Finish Rich
Making crores is not just about financial planning and prudence. Here are six stellar qualities that can usher in wealth.
"The person who goes farthest is generally the one who iswilling to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from the shore."
Dale Carnegie (1888-1955), failed farmer, teacher,journalist, actor, novelist, stock market investor. Also the bestselling authorof How to Win Friends and Influence People that made him a millionaire.
The better informed among us might blurt out the conventionalfinancial wisdom which Outlook Money and other publications have come up withfrom time to time—start saving and investing early and keep doing itregularly, take loans within limits, insure your life and assets and so on. Butwhile financial prudence and planning are important prerequisites to makemillions, they aren't enough. In the wealth creation derby, what do the winnersdo which the also-rans don't?
Six qualities of crorepatis. To get the answer, we studiedthe wealth creation stories of some crorepatis and picked up lessons from theirlives that you can use. We found that six old fashionedattributes—self-belief, perseverance, seizing opportunities, innovation,betting on your talent and constant learning—play a pivotal role in determiningour wealth. From the individual stories of six people, it comes out clearlythat, though wealth wasn't their primary goal when they set out, it was adriving force for the success they achieved.
Self-Belief
The path of wealth creation is often bumpy and can evenresemble a roller-coaster ride. Ask Delhi-based Sanjay Chowdhary, 39,franchisee, Reliance Webworld Express, and he will tell you, for he has seen itall. He began as a government upper division clerk (UDC) with a salary of Rs1,400 per month in 1987, went on to clock annual revenues of Rs 25 lakh fromhis Airtel shop in partnership with his sibling by 2003, then gave it all awayto his brother and started from scratch to build a successful Reliance WebworldExpress franchise. "When I got engaged to my wife Radha in 1996, I used to ridea motorbike to meet her. Today, I own a Chevrolet Optra," says Chowdhary,summing up his journey of wealth. What kept Chowdhary on course towards histryst with fortune? The answer: a peerless quality called self-belief.
From employment to self-employment.
When Chowdhary quit hisgovernment job in 1995, his monthly pay stood at Rs 6,500. "Since I was a UDC,I could not have done much in that department," says Chowdhary. Realising thatmobility was restricted in a government set-up, he opened a shop along with hisbrother in the refurbished drawing room of his house in Delhi's swanky GreaterKailash-II. The start-up capital of Rs 1 lakh was drawn from family reserves. "We wanted to be different and offer products that were not available in thevicinity," says Chowdhary.
At that point, the telecom sector was still in its infancyand Chowdhary decided to take up an Airtel dealership. Gradually, he startedselling cell phones and also sundry gift items. The business soon became profitableand in five years, revenues from the store skied to Rs 25 lakh annually.
Plunge into the abyss.
In 2003, tragedy struck. Chowdharylegally split with his brother and surrendered the shop to strike out on hisown. At this juncture, Reliance stormed into the telecom scene and Chowdharychose to become a franchisee of Reliance Webworld Express. The company rentedout Chowdhary's property for the venture. Apart from the rent he got fromReliance, he managed the franchise as well. With old customers coming in,collections from his franchise now stand at Rs 30 lakh a month. While Chowdharyis diplomatic when quizzed on his net worth, taking his revenues and financialand real estate assets into account, he can safely be termed a crorepati.
Perseverance
The year: 1969. Trekking his way through Iran and Turkey,Mahesh Naithani, 23, on his way to England for higher studies, is temporarilyincarcerated in a Bulgarian transit jail. Naithani, son of an AllahabadUniversity academic, was armed with a Master's degree in Political Science andsaddled with the disappointment of a futile one-year search for a corporate jobwhen he boarded a cargo ship from Mumbai a few months back with just Rs 500 inhis pocket. He ran out of money on the way and had to sell his prized watch for$50 in Teheran to raise money for the air journey to Turkey. Was he running outof luck? Would he have to shelve his plans for a better future? Cut to 2006 andsuccessful US-based serial entrepreneur Naithani talks about his net worth inexcess of $25 million with nonchalance. What powered his remarkable journey towealth? Perseverance.
From the Bulgarian transit jail to Yugoslavia, then again toan Austrian transit jail, finally to Germany, where by working night shifts atan exhibition, staying at a youth hostel and surviving on free hot dogs, hemanaged to save money for his trip to England via France. Dismayed with theanti-immigration sentiments in England when he landed there, Naithani sooncrossed the Atlantic to the US for higher studies.
Turnaround begins.
With a little help from an Americanfriend, Naithani managed to land a factory job in Minneapolis at a wage of$2.75 an hour that helped him save enough to enroll in the MBA programme in theUniversity of Minnesota in 1970. Naithani's perseverance and never-say-dieattitude was fashioning his life's turnaround. The good luck continued. At acultural gathering, he mistook Christina, a sociology student from El Salvador,for a Manipuri girl. Thus began their relationship that culminated in marriage.In 1972, Naithani completed his MBA and took up a $14,000 per annum job offerby New York Times. For the next ten years, he remained in the corporate sector,working in large companies, moving up to the post of vice president with anannual pay packet of $54,000.
In 1982, seeing an emerging opportunity in medical contentbusiness, he bought a small company called QSI for $50,000. He ran the companyfor three years and sold it for $250,000 to industry major InternationalThomson in 1985. He then acquired a company called HCI for $200,000. In 1997,Naithani sold HCI to industry leader VNU for $24 million. "A five-yearnon-compete clause in the deal meant that I had to devote my energy to otherthings," says Naithani. He turned to his passion, art and culture, and producedthree movies, Jai Ganga, Bombay Boys and Such a Long Journey. But a failedtake-over attempt of a movie company and a shelved BBC documentary project madehim reconsider his options. In 2003, as the non-compete clause tenure ended,Naithani decided to re-boot into medical content. This was how MedMeme was bornwith a $2.5-3 million start-up capital. The company specialises in collectionand analysis of clinical and marketing intelligence and has the world's toppharma and healthcare companies as its clients with its back-office in Gurgaon.Naithani's repeated successes underscore the importance of perseverance even inthe wake of dismal failures.
Seizing opportunities
"Successful people screen incoming information differentlysince they constantly seek new growth opportunities," points out Jacob SamuelVazholil, associate partner, Elixir Web Solutions, a leading recruitmentprocess outsourcing firm. Opportunities are like waves and wealth creators aresurfers. They have to spot the waves and position themselves to ride these. Ifyou want an appropriate example, look no further than Jagdeep Khandpur, 47, ofPrerna Management Consulting. Throughout his career, Khandpur spotted waves ofemerging opportunities early, rode them and then moved on to the next emergingone. This approach has made Khandpur a crorepati.
Khandpur graduated in Economics from Punjab University in1978 and then did his MBA from the same varsity before joining VardhamanSpinning as a management trainee at Rs 1,200 a month. "The stint gave meimmense exposure," says Khandpur. The lad from Ludhiana gradually rose throughthe ranks until he became the deputy manager, HR. Another opportunity camecalling when Milk Food appointed him personnel manager. "I chose Milk Food asit offered challenges. At 25, I was made its HR head," says Khandpur.
Four years at Milk Food, and Khandpur was just ripe to tapthe opportunity in the emerging soft drinks industry. He joined Pepsi as itsnorthern region head and went on to become vice president, HR. He shifted basefrom Chandigarh to Delhi and after a short stay at Duracell, was lapped up bythe Thapars as group vice president, HR, Ballarpur Industries. The high note ofthe rising trajectory of opportunities was struck when five years on, Khandpursigned up with Bharti Televentures as director, HR, at a time when telecom wasstill an emerging sector. "The prospects at Ballarpur were brilliant, but I wasnot getting a chance to do something new after a certain point," says Khandpur.He was corporate director, HR, in Bharti when he quit his job in October 2005to start his own enterprise, Prerna Management Consulting. "I wanted to dosomething that provided me enough challenges and opportunities to learn," saysKhandpur. He arranged for the start-up capital and his company's revenues arealready at Rs 6 crore now.
Innovation
It is now a cliche to say innovation creates wealth, formost successful IT entrepreneurs in India and abroad bear testimony to thefact. But can an ordinary person innovate and create wealth? Yes, if he doesn'tmind taking risks. "Risk taking is about having the inner confidence in what you're doing and learning to match your strengths with yourgoals," says Anil Sachdev, founder and CEO, Grow Talent Company. Take a peep into the life ofSanjiv Saran Mehra, 44, CEO, Saran Presents, an event management company, andyou will realise how innovation helped him turn his love for sports—hehas played games like squash and tennis at the club level—into a money spinner.
Mehra, a management graduate from SP Jain Institute ofManagement and Research, Mumbai, started his career as an investment bankerwith Lazard India making about Rs 2 lakh a year in 1985. "I realised what I wasdoing at Lazard could be done better if I started something on my own," hesays. When he left Lazard in 1990, Mehra drew around Rs 8-12 lakh per annum. Hestarted Vision Financial Services, a finance boutique that organised SMEfunding, in a 200 sq ft office in Mumbai, with Rs 40,000 from his provident fundmoney. At Vision, his third eye enabled him to garner three-four times what heearned at Lazard. However, what put Mehta on the wealth creation fast track wasa chance meeting with his old pal, Cawas Billimoria, who asked him to help himbuild the Sumo Federation of India which he was planning to set up. "That's howSaran Presents was born," says Mehra. Once Saran Presents was on a roll, Mehra's financial boutique went into the green room. Being an ardent sportsenthusiast, Mehra realised it could be frustrating for a busy executive to giveup participating in competitive sports due to changed priorities. To fulfillthe needs of such executives, Saran Presents started organising sports eventsamong corporates from 1997. Through corporate sports alone, Mehra now makes40-50 times of what he used to make when he ran Vision. Today, he is in anenviable position: he earns millions from something close to his heart.
Betting on talent
Chinese Taoist philosopher Lao Tzu had said,"Turn beinginto an advantage and non-being into utility." Millionaires know where theirstrengths lie and play to these. See how well Chennai-based Sadhana, 38, chiefmarketing officer, Focus Infotech, has played the wealth creation game.
"I am more of apeople's person," says Sadhana. Sheleveraged her communication skills and excelled in various marketing jobsthough she has never been formally trained in marketing. With a PG inmicrobiology from the University of Mumbai and a two-and-a-half-year course atNIIT, what were her chances of success in marketing? Of course, Sadhana hadother ideas.
Talent buds.
In 1990, she signed up with Aurelec DataProcessing System, Pondicherry. "My CEO wanted me to be an analyst while myreporting officer wanted me to join the sales team," says Sadhana. The branchofficer had his way and Sadhana found herself in the sales team. Her salarythen stood at Rs 2,500 per month. That's when her communication skills begantalking results. Within six months, she was promoted to area manager and soonerthan you think, she became a branch manager. Under her leadership, thePondicherry branch was voted the ÔBranch of the Year' for three consecutiveyears. She even received the ÔSalesperson of the Year' award from her company.
In 1991, Sadhana moved to Nexus Computers,Aurelec's newavatar after reconstruction. Here, from regional director, she was promoted tovice president, networking. She was not only instrumental in setting up Nexus'networking division, but helped it touch a turnover of Rs 7 crore. Again, hertalent for communication bore results.
In 2002, she bid adieu to Nexus and started her own companyPlatinum Technologies. In January 2003, she converted Platinum Technologies toa private limited company, Platinum Infosystems. It was a true blue IBMbusiness partner. In the first year of operations, Platinum Infosystems didbusiness worth Rs 5 crore and also won the ÔIBM Business Partner of the Year'award. Sadhana's people skills were now in full bloom. Around the same time,she began consulting with Focus Infotech and joined the company as its chiefmarketing officer in December 2003. In three years, the firm's revenues of Rs 9crore more than doubled. While Sadhana wouldn't tell us about her exact networth, it is clear that her earnings from Platinum along with her pay in Focus,which, in all likelihood, would be having a key performance-based component,would have made her a member of the crorepati club by now. She can now indulgeherself in her hobbies of horse riding and collecting antiques.
Constant Learning
Catwoman Eartha Kitt in the TV series Batman once crooned,"I'm learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma." Ordinary peoplewho finish rich use Kitt's philosophy to the hilt. One example is Arvind T., 34, business head, MeritTracServices, a skills assessment company.
After an MBA from IIM Lucknow in 1995, Arvind joined RPG asa management trainee at a salary of Rs 1.6 lakh a year. "The atmosphere and theopportunity to learn is great at RPG. They ensure that the trainees get anall-round view of their functional area," says Arvind, who soon got a chance towork in different companies of the RPG Group, including RPG Cellular, RPG Cableand HMV (the music arm of RPG). He remained a management trainee for about ayear and slowly moved up the ladder, getting promoted from assistant manager tomanager, sales. When he finally quit RPG after four years to join GE, he hadbecome branch manager and had an annual pay of around Rs 4-5 lakh. The exittrigger: new learning opportunities. "Every assignment was a challenge as youneeded to complete them with the least amount of resources. This gave me lot ofopportunity to innovate on the job," says Arvind of his stint at GE. AlthoughArvind was enjoying his work at GE, he wanted to gain international experience.So after four years at GE, he joined a small Singapore-based trading firm thatpromised him international exposure.
By now, the learn-and-earn bug in Arvind helped him draw anannual pay cheque of Rs 40 lakh. Soon, he recast his eyes on India—theeconomy was booming and everyone wanted a piece of the growth pie. "I did notwant to miss the action," says Arvind. He took a huge cut in his salary andreturned to India to MeritTrac in early 2006. "I was given the task of settingup a division and making it functional. There was no limit to what I could do,"says Arvind. Unlimited learning opportunities were guiding him again to higherearnings. Arvind's strategy to enter the crorepati club is simply this:accumulate a wide range of experience now for higher future earnings.
The six qualities we have gleaned from the stories of sixindividuals shed light on the behavioural basics that form the foundation ofwealth creation. Of course, you still have to adhere to the financial basics . Does this mean that wealth isguaranteed if you have these qualities? Unfortunately not, since no defined formula yields wealth. However,building blocks are clearly identifiable. Once you have them, you can combinethem skilfully to immensely enhance your probability of hitting the bull's-eye.
Making crores is not just about financial planning and prudence. Here are six stellar qualities that can usher in wealth.
"The person who goes farthest is generally the one who iswilling to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from the shore."
Dale Carnegie (1888-1955), failed farmer, teacher,journalist, actor, novelist, stock market investor. Also the bestselling authorof How to Win Friends and Influence People that made him a millionaire.
The better informed among us might blurt out the conventionalfinancial wisdom which Outlook Money and other publications have come up withfrom time to time—start saving and investing early and keep doing itregularly, take loans within limits, insure your life and assets and so on. Butwhile financial prudence and planning are important prerequisites to makemillions, they aren't enough. In the wealth creation derby, what do the winnersdo which the also-rans don't?
Six qualities of crorepatis. To get the answer, we studiedthe wealth creation stories of some crorepatis and picked up lessons from theirlives that you can use. We found that six old fashionedattributes—self-belief, perseverance, seizing opportunities, innovation,betting on your talent and constant learning—play a pivotal role in determiningour wealth. From the individual stories of six people, it comes out clearlythat, though wealth wasn't their primary goal when they set out, it was adriving force for the success they achieved.
Self-Belief
The path of wealth creation is often bumpy and can evenresemble a roller-coaster ride. Ask Delhi-based Sanjay Chowdhary, 39,franchisee, Reliance Webworld Express, and he will tell you, for he has seen itall. He began as a government upper division clerk (UDC) with a salary of Rs1,400 per month in 1987, went on to clock annual revenues of Rs 25 lakh fromhis Airtel shop in partnership with his sibling by 2003, then gave it all awayto his brother and started from scratch to build a successful Reliance WebworldExpress franchise. "When I got engaged to my wife Radha in 1996, I used to ridea motorbike to meet her. Today, I own a Chevrolet Optra," says Chowdhary,summing up his journey of wealth. What kept Chowdhary on course towards histryst with fortune? The answer: a peerless quality called self-belief.
From employment to self-employment.
When Chowdhary quit hisgovernment job in 1995, his monthly pay stood at Rs 6,500. "Since I was a UDC,I could not have done much in that department," says Chowdhary. Realising thatmobility was restricted in a government set-up, he opened a shop along with hisbrother in the refurbished drawing room of his house in Delhi's swanky GreaterKailash-II. The start-up capital of Rs 1 lakh was drawn from family reserves. "We wanted to be different and offer products that were not available in thevicinity," says Chowdhary.
At that point, the telecom sector was still in its infancyand Chowdhary decided to take up an Airtel dealership. Gradually, he startedselling cell phones and also sundry gift items. The business soon became profitableand in five years, revenues from the store skied to Rs 25 lakh annually.
Plunge into the abyss.
In 2003, tragedy struck. Chowdharylegally split with his brother and surrendered the shop to strike out on hisown. At this juncture, Reliance stormed into the telecom scene and Chowdharychose to become a franchisee of Reliance Webworld Express. The company rentedout Chowdhary's property for the venture. Apart from the rent he got fromReliance, he managed the franchise as well. With old customers coming in,collections from his franchise now stand at Rs 30 lakh a month. While Chowdharyis diplomatic when quizzed on his net worth, taking his revenues and financialand real estate assets into account, he can safely be termed a crorepati.
Perseverance
The year: 1969. Trekking his way through Iran and Turkey,Mahesh Naithani, 23, on his way to England for higher studies, is temporarilyincarcerated in a Bulgarian transit jail. Naithani, son of an AllahabadUniversity academic, was armed with a Master's degree in Political Science andsaddled with the disappointment of a futile one-year search for a corporate jobwhen he boarded a cargo ship from Mumbai a few months back with just Rs 500 inhis pocket. He ran out of money on the way and had to sell his prized watch for$50 in Teheran to raise money for the air journey to Turkey. Was he running outof luck? Would he have to shelve his plans for a better future? Cut to 2006 andsuccessful US-based serial entrepreneur Naithani talks about his net worth inexcess of $25 million with nonchalance. What powered his remarkable journey towealth? Perseverance.
From the Bulgarian transit jail to Yugoslavia, then again toan Austrian transit jail, finally to Germany, where by working night shifts atan exhibition, staying at a youth hostel and surviving on free hot dogs, hemanaged to save money for his trip to England via France. Dismayed with theanti-immigration sentiments in England when he landed there, Naithani sooncrossed the Atlantic to the US for higher studies.
Turnaround begins.
With a little help from an Americanfriend, Naithani managed to land a factory job in Minneapolis at a wage of$2.75 an hour that helped him save enough to enroll in the MBA programme in theUniversity of Minnesota in 1970. Naithani's perseverance and never-say-dieattitude was fashioning his life's turnaround. The good luck continued. At acultural gathering, he mistook Christina, a sociology student from El Salvador,for a Manipuri girl. Thus began their relationship that culminated in marriage.In 1972, Naithani completed his MBA and took up a $14,000 per annum job offerby New York Times. For the next ten years, he remained in the corporate sector,working in large companies, moving up to the post of vice president with anannual pay packet of $54,000.
In 1982, seeing an emerging opportunity in medical contentbusiness, he bought a small company called QSI for $50,000. He ran the companyfor three years and sold it for $250,000 to industry major InternationalThomson in 1985. He then acquired a company called HCI for $200,000. In 1997,Naithani sold HCI to industry leader VNU for $24 million. "A five-yearnon-compete clause in the deal meant that I had to devote my energy to otherthings," says Naithani. He turned to his passion, art and culture, and producedthree movies, Jai Ganga, Bombay Boys and Such a Long Journey. But a failedtake-over attempt of a movie company and a shelved BBC documentary project madehim reconsider his options. In 2003, as the non-compete clause tenure ended,Naithani decided to re-boot into medical content. This was how MedMeme was bornwith a $2.5-3 million start-up capital. The company specialises in collectionand analysis of clinical and marketing intelligence and has the world's toppharma and healthcare companies as its clients with its back-office in Gurgaon.Naithani's repeated successes underscore the importance of perseverance even inthe wake of dismal failures.
Seizing opportunities
"Successful people screen incoming information differentlysince they constantly seek new growth opportunities," points out Jacob SamuelVazholil, associate partner, Elixir Web Solutions, a leading recruitmentprocess outsourcing firm. Opportunities are like waves and wealth creators aresurfers. They have to spot the waves and position themselves to ride these. Ifyou want an appropriate example, look no further than Jagdeep Khandpur, 47, ofPrerna Management Consulting. Throughout his career, Khandpur spotted waves ofemerging opportunities early, rode them and then moved on to the next emergingone. This approach has made Khandpur a crorepati.
Khandpur graduated in Economics from Punjab University in1978 and then did his MBA from the same varsity before joining VardhamanSpinning as a management trainee at Rs 1,200 a month. "The stint gave meimmense exposure," says Khandpur. The lad from Ludhiana gradually rose throughthe ranks until he became the deputy manager, HR. Another opportunity camecalling when Milk Food appointed him personnel manager. "I chose Milk Food asit offered challenges. At 25, I was made its HR head," says Khandpur.
Four years at Milk Food, and Khandpur was just ripe to tapthe opportunity in the emerging soft drinks industry. He joined Pepsi as itsnorthern region head and went on to become vice president, HR. He shifted basefrom Chandigarh to Delhi and after a short stay at Duracell, was lapped up bythe Thapars as group vice president, HR, Ballarpur Industries. The high note ofthe rising trajectory of opportunities was struck when five years on, Khandpursigned up with Bharti Televentures as director, HR, at a time when telecom wasstill an emerging sector. "The prospects at Ballarpur were brilliant, but I wasnot getting a chance to do something new after a certain point," says Khandpur.He was corporate director, HR, in Bharti when he quit his job in October 2005to start his own enterprise, Prerna Management Consulting. "I wanted to dosomething that provided me enough challenges and opportunities to learn," saysKhandpur. He arranged for the start-up capital and his company's revenues arealready at Rs 6 crore now.
Innovation
It is now a cliche to say innovation creates wealth, formost successful IT entrepreneurs in India and abroad bear testimony to thefact. But can an ordinary person innovate and create wealth? Yes, if he doesn'tmind taking risks. "Risk taking is about having the inner confidence in what you're doing and learning to match your strengths with yourgoals," says Anil Sachdev, founder and CEO, Grow Talent Company. Take a peep into the life ofSanjiv Saran Mehra, 44, CEO, Saran Presents, an event management company, andyou will realise how innovation helped him turn his love for sports—hehas played games like squash and tennis at the club level—into a money spinner.
Mehra, a management graduate from SP Jain Institute ofManagement and Research, Mumbai, started his career as an investment bankerwith Lazard India making about Rs 2 lakh a year in 1985. "I realised what I wasdoing at Lazard could be done better if I started something on my own," hesays. When he left Lazard in 1990, Mehra drew around Rs 8-12 lakh per annum. Hestarted Vision Financial Services, a finance boutique that organised SMEfunding, in a 200 sq ft office in Mumbai, with Rs 40,000 from his provident fundmoney. At Vision, his third eye enabled him to garner three-four times what heearned at Lazard. However, what put Mehta on the wealth creation fast track wasa chance meeting with his old pal, Cawas Billimoria, who asked him to help himbuild the Sumo Federation of India which he was planning to set up. "That's howSaran Presents was born," says Mehra. Once Saran Presents was on a roll, Mehra's financial boutique went into the green room. Being an ardent sportsenthusiast, Mehra realised it could be frustrating for a busy executive to giveup participating in competitive sports due to changed priorities. To fulfillthe needs of such executives, Saran Presents started organising sports eventsamong corporates from 1997. Through corporate sports alone, Mehra now makes40-50 times of what he used to make when he ran Vision. Today, he is in anenviable position: he earns millions from something close to his heart.
Betting on talent
Chinese Taoist philosopher Lao Tzu had said,"Turn beinginto an advantage and non-being into utility." Millionaires know where theirstrengths lie and play to these. See how well Chennai-based Sadhana, 38, chiefmarketing officer, Focus Infotech, has played the wealth creation game.
"I am more of apeople's person," says Sadhana. Sheleveraged her communication skills and excelled in various marketing jobsthough she has never been formally trained in marketing. With a PG inmicrobiology from the University of Mumbai and a two-and-a-half-year course atNIIT, what were her chances of success in marketing? Of course, Sadhana hadother ideas.
Talent buds.
In 1990, she signed up with Aurelec DataProcessing System, Pondicherry. "My CEO wanted me to be an analyst while myreporting officer wanted me to join the sales team," says Sadhana. The branchofficer had his way and Sadhana found herself in the sales team. Her salarythen stood at Rs 2,500 per month. That's when her communication skills begantalking results. Within six months, she was promoted to area manager and soonerthan you think, she became a branch manager. Under her leadership, thePondicherry branch was voted the ÔBranch of the Year' for three consecutiveyears. She even received the ÔSalesperson of the Year' award from her company.
In 1991, Sadhana moved to Nexus Computers,Aurelec's newavatar after reconstruction. Here, from regional director, she was promoted tovice president, networking. She was not only instrumental in setting up Nexus'networking division, but helped it touch a turnover of Rs 7 crore. Again, hertalent for communication bore results.
In 2002, she bid adieu to Nexus and started her own companyPlatinum Technologies. In January 2003, she converted Platinum Technologies toa private limited company, Platinum Infosystems. It was a true blue IBMbusiness partner. In the first year of operations, Platinum Infosystems didbusiness worth Rs 5 crore and also won the ÔIBM Business Partner of the Year'award. Sadhana's people skills were now in full bloom. Around the same time,she began consulting with Focus Infotech and joined the company as its chiefmarketing officer in December 2003. In three years, the firm's revenues of Rs 9crore more than doubled. While Sadhana wouldn't tell us about her exact networth, it is clear that her earnings from Platinum along with her pay in Focus,which, in all likelihood, would be having a key performance-based component,would have made her a member of the crorepati club by now. She can now indulgeherself in her hobbies of horse riding and collecting antiques.
Constant Learning
Catwoman Eartha Kitt in the TV series Batman once crooned,"I'm learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma." Ordinary peoplewho finish rich use Kitt's philosophy to the hilt. One example is Arvind T., 34, business head, MeritTracServices, a skills assessment company.
After an MBA from IIM Lucknow in 1995, Arvind joined RPG asa management trainee at a salary of Rs 1.6 lakh a year. "The atmosphere and theopportunity to learn is great at RPG. They ensure that the trainees get anall-round view of their functional area," says Arvind, who soon got a chance towork in different companies of the RPG Group, including RPG Cellular, RPG Cableand HMV (the music arm of RPG). He remained a management trainee for about ayear and slowly moved up the ladder, getting promoted from assistant manager tomanager, sales. When he finally quit RPG after four years to join GE, he hadbecome branch manager and had an annual pay of around Rs 4-5 lakh. The exittrigger: new learning opportunities. "Every assignment was a challenge as youneeded to complete them with the least amount of resources. This gave me lot ofopportunity to innovate on the job," says Arvind of his stint at GE. AlthoughArvind was enjoying his work at GE, he wanted to gain international experience.So after four years at GE, he joined a small Singapore-based trading firm thatpromised him international exposure.
By now, the learn-and-earn bug in Arvind helped him draw anannual pay cheque of Rs 40 lakh. Soon, he recast his eyes on India—theeconomy was booming and everyone wanted a piece of the growth pie. "I did notwant to miss the action," says Arvind. He took a huge cut in his salary andreturned to India to MeritTrac in early 2006. "I was given the task of settingup a division and making it functional. There was no limit to what I could do,"says Arvind. Unlimited learning opportunities were guiding him again to higherearnings. Arvind's strategy to enter the crorepati club is simply this:accumulate a wide range of experience now for higher future earnings.
The six qualities we have gleaned from the stories of sixindividuals shed light on the behavioural basics that form the foundation ofwealth creation. Of course, you still have to adhere to the financial basics . Does this mean that wealth isguaranteed if you have these qualities? Unfortunately not, since no defined formula yields wealth. However,building blocks are clearly identifiable. Once you have them, you can combinethem skilfully to immensely enhance your probability of hitting the bull's-eye.
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