Do you have a dream?

Thousands of years back, Vishnu Sharma wrote the Panchatantra to teach the values of life through stories of crocodiles, monkeys and foxes. I do something similar. I write books on ordinary people who have done extraordinary things. Over the last five years, I have met hundreds of entrepreneurs and heard their amazing journey of how they struggled, failed, got up again and succeeded.

Every one of us has the ability to grow and succeed. In any industry or profession, the amount of imagination that you have in you to create reality out of imagination is what it takes to make it happen. Each one of us need to ask our own self these questions: Are you happy where you are, doing things that you are doing? Do you want to go to the next level? Do you have the desire to get the unattainable and imagine things that no one else can imagine? The following people raised such questions and molded luck their way:

Prem Ganapathy was an ordinary man. Neither did he have an MBA from Harvard/Stanford (he was a Standard X pass out) nor was he a Marwadi or a Baniya with a background that could make him successful in business. He was just an ordinary guy from Tamil Nadu who came to Mumbai like million others in search of a better future. Somebody promised him a job and he caught a train to Mumbai. But he was left alone at Bandra station. To survive he went to an Udupi restaurant looking for work and was asked to wash dishes. Most people in this situation will feel that this is all that they are destined to do. But Ganapathy was different. He requested his boss to allow him to serve tea to the customers and also went to offices to serve tea. He observed the preferences of each of his customers and gave them tea exactly the way they wanted. Later, he set up his tea shop and did that for a few years. But he wanted to do something more and decided to set up a dosa stall. He set up a small stall in New Bombay, which gained popularity because Prem Ganapathy did not do things the ordinary way. There are thousands of dosa stalls, but what made Ganapathy’s stall unique and successful was his focus on hygiene. From a dishwasher to a dosa maker, he carved his success story, albeit he was not content. At the same time, McDonald’s opened up near his stall. Ganapathy used to go there frequently to observe the way the business was being handled there. This man, without any formal business training, realised one important thing—“Mr Mc Donald has thousands of restaurants all over the world and yet he is not standing there making burgers himself!” He realised that he needs to create his own brand and open many restaurants by standardising his dosa making process. With this inspiration, he started his brand - Dosa Plaza – by following Mc Donald’s business principles. Today, he has 40 restaurants all over India along with franchises in countries such as Dubai and Australia. A man who could have been happy as a tea boy chose to go to the next level. This man was hungry for success.

Narendra Murkumbi was my junior at IIM-Ahmedabad. A guy always in chappals and shorts, we never thought he will do something extraordinary or great. Murkumbi did not take the placements after completing his studies at IIM. He decided to become an entrepreneur, which was unusual because students from IIM want to get a good job with a huge pay package and make quick bucks. Instead, Murkumbi started an organic fertilizer business and he did well. He reached a turnover of `5 crore in five years. But one day he told himself that this is not big enough and he wanted to do something on a much bigger scale. So, he shut down his factory and decided to enter a completely new industry—the sugar industry. Sugar is neither a new product nor does it promise a lucrative business opportunity. But he did something that was different from other sugar producers.

To begin with, he did not have a lot of money to set up a sugar factory, so he decided to do something unusual. He bought a government-owned unit, which was not functioning well, and did something that no one had done before. Sometimes people with extensive experience tend to see things from only one perspective. He didn’t have any experience in this field; he was simply experimenting. Murkumbi took an old industry and looked at it in a new way. Sugar production has a byproduct called ethanol, which is generally not made use of. Murkumbi decided to use this ethanol to generate his own electricity to run the entire plant. Thus, he got rid of the electricity bill altogether. He then made all the farmers his shareholders. This way, famers invested money, ensuring that they give their produce to him and no one else. And this strategy worked because doing a business does not mean doing it for your own profit; it is also about sharing your success with the society and community. This helps us grow more and people believe in you and help you move forward. Also, while money is a concern for many businesses, sometimes not having the financial strength is a good thing as it instigates you to be innovative and different.

Sanjeev Bikhchandani, CEO, naukri.com, never knew that he will become one of the most successful Internet entrepreneurs. He left his job to become an entrepreneur and did odd jobs like consultancy. In 1989, he observed that in a magazine, a person first checks the last pages that contain the appointment ads. This led him to think of creating a directory with only appointment ads, but he didn’t know how to do it. Five years later, he got to know more about the Internet at an expo and it clicked instantly—a job directory on the Internet. Because he was the first mover in that field, he was able to get people’s attention. Later, the market crashed but naukri.com remained afloat. This was because Sanjeev was a careful businessman who kept his own reserve. He got a person called Hitesh Oberoi to join the company. An MBA in sales & marketing, Hitesh got involved in Sanjeev’s vision of naukri.com. He created a sales force that went door to door to get company ads and book the ads from naukri.com. Hitesh was Sanjeev’s backbone. Do you have a Hitesh Oberoi with you? Can you create such people in your team who can dream your dream, make it their own and be the backbone of your business?

Many say that machine tools is not a cool business, but you need immense love for your business to make it happening.Somewhere, you just have to light that spark and set it on fire. If you really love machine tools, there is no way anyone can stop you from doing something extraordinary. You have to do things differently and use your imagination. We have our limitations, but when you have less, you have the opportunity to do more.