Young Business Academy
CLOSING PROGRAM
5 December 2020
ONLINE
Esteemed President of Young MÜSİAD,
Our Esteemed Young MÜSİAD Members,
Esteemed MÜSİAD Members and Friends,
Dear Young People,
Welcome to Young Business Academy, the young business people training project of our Young MÜSİAD, the apple of MÜSİAD's eye; you have brought joy with you.
First of all, I would like to express the pleasure I feel at seeing so many young people, so many young minds, together. Being together with young people and feeling their energy gives us strength.
Distinguished Guests,
MÜSİAD was founded 30 years ago in a small office on the initiative of 12 young business people, and set out on its long journey. In other words, the seeds of today's large and influential structure were sown under extremely modest conditions.
So what was the motivation that persuaded 12 young people to take such an arduous road?
Today I state the answer to this question with pride, as the president of an institution that pursues the ideals set out on the day it was founded and that is firmly attached to its past and to its values: this motivation stems from the desire to build the future, from the belief that one can exist in the business world without giving up the values one believes in, and from the effort to be of benefit to the country, my dear young friends.
The road is such a tortuous one that over the years many obstacles, above all economic and political ones, arose before them and attempts were made to make them give up. Yet far from giving up, they clung all the more tightly to their ideals and pursued the goal of advancing in this cause always and under all conditions.
Today, while we take pride in being the world's most effective and widespread non-governmental organization in terms of our membership, we feel proud because we know how this road was travelled and because we continue on the road with those who appreciate its worth.
Always be among those who appreciate worth, dear young people.
When you step into the business world, you know that the other name of this world is struggle.
Nowadays, in our academic and everyday usage, we make many different definitions of entrepreneurship; but what really matters is this: if you have the belief that you can cope with this struggle, then you are an entrepreneur.
If you believe this and are determined to set out on the road, know that as you advance you will at times grow very tired, that thousands of so-called reasons for you to fall into despair will arise before you, that you may stumble, that you will feel alone. You are not alone!
As a business person who began working from childhood, I can say this very comfortably: I and thousands of business people like me have also lived through and felt these things.
But, my dear young friends, the distinguishing mark of a business person when it comes to growing strong and enduring in the business world is never to be daunted!
You will not be daunted, you will not tire, you will not give up.
When you feel tired, you will take your own hand yourselves; you will believe in yourselves, you will convince yourselves that you will reach the goal you have set.
Of course, first of all you will set a goal. At the point where you say “Let me just start and see how it goes”, this harsh world will say to you, “Then stand aside over there and stew in your own juice.”
Do not keep your goals small; set great goals for yourselves.
There is a matter I express at every opportunity:
Dreaming is not merely a romantic act or an activity peculiar to children; DREAM!
Your dreams will be your driving force; as you dream you will see that you are walking with an invisible supporter behind you. Never give up dreaming. Be determined and be stubborn in your dreams and on your path.
On the long road you will walk, we are always ready to be guides with our business and life experience.
You were born into a magnificent richness with its fertile lands, its precious people and its ancient culture; you are the children of Anatolia. Always feel the strength of this precious treasure at your side as well.
Esteemed Young People,
The most important reason why I emphasize “12 young men” when speaking of our MÜSİAD founders is to underline that the founders of MÜSİAD carried the same concerns and the same anxieties as you, but never gave up.
Today MÜSİAD is a large capital platform with more than 11 thousand members, operating in 95 countries of the world at a total of 311 locations.
In this respect, MÜSİAD's development process is a success story in the full sense of the term.
On this occasion, I once again offer my gratitude to our founders and to all the friends of MÜSİAD who laboured to bring us to these days.
At every opportunity when we come together with you, I particularly emphasize the importance of courage; I say be brave, focus on moving forward.
Of course, alongside courage there must also be faith, hard work and the desire to improve, so that your road may always be open.
Dear Young People,
I am a businessman. I have been inside working life since childhood. I have worked at almost every level of our family company.
I also made sales by taking the bag of products in my hand and going from door to door, and when the occasion called for it I carried tins of cheese as well.
Far from being ashamed of these things, I have always been proud of them; how good it is that I climbed the stairs step by step like this.
We come across some examples: a young business person starts working in a pleasant-sounding position in the family company.
But he makes such a comfortable start that he can never understand the difficulties his grandfather or his father endured while founding that company.
If you do not see for yourself, through experience, what obstacles were overcome in order to reach that stage, then throughout your working life you can understand neither those who work in your company nor the people you do business with.
Understanding labour and the sweat of one's brow is directly proportional to the distance you have covered on the road to success and to the value you give to these things.
In other words, only if you have learned what it means to put labour into a job can you give your colleagues their due.
You are very young, perhaps you magnify the road ahead of you in your minds, and there are moments when you fall into despair.
Look, I still work 18 hours a day; today I am still chasing after innovation and novelty, and in every free moment I think, “What more can I learn?”
And as long as God grants me health, I have no intention whatsoever of stopping.
Call it sharing experience or call it advice; the exchange of ideas is an “early warning system”.
Benefiting from experience and considering the suggestions of experienced people protects you from both loss of time and expenditure of energy, and prevents you from taking wrong decisions.
That is why you should closely follow successful business people whom you trust and believe in, value their thoughts and apply them after passing them through your own filter of thought.
I am never saying, “Go the same way, take no risks at all, do not try anything new.” Try without being daunted, but also learn the possible risks. And that is a gain you can obtain only from experienced people.
As young business people you will always develop yourselves, you will keep your eyes and ears open, you will not merely watch innovations but apply them to your lives, and you will benefit from experience in the most useful way...
My Dear Young Brothers and Sisters,
We have the goal of a “Strong Türkiye”. To walk towards this goal we have a young population that we see as a treasure.
Our young people paint an extremely bright picture in terms of adapting to technology and developing in line with the requirements of the age.
In our age, when the world is being transformed in an entirely different direction, this is a great advantage for us.
Because in this new direction towards which the world is heading, knowledge and technology hold sway.
Therefore, there is no possibility for societies that do not sustain their development at a pace suited to this to have a say in the world arena in the future.
At present, all countries that have great goals for the future have turned their course towards this development.
Here I would also like to touch upon a point I find very important:
Using existing technologies in the best way may be an ability; but in the future we are speaking of, this alone is no accomplishment. It is imperative to go beyond it. Contributing to the economic and social development of the countries of which we are citizens, while looking after their interests, is the duty of each one of us as individuals.
You must at the same time also be “world citizens”.
An event taking place in the most remote corner of the world should have an effect on you; you should enter into a search for a solution, expend strong mental effort and take action.
Because you can neither bring an innovation to a world you are a stranger to, nor make an opening in it.
Always renew and refresh yourselves. Besides improving what already exists, your real duty as young people is to focus on new projects.
Be brave; do not be afraid to set out onto rough seas, and always preserve your hope of taking new roads. Preserve it, so that you may become masters.
What brought us to Kaanlar Gıda's present strength is our hard work and our labour; but what is essential is to dream, my young friends.
23 years ago, when internet use was not even widespread in our country, I said we should make a “website”.
Again 23 years ago, it was taken for granted that the only way cheese could be sold in a market was in a tin; but consumers were uncomfortable, saying it rusts and is hard to use… Standing over the work myself, I had plastic containers produced and we placed the cheese in them.
The year is again 1997; our sales in Türkiye are going well, we have no trouble, retail customers have grown used to us; in other words, everything is fine. But we must set out onto other seas as well; this is my dream!
In 1997 we exported cheese to America for the first time. And we did so by making use of a website designed from a 4-page catalogue.
If you have no dreams, if you are not curious about the far side of the sea you are sailing, about other seas and other roads, you stay where you are and watch those who pass you by.
Curiosity and dreaming are among the most fundamental principles of this business.
Dear Young People, Distinguished Guests,
YOUNG MÜSİAD has, since its foundation in 2002, undertaken many initiatives that make us proud.
What makes young people dynamic and open to development is the life energy within them and the fact that they possess a strength capable of achieving many things.
But this potential must be shaped with correct and apt guidance, so that the most suitable road to the goal can be charted.
What will determine whether you reach your goals is the correctness of this road and how realistic your road map is.
And Young MÜSİAD teaches its members how to chart this road.
Young MÜSİAD is one of the strong steps taken on the path of realizing our Cause of Civilization; it is a school.
With its increasingly strong organizational structure and its steadily growing membership, Young MÜSİAD is raising business people who will have a say in global trade and is guiding them.
In the successful organizations that are held, young entrepreneurs are strengthened mentally, while every kind of information they need is also transferred to them operationally.
On the other hand, Young MÜSİAD, just like MÜSİAD, is a structure that never stops either learning or teaching.
While giving courage to new entrepreneurs, it also constantly renews and develops itself.
Entrepreneurship, alongside its economic connotations, is at the same time a matter of culture. The entrepreneur has an important role in the economic, cultural and social development of society.
Therefore, while you continue your development and improve your knowledge, experience and talents, you also need to pay attention to this point.
You must always strive to reach what is good and what is right, and you must advance while being aware of your worth as individuals and without disregarding your responsibility towards your country. The training you have received at Young Business Academy does not consist only of content aimed at your success in working life.
All our efforts are so that you may build a life that places virtue and good character at its centre.
You are the future of our country!
Our country has reached the position it occupies today by facing truly great difficulties and thanks to considerable labour and sacrifice.
Although, given our age, we could not join this arduous road from the very beginning, we know the hardships our elders lived through and the victories they won in the part of it that led up to us.
This road came to us as a legacy from our fathers and grandfathers, and we too, God willing, will hand it over to you.
I can see in your eyes that you are already aware today of the responsibility that walking this road places upon you.
I would like to share that this light I see in your eyes also strengthens my belief that this country will endure after us as well.
Always use your minds and your beautiful hearts to reach what is good and what is right.
Never depart from the ancient belief in friendship, brotherhood and peace that these lands have bestowed upon us.
Uphold the values you believe in; build your whole life upon these values.
People and events that want to wear you out, that want to obstruct you, that aim to shake your faith will come before you; learn something from them too, call it experience and put it in your pocket, and continue on your way without ever being daunted.
My dear brothers and sisters whose eyes shine with the light of knowledge, with your belief in success and with your approach that places meaning above matter, in my view you are one step ahead of the world.
With what you have produced and with the many gems in your saddlebags waiting to be revealed, you are sound characters who know who they are, who do not forget where they belong and who do not let themselves be swept away by the spell of matter.
When we hand this country over to you and set out for eternity, our hearts will remain at ease thanks to you.
Esteemed Guests, Distinguished Young People,
I hope that this valuable project of our Young MÜSİAD will bring good things to all our young people and to our country.
I wish that our young people who receive certificates may be able to apply what they have learned here from our esteemed trainers throughout their lives, both in their working lives and in their private lives.
I thank all my MÜSİAD Members and the Friends of MÜSİAD who have contributed, foremost among them my President of Young MÜSİAD.
I greet you all with respect and affection.
Abdurrahman Kaan
President of MÜSİAD