We are all the products and beneficiaries of Rakesh Jhunjhunwala’s wisdom, veteran investor Madhu Kela of MK Ventures said, reminiscing about how the ‘Big Bull’ played a key role in his life and the lives of other investors.
The others Kela referred to as beneficiaries of Jhunjhunwala’s expertise and guidance are Amal Parikh, Ashwin Kedia, Lashit Sanghvi, Niraj Dalal, Kalparaj Dharamshi, and Ashish Kacholia.
“Whatever I am, I really owe it to him,” Kela said in an interview with Moneycontrol on August 14, Jhunjhunwala’s first death anniversary. Kela thanked the late market veteran for all his lessons and reminisced about his experiences with him.
Kela recalled how many years ago, Jhunjhunwala called 9-10 of his mentees to his Nariman Point office and presented each of them with an award, calling them his “best young entrepreneurs.” Jhunjhunwala gave a speech that day and said he was giving them the awards because “all of these people will do exceedingly well in life.”
Kela said his professional life in the stock market can be divided into two parts: pre- and post-Jhunjhunwala. He said all of his learnings in the stock market and in life were influenced by Jhunjhunwala, who he and close aides called bhaiya.
“He always treated us, his mentees, like younger brothers,” Kela said.
He recalled meeting with the Big Bull in 1998-99, when he worked in Peregrine Securities and had a block of shares to sell in McDowells. He got to know that Jhunjhunwala was a big investor who looked for value.
Kela prepared a pitch and went up to Jhunjhunwala to suggest that he buy a 10 percent stake in the company. Jhunjhunwala was convinced and went ahead with the transaction in 10 minutes.
“Later, he asked me who I was and that’s how our journey began,” said Kela.
Jhunjhunwala taught Kela some life lessons, too: humility, how to conduct oneself, how to avoid controversy, and to always have an opinion of one’s own rather than live on borrowed ones, Kela said.
Asked about Jhunjhunwala’s temperament, Kela said, “Bhaiya would get mad at me and scold me, but in the end he would always call and apologise for the same,” he said. “That is how we knew he never meant it, but rather it was for the sake of our own learning.”
The most important investment lesson Kela learnt from Jhunjhunwala was that in order to be a successful investor, one needs a broad judgement on things, and one must know when to leverage, how much to leverage, and when to take disproportionate bets.
“You never make big money by just being a good analyst,” said Kela.
Jhunjhunwala’s leverage would never exceed 3-4 percent of his net worth, but he knew when to take disproportionate bets, which was his biggest skill, Kela said.
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