There is nobody in this world who wants to lead a frugal life. Everyone wishes to do their dream job. There is no one who wants to do a job which they are not interested in. Though we all dream of getting a job in a reputed company, very few of us actually get the offer because they push themselves beyond boundaries to accomplish their mission.
Their ability to look at life with a fresh and positive perspective sets them a class apart from most other people. Though we all dream of being successful very few of us actually get to relish the taste of success and this is due to the fact that many of them give up dreams midway owing to lack of perseverance or loss at some point or some distractions.
Now, let’s learn about people who quit 9-5 jobs and became successful in life.
We must have come across a lot of inspirational stories and the story of Sanjeev Bikhchandani is one that will drive you a lot. He is the owner of Naukri.com- which is now a popular Indian job portal. Let’s find out how he quit a job and ended up enjoying his own success with Naukri.com.
Sanjeev holds a BA in Economics from Delhi University, he studied there even as he had qualified for IIT. IIT-JEE is deemed as one of the toughest exams according to many people. It’s not that easy to crack as it demands years of preparation. But Sanjeev Bikhchandani broke all stereotypes and cracked the exam. Interestingly, he did not prefer to join IIT because he had other ideas.
He was raised in a regular middle-class family. His father was a doctor at a government hospital with minimum income and his mother was a housewife. After finishing his Bachelors of Arts with specialization in Economics, he joined Lintas as an Accounts Executive in 1984.
He worked there for 3 years, following which he moved to Ahmedabad to pursue his PGDM from Indian Institute of Management in 1987. Later, he was recruited by Hindustan MilkFood Manufacturers (HMM)- GlaxoSmithKline (at present) as their Product Executive in 1989. He was posted there to manage the marketing of Horlicks.
Even as he had a secure and well-paying job, this did not really satisfy him much. So, he wanted to do business.
“In the year 1997, he left his MNC job that paid him Rs 80,000 annually. I struggled for 10. . . no, 13 years. I had moved out of the MNC job rather early. My salary was Rs 80,000 per annum. This was decent in 1990 but I was not giving up a Rs 20 lakh (Rs 2 million) job to come to a zero rupee salary,” he was quoted as saying by Rediff.
He always wanted to stand on his own legs as he set up Naukri.com, jobs portal on a server in the United States.
After working for a year, he quit and in 1990 started 2 companies- Indmark and Info Edge (India).
Digging a bit deep, Indmark was more about a database of trademarks on which they did searches and Info Edge was about salary surveys.
Info Edge also owns some of the popular websites like Jeevansathi.com, 99acres.com, Brijj.com, Naukrigulf.com, Shiksha.com, Quadrangle and Firstnaukri.com as well.
In 1997, he launched Naukri.com with 1,000 ads which were picked from various magazines. In fact, it was a database of resume, jobs and recruitment consultants. It was intended to be the right platform where job seekers and hiring managers searched met.
In the initial year, Naukri earned Rs.2.35 lakhs of business (even when 80% of the jobs were free). In the following year, it jumped straight to Rs.18 lakhs.
In 2004, the company started to increase to a sensational lift as it earned Rs.45 crores from fresh ads and booked profits worth Rs. 8.4 crores. In 2005, he was nominated as a finalist for “Ernst and Young – Entrepreneur of the Year” award. The company became India’s first Dotcom Company to get marked on the Bombay & National Stock Exchanges in 2006.
In 2012, Naukri stole the spotlight as it entered the Mobile world and launched their first Mobile App for Smartphone users- Blackberry, Android and iPhone devices. Due to this change, more than half of traffic inflow now happened through Apps and Mobile websites.
And today, Naukri.com with a massive database of about 37 Million+ registered job seekers, controls almost 70% of the online job market traffic share.
With a net worth of Rs 4,285 crore, today, he is one of India’s richest 100.
Inspirational story of Adarsh Jalan who quit his IT company job and built Rs.200 crore empire.
In the early 2000s, Adarsh came to Bengaluru in the hope of starting his own software business. After 5 years of working in the IT stream, he decided not to continue in the same field of work. He started new innings in his life when he came to know that gherkins were being sold by farmers to big global companies in the streets of Bengaluru. Being from a business family that has ventured into a lot of products barring food, closest being tea, Adarsh made use of the jackpot to better effect.
He had set up Neo Foods in 2005, where the company directly started working with farmers, assisted them, taught them and build a close connection over a transaction.
His route map to success was observed on day one when Neo foods became an export company, having 100 per cent of exports to foreign countries like Russia during its initial days.
Then, once the export empire became balanced, the company has now ventured into domestic markets since 2014 which is operated by the better half of Adarsh, Mrs. Shalini Jalan.
More than 2000 stores in the country and a dedicated family leading the business, Neo foods has also managed to expand the business, starting from just pickled vegetables to quality fruits and vegetables.
Initially, the company faced logistics issues, communication gaps with farmers and moreover, they hard to convince retailers to start selling a new product. However, they have now tie-ups with big names like Spencer’s for their increased sales.
IT couple quits high-paying jobs & opens Tea stall, plans to convert lakhs to crores
In today’s world, money speaks volumes. Wherever you go, the first thing that people about is your earnings. Isn’t it? When you’ve landed into your dream job, then the transition becomes quite easier for you to grow from strength to strength.
On the contrary, we have also seen people getting paid handsomely but with less job satisfaction. But the equation is going to be the same as the majority of the people run only behind money and not behind their favourite jobs.
We must appreciate people like Nitin Biyani and Pooja who like to stand on their own without having to depend on bosses. Both are husband and wife and they are giving entrepreneurship goals. Nitin and Pooja were working in software companies and much to their work standards, they got paid handsomely 15 lakhs per month but were least satisfied with their jobs.
Nitin opened up his previous work experience with software companies where he plied his trade for 10 years. The couple decided to quit the lucrative high-paying jobs and start new innings in life by opening Chai Villa in Nagpur almost a year ago. It was when their life started to change. When you follow your heart, everything is peaceful. Today, they earn up to Rs.5 lakh every month.
“I have been working for 10 years as an engineer in companies like IBM and Cognizant, but my wife and I wanted to do something different in life so we started this shop and now we earn up to Rs 5 lakh every month,” he added.
With plenty of tea and coffee flavours to choose from, the stall has perfected the attracting the customers. “Chai Villa sells more than fifteen types of tea and coffee. The shop offers various kinds of snacks too and also takes orders through WhatsApp and Zomato. The stall also has special containers for delivering tea in offices, banks, and hospitals. We have also hired a lot of people and want to expand our chain,” Nitin Biyani said according to ANI.
Chai Villa on an estimate serves more than 2000 cups of tea in a day. Nitin and his wife are happy with the success and he wants to take this business to a different level. Right now, he is looking for investors who can help him open more such stores in other cities as well.
Nitin said adding that the shop was on many social networking sites and even the customers are turning up in numbers to get a new experience. One of the customers, Hritesh, said, “I like this place as we get different types of tea at affordable prices here and it is very hygienic.”
Munaf Kapadia quit his job at Google to sell Samosas, has a turnover of Rs 50 lakh
Getting a job at Google is no small feat for most of the aspiring IT geeks. Life is settled when you get a job at Google. The company offers a handsome paycheck. You can take pride in being part of the multi-national giant company. But have you ever heard of a guy quitting a high-paying job at Google to sell samosas? Quite shocking, isn’t it? But for Munaf Kapadia, he just had to quit the job in a bid to follow his passion.
To quit Google company for the sole purpose of selling samosas might be a stupid idea for others but not for Munaf Kapadia who followed his heart. Today, his business has a yearly turnover of Rs. 50 lakhs. He is now the proud owner of The Bohri Kitchen (TBK) in Mumbai.
Munaf did what he felt was right. He completed his MBA from Mumbai’s Narsee Monjee Institute a few years ago. He was then employed by Google. He started his venture at Google working abroad. However, after a few years, he looked at life from a different perspective. He decided to start a business on his own and so he returned to his motherland India.
Munaf’s mother Nafisa always had an eye for cooking. She is fond of watching cooking shows on television and is a great cook. He was taken with the idea of opening a food chain after picking up some important tips from his mother. Initially, he let a few people sample his mother’s spicy food. Gradually, The Bohri Kitchen started to gain a lot of customers.
There is a huge demand for TBK’s samosas among iconic celebrities and five-star hotels. Apart from samosas, Nargis, kebab, Dabba gosht and many other spicy recipes are being sold here. The idea to invite people over for a paid meal was a hit and that’s how The Bohri Kitchen, a concept food dining experience in Mumbai, was born.
There is a demand for TBK’s samosas among famous celebrities and five-star hotels. The company now has a turnover of Rs 50 lakh and it is expected to reach greater heights in the times to come. Munaf, the ambitious guy aims to expand and increase the yearly turnover to nearly Rs 5 crore in the coming years.
From letting people taste a sample to making the people wait in long queues to get the samosas, Munaf’s TBK gained good recognition. Munaf couldn’t have asked for a better result and he credited his historic success to his mother. He has been featured in the Forbes Under 30 list.
Peyush Bansal quits a lucrative job and builds a company which has an annual revenue of 500 crore
Getting a job at Microsoft is no small feat for most of the aspiring IT geeks. Life is settled when you get a job in this elite company. The company offers a handsome paycheck. You can take pride in being part of the multi-national giant company. However, there are smart brains who don’t consider Microsoft as the final destination as there are several other paths to become much more successful and the story of Peyush Bansal is one that needs to be told to inspire the youths of the nation.
Peyush Bansal had the vision to establish the online optical store Lenskart in 2010. Today, he is currently on the list of the most successful startup entrepreneurs in the country. Just like every other entrepreneur, his journey in becoming the most successful person was quite tough with many challenges.
Peyush’s father who was a chartered accountant always wanted his son to have a secured job and gave absolutely everything to provide him with a good education. Peyush studied hard day and night and then finally obtained an engineering degree from Canada.
Peyush was placed with Microsoft, USA. He then had a staggering salary package. However, he got bored after working for a few years.
In the year 2007, Peyush decided to return to India and his parents were unhappy with his decision. Peyush invested plenty of time in planning his own business venture. At that time, E-commerce was a whole new concept and it was then Peyush started a search portal named “MyCampus.com” which offered information to students about accommodations, carpool services, books and part-time job opportunities and so on,
Peyush operated the portal for about three years and in 2010, India witnessed the fast growth of online businesses.
He wanted to achieve great success in life and so he decided to launch four new websites namely lenskart.com, Jewelry.com, Bags.com, and Watchkart.com for selling eyewear, watches, bags, and jewellery online.
Over the years, Peyush concentrated only on Lenskart and eventually, he was able to make it India’s biggest online optical store.
Lenskart has offline stores opened now across all major cities in India with advanced facilities. Currently, Lenskart provides eyewear to around 1000 people each day in more than 1500 cities in India. The company also provides daily eye checkup facilities to over 500 at their home.
As of September 2019, Lenskart had over 500 stores across 70 cities in India. The company had an overall valuation of $1.5 billion by December 2019 after Softbank invested around $275 million.
Financial backers of Lenskart are TPG Growth, International Finance Corp and Adveq Management. Ratan Tata (of Tata Sons) and S Gopalakrishnan (of Infosys) have also invested in Lenskart. In March 2018 Wipro Chairman Azim Premji invested 400 crores in the group taking the valuation of the firm to 3000 Crore.
By the year 2016, Lenskart had become one of the two top optical chains in the country along with Titan Eye Plus. Its manufacturing facility in Delhi manufactures 300,000 glasses a month.
Apart from India, Lenskart also has a factory in Zhengzhou (China) which manufactures about 50% of the production. Lenskart had launched the eyewear brand John Jacobs in the year 2017 and for that brand aimed to touch a staggering Rs 500 crore in revenue in two years. In, 2018 the company became profitable.
The ‘Eyewear Retailer’ is in advanced talks with Japanese group SoftBank including the private equity firm Kedaara Capital for investment.
It should be noted that in October 2017, Lenskart’s first brand ambassador was Katrina Kaif. In March 2019, the company roped in Bhuvan Bam as their first male brand ambassador.
Lenskart Solutions posted annual revenue of Rs 486.2 crore in FY19, which is up by 56.3 per cent from its reported revenue of Rs 310.9 crore in the previous fiscal, documents filed by the company with Registrar of Companies (RoC) revealed.