5 Lesson From The Life of Indian Billionaire Dhirubhai Ambani.
There were two friends,
first friend: “I don’t like studying but want to earn a lot in my life, not understanding what I should do, thinking to do business.” Second friend: “Really you want to do business, don’t be a fool, study well do a job, not everyone can be a Ford.”
If Dhirubhai Ambani would have listened to others, then I wouldn’t be writing this story for him. In fact, is Dhirubhai Ambani was also like us, he was a normal boy like us, and even he wasn’t that interested in studies, in fact, he never went college but still, he becomes one of the richest and the most popular man in India. His company was India’s first Private Limited Company which came under Forbes 500 List Dhirubhai Ambani Build $1.01billion Rupees Business Empire in his life and Its present value is more than $200 billion. he builds such a huge empire that too 25 years ago
Now instead of getting jealous of his huge success and money, you should ask some questions to yourself that how he made such big success possible, how Dhirubhai achieved all this by starting through a small room, what all things and principles he followed and achieve so much success in his life?
So I will share his five success habits and lessons out of many, which helped him to achieve so much in life and even you can achieve a lot by following those success habits.
1. DBBSS
Before sharing its meaning and full form, first would like to share the story of Dhirubhai Ambani.
Dhirubhai Ambani was a school teacher’s son, but as I said before he wasn’t that interested in studies, but that doesn’t mean that he never wanted to do anything in his life. In fact, once he told his mom that one day I will earn a lot of money. Sometimes they used to face financial problems at home, which wasn’t liked by Dhirubhai Ambani. Therefore Dhirubhai Ambani used to always think about earning money. Once he bought a box of groundnut oil from the nearest wholesale store. and as a Retailer, he sells that groundnut oil to people on the street. From which he earned profit and that money he gave it to his mother. He learns the value of the business since he was a kid, hence at the age of 12 or 13 he used to sell pakora. At the age of 17, he got a chance to go to Yaman Country, in the hope of earning more he went to Yaman. In Yaman he worked on a petrol pump, some sources say that he even works as a clerk for several years. But some situations arose and he returned to India and this was the biggest turning point of his life. When he comes to India he started chasing his childhood dreams.
So from the above story, we get a lesson that is D B B S S means DREAM BIG BUT START SMALL
See most people come under two categories, the first type of people never think big, they just go with the flow the way life is taking them, they flow with it, job studies, they never think big. On the Other side, there is the second type of people, who juts dream big, like il do this that and blah blah, but in reality they never able to do anything big in their lives because they have very unrealistic goals. You shouldn’t be like them, be Like Dhirubhai, always think big, think as big as you can, but start small, set small goals, and expect small results. Don’t think to be a billionaire at the start, think about business and it’s small profits because ones you learn to earn profit from the small business then it will become easy for you to earn more.
2. SKILL Over Education
Dhirubhai became a billionaire without going college or without any degree because he gave more value to skill compare to education. He didn’t complete his studies that don’t mean he wasn’t learning anything. In fact, when he was working in Yaman there he does some extra work and learned accounting, bookkeeping, learned to prepare shipping papers, and also learned to deal with insurance companies. Because of which his negotiation skill improved a lot, which helped him in his business. Hence always remember that it's really important for you to have skills and talent, you can’t be rich just by taking a degree or just by thinking about business, you must have some skills and talent, by which you can run your business profitably.
I saw an interview of Apple CEO Tim cook, in that interview, he cleared the myth that they don’t create their products in china because they work in low amount, or because there is cheap labor, actually cheap labor was almost ended there, but they and many big companies create their product in China because they have great skill. Chinese people have skill and talent and they give the best output in lesser time. Hence if we want to be like China or like Ambani then it is important to be skillful, should try to become the best-skilled man, whatever work we do, we should be best at it.
3. Quality Rules
Another principle of Dhirubhai was his best product quality, which was also the biggest reason for his success. Dhirubhai always focused on Quality, when Dhirubhai returned to India with juts $6.65 rupees, with that money he started Spices business, to earn more with such low investment, he could sell a low-quality product just like other businessmen, but he didn’t do that because his motive was LOW-PROFIT MARGIN, HIGH-QUALITY, but in HIGH VOLUME.
This means selling more product with good quality no matter if gets low profit. With such policy, he started selling his spices, not in India but to gulf countries as well. Many people used to buy from him because he had a great quality product. When he shifted to Yarn business, even there he focused on quality and created VIMAL Brand, which becomes a popular fashion brand. When he kept his own mills in Ahmedabad, even there he used the world’s best mills, so that can give the best quality products, with such high quality, world band gave him an excellent certificate, which was developed country’s level. Even in India’s struggling time, he created excellent and world-class quality products, which was of developed country's standards.
Most people think of achieving a college degree, thinks of becoming a doctor, engineer, and some thinks of business and earning a lot of money by fooling people and never focus on skills or quality of their products. However, this approach is wrong. You must have noticed that today there’s not much value of degrees but skill has more value, hence if you want to be rich then your work and your product quality should be the best, then only you’ll be rich like Ambani because you can’t fool people every time.
for ones they’ll use your product but won’t come back again and again, hence have quality.
4. Beating Problems
When Dhirubhai was starting his own mill at that time he faced a lot many problems. In 1965 his partnership was broken and was opening his factory single-handedly, because of which he used to do weekly up down from Mumbai to Ahmedabad to sort out issues, and in 1966 suddenly rupee value started decreasing because of which his expenses increased but still he didn’t give up and able to start his factory and started manufacturing cloth. Now clothes were getting manufactured but wholesalers were not ready to buy cloth from him, because dominating players, people who were already doing the same business, those businessmen were said wholesalers, not to buy Dhirubhai’s clothes, this was a huge problem. So what Dhirubhai did, did he quit, did he gave up because of dominating players power?
No, Dhirubhai Ambani didn’t give up, he himself started selling his clothes to retailers. He went from one retailer shop to another, everybody started liking him because his product quality was very good and he was a stubborn and gutsy man and this way VIMAL Brand started getting publicity. Dhirubhai used to fight with all problems by being consistent, he didn’t only face human problems but also faced nature problems, once he and his company faced flood problem and also earthquake problem. When everything was going perfectly fine, suddenly cyclone hit in Jamnagar and he has to close his factory, at that time Dhirubhai again fought with that problem with all courage. When experts were saying that his work completion will take 3 months that same work he completed in just 3 weeks that too with the same budget not only this he suffered from a paralytic stroke in 1986, but still, he fought with that too and made Reliance India’s biggest business house. The reason for saying all this is because many people give up in life very easily, forget fighting with natural calamities, some people get defeated by small problems, and blame luck and destiny. But Dhirubhai Ambani Wasn’t like this, and even you shouldn’t be like such people. No matter how many problems arise in your life, always remember your goals, and should achieve your goals no matter what happens.
5. Dream Big Fast and ahead
Dhirubhai was getting profit in Spices business but still, he started with a polyester business why? Because he used to think big, fast, and used to think about the future. He saw good scope in the textile line hence he started with yarn trading. After making it successful he started with petrochemicals then to communication, reliance gas, etc. He made a successful business in every field. Where many people think that why they should sell any part of their business to others, it’s my hard work and investment, etc, means many people think small, slow, and just about today. But Dhirubhai used to think the opposite of it.
For example, in 1977 Dhirubhai launched IPO first time in India, he knew that he won’t be able to create a huge business by his own money of single-handedly. Therefore he started selling his companies shares, when he was doing it, 58 thousand investors came to him to buy his shares, which was a huge record by itself, now result from all this was Reliance company was 3 percent GDP OF INDIA, 5 percent of India’s total Export and 10 percent indirect revenue used to come from Reliance. See many people go through this, that they think about some idea related to business, but fail to take action to that idea and after some time they see that some other person has implemented their idea and is doing very great in life. Now this happens because people are very slow, slow in thinking, and in taking action. Don’t be like that, you think big, think fast, and think of the future. If want to be like Ambani
Do remember Dhirubhai’s this quote “ only when you can dream it, then only you can do it.”
these were 5 lessons which I have learned from The Book Written on Dhirubhai “Corporate Guru”.If you want to learn more then you can read that book.
Thanks for reading.
This article is for informational purposes only. It should not be considered Financial or Legal Advice. Not all information will be accurate. Consult a financial professional before making any significant financial decisions
