Do you know there’s a cafe in Pakistan that offers you free wifi, water, workstations and permission to sit the whole day after ordering a cup of coffee?
Yes, it exists and it’s one of our favorite cafes, Coffee Wagera!
It was launched in 2018 by Mush Panjwani. The idea came to his mind when he arrived from Hong Kong and didn’t find a decent place to work and also a good coffee. So, he started working on his idea and came up with the first outlet in Badar Commercial Area, DHA 5.
Mush is also the chief happiness officer at Coffee Wagera. One of his many inspirations to launch the cafe in Pakistan was to have a place where people can work or meet with friends over a good coffee and snacks.
About Mush Panjwani
Mushtaq Ahmed Panjwani “Mush” was an engineering student at NED university. But he left his education to pursue his career in sales.
When he was only 20, he grew his sales team and also started studying success, discipline, self-motivation, and personal development.
Later he was offered a job in Hong Kong. He worked there for 16 years training sales and customer service teams. Then according to him the best thing happened. He lost his job and later pursued his dream to launch his own business. He started his training company in Hong Kong in which he focused on the success training of his people. With the belief that happiness and optimism should be a part of everyone’s life regardless of the obstacles, he became a role model for success and positivity.
Inspiration Behind Coffee Wagera
In 2017, he had to travel to Pakistan for work but every time he visited the coffee shop, he became frustrated. He strongly felt the need for a proper coffee shop in Pakistan.
A place where everyone can sit and work without chaos. In the last two years, Pakistan has also become the 4th most popular country for freelancing. So, an idea like Coffee Wagera also became much needed.
In 2018, Mush launched his first coffee shop in Pakistan. Then later the shops expanded to eight outlets at different locations including Clifton, Gulshan e Iqbal, North Nazimabad, and Bahadurabad.
We got the opportunity to sit with the founder to talk about his journey and secret to a happy life and here’s his complete interview.
Interview with Mush Panjwani
A little introduction about yourself & how you founded Coffee Wagera?
Assalam-o-Alaikum! My name is Mush Panjwani. I lived in Hong Kong for 20 years and then moved to Pakistan to launch my dream project Coffee Wagera. The inspiration behind CW is that when I used to work in Pakistan, I found no proper coffee shops here like Starbucks, De Morgan, CostaCoffee etc. Some places doesn’t offer free wifi, some doesn’t have clean toilets, and most important was that the staff wasn’t cheerful at all. It developed a checklist in my mind. I wanted to have a place where the toilets are always clean, music is beautiful, Wifi is available, and staff is always happy. With this dream, we launched the first coffee chain in Pakistan in 2018.
What challenges did you face in launching a coffee chain in Pakistan?
No business exists without challenges. My first challenge was that I have no idea about how to run a coffee shop since my background has always been sales and marketing. It needed a lot of research so I studied and enrolled myself in Barista training courses. I also studied successful business model and how I can launch setups like this in Pakistan. I never thought of replacing tea with coffee and tea was never a challenge. In my cafe, those who want to have coffee, can buy it and those who prefer tea, can also have it, we serve both. And we also knew that there are enough people who like coffee in Pakistan.
Our coffee shop isn’t about coffee only. It’s a place where students can come and study, freelancers can work, business people can meet, and discuss ideas. The aim isn’t the coffee but to provide people a place where they can work, study, plan, and meet without distractions.
How to keep a workplace happy?
The biggest challenge is to keep your staff happy. Every leader has this challenge of keeping staff happy and motivated. Since I’m a certified happiness trainer, I have trained people all across the world including corporates, organizations, and entrepreneurs on the importance of happiness in the workplace and how to ensure it. I applied the same here and also trained my staff for it. Happiness is a step-by-step process. The most important aspect is gratitude. They should be happy to wake up and then they also should be grateful for their clothes, job, and many other things. And second thing that needs to be applied from our side is to give their salaries on time, respect the staff, and give them growth and learning opportunities.
What’s your book “Dhinchak Life” about?
I’m also a published author. Few years back I wrote a book “Dhinchak Life.” Dhinchak is a slang word of Mumbai, India where I was born. In English, Dhinchak means Fantastic life. The book is based on how to live a fantastic life. Some of the sections are about happiness, productivity, motivation while other sections are on relationships and also health and fitness. It’s a consolidated summary of my life. At the age of 56, I have learned many things in my life. The book is based on my experiences and lessons.
What’s the secret to a happy life?
There’s a systematic process to achieve happiness step by step. The most important thing to boost your happiness level is gratitude. I don’t know what was the first thought that come to your mind when you woke up but when I woke up, I was happy that I’m blessed with another day to change my life. It gave me joy. Life is a gift and to wake up alive isn’t in my control so the best thing that happened today is that I wake up. And that’s enough to cheer up my day.
You also wake up alive but the only difference is that you didn’t realize waking up alive is a big blessing. You don’t feel the gratitude that I felt. Then once you start counting your blessings you’ll be grateful for the shower, clothes, food, work and many other things. The series of gratitude fills your day with positivity and gives you joy.
What’s your message to the youth of Pakistan?
At the end, my message is that every person has their dreams. So to convert your dreams into goals pick small tasks and start working on it.
For example, if your dream is to travel the world but doesn’t know how and where to start, your dream won’t convert into goal.
Similarly, everyone dreams of launching a successful business but that dream should have goals. What’s the plan for first year, second year, what are the financial goals and so on.
Make specific goals and then convert them into plan. Dream is what you want to achieve in life, goal is when do you want it and plan is how will you do it. And the last is action. Work on it, you’ll need perseverance and if you fail then learn from it and try again.
This concludes the four steps of achieving any successful business. Dream –>Goal –>Plan –>Action.
That’s it from the interview. You can also watch the video interview below:
I hope you enjoy this interview. If you have also completed your 1K subscribers and want us to cover you, then email us your details at editor@localwriter.pk
Read more about Mush Panjwani here: https://mushpanjwani.com/
I prefer books and diaries more than phones and Facebook. Soulfully connected to Pakistan. And I passionately believe that I can change the world through blogging.
