Saturday, October 23, 2004

A life of 'an' experience.

Enterprenuership comes before any formal education. It is innate.
I come from North Gujarat region of India and I have seen villagers who, for that matter wouldnt even have had a chance to see what a primary school looks like, leave alone graduate schools. But even then, they often, from time to time, come up with great yet simple solutions to complex problems. And throughout India, people from this part of the country are considered great businessmen who have a knack for spotting business opportunities. For these "kanthiyawaris" or "marwadis" as they are often reffered to, rains are scanty and there is not much forage to feed their cattle up in North Gujarat. But it is exactly these circumstances which force them into thinking diffrent and as time passes by they become great Resource managers and innovative thinkers. For them, Innovation and Optimal resource management is about "survival". Now if someone can see the very reason for their enterpreneurial successes. Its about Confidence and Willingness ( in their case its compulsion and not willingess !)

3 comments:

anon said...

the gujju has spoken! :)
i couldn't agree with you more my friend... my enggi days were spent with a whole bunch of gujjus, some my roomies... one key eye opener for a poor myopic kid like me was was that... business chhe toe gujju kare!
i like that attitude... cheers!

Ramjee said...

Exactly! It's compulsion that has forced most people to venture into business. Probably that isthe reason that most Gujju's world over are from Kutchchh or North Gujarat. You could also draw a parallel for the Israelis.. most famous diamond merchants across the world are Jews and these days, turn into technocrats, for there's very little natural resource for them to work upon!

Ramjee said...

Just thought yu may want to enjoy this joke as well...

A Gujju businessman walked into a New York City bank and asked for the loan officer. He said he was going to Europe on business for two weeks and needed to borrow $5,000. The loan officer said the bank would need some security for such a loan.

The Gujju business man then handed over the keys to a Rolls Royce that was parked on the street in front of the bank. Everything checked out and the loan officer accepted the car as collateral for the loan. An employee then drove the Rolls into the bank's underground garage and parked it there.

Two weeks later the Gujju businessman returned, repaid the $5,000 and the interest which came to $15.41.

The loan officer said, "We do appreciate your business and this transaction has worked out very nicely, but we are a bit puzzled. While you were away we checked and found that you are a multi-millionaire. What puzzles us is why you would bother to borrow $5,000?"

The Gujju business man replied: "Where else in New York City can I park my car for two weeks for fifteen bucks?"