Vision of Life; by Sanjay: Too Fast, Too Furious!

“I could have stayed in family business but I did not want to retire at 21”… V. Siddhartha, Founder of CCD.

“Growing up means learning what life is. When you're little, you have a set of ideals, standards, criteria, plans, outlooks, and you think that you have to sit around and wait for them to happen to you and then life will work. But life isn't like that, for anybody; you can't fall in love with a standard, you have to fall in love with a person. You can't live in a criterion; you have to live your life. You can't wait for your plans to materialize, because they may never materialize the way you think they will. You can't wait to watch your ideals and standards walk up to you, because you can't know what's yours until you have it. I always say, always take the first chance in case you never get a second one, but growing up takes that even one step further, growing up means that you have to hold on to what you have, when you have it, because what you have- that's yours- and all the ideals and criteria you have set in your head, those aren't yours, because those haven't happened to you.” … C. JoyBell C.

Well, by now the name of the author of the first quote is known to entire country, V.Siddhartha, founder of CCD i.e. Cafe Coffee Day, largest coffee drinking joints chain which wrote a new success story in modern India. Unfortunately when he was very much alive, Siddhartha’s name was not known to many but his departure surely made him more known to masses for wrong reasons. About second quote which is by Ms.Joybell, she has authored books of poetry and literature that delve mainly into the mysterious, the philosophical and the esoteric. Many of her writings are considered as a source of inspiration to many across the world! While first quote shows the hunger for growth, the second quote teaches us what growth means in actual or say totality! Of-late while as a country we are making progress or say trying to make our mark on world market surprisingly there are series of failures on not just national level but local level also in trade or say business, ending tragically founders of the trades! Well, I am not a business expert or a finance guy, neither I am a marketing person yet I run a small business of my own & I felt like penning down my views not for the experts or bosses in the business world but for many who are yet making their way in world of business or yet studying & dream of making big in business some day! For all such young minds if they open any news paper or watch any news channel, what they get to know? Some Nirav Modi or Mallya ditched banks & financers & ran away leaving behind billion rupees empire which actually is worthless? Or, a million rupees worth brand like Rotomac Pen with which most youths have wrote their management papers, its owner Mr. Vikram Kothari gets bank corrupt & ends his business journey in jail & how can we forget reading the name of none other than Ambani Jr. i.e. Anil Ambani who saved from going in jail by his big brother (not all are lucky to have big bro like Mukesh Ambani) or the real estate current affairs which has seen many big names getting behind the bars which once were looked after as business idols & the latest name is of V. Siddhartha, a person who made thing like coffee so big that it took head on world level giant Starbucks, ending his life due to the burden of debts!

And above are just few names which has made front line of media as end of some tradesman or business-man in jail or by suicide is not new for the society. You keep reading such news everyday in news papers but mostly they are small shop keepers or merchants or agent or share brokers from some town or locality unknown to you. Many of these names ends their lives along with their family members also & we always prefer to ignore their tragedies saying, these must be fools & may not be knowing “the business mantra” in first place, that’s why they failed! But what about above names which are just few of the eminent list, many of them were in Forbes List of Billionaires, how can we say that these names were also fools & didn’t know business mantra? Had they not been successful in past or else how they rise to such big empire of their own in respective fields? This is the exact reason I wanted to share my views because all such news may make millions of youngsters (and their family members, read parents) think that doing business is bad thing in this country, so better ask for reservation quota in jobs under the name of natives (bhumi putra) or caste or religion & get in govt or private service, which is safest way to live! Well with population of one twenty cores & increasing, no country will ever able to create that much govt jobs, because if nobody in this country is going to start any business (barring few Adonis or Ambones) how the private jobs will be generated is the question, our rulers must think of! And then any country grows or prospers not by got jobs but by industries, trade, service, financing, retail, hospitality, tourism, IT & many such businesses & the jobs created by all these trades & we need people to start & then keep running these businesses in first place!

Actually with nearly one twenty core population as potential clients there is huge scope for every type of business but unfortunately with all recent such examples of failures, the impact on the minds of thousands of youths is exactly reveres when its entrepreneurship. As look at all above & many such names, what message we are giving to the society that any big empire of business is mostly build on wrong (read bad) act’s foundation & eventually dooms! And indeed what has been done by the names above isn’t right as the outcome is billions of rupees which is public money actually has been lost or say drained away but were these people started their venture with a mindset of a criminal who are set to rob a bank or any such institute, is the question I will ask to masses? I am not justifying any wrong deeds by Malaya or Nirav Modi or any such person but if some such person is making a wrong thing in his business where all the so called enforcement agencies were at all these times, because no such crime has been done (can be done) in overnight isn’t it? For decades all above names were respected or favored faces by investors, depositors, banks & even their clients & we only make them rise to their celebrity status, isn’t it a fact? At the same time these names can be distributed in two categories, one which were ready to make money or say make it big by any way wrong or right, legal or illegal it doesn't mattered to them. This category was & is wrong & must be curbed in time but what about people like V Siddhartha or few names in real estate, who were from simple middle class family which comes with a backbone of terms like morals & values? For decades they delivered what they have committed to their clients as well investors but somewhere their calculations went wrong & here is where the both categories comes on same track & here is what we need to make the youths understand the attitude towards the business or trade they will be doing!

In business everyone including above list has started small but with riding on high tide of luck ( in our country that’s more important) or say opportunity they rise high in less time, especially in fields like real estate or infra or jewelry & they start thinking they can make it even bigger as they have got the success mantra now! But unlike in developed countries like USA or Germany or Switzerland where success in business comes only by hard work, high quality technology & innovation; in underdeveloped countries these criteria for success takes back seat. But how influential you are with right people (read govt) & how luck favors you, are the important aspects here for success in any business is a bitter fact! I am not dishonoring many fellow countrymen who have made it big by walking on right track; I am just referring to the names which have been in news for wrong reasons! And then if you look at the way things happened with these names, it’s clear that they get carried away with the success than the path they have chosen for it! And outcome is when failure came all of them chose to run away from the failure than facing it bravely i.e. few fled from the country avoiding arrests, few went behind the bar, few were lucky to be saved by big brother or even govt (Jet Airways) & few like V Siddhartha, chose the worst path i.e. ending their own life! I think here is where we need to teach or guide our youngsters that doing any business is indeed a good thing but every good thing comes at some price & unfortunately we do prepare students in our engineering or business schools to be successful but we don’t prepare them for the failures! And that’s why may it big names like above or smaller merchant or for that even farmers, the only ways we are used to choose when we can’t get success is either break the law or end our life! I think high time for all of us as society to redefine our definition success as making it to Forbes List, being invited on big forums to speak as successful leader, getting followed by media, fancy cars, signing celebrity faces as brand-ambassador for our products & live life king size certainly is part of success but that’s not success is what names like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Zukerberg or Jeff Barros will tell you & why them even we have Azim Premjis’ & Ratan Tatas’ & many others but mostly we as country lack business idols which will teach us how to be humble & balance headed with success & how to face failures & rise from fall! Here our law enforcement agencies also must take this aspect in consideration that nobody is bigger than any law & when its public money then every rupee must be accounted for yet when some businessman falters from his or her course just do mind that he or she is not hard core criminal & their intention was not to rob the people! In any crime most important aspect is motive behind that crime, so while investigating financial frauds (if any) the focus must be on this aspect & if the motive is not cheating, then instead digging the grave deeper, try to pull out the respective businessman out of it; that’s the way you strengthen the society!

And the start should be right from school education where we need to introduce stories of great people from every field, even sports & how they handled their failures & yet rise to the top in the end! At the same time we need to cultivate the concepts of good & bad via stories of Panchatantra & Isapniti (just one of the ways) which does helps us in making our concepts clear regarding such aspects of life(even business). Most important thing we need to tell the youths is don’t be afraid of dreams & desire to grow as well expand but at the same time being small & self content is also not bad. Whatever you will be doing but one needs to be happy & at peace as that’s what real success meant! If you are driving Tata Indica or Santro (with due respect to Tata & Hyundai) then you should aim to have a Merc or BMW of your own some day, but if in that journey you are losing the pleasure of driving then it hardly matters which car you are driving, isn’t it? So go ahead guys, make your own way to your dream, assure that you are at peace & enjoying the journey & while driving towards your success named destination just see that you don’t enter in to wrong lane of life & incase by ignorance you do enter in wrong lane then do not be afraid to face the punishment as life always gives you a chance to drive back on your course, take it!

On all this background I wrote something to my Team as well to my Sons on whatsap; sharing the same to conclude…

Dear Team & Rohit, Rohan…

One more goes down.. CCD owner V.Siddhartha , one of the most famous retail brands in recent times in our country ends his life due to pressure of debt as well not being able to manage business which has grown too fast!! An eye opener for every entrepreneur or businessman especially real estate fellows, that growth is good but not at such cost that u cant sustain the burden of ur own growth! Actual reasons will surface in ccd matter but prim fascia its financial mismanagement & not being able to handle pressure coming out of it! While we expand our business one simple thing i hv learn from all these examples, i must know how much water i am swimming in & how far i hv come from shore & keep some energy to swim back to the shore safely! ...

i am no expert in business or finance but what i see around is our all engg or B’schools rarely tells us how to be on track in business mainly when the business is running good & thats why mostly its the first genre business-men like nirav modi or siddhartha are the ones who succumbed to such outcome in their own ways but the men or women where family businesses with 3rd or 4th genre in running, rarely has meet such end!! here the importance of right advise which at times may sound out fashioned or bit slow works again which must be taught repeatedly.. is what i feel!! no harm in growing rather that must be target when we work but not losing everything in the end, so dont give-up growing but only by way of hardwork, honesty, innovation & excellence; never "Too Fast, Too Furious" is d gist!!

Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

Please view my sharing about real estate in Pune at U-Tube link below..

https://youtu.be/g3lx1Nq7pBs

Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani ! (Click the links below)

http://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2018/08/pune-city-no-1.html