes, food, music, dance and fellowship- all for a good cause. The purpose of the World Entrepreneurs’ Day was to create awareness for entrepreneurship, innovation and leadership throughout the world.
WED is the perfect day to celebrate the people who start a business alone. WED is the day of founders, managers, producers, contractors, industrialists, innovators, administrators, designers and producers- and for that matter, the audience during this mega event were all of such calibre, who proudly cherished the career that they opted for and accomplish their dreams. World Entrepreneurs Day is a great opportunity to push philanthropic, social and ethical business practices via conferences, awards and initiatives.
Rachana, formed in 1999, is the Mangalorean Catholic Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Mangaluru- Its objectives are to Represent, Develop, Educate, Honor, Award and Promote the interests of Catholic Entrepreneurs, Professionals and Agriculturists hailing from Mangaluru spread all over the world. Rachana through its Entrepreneur Development Cell has organized workshops, awareness and training camps at various places of the district, and about 600 persons have been motivated, supported and mentored from the entrepreneurship.
Rachana has, over the past 19 years, introduced and taken forward the following activities – to promote its noble objectives, like the: Rachana Awards (Rachana’s Flagship Activity)- to recognize and honor; Rachana Entrepreneur Development Cell – to Develop and Support budding entrepreneurs; Rachana Senior Citizens’ Welfare Trust – to Improve the quality of life of senior citizens; Lecture Meetings – to Congregate, Educate and Inform Members; Publication of “The Rachana World” – A Quarterly Newsletter – to Educate and disseminate information; and Interactive meetings with State and Central Governments. Rachana has been assiduously pursuing the objectives over the past 19 years through regular seminars, training programmes, liaison and lobbying with government and semi-government. At present Rachana has 443 members, and is inviting more members to join and making this Catholic Chamber of Commerce and Industry grow to greater heights, and become the largest organization in that sector.
To promote youth for self-employment, Rachana through Entrepreneurs Development Cell has organized many workshops and camps, with an aim to support and encourage youth to become entrepreneurs. Having organized nearly 40 seminars with 1380 participants, of which 191 have started their own businesses, with the financial aid of Rs 2 Crore 73 lakhs arranged by Rachana through banks and other financial firms, Rachana has also helped small businesses to grow into the larger sector.
Now coming to the Celebrations of the “Rachana Entrepreneurs Day’, the programme began with a prayer song invoking God’s blessings rendered by the Trinity Choir Group, followed by welcome address by Stany Alvares- president of Rachana. The celebration was inaugurated by lighting of the lamp by chief guest Ivan Fernandes, along with other dignitaries on the dais namely- Stany Alvares; Louis Lobo- Convener; and Anil Vas- Secretary of Rachana. After the speaker was introduced to the audience, the chief guest cum motivational speaker of the evening, Ivan Fernandes- Chairman and Managing Director of Regent Technologies; and Chairman of K E Global-Dubai interacted with the nearly 100 budding Catholic students (eager to become entrepreneurs) from institutions namely St Aloysius AIMIT-Beeri; St Aloysius College-Mangaluru; St Agnes College-Mangaluru; St Joseph’s engineering College-Vamanjoor-Mangaluru; Roshni Nilaya School of Social work-Mangaluru; and St Philomena College-Puttur, through a audio-video presentation.
Speaking on the topic of “Career Guidance” and “Becoming a successful Entrepreneur”, Ivan Fernandes said, ” Hailing from a low and simple class family, I always lived a simple life but always dreamed to be a successful person and achieve my goal- and luckily my dreams have come true with all my achievements and accomplishments. Even though had a lucrative job at a well-known bank in Saudi Arabia, I decided to quit that post to start my own entrepreneurship- and I feel now that was the best decision that I made, even though many, including my family members, objected. In a business, you need a good team to succeed- and the team needs to be innovative, have good relationship with clients, show good behavior and attitude, expose hidden skills and talents, and be expertise.”
“Need to have competitive ideas. Even if you fail once, don’t give up- try, try till you succeed. Quoting US Basketball player Michael Jordan where he had said, “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” That should be our motto. Success in your business comes from your character, determination, dedication and commitment. There is stress in a business (you can ask my wife on this..smiling!), but you need to cope with it. Don’t take stress too deep-spare some time for your leisure activity. Handle your job at pace and work things up accordingly- and surely you’ll be a successful entrepreneur” added Fernandes.
Ivan Fernandes delivering his words of wisdom encouraging the youth to come up in life at an early stage and try to become entrepreneurs/inventors and succeed in life here in their hometown, rather than looking for better opportunities somewhere else. India is a land of opportunities, and youth should avail these opportunities and become successful in life, he said. Ivan also answered a few queries posed to him by the youth. A memento was presented to him on behalf of Rachana by Stany Alvares. In a guest appearance made by MLA J R Lobo, addressing the audience he said, “Catholic youth need to be encouraged to start their own business and stay in Mangaluru, so that that Catholic Community remains strong in the society. There are lots of scope for youth here that they can avail, then why go abroad and never come back. There are many Catholic doctors/engineers working abroad, but are reluctant to practice their profession in their hometown.”
“It’s time for Rachana to start encouraging the present youth and motivate them to start a project/business right here in Mangaluru, and develop this city. Rachana is always ready to help such kind of budding entrepreneurs. We are here not to evaluate the successful entrepreneurs but to recognize their achievements. It was not a bed of roses for these businessmen, like Ivan Fernandes, to come up in life, they worked hard for their goals. It’s sad to note that many Catholics once they go abroad never return back, but in other communities, after working few years abroad they always return to their hometown. Our life is short, so we need to make the best use of our life when there are opportunities available. We need to encourage our Catholic youth to stay here, start a business here, and make Catholic community strong in Mangaluru. Rachana is always ready to help such youth who want to achieve success in life. Let’s all work together to build a strong Catholic community, and also retain our Catholic community. We can do it, if we all join and work hard for a good cause”.
There were quite a few games conducted by the Compere Sam Pinto, and the audience had a chance to win many prizes. There were auctions, games for young and old- and the evening was nothing but a party time with fun and frolic. And the band “Trinity” took the audience into a world of music, and a few revelers even got up and shook their hips on the dance floor to the dance numbers by the lady crooner of the band, backed up by young guys. The vote of thanks was delivered by Anil Vas, the secretary of Rachana.
In conclusion, this Rachana Entrepreneurs Day celebrations was highly applauded by the august gathering. Appreciating the support and encouragement from his colleagues, donors and well-wishers, Stany Alvares during the fellowship time speaking to Team Mangalorean said, ” Rachana has been a platform for Catholic Entrepreneurs, professionals and Agriculturists to come together, coordinate and get themselves involved in social development. The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing to get along with people. Let entrepreneurship be a way to construct our society. I wish that Rachana be an instrumental in promoting youth for self-employment, thus uplift the economic stability of our community and growth of our society.”