While penning about the tide in the affairs of men, Shakespeare was referring to opportunities which never knock twice on the same door. Their importance lies in the fact that they differentiate winners from losers. “I don’t want people to be intimidated or flummoxed by opportunities or dejected by lack of it. I want to motivate them through success stories of those who seized available options,” says Richard M. Rothman. The Founder and Managing Director of OpenMind Opportunity Consultancy P. Ltd., has done precisely this in his book Master Opportunity and Make It Big (Jaico).
The former US Trade Commissioner in India, Italy and Indonesia was fascinated by opportunity. “During my work, I met several top businessmen and candidly asked them how they made it big. What I learnt, I have put in this book.” Being based in India, he chose 18 phenomenal Indian businessmen to bare their approach to success. “A million copies of ‘Think And Grow Rich’ by Napoleon Hill sells a year here. Written 80 years ago, to my mind, it is not appropriate for Indians when the country is replete with numerous successful entrepreneurs. Instead of adopting a biographical format in the book, I have highlighted how these 18 persons, identified, evaluated and implemented opportunities.”
Written in a lucid style and language, the book is packed with several interesting anecdotes like the one in first chapter on Subhash Chandra, Essel Group founder. “He inspired me a lot. He said most people find opportunity far too complicated to handle. Sharing his story, he told me once his landlord offered to lend his car with full petrol tank to enjoy an outing. Deciding to finish a pending work, he and his roommates took off, realising later that they were running out of petrol. It is then that Chandra converted an opportunity into reality by solving a series of problems. Seeing people waiting at a bus stop he offered them to drop those going towards his destination for money. He not only completed his to and fro journey but made extra for a nice dinner and whiskey.”
The book includes persons from diverse fields like media, finance, real estate, hospitality and health sector, etc. “Each of them besides exhibiting necessary traits like self-awareness, passion, responsibility, determination, an open mind, learning discipline and others, bring to the table something special,” explains Rothman.
He cites the example of Uday Kotak, Kotak Mahindra Bank founder and chairman, who instead of treading the beaten track took his chances. “Instead for opting for his family business of agricultural commodities he decided to pursue his passion for finance and started in a 300 sq feet office. Realising a glaring dichotomy of banks paying six per cent interest on deposits while charging 17 per cent on loans, he borrowed from friends by paying them more and lending people at a lesser interest. Getting the first mover advantage, he did well. Later he moved to car finance business, looking at the market from the consumer’s perspective. Finding cars in short supply, he booked them in thousands. He was able to compete with Citibank by offering customers immediate delivery of the car, along with financing on the same terms as Citibank.”
Sense of service
While emphasising on acumen to encash opportunities, Rothman has taken pains to stress on certain other qualities vital for success. “The foremost business attribute is a sense of service, that is identifying customers’ needs and fulfilling them to their satisfaction. There are no short cuts. The fly-by-night operator wanting to be rich overnight never succeeds. Hence I chose Surendra Hiranandani, passionate and dedicated approach to adding greater value to the lives of his clients which is reflected in the world-class places he has developed. The same holds true for Vithal Kamat who has established over 550 restaurants and hotels across the world. Instead of usual lip service in hospitality industry, he is committed to offering quality food and accommodation at a reasonable rate.”
Continuing in the same vein, Rothman states on the need to be humane. In order to highlight this, he took Dr. Yusuf Hamied’s case, the driving force behind Cipla, one of the country’s largest pharmaceutical companies. “Driving his own car and spurring luxuries even today, he leads a humble life with the sole purpose of saving millions of lives. His journey demonstrates how economically beneficial ventures need not be incompatible with social benefit.”
Making the book a truly self-help one, Rothman after describing the 18 personalities, ends with the chapter, ‘Forty-four Opportunity Sutras’. “I consider India, the land of greatest opportunities for the next 40 years in diverse fields, and therefore included sections on opportunity accelerators, activators, evaluators and expediters. These are helpful not just for business but in daily life where we are inundated with options,” he sums up.
