As a child, I had a front track and back of the mind track. In the front track, Entrepreneurship was an unthinkable thought, nobody in the family was an entrepreneur, and business was sort of looked down upon.
But on the backtrack, I envisioned myself as a businessman. Since a very young age, I used to read business pages and business newspapers. There was a certain attraction towards tycoons. I used to see them as the people who drive the world. I always saw businesses as stories.
During my MBA, I laid my hands upon Business Maharajas, by Gita Piramal, and the seed was sown. I started thinking about business ideas, and I thought about starting a Cafe. So I just used to visit coffee shops, used to order a coffee, and sat there, observing and absorbing the atmosphere. After my MBA, I walked-in into one of the branches of IDBI and asked the Branch Manager for a loan of Rs 50 lakhs. I didn't have any Collateral Security, but I spoke to him very confidently.
He said he couldn't write a check, but he told me that he liked my confidence and the fact that at such a young age, I want to do business. This was Indore. I worked for Bisleri for 2 months, then left the city for Mumbai.
As the first business, we used to organize business-to-business trade shows and conferences, for different industries. That means you have to study that particular industry and understand the complete ecosystem of the industry. We worked very closely with the Knowledge Consulting firm Deloitte, which used to be the Knowledge Partner for all our shows. That business gave me a strong foundation, and an ability to understand different businesses.
The biggest challenge was when we started the business of organizing trade shows and we had no money.
In trade shows business, clients pay you close to the Show, but you have overheads throughout. So we had to walk on a tightrope. But I learned from this challenge and mastered the process.
My message to everyone would be: As an entrepreneur, don't be too serious, and Have Fun.