Rashmi Bansai - Connect The Dots

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westland ltd
Venkat Towers, 165, P.H. Road, Maduravoyal, Chennai 600 095
No. 38/10 (New No.5), Raghava Nagar, New Timber Yard Layout, Bangalore 560 026
Survey No. A - 9, II Floor, Moula Ali Industrial Area, Moula Ali, Hyderabad 500 040
23/181, Anand Nagar, Nehru Road, Santacruz East, Mumbai 400 055
4322/3, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi 110 002

First published in India by Eklavya Education Foundation 2010

First published by westland ltd 2012

Copyright Rashmi Bansal 2010

All rights reserved

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ISBN: 978-93-81626-70-2

CONTENT AND PAGE DESIGN BY
JAM Venture Publishing Pvt Ltd.

Cover Design by Amrit Vatsa

Typesetting by Ram Das Lal

Printed at Manipal Technologies Ltd., Manipal

Disclaimer
Due care and diligence has been taken while editing and printing the
book, neither the Author, Publisher nor the Printer of the book hold
any responsibility for any mistake that may have crept in inadvertently.
Westland Ltd, the Publisher and the printers will be free from any
liability for damages and losses of any nature arising from or
related to the content. All disputes are subject to the
jurisdiction of competent courts in Chennai.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, circulated, and no reproduction in any form, in whole or in part (except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews) may be made without written permission of the publishers.

DEDICATED TO

My parents, Manorama and
Prahlad Chandra Agrawal
For all my dots.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My deepest gratitude to Sunil Handa - teacher, friend, philosopher and guide. For his unwavering support and encouragement in the writing and publication of this book.

My friends Piyul Mukherjee, and Deepak Gandhi, for patiently reading every chapter as it was written and providing instant and valuable feedback.

Swastik Nigam, A Srinivasa Rao, Saurabh Datar and the students of LEM at IIM Ahmedabad who proofread this book until their eyes popped out.

Madan Mohan, for laying out page after page, correction after minor correction, always with a smile.

Nikhil Sahasrabudhe, Avinash Agarwal, and Surya Ragunaathan for their beautifully accurate transcripts.

Amrit Vatsa for producing yet another inspired cover design.

My daughter Nivedita for lending me her room to work in, and providing some valuable tips on how other authors do it.

My husband Yatin, for keeping the flag flying high at JAM.

My mother, and my house help - Lata and Sonu - for giving me the backend support every woman needs.

And, finally, I thank each and every entrepreneur in this book for opening their hearts and sharing their stories.

Because it is these stories which will move and inspire the next generation to stay hungry and foolish.

And create an exciting new world.

You cant connect the dots looking forward; you can only
connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust
in something your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.
This approach has never let me down, and it has
made all the difference in my life.

Steve Jobs, Commencement Address,
Stanford University (2005)

Until I was 17 years old I got everything I ever wanted as a student effortlessly.

I topped my school board examinations.

Won the National Talent Search scholarship.

Numerous prizes and shields in quizzing.

But when I was 17, I applied to four US universities. Two rejected me outright, one put me on waitlist and the last one accepted me, but without financial aid.

I felt crushed.

I came back to India with my parents and applied to St Xaviers College for a Bachelors degree. No luck.

Finally, I enrolled in Sophia College for a BA in Economics and funnily enough, these three years turned out to be some of the best of my life.

I grew, I excelled, I became independent and confident. Editor of the college magazine, student council member, intercollegiate festival circuit.

From nerd I became a pataka of sorts.

Meanwhile I also started writing for newspapers like The Indian Post, The Sunday Observer, Midday and even worked at The Independent (owned by The Times of India group) while still in my third year of college.

Whats the point of all this? That things did not happen the way I had wanted. The plan God had for me was something different.

And in the end it all worked out, it was perfect.

I went on to study at IIM Ahmedabad, start my own magazine, and do what I always loved best write. One fine day I got the opportunity to write a book on IIM Ahmedabad entrepreneurs and I grabbed it.

That book you know as Stay Hungry Stay Foolish .

I was on campus for my 15th year reunion in January 2009, when sales of Stay Hungry crossed 50,000 copies. To celebrate this, the Dean of IIM Ahmedabad presented me with a silver plaque.

This happened in the same classroom where I had often wondered, What the hell am I doing here?

That day I got the answer.

I connected the dots.

The truth is, there is a plan. A bigger plan. Every experience in your life whether good or bad has made you what you are.

A chance encounter.

A stray conversation.

An article you read which somehow stays with you.

These are the unexpected turns on the journey of life. Which lead to a destination.

So go out there and do more, learn more, experience more.

Create lots and lots of dots on the canvas of your life.

Paint boldly and brightly the colours of your choice.

Create a life which is like a work of art.

A thing of beauty, a source of joy, an expression of your heart.

Each of the stories in this book is about people who have done that. People who took a leap of faith, dot by simple dot.

Rashmi Bansal

Mumbai, February 2010

CONTENTS

These entrepreneurs have no formal training in business. They learnt by observation, experimentation and application of mind. Because ultimately, business is not rocket science.

Prem Ganapathy - born 1973

Dosa Plaza

He came to Mumbai like millions of others, in search of a better future. Inspired by McDonalds, Prem Ganapathy has risen from humble dishwasher to owner of the fast food chain Dosa Plaza, with 26 outlets across India.

Kunwer Sachdev - born 1962

Su-kam

Kunwer Sachdev is a statistics graduate but he can take on the best of engineers. An average student in school, he fell in love with Physics late in life and turned it into a profitable business. Today, he runs Su-kam, a T 500 crore company in the field of Power Electronics.

Ganesh Ram - born 1960

Veta

As an NSS volunteer, Ganesh Ram discovered he had a knack for teaching. From a single coaching centre in 1981, Vivekananda Study Circle has grown into Veta - Indias largest trainer in the field of spoken English.

Sunita Ramnathkar - born 1954

Fem Care Pharma

Four months after the birth of her second daughter, this feisty housewife launched Fem fairness bleach. Over the next 27 years, the home-grown skincare company held its own against large multinationals, only recently selling out to Dabur.

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