Why Affluent Overseas Pakistani’s are Hesitant to Invest Back Home

Saad Hashmani, an American entrepreneur with roots in Pakistan, speaks through his achievements and experience reasons of why he finds it hard to invest in businesses back home in Pakistan. 

Hustling through trials and tribulations to turn up a successfully running business can get tough, and making a mark in global market with similar success parameters where competition can get way more saturated and tough, requires true determination and resistance to failures.  

Who is Saad Hashmani?

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Saad Hashmani, born and raised in Pakistan took a leap of faith when decided to move to America in 2010. Today after 14 years, he is looked on as one success story genius who despite all the glitches that he faced in his life, be it during his educational journey or professional front, made sure to remain determined up to the point his career started booming. While the determination still remains thrusting, he is being acknowledged by the world now, especially back home.

His journey started off in trying times and according to him had “financial crisis and psychological pressure” which he fought through. And it all paid off very well as today he is running a multimillion dollar empire that deals in retail cell phone business and real estate.

Now with an impressive body of work and enough experience to speak about, he is working on leaving a legacy of wisdom for anybody who is looking for it. If you are chasing goals that seem hard to achieve, you will certainly find inspiration in his words.

On his recent visit to Pakistan, he is seen interacting with prominent content creators where he is candidly sharing his journey, experiences and insights about work and all that may help aspirants.  

Why Affluent Overseas Pakistani’s are Hesitant to Invest in Businesses Back Home?

On one such podcast at the conclusion of conversation, he was asked about why he has not yet started any business in Pakistan “despite having vision, money and network?” To which Saad Hashmani straightforwardly shared his stance.

“I won’t sugar coat this. I do want to invest in Pakistan, and I have tried more than once. Here, I found a lapse in one sector.”

Continuing with his response, he shared two main reasons that are causing him to postpone taking that leap. And he has come up with valid points as these shortcomings in workforce are not only weakening the economy of country and professional careers but also people in their personal lives as well.

Procrastination:

The first thing he mentioned was procrastination. He said:

“The biggest flaw I came across here is we are national procrastinators.”

This cannot be emphasized enough on how procrastination can affect performance

Dishonesty:

Second pertinent point that he mentioned was how attitude of some people makes it difficult for serious investors to take that step. He mentioned:

“We try to cope with any situation through lie. Here the error lies in lie and deceit. People here tend to consider themselves smart enough that they think the other party doesn’t get what they are trying to do if they choose not to speak out of courtesy/kindness. And I think we need to fix that for a lot of foreign investors to come here.”

Here again he mentioned a prevailing issue that most people try to outsmart others who are thorough professionals and try to maintain courtesy.

Here, while stating his own reasons for not starting a business here, he also highlighted gross behavioural issues being exercised at professional level which is causing a barrier in creation of opportunities here.

If besides other valid reasons, these aspects too continue to be overlooked, Pakistan may lose many more future prospects of investments from foreign based Pakistani business magnates as well as some lucrative opportunities that can help revive economy and generate employment.

These behavioural issues of local workforce underscored by Saad Hashmani are not only keep at bay foreign investments but also prevent local investors to invest in massive start-ups. At the end of the day no business can survive long time without transparency, honesty and eventually, profitability.