Gautam Adani reveals he made Rs 10,000 commission from first trade in 1981

Ahmedabad: Billionaire Gautam Adani, a college dropout who built a multi-billion dollar infrastructure empire spanning ports to energy, on Monday revealed that he made a commission of Rs 10,000 from his first trade at the age of 19.

Born in Ahmedabad, Adani, 62, moved to Mumbai at the age of 16 and joined a diamond assortment company. He quickly picked up trade and in about three years, started his own diamond trading brokerage in Mumbai's Zaveri Bazar.

"I still recall the day I did my first trade with a Japanese buyer. I made a commission of Rs 10,000. I was 19 years old, and this was the start of my journey as an entrepreneur," he said while speaking at the Adani International School here.

This was in the year 1981.

He soon returned to Gujarat to help his elder brother Mahasukhbhai run a small-scale PVC film factory the family had acquired in Ahmedabad. In 1988, he set up a commodities trading venture under Adani Exports and listed it on the bourses in 1994. The firm is now called Adani Enterprises.

Adani started operating a port at Mundra on the Gujarat coast a decade later. He grew the business to become India's largest port operator. There was no looking back after that. He rapidly expanded his business empire into power generation, mining, edible oil, gas distribution, and renewable energy. His business interests expanded into airports, cement, and, more recently, media.

He is today the world's 19th richest person with a wealth of USD 76 billion.

"Sixteen years of age -- buying a train ticket at the Ahmedabad railway station and boarding the Gujarat mail to Mumbai with nothing much in my pocket had me both excited and nervous," Adani recalled.

"A question I often get is if I have any regrets that I did not go to college. Reflecting on my life and the different turns it took, I now do believe that I would have benefitted if I had finished college." He said while his early experiences made him wise, he now realises that formal education rapidly expands one's knowledge. "To acquire wisdom, one must experience life -- but to acquire knowledge, one must study. These are complementary. And although I will never really know, I do reflect at times that the expansion in my abilities may have been faster had I gone to college." Failures and setbacks will test but they are not the opposite of success, he said, adding that failures are the most important companion of success. "The only difference between ordinary and extraordinary success is resilience -- the courage to rise after every fall," he said.

Adani said when he started his journey, he did not have a roadmap, resources or connections. "All I had was a dream -- a dream to build something meaningful, something that could contribute to boosting my own confidence. I would dream of this every single day. And as I look back, I can say that dreams are not the privilege of the rich. They are the reward of those who dare to believe and work tirelessly." While the Adani Group is India's fastest growing conglomerate today, and has set the pace to create more new businesses than any other business house in the country, its journey is not just about creating businesses.

He told students that the walls of any classroom should not define the limits of their dreams. "Let this classroom be the launchpad for your aspirations. Don't just absorb the knowledge, let it ignite your imagination and drive your ambitions." He gave students three guiding principles -- dream relentlessly, lean relentlessly, and build relentlessly.

The first is about not limiting oneself to small ambitions, the second is about the future belonging to those who are willing to learn, and the third principle is about building something larger than oneself.

"Create businesses that solve the world's challenges. Lead with integrity and compassion. Innovate in ways that inspire the next generation. Push the boundaries of what you think is possible. I want to see 100 Gautam Adani's emerge from here. But not just to follow my path. I want you to build your own," he added. PTI ANZ TRB