World of Entrepreneurs: Mr. Dhirubhai Ambani

This person is the most respected Businessman of India till date. His life and methods have inspired many youths to achieve their dreams. He has proved, in the real sense, that where there is a will there is a way. He has built an empire called Reliance against all odds posed by the not-too-liberal Indian Economic Policies.  Today, I am taking an insight into the life of the Business Legend named Dhirubhai Ambani.

Mr. Dhirubhai was born on 28 December 1932 in Junagadh district of Gujrat in India. Dhirubhai was the second son in his family which had very little earnings. His father was a school teacher and his parents knew how to make the utmost use of every single penny they earned.

Go Travel Forever! Socially Distanced Travel Motivation!

Highly intelligent, as he was, Dhirubhai was never interested in classroom studies. He preferred to go for works that used his physical ability rather than spending time in classes and lectures. Dhirubhai’s abilities and business mindedness came into light at an early stage of his life when he started off with a small business of Onion/Potato fries stalls at village fairs. For a person in a family like that of his it was a bit difficult to think out-of-the-box, but he did so and was successful in improving the financial conditions of his family.

His professional career started in Yemen. He worked with A. Besse & Co. where he was promoted to the managerial level at company’s filling stations at port of Aden. Now, here comes the second example of his being a manipulator. In those days the Yemini Rial was made of silver coins and was very much in demand in London Bullion exchange. Dhirubhai used to collect the silver coins and melt them into pure silver to sell it into the market. He later admits that he made some lakhs of rupees by this manipulation. To grab such opportunities is the biggest quality of this business stalwart, as we’ll see it throughout his life story.

Go Travel Forever! Socially Distanced Travel Motivation!

Finally Dhirubhai started his own business of Polyester Yarn in South Mumbai. He started importing Polyester from Yemen and exported Spices in turn. The first office of Reliance Commercial Corporation had one room with one table and three chairs. His family used to live in a single room apartment in South Mumbai. He was never famous amongst his partners in business as he was a known risk-taker and thus never missed out the opportunities at hand. An entrepreneur has to take risks initially as he is the one who brings in something new in the market. This is what Dhirubhai did. At the time when no one believed in him and in the business of Polyester, he was the one who kept going with the idea confidently.

“He had unbelievable managing skills”, recalls the employees of his company of those days. He made an Open-door policy in his office which meant that anybody can go to his cabin and discuss about the problems of any sort. Dhirubhai was always a step ahead of his competitors. After polyester he started importing rayon. Rayon was very much in demand in the country and thus he made huge profits. When Rayon mills started coming up in India itself then he imported Nylon. This much was his innovation and Business skills that he was always updated of the new products outside the country which had surplus demands.

Go Travel Forever! Socially Distanced Travel Motivation!

Moreover, initially he used to export spices and that too at loss, just to get permission to import Polyester. Then he started exporting rayon, again at loss, to import nylon. Here, another lesson for Entrepreneurs. Money is the ultimate goal of business, no doubt in that. But, it is not the immediate goal. Think in a long-term view. If Dhirubhai would have stopped exports at loss he would not have imported the commodities in demand. Surprisingly, he carried on with the exports at loss and made a profit of over 300 percent every year with the imported material.

Dhirubhai is said to be great fixer. He had his own ways of tackling government officials and he was an expert in getting his work done. His wittiness brought him under fire several times. I would be describing some of such events from his life in the next post. I don’t care what his critics say about his methods but I think that for being an entrepreneur one must be a little hard hearted as Mr. Dhirubhai was, in his business.

Visit My Official Website: Go Travel Forever! 

Thanks!!

Photo Courtesy: NDTV, Reliance