The Accidental Entrepreneur

Lying on his bed  on that Wednesday afternoon in the December of 2003, Ramki felt acutely anxious.

What am I going to do now, he wondered.

About a month ago, he had taken a long leave from his well paying job as the Regional Manager of a well known Pharmaceutical Company. He had no intention of going back. He did not have a job in hand before he took this drastic decision. His manager had been ill-treating him for over a year. The final straw was when he was transferred to another state in what Ramki considered was a 'Punishment Transfer'. No self-respecting professional could take that insult.

He was 38. His wife was a home maker and he had two children, the youngest barely two years old. In addition, his mother was staying with him. His eldest daughter, the apple of his eye, was studying in a school nearby and he was living in a rental apartment in the Southern part of Bangalore.

Having rent to pay and a family of young and old to take care of, comforting his worried wife...

... with no job in hand and no prospects in the horizon...

Ramki, as I said before, was acutely anxious.

He was born and did his studies in Kerala. As a tall, lanky young man, he had excelled in Cricket in his college days. He earned reputation as a fiery pace bowler and had represented his university in Cricket...

Only problem? He did not focus much on his studies. He was more into sports.  

In India of those days, only grades mattered. It did not matter if you were good at anything else. The poor country did not have many jobs to offer. And for those it did, the competition was fierce. There were thousands of candidates for every job. In this situation, the grades were the only differentiator in getting a job.

Or, you should have a 'pull',  you should know someone very important, a VIP as they call in India who could recommend you for government job openings. Private sector jobs were hardly available. Government was the only employer in those days.

Ramki neither had grades nor he knew anyone

His elder brother was a top performer throughout his school and college days and had moved to US to pursue his higher studies. Ramki was always in the enviable position of being compared, negatively, with his star elder brother.

Being the target of comparison is tough. Being a younger brother to an illustrious elder brother is very difficult (I guess my brothers wont have that problem. I was never good at studies, except occasionally, and my parents have no idea of when I excelled and when I flunked)

A sharp, handsome, intelligent and athletic person like Ramki to succeed he needed some 'significant elder', either a parent or teacher or a village elder to believe in him. Some people are lucky, they find such inspiring mentor at an early age and their life changes often dramatically.

Ramki did not have any such mentor.

People like Ramki are like Petrol engines. Everything is available, tank is full, engine is shaped up, but the car is dirty. There should be someone to clean the car and ignite the spark for the engine to start and accelerate.

Without that cleaning and without that spark the car will not realize its potential. It will lie idle and gradually wear out.

Ramki was that car with a potential waiting for someone to ignite that spark. Sadly there was no one.

Ramki is my age. That means he must have graduated around 1985.

After the graduation, he did not get any job for two years. He must have been depressed about not getting a job after graduation. To his credit he did not turn to drugs or alcohol. Kerala still records the highest level of depression in India and the highest per capita consumption of alcohol in the country. It would have been easy for Ramki to fall into bad habits to cover the stress that he must have been going through. But he did not. I am sure Cricket must have helped.

Ramki agrees. He was a member of a Cricket Club in Trivandrum, quaintly named MCC (Murugan Cricket Club) and his friends in the club acted as his pillars of support during those trying times.

In 1987 Ramki finally landed a job as a sales representative, called Medical Representative or simply Medical Rep with a leading pharma company. His job was to sell medicines to various hospitals and pharmacies. The target audience were the doctors. The hospitals and pharmacies will stock only based on the Doctor's recommendation.

To succeed in his job, he had to learn about the properties of each medicine and how they will help combat the specific illness that it targets. A good medical rep has to learn a lot about human body, nature of illness, competitive products in the market and make a case for why their medicines are the best in the market.

Being sharp and intelligent helped Ramki grow quickly in the trade. He changed multiple companies and in 2001 had joined the current company as Regional Manager.

His manager was a short fellow, highly insecure and always jealous of Ramki. He frequently took credit for Ramki's ideas and ridiculed him in front of his peers and colleagues and even his bosses.

The final straw was when he was transferred to a remote area in another state.

Ramki couldn't take it anymore. He had about six months of accumulated leave and a few lakhs of savings in his bank account. He applied for a long leave having no intention to return to the job.

38 years old, without a job and with a family of young and old who depended on him.

Future looked bleak.

Talking to me now, after 20 years, Ramki is sanguine about what he had been through. "Let me tell you Ramaswamy (He is only one of the very few people who call me by my full name) what our elders have told us is absolutely correct. Life is full of ups and downs. Every downturn has to invariably reverse. Twenty years ago I was depressed and did not have any income. Now I am financially comfortable. As they say 'this too shall pass'. That is something that one should never forget"

That is wisdom in rear view mirror. In early 2003, Ramki was very anxious about his future.

The turnaround in his life started at Chennai Railway Station. There he met Suresh, his childhood friend.

"I have taken the India distribution rights for a European product called 'Polish-O' used for polishing of automobiles like cars and bikes. I am looking for regional partners. Are you interested?" Suresh asked him.

Ramki asked for two days time to decide. He did not take two days. Next day he called Suresh and expressed interest in the partnership.

Quick decision making has been one of his strong points. Given multiple decision points, Ramki analyses and decides quickly.

Within a week carton loads of Polish-O had landed up at his home.

Ramki was lucky. In 2003, Indian Auto market was at the cusp of explosion. There was a lot of pent up demand for automobiles and for products like Polish-O that catered to this market.

The key task was to educate the target audience on the benefits of this product. Ramki identified that Automotive dealers were the best Target Audience for this product. They were the distributors of four and two wheeler companies.

"The service supervisor is the key. For an average customer, he is the expert. If he recommends our product, customers will buy. My plan was for my mechanic to be available at each dealership to polish the vehicle using our product"

12 years of educating the Target Audience (doctors) on the features of his product came handy. His communication skills along with his obvious sincerity was enough to open doors at many dealerships.

Initial days were tough. Ramki and Manju (a young man he recruited to support him) used to lug their product to the distributors to showcase the usage of the product and its efficacy.

"I remember going on my bike to various dealers to canvas business. Once I got some, I and Manju will go and demo the product and its application"

Polish-O was a quality product and it sold itself. They polished many vehicles as a part of the demo.

"I became an expert at Polish-O application", Ramki reminisced.

Ramki's cousin was the head of a well known two-wheeler retailer in Bangalore. He helped Ramki establish brand Polish-O in Bangalore in the initial days.

Ramki's company, ‘Autocare Solutions' was incorporated on April 17, 2003.

The business slowly picked up. Milestones started accomplishing themselves. His first commercial order, first 50000 rupees revenue in a month, first 100000 per month...

Ramki fondly remembers each milestone.

"Hitting one lakh rupees sales in a month was a high watermark. I still remember the first time it happened"

He has an elephant like memory.

Gradually business expanded. Over the years three more partners joined the team.

"Partners give a different perspective to the business and their contribution is a key reason for business growth.  We follow collective decision making in our company. Once in office all the four partners are equal."

Ramki has a lot of respect for his partners. He says that his company has gained a lot of value out of this partnership.

"Why did you name your company as Autocare?"

"One afternoon I was lying on the bed thinking about a name for the company. I was under some pressure because we wanted to name the company on that day. The TV was on and I just dozed off. When I woke up they were showing the ad of Bajaj Auto. Then I decided that Autocare was a good name since my company will focus on the Auto Market. I bounced off with a couple of friends whose views I respected and they all liked the name. Thus Autocare Solutions was born", Ramki replied proudly.

I felt let down by this explanation. Was I expecting a more romantic reason? Sort of like Newton and his apple?

I don't know.

Starting off with just two employees in 2003, his company today employs about 140 employees and is doing a business of about a crore per month.

"To think that I started off by doing 20000 rupees per month", Ramki was thoughtful.

He established Polish-O as a leading brand in Karnataka. It still remains his flagship product.

The rest of the revenue is from their proprietary products.

"We manufacture our own products and sell them. We have a product to coat the exhaust pipe. We also have an engine coating solution"

The cash flow from his business has helped him to invest in other companies. Recently he invested in a company in Africa producing Sugar Substitute. The company is still in its infancy.

In 2003 it must have been desperation that goaded Ramki to start his company. Of course, he took the opportunity when it presented itself. But to grow the company consistently over the years takes a special something. After all the world is full of entrepreneurs who tried and gave up. Successful entrepreneurs have a different mental makeup.

Psychologist Angela Duckworth calls it 'Grit'. She defines 'Grit' as 'Passion and sustained persistence applied towards long-term achievement with no particular concern for rewards and recognition along the way'. As per her, Grit contains resilience, ambition and self-control in the pursuit of goals that take months, years or even decades.

"In my early days of business, I used to travel all over Bangalore on my two-wheeler. I developed severe back-pain and was bedridden for three days. My wife freaked out, but I pacified her. I had to make my company work" he recalled those difficult days.

He has tonnes of grit for sure.

There are three types of entrepreneurship. I call them Inherited Entrepreneurship, Deliberate Entrepreneurship and Serendipitous (Accidental) Entrepreneurship. You need to put hard-work into each of them. In inherited entrepreneurship you could become a success like Mukesh Ambani or a failure. Accidental Entrepreneurship is the one with the least chance of success.

The accidental entrepreneur neither inherited a business nor deliberately set out to start one. Perhaps he never knew that he was cut out for business. Due to a set of circumstances he is forced to start a new business. He doesn't know the ropes, has to put his trust in his abilities and soldier on. Never giving up.

When you talk to Ramki, he makes setting up and running a business look very easy. “Today we signed a contract with a new customer. This will give us sustained revenue over the next three years”, he will casually mention during our morning walk. Or, “We are opening up a new branch in Kasargod District in Kerala”, he will say

He will make running a business look as easy as 1-2-3.

What we don’t see is the hundreds of hours of toil and sweat that has gone into it in the initial years as he was battling uncertainty, self-doubt, anxiety and worry. And the countless number of times he ignored that big voice in the mind that told him to give up.

 He fought on. He did not give up.

There are four elements to success. First is the attractiveness of the Goal. The goal must be attractive enough for you to even consider it. Second is the Clarity of Goal. The more clear and specific the goal is for you, more the chances that you will succeed. Third element is your confidence that by putting effort you can achieve the goal. The goal must look achievable.

And focused effort. Hours and hours of it.

You can’t do it unless all of them work together.

Success = Goal Attractiveness Quotient X Goal Clarity Quotient X Goal Achievability Quotient X Effort Quotient

(This is a formula that I developed just now)

Most people do not even enter into the formula. You ask them ‘What do you want?’ and they won’t have an answer. They don't have any goals to pursue, forget about attractive goals. Most of those remaining, stop at step one. ‘I want this or that’, they will say. If you ask them ‘what is your plan to achieve it?’ they have no answer. Without that you will not even move to the next step. Without that, your goals will remain as they really are, vague dreams.

That is where grit comes in. You need to take an attractive goal, trust yourself and get going.

That is the only way. There are no shortcuts.

There is no activity more noble than giving sustained employment to other people in need. A job can build self-respect and can provide for multiple generations.

Sustained employment needs a sustained business. Anyone can become an entrepreneur. The trick is to stay as an entrepreneur. It takes a person like Ramki, with that special something turn a 'business' into a 'sustained one'.

Not everyone can do that.