Today morning while returning from the airport after dropping my brother, I gave a lift to a very young man who was on his way to play cricket at the Pune University. As usual, my curiosity to listen to what’s up in a strangers life led to a very interesting discussion.
He was about 24, with some minimal education, and came from a low-middle class background working in a factory doing some mundane data entry job. His company is now reeling under the impact of recession, and he expects to get laid off in another 2 months.
However he is very smart. Soon after getting his job he setup a Xerox (Copier) shop for his mom, and then a garment shop for his sister. He is the VC for both the ventures by taking loans on his meager salary, and both shops are doing very well. If laid off, he expects to spend more time in his business and make it bigger.
I was amazed. Three years back when there was a boom in the market he was smart enough to start ventures which now is saving him when he losses the job.
The first thing that came to my mind was how different are the most IT (and other highly paid) engineers are. We are all busy blowing up whatever money we make in multiplexes, malls, cars, hotels, etc, without bothering about saving for the rainy day.
~Sri
Good one - Lessons sometimes come from the most unlikely places.
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