Since the time I took reading as a hobby (not too long ago), amongst the first novels I read was the Godfather. The impressionable mind was exposed to a like that comes in at the start of the book reading ‘Behind every successful fortune, there is a crime’. Though this line was talking how the Italian Mafia was formed when a good man takes to the gun in times of depression, it had no real impact on how I see things around me.
In the years that followed, I read the success stories of people who made it big in business in India or the world over. Some were pure genius in terms of talent and ideas while some exploited the loopholes in the system and made it big. Either ways, the journey from Zero to Hero in every case was fascinating. Not surprising then that a Branson losing virginity, the yarn spinning out from the polyester prince Dhirubhai or the great story of Indian retail from Biyani were of great interest.
It was not until very recent when I read two articles that got me thinking about what are successful fortunes made up of? I read two articles in Forbes; one on business tips from College dropouts and on Kishore Biyani and his Big Future Group Sale!!! Most of the success stories had people who rose to success in a matter of a decade or two; very few like Dell or Biyani who have risen in sectors where technology or software was not the deciding factor. But somehow, most of them have always been on the wrong side of the law at some point for monopoly, tax evasion, financial irregularities or just simply using their money might to kill off competition.
Amongst college dropouts; some like Michael Dell were in my opinion brilliant in understanding market dynamics. Dell was an assembler of PCs in a market dominated by branded computers. I’m not completely sure if anyone in India with a market dominated by assemblers could have succeeded in the same way; but his Just-in-time inventory concept was definitely path breaking. But when the article spoke of Zuckerberg or Bill Gates- somehow I always seem to find that at some stage, they did violate laws to grow. Both I say are genius as computer programmers. But the very origination of facebook began with the hacking of personal data off the college server for images. Microsoft, with its entire GUI succeeded due to a water tight monopoly with Intel and bundling of IE.
Sir Richard Branson is one college dropout I admire as I see his success coming from simple joys of life. I mean you have people like you who hang around reading about the Beatles and listening to records; but it took a Branson to write a youth journal or get into the records sale business. But the rise of Virgin was its music via mail order own records label, something which did see Branson step on the wrong side of the law. It was a temptation too strong to make more money by smuggling records from countries where the tax was low and selling them in UK.
Though Dhirubhai Ambani built Reliance Industries from zilch, somehow from his day in Aden, he was flirting with the law by smelting coins for silver, trading inside information on government policies or evading tax by importing machinery as spares. In fact chopping down competition by delays in port clearance to an extent where the machinery rots in the hold was actually the dark side of the rise. Biyani built the retail empire which has made the National holidays of 15th August and 26th January the days sending cash registers into a fit, the fact that the group had to sell Pantaloons (the mother brand) to offset debt is a reflection of how the vendors under the retail giant were being squeezed.
On a day I sit back and ask myself, ‘Have it made it big?’(no whiskey endorsed here), all I say is not having to depend on anything against the law, being honest and not squeezing anyone with the weight of the brands I have worked with is possibly how much I have invested towards enriching my life in the Biggest possible way.
In the years that followed, I read the success stories of people who made it big in business in India or the world over. Some were pure genius in terms of talent and ideas while some exploited the loopholes in the system and made it big. Either ways, the journey from Zero to Hero in every case was fascinating. Not surprising then that a Branson losing virginity, the yarn spinning out from the polyester prince Dhirubhai or the great story of Indian retail from Biyani were of great interest.
It was not until very recent when I read two articles that got me thinking about what are successful fortunes made up of? I read two articles in Forbes; one on business tips from College dropouts and on Kishore Biyani and his Big Future Group Sale!!! Most of the success stories had people who rose to success in a matter of a decade or two; very few like Dell or Biyani who have risen in sectors where technology or software was not the deciding factor. But somehow, most of them have always been on the wrong side of the law at some point for monopoly, tax evasion, financial irregularities or just simply using their money might to kill off competition.
Amongst college dropouts; some like Michael Dell were in my opinion brilliant in understanding market dynamics. Dell was an assembler of PCs in a market dominated by branded computers. I’m not completely sure if anyone in India with a market dominated by assemblers could have succeeded in the same way; but his Just-in-time inventory concept was definitely path breaking. But when the article spoke of Zuckerberg or Bill Gates- somehow I always seem to find that at some stage, they did violate laws to grow. Both I say are genius as computer programmers. But the very origination of facebook began with the hacking of personal data off the college server for images. Microsoft, with its entire GUI succeeded due to a water tight monopoly with Intel and bundling of IE.
Sir Richard Branson is one college dropout I admire as I see his success coming from simple joys of life. I mean you have people like you who hang around reading about the Beatles and listening to records; but it took a Branson to write a youth journal or get into the records sale business. But the rise of Virgin was its music via mail order own records label, something which did see Branson step on the wrong side of the law. It was a temptation too strong to make more money by smuggling records from countries where the tax was low and selling them in UK.
Though Dhirubhai Ambani built Reliance Industries from zilch, somehow from his day in Aden, he was flirting with the law by smelting coins for silver, trading inside information on government policies or evading tax by importing machinery as spares. In fact chopping down competition by delays in port clearance to an extent where the machinery rots in the hold was actually the dark side of the rise. Biyani built the retail empire which has made the National holidays of 15th August and 26th January the days sending cash registers into a fit, the fact that the group had to sell Pantaloons (the mother brand) to offset debt is a reflection of how the vendors under the retail giant were being squeezed.
On a day I sit back and ask myself, ‘Have it made it big?’(no whiskey endorsed here), all I say is not having to depend on anything against the law, being honest and not squeezing anyone with the weight of the brands I have worked with is possibly how much I have invested towards enriching my life in the Biggest possible way.
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