“PHP rule to achieve anything in life”- Dixanta Bahadur Shrestha, CEO, Leapfrog Academy [Techie Tuesday]

“Simply working for the welfare of my family was not enough. I thought, what if I could create more winners that would multiply even more? So, in this way, I started the journey.” says Dixanta Bahadur Shrestha, the CEO of Leapfrog Academy.

In today’s Techie Tuesday column, we are profiling an inspirational personality, Mr. Dixanta Bahadur Shrestha, CEO of Leapfrog Academy.

Brought up in the spot rich with social legacies – Patan, he had never thought about what he would be seeking later on in life. He went to class and was average in studies. After his SLC examinations, he had no clue about how to continue further. He just knew his enthusiasm in  playing guitar. When his father commented that he couldn’t continue just like that, he joined Patan Multiple Campus for Management studies. That same individual who was pursuing studies in administration ended up in the programming scene.

“One day, I was reading the newspaper when I saw an advertisement for a computer training with different packages. Then, I chose to pursue it.”

He continued his study in DCS (Diploma in Computer Science), which is a one year computer course. He adds, “I took that one year course and then my career path changed drastically.” He learned different programming dialects/languages. He started loving to program. So much so that he wanted to study Information Technology. Since he had pursued Management Studies in the past, he couldn’t proceed with BEIT, which was what he wanted to study. As a typical trend of the vast majority of the Nepali adolescents, he considered going to another country for his further studies.

He went to Australia and joined Federal University. He says, “Though I was  an average student, I was lucky enough to get a scholarship.  So, I think attitude matters.”  When he graduated from that university, he had already discovered his passion in the world of computer science.

He started working and while doing so, he honed his abilities significantly more. Then came along his own company. When one of his friends asked him to co-establish Pagoda Labs, he accepted the proposal and started working for it. Throughout the time, he learned a lot of things. He says, “The problem with the graduates is that once they graduate they do not know what to learn or what to do next.” So, he thought of helping them. He started tutoring students with a free programming class, which was very unsuccessful at first. When he first posted about it on Facebook, only few people showed up. But gradually, there was an increase in the number of students. Slowly, he started charging some money for the classes later on.

“Then, I saw the business opportunity in it. If something is tagged as difficult by the people, then I think that it is where the money is. If you want easy money, then 9 to 5 job gives it all.”

While working for his own company, he had received an offer to go to US and work for a company there, however, he dropped the idea. He thought of contributing to the society or the nation as a whole by creating a larger number of computer wizards instead of simply centering the welfare of him and his family. Thus, with a motive of giving right mentorship and helping the students in this field, Leapfrog Academy was commenced. So, the academy aims to make the students ready for business/tech world before they graduate.

Lastly, he adds,

“PHP rule is all that I use in my life where, P stands for passion, H stands for hard work and the next P for patience. Only passion is not enough, hard work must follow it. Likewise, patience is a must to achieve anything in life.”

A short video in conversation with Dixanta Bahadur Shrestha,