I am 22 years old now. I was a kid who doing crazy things and was punished by teachers when I was little. But luckily I could understand if I failed the A/L examination first shy I must repeat another year. So I worked hard somehow and not only pass the examination but also became the 4th one on the island.
I had a dream to have my own business since the time I was studying for O/L. When I was at home after A/L, I thought this is the right time for it. So I started a Shopify store in 2017 and started dropshipping.
But the thing is I hadn’t enough money for advertising so I joined a marketing company as a salesman. I went house to house to sell items. I also did many other things for money but none of them succeed.
Next, I created the advertiser.lk website and provided digital marketing consulting for small businesses. That is the only successful thing I did. At least somewhat. Many campaigns I did succeed in even I hadn’t experienced very much. But sadly, some customers didn’t pay after my services so I had to lose.
I had a friend. We know since our childhood. He says once
“Buddy, never stuck with a job, try to start your own business somehow”
He passed the O/L examination with 9 A’s but instead of higher education, he started a business. After the A/L result came out I contacted him in a phone call and say my results. When we were talking he said
“I am going to buy a defender next week”
I hardly felt that sentence. After studying hard for years where am I now? I was starting to think it would be nice I have started a business instead of learning. But I knew I should learn more to do a long time successful business. So I didn’t change my mind.
However, after I started studies at the University of Moratuwa in the very beginning I understand my desire is not to be a software engineer. I was so excited to enter digital marketing. I had enough experience because of the things I did in the past.
So while I do my studies I started to learn a lot about Marketing and Branding. I followed courses offered by SLIM and foreign universities like Wharton, Harvard. I also read digital branding books and entrepreneurship
One thing I had realized is if you want to start a business you should learn about it well. Next, my university friend and I together started a digital branding agency calls ‘BrandLabs’ in Colombo 7.
We were lucky. One of our professors invested in our company. We quickly became an icon of digital branding in Sri Lanka. We have Award-winning talented employees now. While doing all of these I haven’t stopped my education yet. I learning about digital branding further. I focus on here more than software engineering because I love it.
My journey hasn’t finished yet. I have a long way to go. But as a 22 years old one this is a lot of experience and it is valuable. I am very happy with the things I am doing now. It is valuable than money. Our campaigns changed a company that is going bankrupt because of the pandemic to a Thirty Million rupees incoming one.
I believe a small amount of money that you earn by doing things you like is valuable than a million earn by doing things you aren’t interested in. So you should learn but things you are interested in not others.
– Yasas Kariyawasam –
(Content Owner & Content Writter : Our Economics)
