Mukesh Ambani slips 12 spots on Forbes billionaires list

Ambani is no longer the tenth richest man in the world or even Asia’s richest man. He lost this title of Asia’s richest man to Alibaba founder and Chinese billionaire. Mukesh Ambani is now the world’s 21st richest person after slipping 12 spots from his previous rank in 2019. However, he continues to be the richest person in India.

India’s richest man has lost his place amongst the top 10 richest billionaires in the world as Covid-19 wiped off Indian stock markets.

Ambani is no longer the tenth richest man in the world or even Asia’s richest man. He lost this title of Asia’s richest man to Alibaba founder and Chinese billionaire Jack Ma who is worth $38.8 billion, according to Forbes.

Mukesh Ambani has now become the world’s 21st richest person after slipping 12 spots from his previous rank in 2019. However, he continues to be the richest person in India.

The sudden fall in Ambani’s wealth is because of the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, one in every two rich people on the planet have lost their wealth as compared to last year due to coronavirus.

Meanwhile, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is the richest person despite parting with a massive fortune due to his divorce. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is the second wealthiest with $98 billion fortunes and French fashion mogul Bernard Arnault is the third richest with $76 billion of fortunes.

The Ambanis however took advantage of the immense meltdown in stock prices to increase stake in the company, Reliance Industries. His net worth saw a marginal increase after the Ambani family — Mukesh and Nita Ambani and their three children — raised stake.

RIL’s shares — which have been trading above ₹1000 a piece — saw a 39% decline in March during the massive sell off triggered by Coronavirus. However, the share price regained the market after the company board, an oil-to-telecom-to-retail conglomerate with a market cap of $90 billion.

Entrepreneurs, take heed! Here are Mukesh Ambani’s 5 career lessons

India’s richest man doesn’t share his trade secrets every day, but when he does, everyone pays attention.

India’s richest man doesn’t share his trade secrets every day, but when he does, everyone pays attention.

At the Nasscom Foundation’s annual leadership summit in Mumbai, Reliance Group chairman Mukesh Ambani was asked about his advice to budding entrepreneurs. Ambani said he’d rather share his learnings than give them advice. After all, entrepreneurs are supposed to shatter the mold and break new ground.

Here’s what he had to say:

1. Ambani’s first learning came from his father and founder of the Reliance Group, Dhirubhai Ambani. A young Ambani had come back from Stanford University and asked his father, “What is going to be my job? What do I do?” The response was that if he was seeking a job, roles and responsibilities, then he’d be a manager. “If you are an entrepreneur, then you will figure out what you want to do,” Dhirubhai said. “So I’m not going to tell you anything. Figure out what you want to do,” Ambani recounted at the conference.

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2. The second thing Ambani has learned over the years is that as an entrepreneur, it is important to find a problem that one wants to solve, that one is passionate about. This is also something that he learned from his teacher at UDCT. “I was blessed to have him. He would always say, `I’m not going to give you a list of problems that you can work on. You find the problems. I will grade you on the quality of the problems that you find as well as the quality of the solution you actually give’.”

The same rule applies to entrepreneurs according to Ambani. “It’s not [just about] solving the problems. It’s first finding the problems. And once you find it, solve it,” Ambani said.

Social consciousness, according to Ambani, should be central to an entrepreneur’s journey and life. “You have to solve a problem that will actually help society. And that has to be the main objective of your business,” he said, adding that financial returns must be secondary. “If you focus only on returns, chances are that you won’t really become great,” he said.

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3. The next piece of learning is something that can be perhaps appreciated after success has been tasted, but, nevertheless, must be kept in mind. “Failures are normal. Even in my own case, I have failed several times before succeeding. They [failures] are just a step before you succeed. Never get disheartened by failure. Learn from them but never give up,” Ambani said.

4. There must also be a few non-negotiables for every entrepreneur. For Ambani, those include: treating investors’ money even more carefully than one’s own and the importance of an A-team. “You can’t do anything without the right team. And it is very important to align the team passionately with your own passion,” he said.

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5. And finally the importance of being positive.

“The entrepreneur is an optimist. There are a lot of cynics and people who think negatively.

But an entrepreneur spreads positive energy,” he said. Glass half full, never half empty.

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7 college drop-outs who are successful entrepreneurs today

There are a lot of successful Indian entrepreneurs who are actually college dropouts and could make it big only because of their zeal to succeed.

Indians have always valued education over anything else. Good grades, admission into top colleges and degrees might be important in some fields but to become a successful entrepreneur, one needs entrepreneurial qualities and a degree is just an addition. There are a lot of successful Indian entrepreneurs who are actually college dropouts and could make it big only because of their zeal to succeed.

Here’s a list of entrepreneurs who are actually college dropouts:

1. Kunal Shah

The founder of Freecharge got a degree in Philosophy from Wilson College Mumbai after which he enrolled into Narsee Monjee institute to get an MBA. It was only a matter of time before he dropped out and worked as a software engineer at a BPO company. He also started his first venture which was called PaisaBack after dropping out. He gained success only after starting Freecharge in 2010 which is a unique and successful Indian model. It was acquired by e-commerce giant, Snapdeal in 2015 and Shah was employed as the CEO.

2. Pallav Nadhani

Nadhani is the co-founder of Fusioncharts which he started at a tender age of 17. He enrolled into University of Calcutta but soon dropped out to nourish his company. Currently his company has over 23,000 customers and over 500,000 developers. In 2002, he also co-authored a book called Flash.Net which speaks about combining the power of Flash and NET.

However, Nadhani values education which is why he went on to earn a degree from University of Edinburgh in Computer Science after his venture was running well.

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3. Ritesh Agarwal

The very young and successful entrepreneur and founder of OYO rooms was also a college dropout. Ritesh Agarwal enrolled into one of Delhi’s most prestigious B-schools but dropped out after a semester. He wanted to make his chain of budget rooms Oravel big. And, once he won the Thiel scholarship, there was no looking back. He went on to build a huge OYO empire which is spreading wings in Malaysia as well. Currently, with huge funding from investors like Green Oaks, he’s expanding OYO to OYO café and OYO prime as well.

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4. Varun Shoor

This entrepreneur started his venture, Kayako at the young age of 21 after dropping out of a college in Jalandhar. He took a keen interest in computers and website designing at the age of thirteen and once he saw a gap in the market, like a true entrepreneur, he tapped it. Currently he serves as the CEO of Kayako Infotech Ltd and looks after the complete product design of the company.

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5. Azhar Iqubal

Iqubal dropped out if Indian Institute of Delhi in his final year to start his extraordinary venture, News In Short. This is a unique platform which aspires to keep people up-to-date about all the current affairs in short. This is meant for lazy or busy people as each news article tries to convey packed information in 60 words or lesser. His venture gained popularity and a massive funding of 25 crores some months back.

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6. Mukesh Ambani

The richest business tycoon in India, Mukesh Ambani, is also a college dropout. He was studying in Stanford when he decided to dropout and help out with his father’s business, Reliance. He believed that whatever he’d learn hands-on while working would be of greater importance than a course in Stanford. We guess he was right as because of his efforts Reliance has soared new heights today.

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7. Gautam Adani

Another billionaire, Gautam Adani who owns the Adani group of industries dropped out of Gujarat University in his second year. He didn’t start his own venture immediately; instead, he moved to Mumbai and worked as a diamond sorter for Mahindra bros. Later, he started his own diamond brokerage company and currently his net worth is over $3.9 billion.

Hence, to achieve success in the entrepreneurial field, a degree or formal education isn’t absolutely necessary.

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