Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam
We all need no
introduction to our lovable late Kalam sir. I decided to write about Abdul
Kalam first because rags to riches does not mean being from 0 rupees to a
million rupee. The term states that how someone from a very humble background
can grow into a lovable person respected by everyone irrespective of all the
differences we hold.
His admirable
charisma and a pure heart made him the 'People's president' of India.
Our dear Kalam sir
was not someone who was born with a silver spoon. He was the youngest child in
his family.
In his school years,
Kalam had average grades but was described as a bright and hardworking student
who had a strong desire to learn. He spent hours on his studies, especially
mathematics.
He also sold
newspapers to help his family meet ends. Kalam is a great example for how
someone from not a well to do family, rise and shine and become nation's
president.
His hard work,
wisdom and the love for knowledge helped him rise. His kindness and
philanthropist attitude made him stay and shine in the place he was.
Narayana Murthy
Narayan Murthy was born in a Middle-class family. He
wanted to be an engineer and successfully cleared the entrance exam of the
Indian Institute of Technology. However, he couldn’t get into the college as
his father could not afford the fees.
He joined a local engineering college and got a degree
in Electrical Engineering. After that Narayan joined IIT Kanpur for his
Master’s degree and decided to pursue a career in IT.
Today he’s the co-founder of a multinational
corporation, Infosys and is known as the father of Indian IT Sector and is
listed among the 12 greatest entrepreneurs in Forbes Magazine and has also been
honored the Padma Vibhushan and Padma Shri Awards.
It is all in the energy and willingness one is ready
to devote to their dreams. No matter what your background is, it is all in the
self-motivation one has to pursue his/her dreams.
J.K. Rowling
J.K. Rowling is the author of the famous Harry Potter
series. Her story is heart-melting and gives a lot of hope to the people who
think they are depressed and can't go after their dreams.
Rowling was severely depressed and suicidal in her
mid-20s. She also lost her beloved mother.
Rowling also
underwent an unsuccessful marriage. She was a single parent raising her kid
without a job living out with the help of government welfare.
Before getting her first book published "Harry
Potter and the Philosophers stone", she was rejected by 12 publishers.
What kept her going, is her obsession to become an
author. She always loved books and wanted to be an author. She had so much hope
on her book and belief on her work that made Rowling's story a grand success,
despite of all the odds.
Dhirubhai Ambani
Son of a school teacher born in the Gujarati town of
Chorwad, Dhirubhai started his entrepreneurial journey by selling bhajias.
After
completing his matriculation at the age of 16, he moved to Aden, Yemen and
worked there as a gas-station attendant, and as a clerk in an oil company.
He returned to India in 1958 with Rs 50,000 and set up
a textile trading company. In 1992, Reliance became the first Indian company to
raise money in global markets. Reliance also became the first Indian company to
feature in Forbes 500 list.
Dhirubhai
Ambani was named the Indian Entrepreneur of the 20th Century by the Federation
of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
Patricia Narayan
She started her career 30
years ago as an entrepreneur, selling eateries from a mobile cart on the Marina
beach amidst all odds — battling a failed marriage, coping with her husband, a
multiple addicts, and taking care of two kids.
Today, she has overcome
the hurdles and owns a chain of restaurants.
"I started my business
with just two people. Now, there are 200 people working for me in my
restaurants. My lifestyle has changed too. From traveling in a cycle rickshaw,
I moved to auto rickshaws and now I have my own car. From 50 paise a day, my
revenue has gone up to Rs 2 lakh a day.
Karsanbhai Patel
– Man behind NIRMA
It was in 1969 that Dr.
Karsanbhai Patel started Nirma and went on to create a whole new segment in the
Indian domestic detergent market.
During that time the
domestic detergent market only had the premium segment and there were very few
companies, mainly the MNCs, which were into this business.
Karsanbhai Patel used to
make detergent powder in the backyard of his house in Ahmedabad and then carry
out door to door selling of his hand made product.
He gave a money-back
guarantee with every pack that was sold. Karsanbhai Patel managed to offer his
detergent powder for Rs. 3 per kg when the cheapest detergent at that time was
Rs.13 per kg and so he was able to successfully target the middle and lower-middle-income
segment.
Sabki Pasand Nirma!
Nirma became a huge
success and all this was a result of Karsanbhai Patel’s entrepreneurial skills.
The best case of – Give
your consumer what he wants, when he wants, where he wants and at the price he
wants, selling will be done quite automatically. This is the marketing ‘mantra’
of Nirma.
The company that was
started in 1969 with just one man who used to deliver his product from one
house to the other, today employs around 14 thousand people and has a turnover
of more than $ 500 million.
In 2004 Nirma’s annual
sales were as high as 800000 tonnes. According to Forbes in 2005 Karsanbhai
Patel’s net worth was $640 million and it’s going to touch the $1000 million
mark soon.
Jyothi
Reddy
Jyothi
was born in 1970 and she was the youngest among the five girl children in a
poor family in India. Due to her family’s financial situation, she was admitted
into a welfare orphanage. To get the
admission, she had to become a motherless child.
It was a heartbreaking
situation for Jyothi as she could not see her mother during the days when she
was in the orphanage. There was nobody to share her happiness and sorrow.
Instead of getting down
with the situation, Jyothi developed a strong will to make her future bright.
She promised herself to work towards creating a better life for her.
She learned the way of
dealing with life in a hard and practical manner. The hardship taught her the
value of life and made her think beyond the situation.
Prem Ganapathy
Prem
Ganapathy was stranded at the Bandra station when the person accompanying him
left him and ran away. Prem had no local acquaintances or knowledge of the
language.
Out
of pity, a fellow Tamilian guided him to a temple and appealed worshipers to
contribute money for his return ticket to Chennai. Prem
refused to go back and decided to work in Mumbai and started cleaning utensils
in a restaurant. He appealed to his owner, to let him become a waiter as he was
class 10 pass. The owner refused, because of regional politics and Prem bided
his time till a neighborhood dosa restaurant opened and offered him a job from
a dishwasher to a tea boy.
Prem
became a huge hit with the customers because of his excellent customer service,
initiatives, and relationship and brought business Rs. 1000 daily which was
almost 3 times as compared to other tea boys. Life was good.
A
customer made him an offer. He was planning to open a tea shop in Vashi in
Mumbai. He wanted Prem to be his 50 – 50 partner where the owner would invest
the money while Prem would run the shop. The shop started doing brisk business
when the owner became greedy.
It
hurt him to share 50 % of the profit with Prem and he threw Prem out replacing
him with an employee.
Prem
was made of different material and he was never going to be defeated. He took a
small loan from his uncle and with his brother, opened his own tea stall.
Unfortunately, the neighborhood residents objected. He then started a hand cart
but that also did not work out.
He
found a spot and set up a south Indian stall. He did not know a thing about
dosas and idli but learned by observation, trial, and error. The dosa stall was
a huge hit and flourished during the 5 years from 1992-1997. But why was the
tiny dosa stall was so successful in spite of competition from ubiquitous
eateries prevalent in Mumbai? According to Prem, it was its hygiene, proper
appearances of the waiters and fresh ingredients which stood out as a
difference.
He
saved a couple of lakhs of Rupees and instead of heading home he took the biggest risk of his life and opened a new shop near Vashi station and named it
Dosa Plaza. His Chinese plaza next to the Dosa Plaza flopped miserably and was
shut down in 3 months.
Undaunted,
Prem realized some lessons from it. He applied those lessons in making Chinese
cuisine in his dosas which worked very well.
He
got passionate and invented a variety of dosas with Chinese style like American
Chopsuey, Schezwan Dosa, Paneer chilly, Spring roll dosa, etc. The 108 types of
Dosas in his menu get him a lot of publicity.
A
chance encounter with a customer who was part of the team setting up a food
court in a mall in New Bombay advised him to take a stall at the food court and
again Prem was ready and willing to grow and expand. His vision was to grow by
better offerings and better customer service. He also went to ad agencies to
create the brand identity including the logo, brands, menu card, waiters dress , etc.
He
started getting a lot of offers for franchising and had to find out the meaning
of franchising and its modus operandi. Dosa Plaza currently has 26 outlets and
5 of them are company-owned. It has 150 employees and a turnover of 5 crores.
All the branches are connected and networked and there are training managers
and proper manuals to maintain standard and uniform products and services.
Merit
is the only criterion; all the employees regardless of the caste or region are
treated equally. They are loyal and have grown with the company. The original
team of cooks which was the part of the first Dosa venture is still with Prem.
Currently, he is also getting inquiries from the US and Europe for franchisees
Ramesh Babu, the
barber who owns a Rolls Royce
A passionate barber and a hard
worker in the literal sense of the word. His story is one of the most
inspiring. He ran a car rental business on the side. With his meager savings, he
bought a Maruti car in 1994.
By 2004, he had a fledgling car
rental business with seven regular cars. In 2014 he has a fleet of 200 cars.
What is even more extraordinary is the 75 luxury cars on the fleet- a range of
Mercedes, BMW’s, Audi’s, five and 10 – seater luxury vans and, his ultimate
pride, a Rolls Royce.
Ritesh Agarwal
Ritesh Agarwal is from Orrisa, he is the
Founder And CEO Of OYO Rooms. And
not just only in India, OYO is the largest hospitality network of Asia and
still growing to more countries, currently, Oyo services are working in more than
24+ countries including China, the United States, United Kingdom, and the United
Arab Emirates.
He
is a 25-year-old entrepreneur and never studied beyond school, he enrolled for
University of London(Indian Campus) at Indian Business School but after few
days he left his college and start working on his own idea of making the
service like OYO, before this he launched Oravel stays (The Indian version of
Airbnb).
Oyo
is from the world's largest faster-growing business and currently having total
of more than 400000 rooms in different countries over their network, Ritesh Agarwal at the age of 22 became the youngest CEO and now he is
making millions of dollars because of his rare idea, he is and will be the idol
for our young generation. You can also know about his journey from a college
dropout to Young Crorepati
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