Create sampada; not just sampatti

Good evening, first of all I would like to congratulate Harshvardhan Bhatkuly and Urvija.  I have known them for a long time and my bond with Harsh is on quizzing. I am a quizzer but Harsh is an outstanding quizzer. He has won many quizzing competitions and that is how I first met him. Since then I have socially known him.

Magazines are thriving. I am not in the magazine business, neither is Harsh in the magazine business. We are in the business of content and audiences that can be digital, video, text or audio. We live in a multimedia world. Ritu Beri talked about Goa, there was an introduction about her but one thing Ritu Beri also represents is entrepreneurship, to be able to marry your craft and to be able to build an enterprise and impact. I also want to acknowledge all the important leaders of Goa, business leaders and leaders from politics who are here.

I do want to say that I believe that human beings give themselves too much credit for their success. I believe that success is because of God’s kindness and benevolence. 18 months ago I read this book called Fluke. It is written by Brian Klass. It is a lovely book. The book basically says that everything is a fluke. It’s serendipity, luck, chance. But human beings give themselves too much credit.

If my father would not have bought the MDI form for me, it would have been a very different journey for me and I can tell you how I started Exchange4media, how I acquired Business World, and how I raised capital. I have stories in my book which will be out this year. It’s called Eight Days.

Entrepreneurship is about loving what you do and doing what you love and not looking at your watch. If you have to look at your watch while you work, you are in the wrong profession, change your profession. I believe entrepreneurship is eight days a week.

Ritu Beri talked about impact and giving back to society. I think she said everything right!

I also know the integrity with which Harsh and his team at Business Goa work. They have been working for the last 17+ years. These awards are also representative of the good work each one of you are doing.

I want to say to all the winners that you should stay away from the three Cs. The first one is ‘Comparison’, which is difficult to avoid because entrepreneurs compare their wealth, valuation, stock price, social media likes, so it’s difficult not to compare but minimising it would help.

Second is ‘Criticism’. We are in the media business. These days we don’t criticise enough. In fact we have another problem: we laud too much. We have become cheerleaders. Our job is exactly the opposite. But I would say that sometimes we criticise individuals and organisations without knowing much about them.

The last C is ‘Complaining’. I rarely complain. I can not say I am at zero. But whatever happens, happens. I feel I am blessed, I say what I have to say and I move on.

The three ‘H’s, all the winners. Some of them are very young. I would say these three ‘H’s that I have embraced in my life.

First is ‘Hardwork’. My parents are academicians. My father and my late mother. They both studied in good institutions. Whatever you focus on grows and hard work is about focus.

Second is ‘Humility’. We live in a collaborative world. Internally and externally, if you run associations or companies, you have to collaborate with every stakeholder within your company and outside your company, the government especially if you have a larger enterprise. If you are humble, collaboration is easier. If you are intimidating, people don’t come to you with ideas or criticisms which could be collaborative.

The last H which I believe is the most important H and I live and thrive on it. That is ‘Hope’. I wake up every morning hoping that today will be better than yesterday. I hope every war ends, both in the Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine war.

I want to end by saying that over the few weeks I have added the three Gs to my three Cs and three Hs. I believe that these Gs are most important. Over the years, I have realised that the only G that matters that matters is ‘Gratitude’. So my gratitude to Harsh for inviting me here Gratitude is the most important thing.

The second G is ‘Grit’. Sometimes Grit is forced on us. Not that we want to be gritty but sometimes you have no choice than being gritty. So the most impressive thing for an entrepreneur in life is Grit.

The last G is ‘Grace’. I keep saying that grace will take you to more places than hustle will. So I hope Grace is bestowed upon you, all the winners, Business Goa family, My Goa family and the state of Goa.

I wish you luck and I hope you not only created selfish wealth which I call sampatti; but you create shared wealth which I call sampada. My hope is that all the winners at tonight’s Business Goa Awards will create sampada and not just sampatti.

Thank you all