Thank you for taking a part of your precious time to read my blog and this brief introduction to myself. There are two sides to knowing a person. There is who that person is, and what that person does. I’ll briefly introduce both of these sides of my life.

There are many descriptions one can attach to themselves, and all will be correct. I consider myself foremost a Guyanese, even though that can be sub-delineated to a Berbician, as I was born in Crabwood Creek, Berbice.

I am a decendent of the East Indians who arrived in the 1800s in Guyana, and my forefathers settled in the Berbice area, where they all worked in the sugar industry, and later in rice cultivation. My parents attended Line Path Secondary school in Skeldon, Berbice and my Dad was one of the top graduates of that school. After getting married, both him and my Mom moved to Georgetown in search of better employment opportunities. There, he received a series of Government of Guyana scholarships and studied his B. Sc in Meteorology at the University of the West Indies, Barbados, and M. Sc in Atmospheric Physics at the Imperial College of London. He retired in 2002, as the Chief Hydrometeorological Officer, after spending 30 years of service to the Government of Guyana. My mom was the dedicated homemaker who kept our family together.

It was also the beginning of my life growing up in Chateau Margot, East Coast, Demerara. My first primary school was the Chateau Margot Primary school, and thereafter the L.B. I Primary school.

The villages of Chateau Margot, Success, and LBI were my playground. BV, another neighborhood village, was the Saturday movie destination favorite spot where myself with family and friends watched Chinese, Indian and English movies.

It was from the LBI primary school that I passed my “Common Entrance” as it was known back then, and was awarded a place at Queens College Secondary School, Georgetown. After Queens College, I attended the University of Guyana, where I completed a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering.

I am a firm believer in that a person who stands for everything, is a person who stands for nothing. Principles matter in a person’s life. Every kind of behaviour in life is not acceptable and the prudent individual must maneuver what’s right and wrong. Some behaviors are socially destructive, some kinds of practices are personally destructive and cumulatively, these will lead to a degrading society plagued with metal and physical illnesses that our foreparents never saw before. We are living in a world where everything has a standard to follow, except the human mind. I always encourage those around me to follow their religious books, but keep away from extreme interpretations of those books. If someone tells you that God wants you to hate someone else, turn around, and walk away. Principles matter, integrity matters, trust matters, and good manners are the hallmark of the truly successful. These values will result in someone achieving high personal and professional values and ethics. Live your life and let others live theirs.

After competing University, I was visiting a friend at an agricultural equipment company in McDoom, East Bank, Demerara. We were discussing sprinklers, as I had just completed my thesis on sprinkler irrigation, when his boss walked up. We were introduced and together we continued to discuss the sprinklers. He then said, he needed another “Mechanic” in his business and if I was interested, I should let him know. My response was “thank you.” I started working there the next day.

This was my introduction into the sales/agricultural engineering world. Myself and my colleague built rice mills, paddy dryers, troubleshooted diesel generators and made sales trips across Guyana. One day we would be in Charity, Essequibo Coast, and next day in Moleson Creek, Berbice. We traveled extensively in the Islands in the Essequibo River, establishing rice mills and paddy dryers.

One year later I left this company, and began freelancing for the Ministry of Agriculture as an Air Conditioning and Climate Change consultant. The environmental field was encouraging, so when there was a vacancy at the newly established Environmental Protection Agency, I applied and was accepted as an Environmental Officer. Here again, I travelled extensively visiting Lethem, Mabaruma, Kurupung and other internal locations. I worked there for one year and then left to continue on with the freelancing consulting work.

In 2003, with a high crime rate and random killings a daily occurrence in Guyana, I left Guyana and migrated to Canada. It was also for the reason, that for a progressive thinking young man, I could not see any future in Guyana, and the primary reason for that was in the race based politics that has grasped this country since its independence. Most of my colleagues from university, and the EPA would soon migrate as well for the same reason.

In Canada, I saw for the first time an organized Government, and a progressive business culture. It was so easy to establish and start a business here. There were practically no barriers to business. It was not easy, but, if one wanted to expand on an idea there were no barriers to expanding one’s business ideas.

There’s a saying, “When The Student Is Ready, The Teacher Will Appear.” The teacher appeared, so, whether I knew it or not, I must have been ready. I was taught Dynamic Digital Marketing/Internet Marketing, ecommerce, and business strategies by a Canadian self-made millionaire. He also introduced me to the world of self-improvement and was a perfect example of the fact that a business is only as successful as the levels of character in the persons in that business. I was previously trained by two Canadian professional engineers, and two environmental specialists. With no biases in mind, I can tell you all of them were of impeccable character. There word was their honor, and they did what they said they would do. It was a necessary part of a professional’s life. I had rarely seen that in many of Guyana’s professionals or leaders.

A large part of my business training was on ecommerce, i.e. marketing and selling online. That would use extensively over the next eight(8) years and several online businesses would be started in Canada, and later extended to the USA. These were in the fields of machine parts and ecommerce services.

Canada is nice in its own ways, but, it’s also can be depressing and stressful in many ways. One has to be here to see this. After ten(10) years in Canada, in 2013, I remigrated back to Guyana as a re migrant. Any Guyanese can tell you, once they land at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, a kind of happiness takes over. Once they leave and land back in North America, depression steps in. Its unexplained, but its reality.

This blog is for my Guyanese friends, family, colleagues and the general population. In it I share my life’s experience on business, life and personal/professional ethics. It’s largely a celebration of us living as Guyanese. I encourage you to join my email list, and follow me on social media.

My personal blog is marlonkhan.com. My business blog is moneyandbusiness.ca