Shri Gautam Adani

Success is more multi-faceted than any other single identity. The life of the Indian business tycoon Mr. Gautam Adani reflects this simple truth with great vigour and vitality. Success is generally considered to be dependent upon many factors like good education, supportive family background, some monetary inheritance from the ancestors, compassionate upbringing with a moderately healthy circle of friends and general groups of people one moves in and feels close to, and the likes of the rosy pictures that are painted by the traditional way of thinking. One thing that is overlooked in most cases, well, remains just overlooked is the fact that all the situations mentioned above have more often than not resulted in just moderate to good success levels. Generation of supreme levels of success has always been in defiance of these situations. This is evident if we observe the general rags to riches stories from anywhere around the globe.

The present story of ours, which revolves around the life of Mr. Gautam Adani is also no different from the rest. It is extraordinary in many ways as it too defies all the conservative thought process that goes behind the creation of moderate success. It too, is the story of supreme success generated against all odds and moreover by moving against the tide and times.

Mr. Gautam Adani is the Chairman of the Adani Group, a leading Trading and Export Company of India. Recently the Forbes magazine recognized him as the 10thrichest Indian person, in the International market with the net worth estimated at $9.3 billion. The people of the city of Ahmedabad in the state of Gujarat were jubilant because of this declaration as it placed their city on the world map, with Adani becoming the first person from Ahmedabad to reach this mind boggling figure.

Mr. Gautam Adani was born on June 24, 1962 to Mr. Shantilal and Mrs. Shantaben, who had migrated to Ahmedabad from the smaller city of Tharad, in search of means to earn a decent living for their eight children. Needless to say, that the money conditions were very tight. A young Gautam, all of eighteen years of age came to the city of dreams, Mumbai, in order to be able to fulfil all the dreams his sharp had conjured up for himself. The odds were against him, the chips were down, but his mind was focussed on achieving greater goals that would remove the worries about money, once and for all out from his family. He dropped out of the Gujarat University, where he was pursuing second year for his Bachelor's Degree in Commerce. Prior to dropping out of the University, he was an average student at the school, Seth CN Vidyalaya in Ahmedabad.

In Mumbai he worked as a diamond sorter at Mahindra Brothers. He was a quick learner in the sense that just after spending two years with them he set up his own diamond brokerage outfit at Zaveri Bazaar, the biggest jeweler bazaar of the city, and in all probability of the country also. It was there that he made his first Hundred Thousand Rupees. In 1981, true to the family spirit of enterprise, for which the Gujarati community is known worldwide, his elder brother Mansukhbhai bought a plastics unit in Ahmedabad and invited him to run the show. This marked his advent in the field of global trading as he started importing polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a key raw material for manufacturing plastics. Soon, India saw the dawn of economic liberalization and the import duty was heavily slashed, thus increasing the profits of Adani Exports, his flagship company. There was no looking back from there on. His company grew from strength to strength becoming one of the leaders in global trade and exports of plastics.

The Adani Group has posted a net profit of INR 935.70 million for June 30, 2008, quarter ending as compared to INR 684.60 million for June 30, 2007 quarter ending. Total Revenue has increased from INR 32,744.50 million for June 30, 2007 quarter ending to INR 50,518.00 million for June 30, 2008 quarter ending. Now, Mr. Gautam Adani is also the proud owner of two private jets - a Beechcraft jet purchased in 2005 and a Hawker purchased in 2007. This is indeed a symbol of remarkable success in a relatively short period of time for any individual, more so, for a college drop out, coming
from meagre backgrounds.

Mr. Gautam Adani is all of 45 years of age. He is happily married to Mrs. Priti Adani, a dentist by profession. She heads the Adani Foundation as the managing trustee. The couple has two sons, the elder one, Karan Adani, is 20 years of age and the younger one, Jeet Adani, is 10 years of age. The elder son is presently pursuing his Business Studies in Management at the Purdue University, USA.

Mr. Gautam Adani may have not been able to complete his education because of the unfavourable circumstances, which made him mature before time, but he certainly does not disregard the value of good education. This is evident as his both the sons are pursuing education from phenomenal educational institutions.

Personally he has proven that education is not achieved only in the conventional environments of educational institutions. It is achieved and perhaps best achieved, in the most unconventional real-life situations, where everyone has to learn to first survive before achieving success. The people like Mr. Gautam Adani, who learn their lessons fast not only survive and succeed, but achieve supreme success, by realizing all the dreams their vast minds, can conjure.

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