“It doesn’t matter how modest the beginnings, from here we write history” –
that’s how I define life, that’s how I define my work. I think life is too short to
reside in yearning yesterdays, I may rather spend it ensuring that my today’s
are filled with gratitude and that I have a keen eye on making tomorrows better.
That’s the hallmark of success – happiness and planning for happiness. That’s
what we do at the chain of Wellness Forever – a retail chain of pharmaceutical
and lifestyle stores across India that I co-founded. One is only half good at his
work, if they do it as a job. It is easy to get blinded, so it is important to stay
grounded to your ethics of working. To add another digit to the ‘money grind’ is
not the mission of my life. As an entrepreneur, I am always in the quest for new
ideas to broaden my horizon.

Maybe this comes from the fact that I gave up a cushy job to start my journey in
entrepreneurship. It was a risk then, but one ought to trust the waters when one
decides to swim. It wasn’t a gamble, when I had my heart and soul dipped in the
very essence of my vision. Today, I sit on the board of multiple companies.
The risk was worth it. But it was not me alone who risked it all. My wife Anita,
the joy of my life, decided to take a plunge and was always my eyes, ears and
conscience keeper wherever I headed. I owe a ton of gratitude to her.
I see a reflection of my enterprising self in every youngster, which is why I’m
often a mentor to them with issues that they might have in business and life.
“Mediocrity and mundaneness need not exist” I tell them “Life should excite you
everyday”
As life excites us, formal education, the kind that prepares us for a ‘job’
sometimes also shakes us away from our core beliefs. ‘Money, not compassion’
becomes the motivating factor then. I believe we need to know the dry statistics
of things, but we also need to be given wings so that our creativity is given a
space to make a mark. Much of my life has been unlearning then. Which is
why I firmly believe that education shouldn’t be as much a learning process as
an unlearning one. I seek to achieve that with Jimme.