by K Raghavendra Rao (Orchid Pharma)

Choose a goal and focus on it. It can be in the area of product, service or knowledge. Longevity of the field is important. Combine reason and intuition. If there’s a lie, go with intuition. Think big or niche. Doing what many others do won’t take you anywhere. Build teams. Believe in dignity of labour. Be passionate and direct about your ambition. There is no dearth of capital to back right ideas and entrepreneurs. Aim to create lasting value. The country will remember you for that.

Wherever I worked, even when I held zero shares, my attitude towards the work and the project has been absolutely the same.

I used to market to them my ‘five year plan’, in fact I always carried the five year plan book with me and I would say, with or without you, I plan to do these things.

There is no point in merely saying we are all a family. We have to believe it, we have to show it, we have to behave, we have to walk the talk.

by Vikram Talwar (EXL Service)

I would say never start out of college. Work for about 5-6 years; get some experience in the world of business. How and what happens there. Become extremely conversant with finance, especially if you are going into some form of a fairly, complex, large type of operation. You can’t get that knowledge in text books.

Don’t be an entrepreneur without very good financial knowledge. Or have a trusted partner who knows all about this.

Being an investment banker doesn’t necessarily train you to be an entrepreneur. So don’t go for that. Go hard core, bottom of the barrel. Join a company which does not pay you that much but where you have the opportunity to learn.

It has to be an inner drive to succeed in what your objective is. And it cannot be money in my mind. If you want to get into entrepreneurship to make money, I don’t think you will succeed.

At the end giving personal word to a lot of people who have come along counts.

Working with a partner requires a huge amount of sacrifice, understanding and tolerance. It’s like a marriage at the end of the day. I mean, worse than marriage.

Disciple Hood

When the great Sufi mystic, Hasan, was dying, somebody asked "Hasan, who was your master?"

He said, "I had thousands of masters. If I just relate their names it will take months, years and it is too late. But three masters I will certainly tell you about.

One was a thief. Once I got lost in the desert, and when I reached a village it was very late, everything was closed. But at last I found one man who was trying to make a hole in the wall of a house. I asked him where I could stay and he said 'At this time of night it will be difficult, but you can stay with me - if you can stay with a thief'. And the man was so beautiful. I stayed for one month! And each night he would say to me, 'Now I am going to my work. You rest, you pray.'

When he came back I would ask 'Could you get anything?' He would say, 'Not tonight. But tomorrow I will try again, God willing.' He was never in a state of hopelessness, he was always happy. When I was meditating and meditating for years on end and nothing was happening, many times the moment came when I was so desperate, so hopeless, that I thought to stop all this nonsense. And suddenly I would remember the thief who would say every night, 'God willing, tomorrow it is going to happen.' Never lose your hope.

And my second master was a dog. I was going to the river, thirsty and a dog came. He was also thirsty. He looked into the river, he saw another dog there -- his own image -- and became afraid. He would bard and run away, but his thirst was so much that he would come back. Finally, despite his fear, he just jumped into the water, and the image disappeared. And I knew that a message had come to me from God: one has to jump in spite of all fears.

And the third master was a small child. I entered a town and a child was carrying a lit candle. He was going to the mosque to put the candle there. 'Just joking,' I asked the boy, 'have you lit the candle yourself?' He said, 'Yes sir.' And I asked, 'There was a moment when the candle was unlit, and then there was a moment when the candle was lit. Can you show me the source from which the light came?' And the boy laughed, blew out the candle, and said, 'Now you have seen the light going. Where has it gone? You will tell me!' My ego was shattered; my whole knowledge was shattered. And that moment I felt my own stupidity. Since then I dropped all my boasting of my knowledge ability.

It is true that I had no master. That does not mean that I was not a disciple -- I accepted the whole existence as my master. My Disciple hood was a greater involvement than yours is. I trusted the clouds, the trees. I trusted existence as such. I had no master because I had millions of masters I learned from every possible source. To be a disciple is a must on the path. What does it mean to be a disciple? It means to be able to learn, to be available to learn, to be vulnerable to existence. With a master you start learning to learn.

The master is a swimming pool where you can learn how to swim. Once you have learned, all the oceans are yours.

by Nirmal Jain (India Infoline)

You have to build a core team, delegate and empower your people. When you have done something on your own for 5-6 years you can obviously do it better than anyone else who joins you. So there is always a frustration over why this person I have recruited is not doing the way I would have thought or done. But you have to get over that, train your team, and let make things happen. Of course you can’t go hands off very soon or things will go out of control. It’s a delicate balance.

Entrepreneurship is risky. So you should have a mindset, should be prepared to fail. If you are not prepared to fail and can’t handle failure, than this is not your cup of tea. As late as 2003, we were prepared to lose everything and give up and start once again on our own.

You should have the ability to build a team of the right people and not people you like. Many times you have grown with certain people and become very friendly with them. It is difficult to give negative feedback or get performance out of them and this is a human problem. But you can’t get emotionally attached to people and base business decision on that.

Ideally, you should work is a good medium size organization before starting in your own. That always helps.

Whatever the number of partners, there has to be one leader. It there are 3-4 people at the same level and you try to arrive at a consensus that is the worst of all. Whether it’s an army or a country, or a company there has to be one person, one leader in charge.

 

If you are an artist like MF Hussain or a player like Tiger Woods your individual skills only matter, and not how good a team you can build. The analogy applies to business as well.

You always run a risk; it’s a game of probabilities. You have to be sporting… however good you are, you may get out for a duck.

Desire

An emperor was coming out of his palace for his morning walk when he met a beggar. He asked the beggar, "What do you want?"

The beggar laughed and said, "You are asking me as though you can fulfil my desire!"

The king was offended. He said, "Of course I can fulfil your desire. What is it? Just tell me."

And the beggar said, "Think twice before you promise anything."

The beggar was no ordinary beggar; he was the emperor’s past life master. He had promised in that life, "I will come and try to wake you in your next life. This life you have missed but I will come again." But the king had forgotten completely -- who remembers past lives? So he insisted, "I will fulfil anything you ask. I am a very powerful emperor, what can you possibly desire that I can not give to you?"

The beggar said, "It is a very simple desire. You see this begging bowl? Can you fill it with something?"

The emperor said, "Of course!" He called one of his viziers and told him, "Fill this mans begging bowl with money." The vizier went and got some money and poured it into the bowl, and it disappeared. And he poured more and more, and the moment he would pour it, it would disappear. And the begging bowl remained always empty.

The whole palace gathered. By and by the rumour went throughout the whole capital, and a huge crowd gathered. The prestige of the emperor was at stake. He said to his viziers, "If the whole kingdom is lost, I am ready to lose it, but I cannot be defeated by this beggar."

Diamonds and pearls and emeralds, his treasuries were becoming empty. The begging bowl seemed to be bottomless. Everything that was put into it -- everything! -- Immediately disappeared, went out of existence. Finally it was the evening, and the people were standing there in utter silence. The king dropped at the feet of the beggar and admitted his defeat. He said, "Just tell me one thing. You are victorious - but before you leave, just fulfil my curiosity. What is the begging bowl made of?"

The beggar laughed and said, "It is made up of the human mind. There is no secret. It is simple made up of human desire."

This understanding transforms life. Go into one desire -- what is the mechanism of it? First there is a great excitement, great thrill, and adventure. You feel a great kick. Something is going to happen; you are on the verge of it. And then you have the car, you have the yacht, you have the house, and suddenly all is meaningless again.

What happens? Your mind has dematerialised it. The car is standing in the drive, but there is no excitement anymore. The excitement was only in getting it. You became so drunk with the desire that you forgot your inner nothingness. Now the desire is fulfilled, the car in the drive, the money in your bank account - again excitement disappears; again the emptiness is there, ready to eat you up. Again you have to create another desire to escape this yawning abyss.

That is how one moves from one desire to another desire. That's how one remains a beggar. Your whole life proves it again and again --every desire frustrates. And when the goal is achieved, you will need another desire. The day you understand that desire as such is going to fail comes the turning point in your life.

The other journey is inwards. Move inwards; come back home.

Advice to Young Entrepreneurs by Deep Karla (makemytrip.com)

Choose field very carefully – there must be a ‘huge’ (large is not good enough) market and potential. If you don’t have persona expertise in this field, get a team of domain experts locked-in, preferably as partners or co-founders. 

Plan your funding very carefully – ideally raise as little cash as possible in the pre-revenue stage as you end up diluting too much equity. Try raising the first round from angle investors as it is most time-efficient and typically you will get the best terms. However, for later rounds, never risk starving your company of cash; this has killed many good companies! 

It’s all about people – hire the best folks in the business. Don’t hesitate to hire people better than yourself in that specific area. Colleagues who challenge and make you feel uncomfortable are your best friends and the ‘yes men’ are your worst enemies! 

Make friends at work and promote an honest and open working atmosphere. Ensure everyone has fun at work. People tend to give their best when they are enjoying their work. 

Don’t focus too much on exits (especially not too early in the game). Concentrate on building a solid business, the rest will take care of itself! 

The MBA is a wonderful degree. You can either use it as a noose, or you can use it as insurance. Always tend to use it as insurance 

My motto for my team is borrowed from Jeff Bezos – work hard, have fun, create history. But two out of three is not an option! 

When it comes to investors, and when it comes to your own people, loyalty is important but competence matters more. 

Dad's Eyes

A teenage boy lived alone with his father. The two of them had a very special relationship. Even though the son was always "warming the bench", his father was always in the stands cheering. He never missed a game. This young man was still the smallest of the class when he entered high school. But his father continued to encourage him but also made it very clear that he did not have to play football if he didn't want to. But the young man loved football and decided to hang in there.

The son was determined to try his best at every practice, and perhaps he'd get to play when he became a senior. All through high school he never missed a practice but still remained a bench warmer all four years. His faithful father was always in the stands, always with words of encouragement for him.

When the young man went to college, he decided to try out for the football team as a "walk-on." Everyone was sure he could never make the cut, but he did. The coach admitted that he kept him on the roster because he always puts his heart and soul to every practice and, at the same time, provided the other members with the spirit and hustle they badly needed.

The news that he had survived the cut thrilled him so much that he rushed to the nearest phone and called his father. His father shared his excitement and was sent season tickets for all the college games. This persistent young athlete never missed practice during his four years at college, but he never got to play in the game.

It was the end of his senior football season, and as he trotted onto the practice field shortly before the big play-off game, the coach met him with a telegram. The young man read the telegram and he became deathly silent. Swallowing hard, he mumbled to the coach, "My father died this morning. Is it all right if I miss practice today?" The coach put his arm gently around his shoulder and said, "Take the rest of the week off, son. And don't even plan to come back to the game on Saturday."

Saturday arrived, and the game was not going well. In the third quarter, when the team was ten points behind, a silent young man quietly slipped into the empty locker room and put on his football gear. As he ran onto the sidelines, the coach and his players were astounded to see their faithful teammate back so soon.

"Coach, please let me play. I've just got to play today," said the young man. The coach pretended not to hear him. There was no way he wanted his worst player in this close playoff game. But the young man persisted, and finally feeling sorry for the kid, the coach gave in. "All right," he said. "You can go in."

Before long, the coach, the players and everyone in the stands could not believe their eyes. This little unknown, who had never played before was doing everything right. The opposing team could not stop him. He ran, he passed, blocked and tackled like a star. His team began to triumph. The score was soon tied. In the closing seconds of the game, this kid intercepted a pass and ran all the way for the winning touchdown!

 

The fans broke loose. His teammates hoisted him onto their shoulders. Such cheering you've never heard! Finally, after the stands had emptied and the team had showered and left the locker room, the coach noticed that the young man was sitting quietly in the corner all alone. The coach came to him and said, "Kid, I can't believe it. You were fantastic! Tell me what got into you? How did you do it?"

He looked at the coach, with tears in his eyes, and said, "Well, you knew my dad died, but did you know that my dad was blind?" The young man swallowed hard and forced a smile, "Dad came to all my games, but today was the first time he could see me play, and I wanted to show him I could do it!"

by Madan Mohanka (Tega Industries)

If you believe in a product, don’t give it up half way through. Be on it. And you will succeed one day. And the result will be good.

Second, have patience during difficult times. Don’t lose your balance, and try to carry the team with you. 

Third, when you are launching any business, whether it’s a new product or an existing product, it it’s a new business, plan for 50% more money than what you think you require. Al least 50% more to stand by. So in case you have difficulty half way through, you don’t have to close the business or run away. You have some money to put in, to carry on and see the bright side of it. 

For a mid size company, having multi-locations for the plant is not advisable because mid-size companies are owner driven companies. Multi-locations create problems in terms of management focus. 

There is a lot of scope in manufacturing. In India our manufacturing base is only 37%, whereas in all advanced countries, the manufacturing base is 65-75%. If any economy has to become strong in the long term, it can become only with the manufacturing base, not the service base. Service base is only temporary. This will not create long-term employment and if the economy has to become strong, it has to go into manufacturing. 

If you believe in a product, never give it up. You will succeed. It might take time and cost money.

Cut the Rope

This story might strengthen our faith in God!

It tell the story of a mountain climber, desperate to conquer the Aconcagua, initiated his climb after years of preparation. But he wanted the glory to himself; therefore, he went up alone. He started climbing and it was becoming evening. He did not prepare for camping but decided to keep on going. Soon it got dark . . . Night fell with heaviness at such high altitude and there was zero visibility. Everything was black, no moon, and the stars covered by clouds. As he was climbing a ridge at about 100 meters from the top, he slipped and fell. Falling rapidly he could only see blotches of darkness that passed in the same darkness and a terrible sensation of being suctioned by gravity. He kept falling and in those anguishing moments’ good and bad memories passed through his mind.

He thought he would die. Nevertheless, he felt a jolt that almost tore him in half. Like any good mountain climber he had staked himself with a long rope tied to his waist. In those moments of stillness, suspended in the air he had no other choice but to shout, "HELP ME GOD", "HELP ME!" All of a sudden he heard a deep voice from heaven. "What do you want me to do?” "SAVE ME" "Do you REALLY think that I can save you?" "OF COURSE, MY GOD" "Then cut the rope that is holding you up." There was another moment of silence and stillness. The man held tighter to the rope.

The rescue team says that the next day they found, a frozen mountain climber hanging strongly to a rope TWO FEET off the ground . . .

What about you? How trusting are you in that rope? Why don't you let it go? I tell you, God has great and marvellous things for you.

IN HOPELESSNESS CUT THE ROPE AND SIMPLY TRUST IN HIM.

by Rashesh Shah (Edelweiss Capital)

Cash flow is underestimated by most people – the amount of cash flow. If it is possible, be a little overcapitalized. There are lot of CEOs who are good product guys, they are good operations guys. But they don’t know finance at all. In times of advertises, these are the people who suffer the most. I think being financially savvy is a required part of the business.

Never have equal partners. You start off as equals, but then one does more, one does less, one is the public face, the other is not, and then slowly the whole thing disintegrates.

So there should be ‘first among equals’, who has a slightly higher equity share. That’s what I advice my clients now. Also, there shouldn’t be too many partners. Two or four partners is okay, but ideally not more than four.

Have the staying power, the emotional staying power. Business will not be as per what you had planned, there are going to be hardships. I have seen a lot of business close up because after a lot of hardships, at that key point, we have never thought, “Oh, it is worth?” We just kept going on.

But if you are working at Hindustan Lever or any such organization, worried about status, worried about house in south Bombay and all that, the choice is then very tough. I think the loss of status is what really hurts.

Very few people speak about it but there is a clear change in the social status. Entrepreneurship is messy compared to what things would be if you were working for an MNC bank.

When you are the CEO and shareholder, you want to avoid raising money because your equity goes down. When you wear only the CEO’s hat, all you want is to grow as fast as possible.

We always differentiate between a plan and an aspiration. There is always a short term plan, but there are always long term aspirations.

Cure for Sorrow

There is an old Chinese tale about a woman whose only son died. In her grief, she went to the holy man and said, "What prayers, what magical incantations do you have to bring my son back to life?"

Instead of sending her away or reasoning with her, he said to her, "Fetch me a mustard seed from a home that has never known sorrow. We will use it to drive the sorrow out of your life." The woman went off at once in search of that magical mustard seed.

She came first to a splendid mansion, knocked at the door, and said, "I am looking for a home that has never known sorrow. Is this a place? It is very important to me."

They told her, "You've certainly come to the wrong place," and began to describe all the tragic things that recently had befallen them.

The woman said to herself, "Who is better able to help these poor, unfortunate people that I, who have had misfortune of my own?" She stayed to comfort them, and then went on in search of a home that had never known sorrow. But wherever she turned, in hovels and in other places, she found one tale after another of sadness and misfortune.

She became so involved in ministering to other people's grief that ultimately she forgot about her quest for the magical mustard seed, never realizing that it had, in fact, driven the sorrow out of her life.

by Chender Baljee (Royal Orchid Hotels)

Identify what kind of work you want to do. I love the hotel business – food, making menus, everything to do with the business. If you love the business you take up, you will definitely make a success of it. 

Learn the business you want to get into for a couple of years. Raising money is not so difficult today. There are VCs, or at least angle investors. There is even lease financing, for example, unlike my time! 

Your family life may get affected – for example you can’t take long holidays and when you do take a holiday, phone calls and emails ill follow you. 

But if you enjoy your work, you won’t feel it is an intrusion. 

When things are tight you monitor every expenses. Only when business is doing well, inefficiencies creep in.

Perseverance

An eight-year-old child heard her parents talking about her little brother. All she knew was that he was very sick and they had no money left. They were moving to a smaller house because they could not afford to stay in the present house after paying the doctor's bills. Only a very costly surgery could save him now and there was no one to loan them the money.

When she heard her daddy say to her tearful mother with whispered desperation, 'Only a miracle can save him now', the little girl went to her bedroom and pulled her piggy bank from its hiding place in the closet. She poured all the change out on the floor and counted it carefully.

Clutching the precious piggy bank tightly, she slipped out the back door and made her way six blocks to the local drugstore. She took a quarter from her bank and placed it on the glass counter.

 

"And what do you want?" asked the pharmacist.

"It's for my little brother," the girl answered back. "He's really very sick and I want to buy a miracle."

"I beg your pardon?" said the pharmacist.

"His name is Andrew and he has something bad growing inside his head and my daddy says only a miracle can save him. So how much does a miracle cost?"

"We don't sell miracles here, child. I'm sorry," the pharmacist said, smiling sadly at the little girl.

"Listen, I have the money to pay for it. If it isn't enough, I can try and get some more. Just tell me how much it costs."

In the shop was a well-dressed customer. He stooped down and asked the little girl, "What kind of a miracle does you brother need?"

"I don't know," she replied with her eyes welling up. "He's really sick and mommy says he needs an operation. But my daddy can't pay for it, so I have brought my savings".

"How much do you have?" asked the man.

"One dollar and eleven cents; but I can try and get some more", she answered barely audibly.

"Well, what a coincidence," smiled the man, "A dollar and eleven cents - the exact price of a miracle for little brothers."

He took her money in one hand and held her hand with the other. He said, "Take me to where you live. I want to see your brother and meet your parents. Let's see if I have the kind of miracle you need."

That well-dressed man was Dr Carlton Armstrong, a surgeon, specialising in neuro-surgery. The operation was completed without charge and it wasn't long before Andrew was home again and doing well.

"That surgery," her mom whispered, "was a real miracle. I wonder how much it would have cost."

The little girl smiled. She knew exactly how much the miracle cost ...one dollar and eleven cents ... plus the faith of a little child.

Perseverance can make miracles happen!

by Narendra Murkumbi (Shree Renuka Sugars)

Its tough to start off on your own right away. You learn many things the hard way. But at the same time, I don’t think the kind of jobs that come on the campus prepare you for entrepreneurship at all. You are very very segmented. You are in the higher paying and specialized professions like investment banking which are absolutely no backgrounds for starting off on your own.

You keep thinking about how to grow the business. Of course, you have a lot of ideas, and not everything succeeds. In fact, I think very few stories are written about failures…. Bust as long as the successes are big enough, I think things take care of themselves. 

In every business, the more you know about the grassroots, the better. 

I am an entrepreneur because I want to create something. Its not the money that motivates but the size of what you build, the scale. 

It is always difficult to switch off. Mentally you are always there and that’s hard for the family. Partly maybe personal style. Also because it’s your own business, you are that much more connected. 

The limits are in your own thinking. The impossible is what you believe cannot be done.

Care

Always remember those who serve you.

In the days, when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10 years old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him.

"How much is an ice cream sundae?" he asked.

"Fifty cents," replied the waitress.

The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it.

"Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he inquired.

By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient.

"Thirty-five cents," she brusquely replied.

The little boy again counted his coins.

"I'll have the plain ice cream," he said.

The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left. When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies.

You see he couldn't have the sundae, because he wanted enough left to leave her a tip.

by R Subramanian (Subhiksha)

If you want to be in a rarefied space, a financial space, then it probably makes sense to join Goldman Sachs. Pick up some threads, some contacts, get a bunch of colleagues who will come with you and begin something.

The way we look at it, there are two worlds – the real world and the virtual world. The virtual world is something which the financial types operate. The real world is where lot of us slog to physically do work. 

If you want to do something in the real world, sell products to people, impact consumers, it makes more sense to work in real life companies, smaller the better. Don’t join a Hindustan Lever or a Coca Cola. Join smaller companies because you will get far more exposure. I can’t believe that in two years, in any other company, I could have sat for IR negotiation of financial restructuring negotiations. 

The larger company you work in, the less you are able to get the nuts and bolts, the less you are able to see the bigger picture. You need to go and challenge yourself, you need to go and fight your way in the market. That experience will make all the difference! 

  

To drive towards your goal, you are working on a path. But that path is not 100% right. You are correcting yourself by learning, by experience, and making these corrections and moving forward on the system and coming out a winner…. The sheer value of learning, everyday, is what keeps you going. 

I don’t think so money is important in terms of having personal ownership. Enough money available to the company for what it wants to do, is a good thing but even there we have a worry that too much money makes it inefficient and lazy.

Bend, but Don't Break

One of my fondest memories as a child is going by the river and sitting idly on the bank. There I would enjoy the peace and quiet, watch the water rush downstream, and listen to the chirps of birds and the rustling of leaves in the trees. I would also watch the bamboo trees bend under pressure from the wind and watch them return gracefully to their upright or original position after the wind had died down.

When I think about the bamboo tree's ability to bounce back or return to its original position, the word resilience comes to mind. When used in reference to a person this word means the ability to readily recover from shock, depression or any other situation that stretches the limits of a person's emotions.

Have you ever felt like you are about to snap? Have you ever felt like you are at your breaking point? Thankfully, you have survived the experience to live to talk about it.

 

During the experience you probably felt a mix of emotions that threatened your health. You felt emotionally drained, mentally exhausted and you most likely endured unpleasant physical symptoms.

Life is a mixture of good times and bad times, happy moments and unhappy moments. The next time you are experiencing one of those bad times or unhappy moments that take you close to your breaking point then bend but don't break. Try your best not to let the situation get the best of you.

A measure of hope will take you through the unpleasant ordeal. With hope for a better tomorrow or a better situation, things may not be as bad as they seem to be. The unpleasant ordeal may be easier to deal with if the end result is worth having.

If the going gets tough and you are at your breaking point, show resilience like the bamboo tree, bend, but don't break!

by Ashank Desai (Mastek)

You acquire a team which feels a trust to each other. And which is willing to designate one of them as a leader. Not based on shareholding alone but respect, trust and competence because that is self-sustaining.

There is no one formula but I would say yes, get 4-5 years of experience – learn at somebody’s cost if I may use the word. Get a bit of feel, bit of financial stability, and some savings. After all, venture capital is there but you need your own money too. But don’t wait too long. 

Everyone does not need to build a 100 crore or 1000 crore company. Small verses big verses super big is a choice that an entrepreneur makes himself or herself depending upon the ambitions, values and what he likes doing. 

Don’t just think about it, don’t just wish for it, jump into it and do it, if you are really serious. 

Once you get into it, go all out; never look at quitting as an option. 

Remember that if the startup fails, it is your idea that failed, not you. 

Great companies are created by great people. There is very little anyone individual can achieve alone. 

Bring a right team together (more than synergies of skills, synergies of values and attitude is more critical). 

Make plans but remain open to all possibilities as events unfold in the marketplace. 

Think big and behave as if you have already achieved your greatness. We started implementing many practices way ahead of our size. 

Retain work-life balance. 

You have to keep reinventing yourself. 

I don’t know whether we made sacrifices. Ultimately all of us do what we do, because we like it. Yes, if you take a normal family life, ours was definitely not balanced…. I took my first holiday 15 years after starting Mastek! 

When you are sitting on a small market, you have to be good at many things. 

Ultimately when you are running a company, you have a risk; you have a responsibility to make it successful. So the buck stops at you. So to that extent, there is a difference between an executive and the owner.

All the Time in the World

While at the park one day, a woman sat down next to a man on a bench near a playground. "That's my son over there," she said, pointing to a little boy in a red sweater who was gliding down the slide.

"He's a fine looking boy," the man said. "That's my son on the swing in the blue sweater." Then, looking at his watch, he called to his son. "What do you say we go, Todd?"

Todd pleaded, "Just five more minutes, Dad. Please, just five more minutes." The man nodded and Todd continued to swing to his heart's content.

Minutes passed and the father stood and called again to his son, "Time to go now?" Again Todd pleaded, "Five more minutes Dad, Just five more minutes." The man smiled and said, "Okay."

"My, you certainly are a patient father," the woman responded. The man smiled and then said, "My older son Tommy was killed by a drunk driver last year while he was riding his bike near here. I never spent much time with Tommy and now I'd give anything for just five more minutes with him. I've vowed not to make the same mistake with Todd. "He thinks he has five more minutes to swing. The truth is . . . I get five more minutes to watch him play."

A Wonderful Story

A woman came out of her house and saw 3 old men with long white beards sitting in her front yard. She did not recognize them. She said, "I don't think I know you, but you must be hungry. Please come in and have something to eat."

"Is the man of the house home?” they asked.

"No", she replied. "He's out."

"Then we cannot come in", they replied.

In the evening when her husband came home, she told him what had happened.

"Go tell them I am home and invite them in!"

The woman went out and invited the men in.

"We do not go into a House together," they replied.

"Why is that?" she asked.

One of the old men explained: "His name is Wealth," he said pointing to one of his friends, and said pointing to another one, "He is Success, and I am Love." Then he added, "Now go in and discuss with your husband which one of us you want in your home."

The woman went in and told her husband what was said. Her husband was overjoyed. "How nice!!” he said. "Since that is the case, let us invite Wealth. Let him come and fill our home with wealth!"

His wife disagreed. "My dear, why don't we invite Success?" Their daughter-in-law was listening from the other corner of the house. She jumped in with her own suggestion: "Would it not be better to invite Love? Our home will then be filled with love!"

"Let us heed our daughter-in-law's advice," said the husband to his wife. "Go out and invite Love to be our guest."

The woman went out and asked the 3 old men, "Which one of you is Love? Please come in and be our guest."

Love got up and started walking toward the house. The other 2 also got up and followed him. Surprised, the lady asked Wealth and Success: "I only invited Love, Why are you coming in?" The old men replied together: "If you had invited Wealth or Success, the other two of us would've stayed out, but since you invited Love, wherever He goes, we go with him.

Wherever there is Love, there is also Wealth and Success!!!!!!

by Vinayak Chatterjee (Feedback Ventures)

My only advice is, be true to your inner voice. Joh karna hai tumhe zindagi mein, woh karo. If your inner voice says you really love the rat race and can be great in the rat race, please do it, just don’t attach any value systems to it. Many of my batch-mates have made great careers for themselves, built great brand equity, done well as global managers. If your inner voice says, that my route, got for it!

If your inner voice says your route is social entrepreneurship, do it. If your inner voice says, I want to be an author, journalist, write books, please do it! I had a colleague from St Stephen’s, Ramchandra Guha, who did economics and became a noted historian. And look at the brand equity that he has today. 

What I find is many people hear that inner voice but just don’t have the conviction to act upon it. 

Don’t get too concerned about peer pressure. You may be successful, you may be unsuccessful, but in the philosophical market, what is success and what is failure? At least you will have the pleasure when you face yourself in the mirror to say “I did what my inner voice told me!” Koi phikr nahi hai, tu apna kaam kar! 

I don’t want to put a premium on entrepreneurship. It’s not a fad or fashion to follow. 

So my only piece of advice is find purpose, means will follow. Life’s journey will take you wherever it is. Don’t worry about the fruits. Who Geeta wali baat hai – nishkaam karmayoga – duty without desire. 

But be prepared to stick it out. Remember Narayana Murthy’s quote: “It has taken me 25 years to become an overnight wonder.” 

In looking back it seems, we were in step with the turning in the economy. …. The truth is, it all just happened. In hindsight, you can call it strategy. 

What management education does is provide you a perspective. But it doesn’t force you to work for anybody else. It’s an education degree, that’s all.