Dhirubhai Ambani arrived in Mumbai with just Rs 500 And Built A Rs 75 Billion Empire By The Time Of His Death
: A true Rags to Riches Story
The story of Reliance Industries (RIL) is almost folklore in India. It was founded in the late 1950s by the late Dhirubhai Ambani, a former petrol-pump attendant, who even in the 1960s lived in a one-room chawl in Mumbai with his wife and children.
The group’s interests now include the manufacture of synthetic fibres, textiles and petrochemical products, oil and gas exploration, petroleum refining, besides telecommunications, media, retail and financial services.
Dhirubhai showed he had that street smarts and a nose for profit early. While working in Aden, he spotted that local coins had a face value less than the value of the silver from which they were made. So he bought every coin he could, melted them down and pocketed the difference. “I don't believe in not taking opportunities,” he said, according to his unofficial biographer, Hamish McDonald.
Dhirubhai, born on 28 December, 1932, was the the third son of a school teacher in Gujarat. No one could have imagined then that the student of Junagadh’s Bahadur Kanji High School – who stopped studying after the tenth standard to join his elder brother, Ramniklal in Aden – would one day claim a rightful place among the richest men in the world.
In 1957, Dhirubhai arrived in Mumbai after spending 8 years in Aden (Yemen), he had only Rs 500 in his pocket. Now Rs 500 wasn't a pricely sum even back then but it had value and it allowed Dhirubhai to take his first steps in the world of business.
By 1958, when he started his first small trading venture, his family used to reside in a one room apartment at Jaihind Estate in Bhuleshwar. After trading in a range of products, primarily spices and fabrics, for eight years, Dhirubhai managed to become the owner of a small spinning mill at Naroda, near Ahmedabad. This was a turning point for him.
By 1976-77, Reliance had an annual turnover of Rs 70 crore (Rs 700 million). For many that would have been enough. But Dhirubhai was just getting started.
But the deal-breaker in the eyes of his critics was how he managed to cultivate favours among the politicians. Indira Gandhi returned to power in the 1980 general elections and Dhirubhai shared a platform with the then prime minister of India at a victory rally. He had also allegedly become very close to the then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, not to mention the prime minister’s principal aide R.K. Dhawan.
As Dhirubhai once said: “We cannot change our rulers, but we can change the way they rule us.”
He survived all the competitors, rivals and critics – despite suffering a stroke in 1986 – and his company continued to grow. In the 1990s he turned aggressively toward petrochemicals, oil refining, telecommunications and financial services. When he breathed his last in 2002 – he was ranked by Forbes as the world’s 138th-richest person, with an estimated net worth of $2.9 billion.
India is home to 56 of the world’s 2,000 largest and most powerful public companies, according to the Forbes’s annual list and the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd leads the pack with a rank of 142 -- with a market value of $42.9 billion and $71.7 billion in sales. Their revenues are roughly equal to 2.8% of India’s GDP. It also contributes 8.2% of India’s total exports, 8% of the Government of India’s Indirect tax revenues. RIL is India’s largest exporter with exports constituting nearly 37% of its revenues.
Dhirubhai had a dream; he dreamt of India becoming a great economic superpower and through his life, he showed the country that nothing was impossible if you set your mind to it. If that isn't inspiration then nothing ever will be.
Source: scoop whoop/RIL
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