Billionaire Anil Agarwal says, 'In business, failure is one of the best things that...'

Vendanta Chairman Anil Agarwal

Vedanta chairman Anil Agarwal recently shared an anecdote of a setback he had faced early on in business which he said was "a comeback in the making".

"The fear of failure is ingrained in us from a very young age. But what if I tell you that in business, failure is one of the best things that could happen to you..." the billionaire wrote on Twitter.

Recollecting his early setbacks, Agarwal said that acquiring a British telecom company, Duratube, was an ambitious task for him, but he managed to get 3 million pounds in funds from a bank.

The fear of failure is ingrained in us from a very young age. But what if I tell you that in business, failure is one of the best things that could happen to you… pic.twitter.com/Mo9OmMKP6d

— Anil Agarwal (@AnilAgarwal_Ved) October 20, 2022

"My team and I were determined to make this work. We even hired a British managing director because I wanted him to be the face of the company," Agarwal said. "We were all set to make it big in the UK. We tried to do things ourselves instead of hiring professionals. And maybe, this is where we went wrong."

Read more: Billionaire Anil Agarwal was asked if it's a bad thing to want to be rich. His response

Anil Agarwal's decision to buy Duratube did not pay off and he had to sell the company for 7 million pounds. Although the billionaire made a profit from the sale, the company's growth was not as great as he had expected.

"It was a difficult time for me, but as they say, every setback is a comeback in the making. And here, the cosmos was setting me up for a bigger and better comeback. It eventually led to my next successful business abroad," the Vedanta chairman said.

"Our successes and failures at Duratube taught me so much about running a business abroad. It also taught me one of the fundamental principles of business -- if you miss the mark, you learn how to get it right the next time. This eventually led to my next successful business acquisitions -- two in Australia and one in Armenia."

Read more: India-made semiconductors will reduce laptop price to Rs 40,000 from Rs 1 lakh, says Anil Agarwal