MUHAMMAD DZAKIR
ACCOUNTANCY & BUSINESS
Muhammad Dzakir believes in starting with the goal in mind.
“In my first year at Victoria Junior College, I started searching online for every university course applicable to me to motivate myself to study hard to reach my goal,” he says.
Mathematics had been his favourite subject since primary school. His passion for numbers, coupled with his obsession with details and arranging everything in neat order, led Dzakir to decide on studying Accountancy.
He soon set his heart on the double degree programme in Accountancy and Business at Nanyang Business School (NBS). In addition to studying economics at junior college, he began reading up on business administration and business law.
“I spoke to friends and relatives who had studied at NTU and got positive feedback. One day, I made a trip from my home in Pasir Ris to Nanyang Avenue to check out the place.”
“There was a rush of loud construction going on. The foundation of NTU’s famous Gaia building housing NBS was just being laid,” he recounts. Amid the noise and haste, Dzakir saw his future.
During national service, he spent all his free time preparing for his NTU studies. “Honestly, I was also a bit bored, so I took up a course in programming. That led me to specialise in Business Analytics at NTU.”
Dzakir also discovered something new about himself after joining NTU – his penchant for community work and organising. “Before NTU, I hardly participated in extra-curricular activities. The teachers never picked me for leadership roles because I kept a low profile. I was always just that smiling, friendly and studious boy in the background,” he laughs.
“At NTU, we’re encouraged to try new things and show initiative. I started community service to earn points for staying in hall. Then I found that I really loved it. In my second year, they threw me into the deep end by making me head a freshman orientation programme. I surprised myself by pulling it off,” Dzakir muses. That was when the self-confessed planner saw the value of his methodical ways. He creates Excel sheets for everything – even at home. As the eldest child, he makes them to guide his two younger siblings.
Dzakir co-founded a club that connects undergrads, potential students and alumni of NBS. He also volunteers in a project that helps the physically and intellectually challenged. “On a recent excursion, I pushed an elderly woman in a wheelchair around a roof garden at the airport to show her the sights. I suddenly had this on-top-of-the-world feeling that I was doing something truly meaningful,” Dzakir enthuses.
Dzakir has not thought about using his networking skills for a future business venture, à la Steve Jobs. “I’m a planner, not a dreamer – at least not yet,” he jests. “To me, just looking at the sky and dreaming isn’t that cool.”
In other words, starting a business empire isn’t on his Excel sheet – yet.
Honing his leadership skills at NTU, Dzakir co-founded a networking club and led a freshman orientation camp.
This story was published in the Jan-Feb 2025 issue of HEY!. To read it and other stories from this issue in print, click here.
