Sridhar Vembu says he 'settled for software': Wanted to be 'train engine driver', cricketer

Sridhar Vembu at the Zoho office in Bengaluru. (Image credit: @svembu/X)

When the billionaire co-founder of Zoho, Sridhar Vembu, was nine, he wanted to grow up and become a loco pilot. By 12, he dreamed of becoming a cricketer, but it was only after he turned 25, that he finally decided to pursue software seriously.

Vembu recollected his childhood ambitions on Sunday after he was asked by a nine-year-old girl what he wanted to become when he was her age. "I told her the truth: 'train engine driver'. And then I told her, 'At 12, I wanted to be a cricket player so badly'," he wrote on X.

"By about 15, I realised I had only marginal talent for cricket (my brothers would say 'zero talent' and I would strongly disagree) so I decided to focus on what I do well and focus harder on mathematics and physics (I was weak in chemistry) which got me through IIT JEE. Then, during my IIT days, I realised I don't have the talent to be world-class in mathematics or physics either."

The Zoho chief scientist added that when he took up software as his career, it wasn't because he loved it, but he eventually did fall in love with it. "So finally I settled on software (pretty late, only after I turned 25) and then came to love it," he said.

Today, Vembu's Zoho Corporation has grown to encompass more than 12,000 employees and over 100 million users. It has more than 25 rural offices across the globe. Vembu also ranks 51st in the Forbes list of India's richest people with a net worth of $5.8 billion.

But his love for trains has not died. The 57-year-old, who lives in a small village in Tamil Nadu, intends to build a train network for rural areas. "I still love trains," he said.

His love for cricket, however, is arguable. "I asked my brother Mani yesterday, as we had an IPL match running on TV, 'How many overs are IPL matches?' He stared at me in disbelief. Maybe he was right about me and cricket after all," Vembu said. "What is the point? You can love what you end up doing, not just do what you love. And you can love what you end up doing so much that you can forget everything else!"