create 30 -40 sec sniffet from this to make it viral youtube shorts "Poverty gives you power to take decisions. I was fortunately poor and was fortunately born in a village. That’s why I came to Mumbai. Baba Atomic Research Center took 500 rupees and got a single cheque of 5000 crores in my hand. You said you have exited in 5000 crores. Why did you sell it? I lost my wife. On the day when I had gone to list my company, when I went to ring the bell in the National Stock Exchange, Today’s episode is all about me. are the most favorite storyteller entrepreneurs. I don’t think that I’m better than these entrepreneurs than any storyteller because their story is so dangerous. Born in a village where neither they know English nor they have shoes to wear nor they went to school.
From there, this is the journey of making the biggest diagnostic company in India. How a person born in a small village in a poor family 5,000 crore company. This episode is about a personality who started from a small poor family. Neither did he have money to study, he had so much responsibility that he took all the decisions of his family from the age of 10. And neither did he hire a person with any degree in his entire journey. He hired 25,000 Aur gaonwalo ke saath milke Hindustan ki 5000 crore ki company banai. Is episode mein humne seeka hai ki kaise, Koi bhi business ko dekha jata hai, Usme badi opportunity kaise dhundi jaati hai? Kaunse aise business hai jin ko scale kia jaa sakta hai?
Kaunse aise categories hai jahan pe business attempt kia jaana chahiye? Kaunse aise log hai jo business bana sakte hai? Agar hum business nahi bana sakte hai toh hume kya karna chahiye? And, Sabse major problem ki log zero se one pe kaise jaye, one se ten pe kaise jaye aur ten se hundred pe kaise jaye. Yeh poora episode entrepreneurship, opportunity, growth, business, na jaane kis-kis ke baare mein hai. Mera yeh favorite episode hai iss saal ka. Jaake yeh episode poora dekho. Because I tell you, agar yeh episode tumne poora dekh liya, to tumhe iss insan se pyaar ho jayega, iss insan ki journey se pyaar ho jayega. and you will know why I am talking about them so highly. The episode is with Dr. Velu Mani of Thyrocare.
Please enjoy the show. Before you do that, go and subscribe to Rajshramani Clips and Rajshramani Shots channel because there we cut small clips of this big episode and bring it in front of you so that you can become a better leader in a very short time. Enjoy the show. You are an exceptionally good storyteller. And apart from that, the more I understand and listen to your journey, the more I get inspired. Wonderful. So thank you so much for coming here. Thank you. It’s an honor. We have been trying for a long time. Finally, you are here. It was fun. We are there. Yes. So first thing, for 1% people who don’t know you, for them, tell them that Who are you? What do you do?
And where did you start this journey? Tell me from zero. From the very beginning. Was fortunately poor. Fortunately poor. And was fortunately born in a village. Okay. These two combinations are the dangerous cocktail. To give a background. Why did, from where I have got my strength. Okay. So, my degree ended in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. I didn’t get a job there. I came to Mumbai because of that. I got a post of a Gadgeted Officer at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, which is the most premium research institute of the Government of India. So, I got married there. I got promoted there. I came with B.Sc. I never thought that I would get another degree. I got to do MSD and PhD. Everything was going well, but I felt something was wrong.
So, I resigned my job. I had a savings of 2 lakhs. I started a brand by investing in it. I ran it for 27 years. One more second was my wife as an employee. Then 4, then 8, then 16. Finally, I have employed 25,000 freshers in my organization in 25 years of journey. 25,000 freshers. Okay. And in the whole world, India is the cheapest in healthcare. I am the cheapest in the whole of India. And my profit was 40%. And the company reached a market cap of $1 billion. I thought that if I exit, I can celebrate, I don’t have to sit and celebrate. So, I exited. Two years ago, in June 2021. And with that feeling, I brought 500 rupees. And I got a single cheque of 5000 crores in my hand.
So, I celebrated. Now, let’s break this timeline one by one from the beginning. Sure. First, you said that you were born in a small village. where you were fortunately born in poor family and in village. So why did you say that fortunately I was born in poor and fortunately I was born in village? Success in life is delta. Okay. Delta is X2 minus X1. Where am I today in X2? Where was I in X1? My X1 was zero. There is nothing for anyone. When there is nothing to lose, you take a decision quickly. So, first of all, we are afraid of losing. So, they can’t take a decision. So, I have taken some decisions very quickly. Number one, poverty gives you power to take decisions.
Secondly, when you are a poor person, even if you are in the village, then problem solving is done daily from morning to evening. If you have mastered your life in No resources. Living life with low resources is luxury. My father was neither an employee nor an employer. What did your father do? He was a pampered child. He didn’t have capabilities to work. And he didn’t realize that children need to be totally cared for. Let me tell you here. Because I was poor, I was not pampered. And a pampered child has no capability. A parented child, lot of capabilities. I have done a last acknowledgement in my PhD thesis. I will explain its words. I thank my parents for giving me nothing except freedom.
This is a very powerful one. Today’s parents, they give everything other than freedom. True. So I was again illiterate parents. They trusted me. I became head of the family at an age of 10. Because I am the eldest. I have to take care of family. My father wasn’t truly understanding what are all the responsibilities. Okay. Question. Freedom when you mean, you were given freedom. And that is a very big strength. Meaning that go and do anything. It is not like that. Generally, when a boy is 10 years old, he has to follow his father’s decision. In my house, my parents also started following my decision from the age of 10. And why? Because they felt I am making sense. I don’t know from where my mother was truly totally trusting me.
She felt father is not able to lead it, you please take care. And I think that’s the single largest strength today if I have to. Took all decisions for last 50 years. I am 65. So, did you start making money? I mean, did you make money in 10 years? Is this the reason or is it that you make more sense? No. I think I still remember. 25 paise, 4 ganta kaan karega. So I used to get 25 paise. That was my first time I have worked for making money. At what age? It was at an age of 11. At an age of 13, 1 rupee per day, cotton plucking in the hot sun. Month is May, summer, I had to pay fees in June.
And 30 rupees per day. My brother pays all the fees. And that’s the leader of the family. Right? So, it was earning also. From then onwards, I don’t think any summer vacation, I had a vacation. Any time in the evening from 4 o’clock, 5 o’clock onwards, do some part-time job. I think I have worked. Let me give you another punchline. 7 to 11 was the heaven. 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. I have worked for 50 years. Two questions on that. Quick. One, do you… Have you ever felt at some point that you regret that you had to have fun in childhood? I haven’t had more fun than that. I haven’t had the fun that people have. My fun is different. But did you ever regret that you lived like other kids, I had toys, I had other friends, I would go out without time.
If I had good clothes, I could go out with my friends. Let me tell you, in a pyramid of economy, make 10 slices. I was in the bottom of slice. My first cousin never came to my house. What is there? But let me also tell you, there are two kinds of people. This is another punchline. One thinks, I am only suffering, all others are enjoying. The other thinks, I am only enjoying, all others are suffering. I always felt, I am only enjoying. And this attitude has been there since childhood? Since childhood. In fact, sometimes in interviews they ask, Dr. Oyelomani, imagine you have an opportunity to relive your life, which portion of it you will change? Brother, biryani is good, so why do you have to experiment in the recipe?
Nothing will change. If something changes, then this biryani will not come. This is great, which is first class. Okay, coming back to the story of you again. We were Then you said that you didn’t get a degree. I didn’t get a job. What degree did you get? I didn’t have money to buy a textbook. I have studied 11th and 12th without a textbook. And still I got 200 out of 200 in mathematics. 200 out of 200 in mathematics. And I had a course of 5 years to study engineering. So I took a decision to do a course of 3 years. And prospectus, I am seeing, BCAM is 4 letters, BSE is 3 letters. BCAM was Rs. 300 fees, BSE was Rs. 400 fees.
Marwadi’s brain worked, so I joined BCAM. I was a BCAM student for one full month. One full month? Yes. Dr. K.R. Karthikeyan, a professor, I mean he is no more, he asked, you were a centum in mathematics? Yes, sir. Why didn’t you do engineering? Poor sir. Why didn’t you do chemistry? Everyone was poor. Later he came to know that I had to sit in BKM for 100 rupees. He took out 100 rupees from his pocket and brought me from the commerce building to the science building. If that hadn’t happened, today I would have sat in front of Raj Samani and talked. Wow. Acknowledging him. Wow. So, 19 years, BSE, first class. I thought, in Coimbatore, there are a lot of There are many enterprises, companies and factories.
You should get a job. But in 50 interviews, I was failing. The reason was that everyone was asking the same question. Do you have experience? Idiot. I finished the exam in a month. I am attending the interview in June. Where did you get it from? It’s almost like sitting in front of a girl whom you are likely to marry and asking her, How many children do you have? So irritating is the question. So, in 1978, when I was 19 years old, I took a decision. If one day I run my own company, I will only take care of the pressure and not the experience. Trust me, I have never recruited an experienced man into my organization. Really? 25,000 freshers I have employed. I don’t think anybody else would have dared to do it.
And I have done it. And trust me, my competitor’s employee cost is 25%. My employee cost is 10%. And what else do you need? Let me tell you a punchline for an entrepreneur. If you yourself have trained your employees, if you train your employees for 100 days, then your competitor has trained you for 1000 days, better than an employee. Train them. So, a lot of people ask, not everyone gets it. Hey, I tell them. Train yourself. If you don’t love your spouse, your neighbor will. If you don’t love your employee, your competitor will. Take care. So, Coimbatore was a little disappointing experience for me, fortunately. Fortunately. August 18, 1982, Kanyakumari to Mumbai, Jayanti Janta Express, boarded it in Coimbatore, S9 coach, birth number 41, and I land in Mumbai like a don with 500 rupees in my body.
Body? Because if you keep in pocket, pickpocket will come. And I stayed in VT railway station for three nights. Because there was no friend to receive me with a smartphone. And there was no credit card to check in any hotel. Nor there was a purse to keep credit card. So, that’s how I landed in Mumbai. And I came to Mumbai. Baba Atomic Research Centre gave me a letter for an interview. So, I left from there. I had come one day earlier. This is a 36-hour journey. Even if it is 10 hours late, there is no trust in the railway. If I don’t go for the interview, no one will believe me. So, I had come one day earlier. Believe me, the day I reached Mumbai, it rained so much.
After I came, not a single train entered Mumbai. About 300 people were called in the interview. Only a few people came. I got a number in my interview. This is very very important because you can’t always tell that I’m a big scientist that’s why I don’t have a job. Everything sometimes luck. Lady luck smiled to me. Lady luck? Yeah. Because otherwise how will I get that job? Government job, gadget officer post, most premium research institute. Wow. So, Velu Mani now has a good salary. And he is in Mumbai. Now, life looks bright. And subsequently, as soon as I landed in Mumbai, my father-in-law was in love with me. Father-in-law? He was in love with me. That means it’s an arranged marriage. Okay. Okay.
There are only two ways in which marriage goes through. One is father, wife, girl herself is in love with me or her parents have been in love with me, right? True. So, he came within one year of me joining and proposed. He was a security officer in BRC. I was an employee there in BRC. I refused. 83, I refused. 84, I refused. 85 also, same proposal comes. Same man comes. Then I thought, let me have a look at the girl. So, it was, you know, all illuminated, so I look fair. That house was not properly illuminated and I found the girl not impressive enough. And my mother will not like. I know from my mother’s angle, what is the beauty daughter-in-law. Then I thought, I will not tell anything now.
I said, I’ll let you know. I didn’t go back. So, you just left it. It’s a lot of work. He keeps again walking. I was staying in an arresting family as a paying guest. So, I told my landlady, even if I am inside, if this gentleman comes, tell him I am not there. Five times he managed. Six times they told, no, he is persuading like this. You must tell him. It will not work. Then I sat in front of him. I thought, if I meet that girl again and discourage her, then she will get upset. On her own. So I asked her, can I talk to her for an hour? To have a meeting? She told, yes, I will arrange. Nariman Point, Madam Kama Road, State Bank of India, 14th floor, International Division, my wife was working.
So, arranged. And on a Saturday, it was a half day. So, I was there by 2 o’clock. And I sat in the cabin and talked. So, how many minutes are there in an hour? 60 minutes. 55 minutes, I only talked. Okay. And 5 minutes, absolute silence was there. I decided I must marry her. Kahi dekha kya? Ladi ki chupchop ek ganda. O bhi wonewala pati ka saamne bait kar kuch pucha hi nahi ya. Want to know what I have talked to her? In 45 minutes what I have talked, I can tell you in 45 seconds. Tell me. Look, main paying us mein rehta hoon. I will be a paying guest all my life. I will not be able to buy a house. You should be ready.
There is a house in the village. There is no toilet. You should understand. And I am the eldest son in the family. So my parents have to take care of you. And my siblings, everyone’s marriage is your responsibility. And I don’t have money for our marriage. And for our marriage, I don’t think any insane girl will agree. I thought, if you want to marry me, then send your father. If you don’t want to, then tell him that this boy has some mental problem. She didn’t tell yes, no, nothing. Absolute stunned look. And I left. I thought. Yeah. Safe. I am very safe. That night. My father-in-law came to my home. That means she has agreed. Yes. She has said yes. And I must tell you here.
After saying yes. After two months. I met her. Before marriage. I asked her. Of course. Whatever I said, why did you follow me so much to marry me? What did you like? My nose? Cheeks? Chin? What did you like? She said, it felt like you were discouraging me. I understood. Because who will come and tell that this is not it, this is not it, this is not it. Second, you are a big storyteller. I understood that. Third, I don’t want to live in a tall house. I want to live in a tall house. Very powerful. Very powerful. Right? It is very important that these days I have some reels on Instagram. If I say one or two things about it, everyone will make fun of me.
Expectation is the biggest problem for all diverses and resignations as a reason. Unwanted expectation. I have made the expectation zero. Make life peaceful. So then we got married and that’s how the story of how did I find a wife. And subsequently then two children. And then there is little more interesting here which I want people especially employees to understand. How as an employee you can build a huge career. After joining, an officer brought me to meet my boss. So my boss is sitting in front of me, I shake his hand but he doesn’t shake his hand. What does it mean? He’s a blind man. I worked under a blind man for 15 years. He is a very nice Parsi gentleman. His name is Kavas Desa.
Your boss? Boss. He is no more. But he was a very wonderful man. Mani, do you want to become an MSC? Yes, sir. Why not? Please. He had a connection with people in rank and file of BRC and Bombay University. He made sure I got registered for MSC under research. On thyroid biochemistry. Okay. Three years, I finished my MSc while working. I got a salary and a degree. After that, he asked me, Willamani, you have done a good work. Do you want to do PhD? Areva. And trust me, today I am MSc, PhD, very powerful scientist and entrepreneur only because I agreed to work under a blind man. And trust me, in my BRC interview, I was asked, where is thyroid? I did 200 out of 200 in mathematics.
I didn’t do biology. So, I said, I don’t know where it is. Trust me, here comes the most powerful punchline. In 1982, I did not know where thyroid was. And in 1992, I finished a PhD in thyroid biochemistry. In 2002, I am running world’s largest thyroid testing laboratory. 20 years. The punchline starts now. If you do what you have studied, if you do what you have studied, you will survive. But if you do what you have not studied, you will be the leader. Right? I am the leader. Film Training Institute was not there at that time. It has come today. And today, whoever takes a diploma degree, he doesn’t become a hero in any movie. And the bus conductor becomes a superstar. Why do you feel like this?
Why does this happen in life? It’s like this. You are good at something. You study, you did it because of your parents’ compulsion, because it’s some fantasy. But then finally, what are you good at? See, if Rajinikanth is the most powerful hero, even if today Amitabh Bachchan or even if you take whoever is Dravid or whoever it is, it is the intelligence that makes them most powerful. Whatever they have done, they would have become. If there is intelligence, then they would have become great. Punchline, what do you do is not as important as how do you do. So that is how the journey of me entering in thyroid and a PhD. So Velu Mani is 37 years old now. 37? Yes. And then two children.
My son was 5, my daughter was 3. Then I felt that there is a punchline. Tell me. Did you come to live or to win? If you want to live, you can live in Coimbatore. If you come to Mumbai, you have to win. And it didn’t seem like they won. Right? Next one. Do you want to grow up or become an old man? An old man becomes an old man himself. He also becomes an old man quickly in his government job. If you want to grow up, you have to take risks. That was very clear to me. And again there are two kinds of people. This is one category. This is another way of looking at. I looked at like that. And there is a saying in Tamil.
I will first tell that in Tamil. Because you know my Tamil audience are plenty across the world. Hmm. Take a risk. So my mind said I must know. take some kind of risk. One Friday office I go in the morning after lunch, I open my drawer and I saw my passbook and passbook had 2 lakh rupees closing balance. 1996 2 lakh rupees closing balance is equal to today 2 crores. I’m talking about 30 years back. 1996, 27 years back. Right? 2 lakh rupees. My monthly expenditure was 5000. So, what is the number of months my family is safe? 40 months. Tick number one. Because I have an advice to all entrepreneurs. You can take your risk. You should not take your family’s risk.
You are not entitled to. True. What was their mistake? Why did they take the wrong path? So, 40 months, family safe. Three and a half years, done. Second, right-hand side colleague, left-hand side colleague, everyone has already taken three bedroom, hall, kitchen. EMI is up to here. I am one man. There is no EMI. So, there is no EMI. So, there is freedom. So, number one, He is 40 months safe. No EMI. Number three. My wife is working with State Bank of India. What does she want? She wants a good life. Why does she want a bad life? So I have resigned on a Friday evening. And went home. I need not discuss with wife to take this decision. You took it without telling her.
That is how the punchline came. In life, either you can discuss or you can decide. You can’t do both. Because once you discuss, you cannot decide. If I had told my wife three days ago, I am wanting to resign. My father-in-law would have come and sat at home. So, I went home at night. I didn’t tell her anything at dinner time. At 2 o’clock at night, my wife asked me, I told her, I have resigned. And she looked at my eyes. And she said, And I told her, You also don’t go. I will also not go. Trust me, we both left job on the same day. Biggest risk. Sometime the title of my talk. Romance with risk. Right. The bigger the risk, the bigger the reward.
So, we then reset our life. And then she didn’t go to office from then. I already had put in a resignation and came. And she was my first employee. Right? Punchline for every successful man, the wife becomes the secretary. And for every failed man, the secretary becomes the wife so see and let me start it. So, that’s about the transition. Hmm. But where did this courage come from? This is very, very important. Otherwise, people will get confused. This is the reason for this. Nowadays, we are hearing that self-reliance. We are hearing it again and again. This self-reliance was brought by Modi ji. But India had been working hard for self-reliance for 50 years. And I got a project. That was self-reliance. Why do we need to import thyroid testing reagents from Europe?
Why can’t it be made in India? I did my PhD in that. And I got a breakthrough in that. If you import it, it’s 150 rupees. If you make it yourself, it’s 30 rupees. So my colleague was planning all the increment promotions, conferences. I thought the competitor is taking it in 150 rupees. I have 30 rupees. That means I have advantage. I can disrupt. So this insight about thyroid reagent cheaper was the main reason for me to take such a tough decision. Very very important. Because the leader only knows. How my father-in-law will know about it. How can I convince him on this. So don’t discuss. If you know what it is. Take a call. I also want you to. Note here. When should I discuss.
And when I should not discuss. Because everybody should not think. You know. And take that decision. If you are depending upon. And the mercy of your wife. Father. Or father-in-law. You can’t take decisions. Without discussing. And if you are independent, I will manage. This is very important. Otherwise, people should not get confused. So, I had an advantage. I did a PhD in thyroid. And I put the name ThyroCare. That was a very brilliant way of making a logo. With a thyroid lobe and ThyroCare. And trust me, I focused so much, so much on thyroid. My competitors thought I’m an android. A few business points which I want the entrepreneurial community to keep in their mind. What Velumani did was not PC Sorkar’s Jeeboomba.
It’s an intelligent innovation of a system which was not organized. I used to do overpricing. Because I didn’t think about the volume. So it was a rate of Rs. 150. I used to take Rs. 600 from the market. Fair business. There was nothing wrong. But the only thing is I didn’t know what the power of their volume was. It is like this. If I do 100 tests in a month. So 150 Ram ethyl castel. If I do 1000 tests, 120. If I do 10,000, then 90. When I came to the peak, I used to get 2 lakh tests every day. Cost used to be 30 rupees. So, don’t punch a line here. If the costing is wrong, the pricing is wrong. So, you have to get the pricing only after understanding the costing.
Let me tell you something good about our business. I wanted a local man talking local language, local culture. So, I called the guys and told them, listen, the market charges 600 rupees. You charge 300 rupees. Give me 100 rupees. So, keep 200 rupees. That fellow fell unconscious. Does anyone give 60% margin? Within no time, all his friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, their spouse and their boyfriends, everybody became franchisee of Tyrocare all over the country. Because 60% margin is not given to anyone. Franchisee concept. Those are. And the next one is, I have made an Uber. Before Uber name itself was not there. Until Uber came into the country, taxis were standing for 20 hours, running for 4 hours. Now they are running for 20 hours, standing for 4 hours.
Until I came into picture, Thyroid testing machine was only running for two hours in a day. Today they run 24 hours. I am a lawyer. Right? Punch line. A standing machine is a liability. And a running machine is an asset. Many people don’t make profit because their machines are standing. They have an ego. They don’t lower the price. So this is power. I have created an uber concept. I have created a McDonald concept. But it’s not franchisee alone. McDonald doesn’t give you masala dosa. It only gives you burgers. Yeah. I don’t do diseases. I only do disorders. Difference? Disorder comes, doesn’t go. Disease comes, injection, antibiotic, it goes. Give examples of both. What does disorders mean? Disorder means diabetes, thyroid, arthritis. Does it ever go away?
No, once it comes, it’s gone. Here, chikungunya, dengue, malaria. It comes and goes. Everything else had an eye on it. I had an eye on it. So, you focused on the disorder. Disorder. That its customer will remain for a lifetime. Customer acquisition cost is not repeated. Once patient, lifelong patient. So, you focused on its diagnosis. And all my competitors were other side. I was the only guy here and no one was here. And I didn’t do these tests. I think we had jidd. You know what is the power of a man? Refusing work. Refusing work. Yes, refusing. If you give what all customer wants, you are running a grocery. I wanted to run a cake shop. It was my cake shop. Right? So, these are all, again I said, McDonald’s.
I have done an Amazon. Amazon. How? 25 years ago, blood test, home delivery was not there. In 25 years, 90% of the patients are served at home. My man will knock on your door at 8 in the morning. You book in my website. Next day morning, 8 o’clock, my man is at your door. Why are you amazing? Home delivery collector sample. Right? So, why is a dozen number of things I have done in such a way that, you know, I can’t imagine. In the entire world, India is cheapest in healthcare. And in entire India, I am the cheapest. To my balance, it has… 40% margin. And how is this? That is it. Optimize. Optimize. You know one thing. Jet Airways has never made money.
Indian Airlines has never made money. Indigo also makes money. How? Optimize. So business is nothing but keeping the price low, controlling the cost. So that’s the background of that business model, business direction. And then I never went and pitched to any investor. Because I personally have never borrowed. Company has never borrowed. Never? Never. So how did you set up all this? That’s the power of journey. I invested 2 lakh rupees. Apart from that, I didn’t invest money in the business. You just reinvest whatever you get. In medical field, no one opens the syringe before the patient opens the purse. This is known as customer funded business. Not a fair thing to do. Toda theek hai. Scale up karne ke liye theek hai. Profit ko scale up karo.
Last ko kyun scale up karti ho. Phir ye model Amazon ne sikhaya hai na. Dekho Amazon ki pocket kitna bada hai. But churu mein Amazon start aise hi wa tha na. Chhota pocket se. Aur unho ne ye sikhaya hai ki 20 saal tak loss karo. Never copy the exceptions. Right. Jukkarberg degree nahi katam kiya. After becoming a billionaire, you stopped going to college. But that concept came from there. So everyone is in hope that even if one is used, then the VC gives money because even if one is used, then his life will be saved. Listen to the punchline. Whether you will do it or not, it is up to you. Ideas are like sperms. Only one in a million works. Okay, we should come back to your idea now.
So your idea was, we were talking about this question, that you said that in India, it’s cheap. If you cut the price, then you will win the competition. Do you think that in India, it’s only cheap? No. No. Let me tell you. Best quality, highest cost, they will buy only that. Anything cheaper, they will not buy. Better quality, cheaper rate, there is a crowd for that. Better quality and cheaper? Best, cheapest, sorry, best, costliest. Better quality, then there is a price for that. See, For Rs. 25, I had a coffee in a hotel in Udupi. They don’t give cookies on tissue paper. I went to Cafe Coffee Day and gave Rs. 200, so I should get all that. There is a crowd for that.
Okay, question. How did you do marketing? What was the lesson in marketing due to which you came out better than others? Yeah, I’ll tell you one thing. If the pricing is low, marketing goes viral. If the pricing is high, you can’t give incentives to a big person for a big salary. So, A, price was low. B, because my price was low, my competitors became perturbed. And my competitors went and did marketing for me. You know how? Do you know Tyrocare? he doesn’t do the test but he didn’t know what is thyrocare who is marketing the competitor but having said that let’s say you are making fairly decent business fairly good quality. You will tell all you are well-wishers. Word of mouth goes very fast.
Yeah. And that’s how it went through. What do you think three businesses in India which can be disrupted today given the kind of growth we are having, given the kind of money that the country is making, given the industries and technology which has already been there. What do you think? What are the three industries which have massive scope? It’s not 30. It’s not 30. It’s not 30. 3000 industries are there. Give me top three. What do you feel? I got these two ideas which I wanted to do. I have still not done. Okay. One is if you take thousand goats put it in an island which is sufficiently some 400 square kilometer. Thousand goats? Goats. No wild animal there. You leave there and you come out.
After 10 years you go there. How many goats will be there? Million. Leave 1000 goats, 10 years, there will be million goats. Calculate the CAGR. 100% every year it grows. Is this a cheap business? Is this an easy business? Does anything happen in this world? You sit and calculate and tell me company, Velumani this is flop. This is a wonderful business. You know one thing? 40 years ago, mutton was cheap and chicken was costly. Today, mutton is 1000 rupees per kg, chicken is 250-200 rupees per kg. Only because somebody scaled up chicken business, no one scaled up mutton business. Understand what I am talking? Yeah. You can sit and I can forward you an Excel sheet. Which tells how thousand becomes a million.
I wanted to about to start it. My children told me, Dan, you don’t do it. I asked why. You did pathology, helped ordinary people. You got a lot of social capital. Now if you do this, you will get sin capital. Don’t do it. True. I didn’t do it. Anybody can do it. And this is doable. Number one. Number two. In Tamil Nadu, every district has its own tomato plant. Sometimes they sell it for 8 rupees, sometimes for 40 rupees. What you need is a grid. A transportation system where wherever it is cheaper, wherever it is costly, it will go there. Simple. Study the demand supply. By using IT. Today how much will come here. Today how much will come here. Say 3 trucks will go there.
4 trucks will come here from there. Like that. There are lot of things. Everywhere you can do disruption. Pick up 4 sweets. Pick up 4 savories. Really 8 items. Focus and create a brand. You will become a billionaire. Just 4. Just 4. Means. You mean. Pick up, let’s say, just one laddu or like two laddu. Whatever, list the sweet, take top four. List the savouries, take top four. Make only eight things. You just need this much showroom. There is no need for more than this. It comes from centralized kitchen. Self-life is enough. Make brand. It works. Too many things if you make, you are not an identity. Understand what I am talking? So, this kind of ideas are possible to do. These are not disrupted adequately.
But having said that, airline is now getting disrupted. Telecom cannot be disrupted because it’s a licensed, anybody cannot get into telecom. Wherever there is no entry barrier, there is still room is there for disruption. You had said one or two things earlier. Insight, cost control, disruption. But the most important and important thing that I want to say, 25,000 freshers. Yes. Why fresher? Like I got the logic that you should train fresher, but one point, it doesn’t happen that the speed of business stops because you don’t have the experience, you can’t teach them, they don’t know what to do in the market. I want to learn, I’m very curious. The next punchline that I say, don’t do it, listen to it. For job, everybody wants experienced.
But they only get freshers. But for marriage, everybody gets experienced. So, this is the problem in the society. Having said that, I already said a 100 days trained man is equivalent to 1000 days trained by competition. Your own man, you train specific 100 days. Now, You need to keep an assembly line on. What is assembly line? Keep taking freshers. That fresher will do small work on the first day. Will work till next day. After 3 months he will do full work. He is getting locally trained. So this assembly line once it is there. The senior most man you can allow to go. Every organization has got. underpaid assets and overpaid liabilities punchline what is that underpriced underpaid assets liabilities so how will you get rid of liabilities if you don’t have resources to replace okay let me tell you this is very important for entrepreneurs to understand an employee needs stamina discipline
intelligence, focus. In the first month, we calculate the stamina because I was late for six days in the whole month. M1 evaluation removes stamina less. The second one is discipline. Coming in time, going in time, Sitting and not gossiping anywhere. Very good employee. So, discipline. If you don’t have discipline, remove it in the quarter. Q1. M1, Q1. The third one is intelligence. If you don’t have intelligence, in one year, if you don’t know, you are only the problem. Not the employee. So, when year 1 is over, you remove the guy who is not intelligent. After five years, you remove the guy who cannot focus. You can’t find out focus on the first month. You understand what I’m talking? Yeah. So, we kept on adding people, removing people.
25,000 people. You know one thing what my people loved in the entire 25 years? Sir has never brought anybody from outside above us. Upar jo bhi kursi kaali hai, un mere liye jaane ke liye hai. It’s the most powerful motivation in any organism. And the big problem, I have noticed in a couple of times, I have accommodated and taken someone, afterwards I have sent him, sahab aap usme aap kya dekha hoon? So I think in your own organization, let us say, it’s not like if you finish 3 years, you become an officer. If you finish 5 years, you become a manager. If you finish 1.5 years, you can become a vice president. Don’t tell me all employees have the same intelligence. True. No, they don’t.
That’s it. How does a person learn? Because nowadays, people became entrepreneurs out of force, out of situation. If there was no job, nothing was happening, then you had to become. Now people have a choice that I want to make a business. I aspire to people’s dreams. In that era, poor people became businessmen. In this era, rich people try to do business. And when they do poor business, they know what is the market, what is the pricing, what is the pain. At one level, 30 years ago, I had seen all the challenges. Today I am telling you what is the problem. This is very important. I am going to drive using my social media handle. There are two kinds of people. One is pampered.
Another is parented. Pampered should not get into business. Parented only should get into business. You think pampered cannot build business? They can’t learn to build a business? No. Why? Because they don’t know the reality. Because there was only one child in his family. Daddy, mummy. Daddy’s daddy, mummy. Mummy’s daddy, mummy. And two servants. And all were trying to help him. He only learned to get help. He has never known to do help. Tum kia business banayega? Lene wala kabhi jeetta nahi hai, dene wala yeh jeetta hai. Okay, last part, ki aapne bata hai 5000 crore mein exit kiya hai, yeh to aapne banaya, poora business ban gaya, uske baad exit kaise hua, kab hua, kyunki investor se kahi paise nahi liye, beshne kahi man nahi tha, banate ja rahe the, to kaise, kyu besh diya?
In our story, I didn’t tell you that I lost my wife. Lost your wife? Okay. On the day when I had gone to list my company, 2016 May, when I went to ring the bell in the National Stock Exchange, I did it alone. I lost my wife. for pancreatic cancer, grade 4 just 50 days before my IPO. And she was diagnosed to have that problem only 50 days before the death. So only 100 days, it’s over. And that was a huge shock for me. I also said she also left her job. She killed her identity to make sure i win. So most powerful lady. who was silent, who was never recognized as a co-founder. And she was the backbone behind my entire journey.
And losing her was like, you know, you are scaling the Everest with your best companion and only 54 meters left out, 50 more meters left out and you, she left the land. She was the one who made me MSc, PhD. She was the one who made me scientist and entrepreneur, storyteller. She was the one who taught me Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati. And losing her was a very big frustration. I thought I must sell the company and go and relax. when i lost my wife. And then if i go and pitch to someone, I want to sell it, I may not get a price. I know from village i have learned, if he comes to you, your value is 1.5 x if you go to him, that is 0.5 x i patiently waited.
Then kovid came. The kovid first private laboratory pcr testing list my first list my first So I got a very powerful attention of the market. Lot of COVID PCR business. And my turnover per day was 1 crore. It became per day 2 crores. My share price was 450. It became 1200. And that time somebody was interested in my stock. And I thought I must move out. I got the best price. I got a billion dollar market cap. And I just sold it. So the reason to sell was not only that I lost my wife. I also felt, how long will this mad race last? I have to relax a bit. That’s number two. Number three, those days employee was thinking employer is God.
That and all is gone. Today, the employer gets very angry. I don’t get that. And then today’s customer experience is something which they are comparing ourselves with Swiggy. They don’t understand. And I am a very powerful motivator and stage. I thought so far I was directly creating employment. Let me now motivate entrepreneurs and make them to create employment. So I am now totally free. I go to stage and I enthral people and motivate them. My story I tell, they get lot more ideas. Every talk of mine for one hour on a stage gives raise to thousand jobs. That’s how I am now into a totally different mode. And paisa coffee and my children were not very keen to run it. They said, dad, until you are running it, we will support you.
We don’t want to run it. And I read a book somewhere. If you love your children, give them money, not the company. That’s how I exited. And I’m very happy that I have exited. No regrets. So, I think if somebody has to give an award in a stage, the best exit award, it will be me only. There is no competition. Well… Amazing. Thank you so much, sir. Thank you so much. I hope you enjoyed every punch of what you didn’t expect will come suddenly. But then… I’m not your competitor, but I believe that you’re value money. Thank you so much. I really enjoyed. It was a long deal. God bless you. Thank you so much. I wish you a long journey, impactful journey.
Transform people. Make sure that… They understand what not to do. There are only a dozen things which you should not do. And there are infinite things which you can learn and do. And these things we must teach people. And don’t be afraid of failure. If you don’t make mistakes, you won’t be able to continue the journey. So, I keep telling people, make mistakes. Make all mistakes. Make them very fast but don’t repeat. If you do every day a new mistake, you are going to be a billionaire. You do the same mistake every day, you are going to be a beggar soon. Good. So, yes, we will meet in many forums. Yes, I do keep traveling a lot of events. We need to. And if there are people who, let’s say, who think maybe they can be a potential entrepreneur, how should they reach you?
Focus.velu Thank you so much for watching this episode till the end. Tell me which was your favorite punchline in this episode? Because if you have watched this episode till the end, then you must have had a lot of favorite parts. Tell me which was your favorite part? And share this episode with any one person whom you want to see moving forward in life or jiski life mein ek positive change aayega is episode, is story ko dekhne ke baat. Until the next episode, keep figuring out and don’t forget to subscribe. "