For several years, I had been working as a contractor in various electricity departments, managing personnel and fulfilling contracts that were signed every year. Considering the volume of relevant personnel, which often exceeded 100 people, and the fact that we had a large number of upper-level managers, and satisfying them often caused countless problems and stress, and on the other hand, due to the tender that was held at the end of each year, and all the discussion was only about pricing, and sometimes a new and unknown company would take the work from us by quoting a lower price, and all your efforts of one year or several years in that area would be destroyed at once, and we would have to start working from scratch in the new area, which included:
1- Identifying the conditions and situation
2- Examining weaknesses
3- Finding solutions
4- Planning a one-year process
5- Organizing people
6- Responding to upper-level managers
7- Fulfilling contractual terms
And a thousand and one buts and what ifs, and the fact that sometimes my very good employees would stay in the previous area and would not accompany me due to distance or lack of salary, and thousands of other reasons, made me think of starting a business for myself.
Engineer Abu Hamza in the Electricity Company – Raga’s Story
Start of Raga’s Story
I must have a job that, in addition to being my own boss, no one can take it from me and that I can plan and work for its growth and survival for years and even realize my great dreams of becoming a model exporter for the country, which was not possible in my previous job.
Therefore, I had been conducting various research and studies and consulting with various business professors, traders and economic activists for years, and finally, with my love for agriculture and animal husbandry, I became interested in the job of raising leech. To be honest, at first the thought of money and income tempted me, but later, when I was in the research and practical training stage before implementation, the existence of this intelligent and useful creature attracted me. That such a small creature has a long history on Earth, that Abu Ali Sina was the first person to describe the leech and its benefits in medicine and treatment of humans and recorded it in his book, and on the other hand, in the 21st century, we Iranians do not care about it at all, and even our Ministry of Health and Treatment opposes it, but European and American countries (so-called Western countries) have not only recognized it, but have been using it for years, and even Abu Ali Sina’s book Qanun has been among the best-selling books in Europe, but we Iranians have not even heard of it.
Even worse, we do not only consider the leech to be such a useful animal and a healer, but we also consider it a parasite and in our conversations, when we want to call someone bad, we liken it to a leech. “So-and-so is like a leech and sucks people’s blood.” Oh, how sad I am about this culture and lack of understanding.
I told myself that I would enter the leech farming industry and, just as I had been really successful in my previous job as an electrical contractor and was among the top-tier contractors, I would transform this industry here as well and help many people through its sales and exports. I would actually create the branding of leech in the country. Yes, to realize this idea, I stepped into the field and attended half-time and half-time training courses (of course, that was all that was available in Iran), I cashed out and prepared my own capital, and for my final year at the Tehran Province Electricity Distribution Company, I prepared all the measures to exit and not conclude a contract. What a time it was in those days when many friends, including other contractors and even organizational managers, told me that you were making a mistake and that if you want to enter another business and that is manufacturing in this country, don’t burn bridges behind you, go start your business, but sign a small contract in one area so that if you don’t get the job, you can go back and be in the hole!!!!!!
How many times they sang in my ears that manufacturing in this country is useless and that the government, taxes, and insurance take the lives of the manufacturer’s father. Haven’t you witnessed for yourself how much the big manufacturers who come to the office moan and groan, and then you want to make yourself miserable and go and follow in their footsteps?!! This business in which you became a professional and everyone swears on your head that when Abu Hamza sets foot in another area, his problems will be solved and in short, thousands of advice and counsel of all kinds, a thousand verses of despair were given by my relatives, such as my parents and others except my wife. And perhaps if it weren’t for my wife’s encouragement during those years that you have great ability and you will succeed in whatever you do, and for the various examples of events that had occurred in our ten years of marriage and that we emerged victorious, I would have surrendered to all these attacks from different people. Indeed, the saying is true: “Behind every successful man is a successful and wise woman.” Finally, the final decision was made and we left the electricity department and started the process of setting up a leech breeding farm.
The troubles of entrepreneurship in Raga’s story
Renting a suitable place, taking into account the expansion of the work in the future so that we wouldn’t have to constantly change our place, buying the necessary equipment at the right price and quality, taking into account the future for growth and development, took a lot of energy from my wife and me, and in the end, I needed a partner to start the work, because it was not possible to do it alone in the volume I had planned. So I contacted my cousin, Mr. Mehdi. Mehdi and I have grown up together since childhood, and he is four years older than me. We both started working at the electricity department almost at the same time. After a while, I parted ways with Mehdi and started working at another company.
