From a Small Village to the Boardroom

I often think about where I started. I come from a small village in Arghakhanchi-Nepal,where most people spent their days on farming, school and family work. Nobody around me talked about owning companies or flying to other countries for conferences. If you had told me back then that I would one day sit as chairman of several organisations, I would have laughed.

But there was one thing I always did. I started things. In 2004, around the time I finished my +2, a few of us formed a youth club in our village and called it New Era Youth Club. I was the founder president. It was a small club with small ambitions, but looking back, it was my first real school of leadership. I learned that people do not follow you because you hold a post. They follow you when they see you are ready to work harder than everyone else.

Soon after, I was invited into the community forest management committee and the school management committee in Sainamaina. I was very young to sit with elders who had seen much more of life than me. At first I mostly listened. And that listening taught me more than any book. I saw how a village decision is made, how people disagree and still find a way to move forward, and how a small amount of trust can get a lot of work done.

When I came to Kathmandu, I carried that habit with me. I studied hard, first Science and then Zoology, and later I did my MSc in IT through Sikkim Manipal University in India. In 2009, I started Enlighten International Education and Enlighten Travels and Tours. It was not easy. I did not have a rich family behind me or a big bank balance. What I had was a willingness to learn and a belief that if I stayed honest with people, work would come.

Over the years the family of companies grew. Education, travel, a college, a kids’ school, a resort in Lalitpur, a corporate group in Pokhara, an IT company, and more recently a skills and vocational training centre. People sometimes ask me how I manage so many things. The honest answer is that I do not do it alone. I learned early that if you try to hold everything in your own hands, you will drop something. You need good people around you, and you need to trust them to do their job.

I have also never stopped being a student. I have done agent training courses with the British Council, ICEF and others. I have travelled to the UK, Japan, Russia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the UAE and Vietnam for workshops and conferences. Every time I come back, I bring something small with me, an idea, a way of doing things, a new contact. In business, the day you think you know enough is the day you start falling behind.

Another thing that kept me grounded is social work. I have been part of Jaycees, I served as president of Balaju Jaycees in 2017, and I have been president of the Lions Club of Kathmandu Basistha Global. I am also a lifetime member of Bhusal Samaj and the Western Region Development Forum. Business gives you comfort, but service gives you meaning. When you sit with people who need help, your problems feel smaller, and your purpose feels clearer.

If you are a young person reading this and you feel your background is too small to dream big, I understand that feeling very well. I had it too. My advice is simple. Start where you are. Do small things properly. Keep your word. Keep learning. And one day you may look back and realise that the village boy has travelled further than he ever imagined.