It was clear to me, early on, that my calling was in business. I did not graduate with a medical degree or was a lawyer. Enterprise, therefore, was my calling. But I was very clear that the mantra of success lies just in these two lines, “Doing what you like and loving what you do.”

I was very clear I had chosen a path which I love every moment of. And that is one advice, I would like to give to my young friends here, who are graduating here tonight. To ensure that you are doing what you love in doing what you like. Never accept the situation where you have to like or love what you are doing. There was a time when our parents would aspire us to become doctors, lawyers, engineers and many of us, many of my own peers were kind of pushed or nudged into those areas to which they were enjoined for the rest of their lives. Only mediocrity comes out of such moves. Thankfully, in today’s world, you can choose what you want to do. Just being merely doctors, lawyers and engineers are not the only professions left for you to choose. There are great many more professions. Today you can choose what you want to be. There are different branches which have come out of variety of streams of enterprise. Today you see enterprise coming out of almost nothing like Microsoft and more, even more importantly, companies like Google which are some of the largest companies I am talking about. That gives you an idea, an idea of power, an idea of the power of thought. And very little capital. Both Sergey and Larry Page, drop outs from Stanford, Bill Gates drop out from Harvard went on to build successful companies, perhaps one of the most successful companies that we will witness in decades. So, the world has changed and the good news is that the world is accepting this change and is allowing people to take interest in the areas that they would like to build their successes upon.

For me, as I said, it was in the area of enterprise. Coming out of 1976 I saw the pole positions taken up by the Birlas, the Tatas, the Dalmiyas , the Thapars and those in my own city, the Hero cycles, the Ostwald Vitriols and I was told time and again that all the grand stand positions are gone. I could pick a petrol station, pick up a car agency do some small enterprises. There was enough small scale enterprises flourishing in Ludhiana making bicycle parts but clearly, having dabbled in some of those activity for a few years I was very clear that one could push forward and create something fairly big.

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