Business is Bold - lessons from Daska
“Sorry, did you say Daska?” I asked on the phone trying my best to hide the evident surprise in my voice.
“Yes that’s right. I’m sharing my location, I’ll see you on Tuesday next week. Bye” said M*
“Aight bye”
If you’re anything like me, chances are you had never heard about Daska. Before I got that call from M, neither had I. For those of you not in Pakistan, the image above is of the main area in Daska - a small village off of Sialkot which is an extremely rural area of Pakistan. So when I got an order for 2 laser machines that are only used by Professors and very high end clinics/aesthetic centers in metropolitan cities in Pakistan, I was genuinely shocked (the mature me is very aware of my tone-deafness here but it’s important for the story).
So I went on Tuesday, outside a shaggy street, with my team of engineers, still mentally prepared for M to say she won’t need the machines anymore. M called me and said I had to enter from the back door. I rolled my eyes as I saw the two 40 kilograms-boxes that my team had to carry into a narrow street.
But everything changed when I entered through the door.
What was probably the crustiest exterior I’ve ever seen, was a camouflage for one of the most luxurious salon/aesthetic centers I’ve ever come across. In the world.
A nail bar that could accommodate at least 20 clients at the same time. Two large halls, each with a capacity of having 16 customers for hair treatments/makeup/other services, and 12 stations for a mani-pedi. It was INSANE. In the best way possible. M and her team arrived and as I gave them the demo and taught them how to use the equipment, I realized why this girl, in her 20s is so successful at an industry that is so labor intensive and demanding.
M has one of the fastest decision-making skills I’ve ever seen. This incident is 2 years old. M and I talked about the future, the past, and the present of her work and she was both content with what she had as well as extremely ambitious about the future. All her interior was imported from Dubai, and she had 35 trained staff members under her wing (whom she referred to as “my girls”). What was her secret?
“Kaam bass kar lena chahiye. Latkaana nahi chaahiye. Karna hay toh karo, nahi karna toh band karo aur aagay chalo.” (You should just do things. Don’t leave them hanging. If you wanna do it, then do it. Otherwise, wind up your matters, and move on.)
M’s words stuck in my head and in that moment I knew she’d be super successful. And she was. One year later, M launched the 2nd branch of her aesthetic center in a bigger city, Gujaranwala and competed with one of Pakistan’s most influential families (shocker: she out-did them and marked her territory). Then she expanded her first branch by hiring 2 doctors to lead her clinical procedures and is now aiming to launch in Lahore. In addition to this, she’s developing her own skincare line and aiming to launch it globally.
What M has, is what most corporations can only dream of. Quick decision-making.
It’s incredibly hard to actually make a decision especially when things go bad. I’ve seen M power through some really difficult times where she had to shut down operations because the market wasn’t responding as well as she had hoped. But the commendable thing is that she acted fast and didn’t wait for the financial loss to bleed her dry.
If you’re running an organization, or managing a team, or working cross-departmentally, it can get very easy to be so consumed by your own ‘to-do list’, but remember that there are bigger things going on and we must always pause to look at the bigger picture. Having a meeting, to have a meeting about the meeting you’ll have tomorrow to decide if you want to have another meeting with the higher ups or not, is the worst way to commit business suicide.
If you’re the decision maker, then decide (after you do a reasonable amount of your homework). If you are leading a team, then give people the autonomy to execute. And if you’re just starting out, and your boss(es) don’t really let things get finalized, then linkedin time ;)
Nice people don’t make history. Bold people make history.