Education is necessary to be a successful businessman, says Rehan Siddiqi

Raja Zahid Khanzada

ARLINGTON: Owner of Hum Fm Radio and showbiz legend Rehan Siddiqi said that education is necessary to be a successful businessman but you also need to be street smart.

He was speaking at a gathering of students at the University of Texas, at Arlington’s (UTA) Students Entrepreneur Society in Business & Management for an event titled “Turn people into paid clients.”

Siddiqi shared his business and entrepreneurial skills with the students, stating “You must be a quick thinker” to be a successful businessman, however you also need to be truthful to yourself and be confident in your business practices.

He said that you must face day to day challenges with confidence and should only get involved in a business model, in which you have a pre-existing interest and are knowledgeable about, if you don’t have the knowledge, get the knowledge, get the relevant experience in the field of business you are interested in, even if you need to work for free.

Rehan Siddiqi went on to explain the hard hitting business world, “we are all in a competitive environment and market place”, each and every one of us has to deliver 100 percent, for which you need to forward plan.

He said running a business is like driving a car where you don’t just need to be mindful of your surroundings, your errors but also the mistakes of others, so you must be agile and stay alert all the time.

Siddiqi said the key to success is that you must stay above and think above your ego, listen to all feedback, from clients, business associates, staff members, anyone who has an opinion, it doesn’t mean that they are right but communication and dialogue opens up new ideas, concepts and new directions.

Rehan Siddiqi addressed the young audience with the bitter truth, stating that all business ventures are not a success and most businesses fail because the owners' inability to familiarize themselves with their industry. A failed business does not mean that you have failed in life. You learn from your failures and stay on your path and vision.

Referring to his own experiences in the last few months, he said, show business is quite sensitive for decision making where one wrong decision or error can cost you big and financially harm the business. 

He said he had hosted 400 shows in last 20 years, where he had successful concerts but also failures too. He said that he has learnt a lot from his failures and just recently in Houston during Hurricane Harvey, he had to reschedule a concert of Shreya Ghoshal, which was a huge success with over seven thousand tickets sold.

The UTA Students Entrepreneur Society President Raja Raheel Khanzada welcomed Rehan Siddiqui at the forum along with its UTA director, Teri Schultz, advisor, Jeffery McGee and several other officials of the society including  Kori Williams, Nadjib, Karam Khalil, Sameer Ingavale, Haris Sajid, Jane Ngyuyen, Howard Phan, Terrence Hood.