“When someone would ask what I wanted to become, I always said ‘Astronaut’. Throughout my education, I worked towards achieving this goal with complete determination. Only after my graduation, when I was rejected admission in Masters in Space Sciences, was I hit with the reality, coupled with another shock the same day that Pluto was no longer considered a planet. I clearly remember, I didn’t sleep that night and the very next day I set out to make that last effort with regards to my admission. I travelled all the way from Gujranwala to Lahore and met with the Chairman and was successful in convincing him to grant me admission. That was the day I learnt the biggest lesson of my life i.e. to ‘Never give up!’
After my Master’s degree, I started working on my first startup True Solutions. I promised my mother that from my first earning I will take her to Umrah. My first project under this was with a renowned company. The payment was hugely delayed and in a complete turn of events my Mother passed away without performing Umrah. I was devastated and completely disappointed with Pakistani system, I shifted to Dubai. I thought there was no innovation being plugged in Pakistan, but I was soon to find out I was wrong. During one of my trips back to Pakistan, I met my friend. He was temporarily disabled and faced a lot of difficulty in doing his usual chores to the point that he could not even turn off the lights. That is when I came up with the idea of Smart Devices and took the hard decision of coming back to Pakistan, but to my good luck I was incubated at Plan9 and things took an excellent turn from there. The crux of it all is to never lose hope and keep working hard and you will succeed one day.” Abdul Ghaffar – Founder & CEO of Smart Devices