I am more excited than ever.
The reason?
You 🫵🏻 my HERO. Your feedback about my last issue pumped me up to write more and write better.
You have been of great motivation and I need a favour from you.
If you like my writing, help me spread the word.
If you can share the newsletter with somebody who you think would like it, please do that 🙏🏻. I'll be grateful.
To thank you I have a surprise for you in the end but for now let's get in.
It's 1950.
A middle class family where father is a school teacher, earning just enough to take care of their daily needs.
Their third child, a young man with big dreams is living his life in a small village called Chorwad in Gujarat, India.
Shall we call him D for now?
Okay!
D isn't good at studies.
The result? His grades are bad in school.
But who cares.
Nobody can stop a person with a dream and some conviction.
D has always wanted to do business.
But something doesn't seem right — the limitations he sees around him, especially in the business world.
"Nah, things can be done better."
He packs his bags and moves to Aden, Yemen. Exploring. Learning the ropes of life.
He starts getting his real world education on the ground. As a clerk in a trading firm. At a gas station.
Though he is doing job for his living, the desire of starting his own business is still burning hard inside.
In fact if you think about it, by doing these jobs, he is actually learning all the nodes of a business graph.
Sales and purchases, marketing, distribution, customer acquisition and money management. You name it.
A true Master of Business Administration.
D comes back to India where he gets married to a simple household lady.
She is going to be her support system for all his ups and downs. D shares everything with her, about his work, his projects. He even encourages her to learn English and be involved as much.
The now married D goes back to Yemen with his wife for a brief period, only to return to India to finally start living his dreams.
"Let's start our own business now."
Together with his cousin, who borrows him ₹ 15,000, he kicks off Reliance Commercial Corporation, a business firm that starts exporting spices.
❓By now you must have guessed who D is.
No? Read along.
Sure this wasn't a unique idea. Many exporters were already making money that time.
But D sees a gap there...
...the complaints by the foreign importers.
"The supplies from India are of lower quality than promised"
To build his reputation among them, he offers to give up payment in case the quality is subpar.
The goal is simple. To export every possible commodity from India and become a king of commodity exports.
But the commodity business is going to doom and something else needs to be done.
D enters into textile industry by learning about yarn.
Shortage of money, differences with his partner-cousin, borrowing money from contractors and even mortgaging his wife's jewel to secure a loan. D has seen it all.
"I am here to make a difference"
It's 1966 when Reliance Commercial Corporation is renamed to Reliance Textiles Engineering Private Limited and the fabric is sold as Reliance Fabric.
Wholesalers, for the fear of annoying mill owners, stop purchasing clothing from D.
This handling of the situation is not going to be easy when you are producing 5000 meter fabric every single day.
D decides to come out of this trouble by directly selling fabric to retailers — no promises attached.
He will visit them personally with samples and confirm orders.
Impressed by D's style of work, retailers started buying and sales go up again.
But...
the journey is never smooth when regulations are tight. The real temperament is tested when you have to swim against the wave.
"I am not backing down"
It's 1975, the company is renamed to Reliance Industries Limited and the brand Vimal is introduced that takes Indian textile by storm.
Soon it becomes a household brand in India.
In 1977 the company goes public and launches its first IPO.
People's trust in D grows so much that close to 58K middle class investors invest in it; 7x oversubscribed.
Obstacles keep showing up - politics, regulations - but D?
He's like, "Bring it on."
He takes on petrochemicals, refining, and even telecom with Reliance Infocomm.
In 1986 he faces a paralysis attack in his right hand and decides to hand-over his business to his two sons Mukesh and Anil.
On 6th July 2002, the Indian gem leaves the world.
The man was Indian business magnet Dhirubhai Ambani.
Today Reliance Industries is the biggest Indian Conglomerate by market capitalization with a net revenue of over $100B
From a small village to a business mogul, Dhirubhai Ambani changed the rules of the game.
He is an inspiration, showing everyone that with grit, dreams, and a dash of audacity, anything is possible.
⭐ Fun Fact
Bollywood movie "Guru" starring Abhishek Bachchan is loosely based on the life of Dhirubhai Ambani. Watch it in your leisure. It's a good watch.
💡Did you know?
Shoe Dog was a nickname given to Phil Knight by his colleagues after seeing his relentless pursuit of creating and selling running shoes, which he considered his way of life.
🧩Can you guess this word?
Put your brains to test and guess the word 👇🏻. If you crack it, reply to this email. Your name will be featured in the next issue along with a link to your profile.
Between challenges and goals, it is the guide,
Plans entwined, by wisdom's side.
Decisions to weigh or moves in a game
Eight is the length and a short sub-word says the same
🙋🏻♂️ My Corner
I am currently working on two major client projects. The most exciting of them at this point is the one innovative word game that we are creating.
It's going to be different from the word games you have played so far. Still testing it before it goes live.
The other one is under NDA, so can't disclose about it much, but it's related to storage and it's a SaaS.
🎁 Have you started building your email list?
Content economy is growing. The conventional ways to attract audiences will no longer work.
In the coming years your personal brand will matter as much as your business brand.
People judge a book by its cover and for your business you are that cover. Make sure you have a way to connect with your audience outside of the social media platforms.
You know, just in case your social account gets blocked! Because earlier or later platform risk is real!
Therefore start making email lists if you haven't already.
To make things easier for my subscribers, I am giving away lifetime access to Authority plan on profiley so that you can start building your email lists straightaway.
Go ahead and setup your FREE profile now and I'll FREE upgrade you to Authority plan FOREVER.
Just reply to this email with your profile URL. I will have to manually upgrade your plan, as I've not implemented any automations for that at this point.
🕜 Coming up in the next issue
- A lady who defied all the odds to become a successful entrepreneur
🙏🏻Calling it the wraps
If you like this issue, forward this email to your friends (or if you are reading it on web, please share link).
Reply to me right in this email to share your suggestions or to just catch up.
I would be tremendously obliged if you are the reason behind this newsletter's growth.
You are most welcome to follow me on Twitter. There we will have a blast together.
Take care of your family and make the best of your time.
Till next issue🫡
Anshul
