From achievers to leaders to the glamorous, in this web series, Outlook Money brings you the views on money matters from some of India’s most influential. Several of the New Year’s resolutions made this year may have been already broken. But who says you need to wait for planetary revolution to make new decisions that can make tomorrow slightly better than today? Inspiration can come from anyone at anytime. These individuals, each a leader in their respective field, talks about their life, both financial and personal, and lets us know what it takes to make it big in this beautifully scary world. We hope their wisdom empowers you to know how to better secure your financial future.
Success is a continuing journey
“Success is not a fixed destination but a continuing journey,” says K Ganesh, the serial entrepreneur responsible for several of India’s successful startups like bigbasket.com, portea.com, homelane.com and so on. “I have been lucky so far to have had a few good outcomes but every game is a new one and like they say in financial instruments—past performance is not indicative of future returns,” he says.
To him, money is important to the extent that it lets him do what he wants to do. Money gives him the freedom to choose how he spends his time. “It has never been a motivating factor because coming from a middle class family, my needs and expectations were very modest. I am grateful for being able to afford the many conveniences money can buy,” he says.
“I feel beyond basic level of needs, money loses its charm as it does not, in any way, change your lifestyle, how you live or what you eat. But if the basic level is not met, it can be de-motivating and can cripple your choices regarding how you wish to live your life,” he says.
According to him, there are some common themes that have always worked for him. He says, “one has to focus on what game you want to play and what field you want to operate in. Then there is the rule of 3—every plan takes three times the effort, three times the capital, three times longer.” He firmly believes that one cannot achieve overnight success. He says,“Have fun and don’t take yourself too seriously—most of the outcome is not in our hands; Get lucky and pray!”
