Vijay Eswaran Speaks to Entrepreneurs Everywhere

Vijay Eswaran is a renowned entrepreneur, philanthropist, and author. He is the founder and Executive Chairman of the QI Group of Companies, a multinational conglomerate headquartered in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur with operations in more than 30 countries.

Eswaran has long been driven by his passion for mentoring young entrepreneurs, and he has dedicated his life to helping promote change in the world around him. In 2011, he took a powerful step toward that goal when he established Quest International University Perak (QIUP) in partnership with the local Malaysian government. QIUP was founded on the belief that providing quality, research-based, affordable education is paramount. It quickly became one of the fastest-growing schools in Malaysia; as of 2017, it was home to over 3,000 students hailing from 31 countries.

Eswaran has also earned renown as a sought-after motivational speaker, and he has built a motivational training program with thousands of participants. Recently, Eswaran was asked to share those talents and was invited to speak at prominent business and leadership forums such as the ASEAN Leadership Forum, the World Chinese Economic Forum, and Concordia’s Annual Summit. In addition, Eswaran has spoken at WEF’s Annual Meeting in Davos and various other WEF events, including regional summits in Asia. Finally, his input is valued on WEF’s popular opinion platform, where he works as an agenda contributor.

Lately, Eswaran’s forays into the publishing world have gained attention as he has become an established author in his field. His first book was published in 2004, titled Sphere of Silence. Since then, he has also published 18 Stepping Stones, As I See It, In the Thinking Zone, and Wings of Thought. In his most recent book, Two Minutes from the Abyss — 11 Pillars of Life Management, Eswaran addresses individuals who feel stuck in their own lives — who go through the motions one day after another, surviving instead of thriving. He offers readers a path for finding purpose and taking control of their futures instead.

In addition to his ongoing dedication to growing his business and mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs, Eswaran has thrown himself into philanthropic ventures. In 2005, he founded the RYTHM and the Vijayaratnam Foundations, which are dedicated to promoting community development and serving the special needs of children in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

We’re in a time now that is so uncertain, and so many people’s jobs are gone, and people can’t really imagine what the landscape’s going to be when this pandemic is over because this is a temporary pandemic. How can we reinvent ourselves individually and as a nation after this crisis is over?

I think one of the trademarks of being an entrepreneur is that it’s a force that drives you from within. You are constantly looking for ways and means to create something better: something that can change the world that you live in. So, in essence, it’s a mental attitude.

For example, when I was driving cabs, I was already thinking about what next? So, it really boils down to that: What next? is a very important phase of mind to be in. It’s a constant thing.

I’ve never met an entrepreneur who didn’t have that thinking around him. Previously, I sat down and had a chat with Richard Branson, as well as a few other people such as Sam Walton. The thing that connected me with these people and that made me actually relate to them was this attitude of what next? And that drives, and disruption is born from that process.

The only thing that can save us at this impossible time is to disrupt — to simply change the entire paradigm of how we do things. It is a pandemic, yes, but it’s not the first time that the world has faced one. We have been through similar pandemics, and the result of them is that we come out different, but we come out stronger. It’s my inherent belief, and this is part of our process right now. In my own experience, you get hurt, and then you change, then you improve.

On an individual level, for those not inclined to be the “what nexters” — Do you think people all have that within them?

That’s a good question. In my experience, if you don’t change, you get changed. That’s what has happened to us each time throughout history.

If you don’t change, you get changed. What do you mean? Can you expand on that a little?

Well, let’s talk about 1920. The 1920s essentially was a time of immense change. There was the Spanish flu, and there was the end of the Great War. It was also a time that we were basically migrating from our four-foot friends, the horse, to motorized wagons and the rail. This was a massive, massive — it was a paradigm shift — on a totally unprecedented scale.

Nothing like that has ever happened before. We rode horses for a thousand years before, maybe a couple of thousand years before, and here comes along a total change of attitude and also a total change of jobs, employment, and infrastructure. So basically, you had the horse, and the concentric circles of impact of riding horses created so much employment and craftsmanship. There were people who specialized in making the shoes and crafting the leather and training horses. There were others who specialized in feeding horses, operating stables, etc. And it’s the horse that took us across the country.

Now we had to change to a totally new paradigm where cars, and rails, and eventually planes and ships took over. At this time, the world became a lot smaller, but we also lost generations of people who did nothing but work on horses or work in a trade that was similar to or close to horses. So, in a sense, it was a massive change. There were people sitting back saying, what the heck is going on, what do I do next? They didn’t see themselves being able to change, but change hit them, and here we are today.

We’re doing the same thing. It’s just not all about horses anymore, but we’re going to have to adapt. It’s kind of a Darwin thing that we have to have in our blood now. I mean we have to look for opportunities, we have to accept, we have to be open-minded that things are different.

Yes, we have to reinvent the wheel, and it’s actually happening as we speak. I mean, Yes, I am using Zoom to talk to you — Something I wouldn’t even be able to predict a couple of months ago.

You couldn’t predict that two days ago because you wanted to use Skype. But I need to use Zoom for my equipment.

There you go. So, you see, I mean if I’m changing, so is everyone else in this part of the world and everywhere else, and they are changing at an incredible rate. That change is sweeping the planet and it is being forced upon us.

What’s your advice for people who are going to need to adapt and reinvent even if it’s just the way we think about how we do this, the way we frame it.

Well, here’s something that I’ve shared many times in many seminars and discussions across the world. The trait that indicates a real entrepreneur, or for that matter a champion in any field of life, even sports or business, is simply his ability to get up again. Those three words. “Get up again” is the mantra. Ultimately, we all will fall, we will fail, and we will fail many times, but that is a sign of progress. It is a sign of us actually moving on.

To embrace failure is the only way forward. So, if you’re going to fall, fall, but the key to falling is getting up again. And as long as you’re willing to get up again as many times as it takes, you will find a new path that evolves and opens up right in front of you. That’s how I’ve seen champions in the making, and that’s how I’ve seen tycoons in the making. It’s the only way I know to move forward.

To what degree does adversity, vision motivate us to create or take risks, but you know, with intelligent risks to become innovators? How does adversity or crisis such as this pandemic motivate humans to create?

Well the Chinese word for crisis is the same word as opportunity. They’re the exact same word. And that’s a brilliant interpretation: Why do we look at adversity with any kind of hostility? Adversity should be embraced. Adversities are ultimately what we need. If you want to, take any sportsman, for example: if you want to get better at tennis, then you have to play against someone better than you are. Getting trounced on the tennis court should not turn you away, but instead it should bring you back again and again and again. And the better the opponent, the better you become. So, whether it is tennis or fencing or any other sport in the world, or chess for that matter, ultimately, adversity is what sharpens the knife, sharpens your mind. You have a mind that is so incredibly powerful that it’s amazing.

How do you expect the planet to change in the aftermath of this global threat, this global pandemic? How do you — how will all the energy and thinkers like you and thought leaders and just resilient humanity, how will that change? What can you envision in terms of change and innovation?

Well let me put it to you, and probably from another perspective because besides being a philosopher, my training has always been that of an economist. As an economist, I would say to you that the chances are very good that we are probably going to be not just going through a recession, but perhaps even a depression of sorts, but a depression not like the ones that we had in the past. This is a totally different paradigm. It will hit many countries across the planet. However, it will be diverse in its realization and impact.

Neighboring countries will experience the intensity of the depression and the length of the recovery differently. So, this is going to be something very different. But ultimately if we bring forward the projections of 2050, which were put forward by the World Bank and the IMF and all of that about the axis moving from the West to the East, I think that would be again a shifting of the axis. Now whether it was moving from the West to the East, this I cannot say, but there would clearly be a greater balance between the West and the East.

Disruption is the key. Disruption and diversification will change the way business is being done today and the way it will be done forever. The companies that prevail will be the ones that quickly adapt to the change. A new economic reality will eventually evolve. This is my opinion.

What is your latest book?

Well my latest book is called Two Minutes from The Abyss, and I guess that says it all. We are only ever two minutes from the abyss, two minutes from the edge, as it were. And the book basically talks about exactly many of the things that I have discussed here. Ultimately, if you’re going to put it into one line, the book simply says, “Get up again each time.”

What is one thing we can all remember?

Well as one of my mentors always kept telling me, “Even this is only temporary”