Syed Gilani is the CEO and President of Safr, a rideshare startup focused on women’s empowerment through safe transportation. A seasoned business leader with 25 years of experience in North American, Asian, Middle Eastern and European markets, Syed leads Safr’s global growth, investment and overall company vision to build a better, safer and more empowering future for women around the world. Syed holds a Masters in International Relations from Harvard University; an MBA in Marketing from University of the Virgin Islands; and a Master of Science degree from Lahore School of Economics. Syed writes for Forbes and other publications and has spoken at conferences around the world.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
- Syed’s Dad
- Elon Musk
- Steve Jobs
When business started difficulties overcame:
“it all starts with do I have a great idea to begin with. And that was the conundrum that I dealt with in the beginning. When all of your friends are looking for jobs or all of your people around you are looking for jobs. And jobs would put you in a golden shackle… Business life is tough. Although it looks very rosy for outside people… But there is no off button in business… So that’s where the difficulty was. Is it a good idea? Can I be successful in that idea to begin with? Sometimes we do paralysis by analysis. So we analyse so much in the idea that it is no longer an idea any more”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
- Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future Book by Blake Masters and Peter Thiel
- Byzantine Empire: A History From Beginning to End Book by Hourly History
Favourite Quote:
“How long do you want to live? If you live for yourself you die when you die. If you live for your family you die when your family dies. If you live your country you die when your country dies. And if you live for humanity you die when humanity dies. So how long do you want to live?””
Recommended Online Resources:
- Forbes is a global media company, focusing on business, investing, technology, entrepreneurship, leadership, and lifestyle
- Entrepreneur Magazine is a source for everything small business. Get the latest small business information
- The Economist – World News, Politics, Economics, Business & Finance
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“take a chance… If you have a business idea or any kind of a service idea or a product idea take your first leap of faith. Do not sit on it for the rest of your life and think next year, oh shure, I can do it next year. There is just never going to be that next year. I would strongly urge all of your listeners that if they have a great business idea they should vet it and they should get it out. If they fail to not feel dismayed”…[Listen for More]
More About Syed Gilani:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“When it comes to success, there are no shortcuts.” Bo Bennett
Other Quotes From the Chat with Syed Gilani:
- “no matter which age bracket you are in we always learn… every single day”
- “in the first business I learned how to start off as a company. How to do it to begin with… How to raise money. How to expand from one market to another. What area would work for one area of the market and that model might not work for another area of the market ”
- “you can incentivise the team members in your team to do their best and deliver the best and own their domain. And that’s the most important thing that they should not consider ‘work’ but they should be able to own their domain and only then they can deliver what you expect them to deliver”
- “you need to remain balanced at all times that’s very, very, very, very, very important for anybody”
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