In the early 2000s, there were always some after-school TV shows where you could either enjoy some reruns of your favourite shows or watch the regular news. I for one remember a show which ran every afternoon in the Cartoon Network called Richie Rich. It was a show about a super-rich boy from an affluent family going on wild adventures. The only captivating part of the show was his wealth and how he used it. I told myself what everyone did, it is only possible on the TV.
Fast forward twenty years and several iPhones releases later, the term Entrepreneurship now goes hand in hand with the term gold rush. Many tried, many failed and some got to be successful with their innovation. What’s fascinating is that the term Entrepreneur can be helmed by anyone despite their age or qualification. As long as you have a clear vision of your innovation, present it to the public at the right time and place and you just might hit the Jackpot worth millions being the Richie Rich yourself!
Masud Ashraf Taha is one such individual who is one the verge of going big with his one of a kind skill-sharing platform Home Academy Bangladesh. The 17-year-old entrepreneur passed his SSC and he already managed to acquire experience by being a member of the organizing committee of the UN’s Hult Prize competition. If that is not enough, Taha also spends his time being a marketer and reviewer under brands such as Samsung, Apple and many others.
The teenage entrepreneur began his journey while trying to learn the ropes in online business. Taha recalls his experience by saying, “I didn’t get any help from anyone or any platform in our country. I had to find and learn everything on my own. So I just wanted to provide people with the help that I didn’t get when I started.” He added that there are many ways to work online for big companies. “There is no reliable platform in our country to learn relevant skills to work online, which is why I came up with the idea to open a skill-sharing platform and the rest is history,” Taha adds while sharing his experience.
If you are looking to be financially independent and planning to get the Home Academy Bangladesh experience, you will be offered free videos, paid courses, storytelling, mentorship and also “Home community”. Paid courses are done by the experts in their departments. The young CEO adds, “ We also have a plan to show ways to monetize the skill our consumers learn from our platform.” The founder of this venture even added that they will make their courses free for the underprivileged individuals or those who don’t have family support – they just need to email the website with proof.
Being a fulltime Instagrammer, the CEO of the Home Academy Bangladesh shares his promotions and carries out his marketing campaigns through social media apps. “I share my daily activities on stories and post photos on the feed. It’s a great way to interact with my followers and express my life briefly there,” Taha adds.
The barely legal young adult believes in the entrepreneurial spirit to experience financial independence. Currently, he is working on a number of ventures such as clothing brand, restaurant but mainly he is focusing on Home Academy. “I really want to develop it into a big enough platform where people will have the answers to become financially independent like me,” the entrepreneur orates.
The most innovative steps of Taha’s venture is to create a utopia of digital nomads where everyone will help and motivate each other to create new businesses and grow together.
The young entrepreneur is hopeful that in the next five years, his venture will be the most impactful platform which will lead to a new society of entrepreneurs. A society where everyone will focus on skill-based education rather than the degree-based education system we have today. “I believe that it will solve the unemployment issues in Bangladesh. In the current day and age, we all know how much skill-based education is important,” he continues to say, “everyone wants to earn but no one wants to learn. We need to set a mentality of learning and only then we can earn. We all should share our skills together and learn from each other,” he concludes.