and what is the rental income like from these proper say is close to around 1.5 L per month from both India and Dubai only from saved money simultaneously invested in the stock market of Dubai so that 4 crores is today yeah with the uh real estate and all that everything works out to around 12 so then I counter I said no no you need to get my green card also so he said yeah yeah we'll do that not an issue so he dumps an entire nightclub and a restaurant on me okay but now you want to be in India now I absolutely want to be in IND why is that because I see India uh before we get to the backstory of your life I wanted to understand uh what is your financial situation like like do you sort of still feel like you need to work for money or have you reached a sort of you know Financial Independence state in your life the 10,000 foot view is I have reached uh Financial Independence and how do you define Financial Independence uh never having having to work again okay and you are in Mumbai City so and that's in Mumbai City yeah how much have you saved like if x is your living expenses every year every year what would be your portfolio that I would say is in the 10 CR between 10 and 12 CR but personal portfolio is 10 to 12 CR correct and how have you invested this 10 to 12 CR so almost I I don't know the exact specifics I have to sit down with the guy but I think it's almost 40 to 50% is in equities 40 to 50% equity and the rest and the rest of it I've got um real estate okay I've got something in Dubai okay and I've got something here and that you given it for rent yes and what is the rental income like from these properties uh the rental income I would say is close to around um 1.5 L per month okay from both India and Dubai no only from Dubai from Dubai and India uh and India I would say it's around 60 60,000 so these are both Residential Properties both Residential Properties and this sort of is more than enough as a passive income for you to live your life correct and what else 50 60% Equity little bit in I mean maybe 2 three CR in in real estate what else no there's more than 2 three CR okay real estate I don't have the exact buy that's a good problem to have knowing not knowing where your crores are kept and where it's invested I like it you have achieved a state in life where money doesn't control you anymore you have allocated in the right places now I want the audience to understand how you exactly got here so I want to go back in time and explore your career Journey uh so we're talking about the late 80s so 8089 90 around 30 years back yeah around 30 years back but I was very much into music at that time okay so I you know I formed a rock band with a couple of friends of mine and really yeah and we were like quite the rage at that time you were a singer or a music singer the lead the lead vocalist and I used to play guitar in those days I probably made around 8 to to 10,000 bucks a month per show per show per show but uh the money would just disappear so fast because of the lifestyle what was your lifestyle back then so 24 25 year old man in Mumbai you would uh I mean lot of partying uh lot of partying and that partying and then impressing your other you know mates and then you have all the beautiful girls around and so you're throwing money left right and Center uh I was going nowhere as as a musician so I said okay trying to get time to get a little bit serious on life and then my first job was actually at a flight kitchen at a what flight kitchen flight kitchen yeah where they prepare meals for flights flights this was again in the late ' 80s late ' 80s okay I was like a flight supervisor in the sense that I would make sure that everything that was supposed to go on a flight was there so how much was PID that time 800 rupees a month a month but I'm just curious as a musician you making 10,000 rupes per show and here 800 rupes per month yeah but the shows I would do eight shows a year so what happened after that you were working as an operations kind of a manager in kitchen I was no 800 rupees a month plus doing only nights 6 days a week not having a friend Circle anymore I said this is not worth it so so when I actually quit the uh flight kitchen I had already made friends of the pastry chef and all in the flight kitchen okay who was making inlight chocolates for Lanza and uh the business class whatever it is okay so then being of an entrepreneur mindset however primitive I was I said hey buddy you know let's make some chocolates outside I'll sell them outside you show me how to do it and I'll just go I'll hit the road you know I'll hit the take care of the sales I'll take care of the sales you make it and I and I took him on as a consultant and I paid him like 10 grand or something like that a month um no it was a one time fee I couldn't afford a month I took on two people two girls s to make the chocolates I converted my balcony into a I put an air conditioning unit and uh started a small Chocolate Factory and I used to take the samples and hit the road okay hey try the chocolate hey you know so you just walk into I just walk into hotels and retail stores and say hey why you this is very good and all where did you get this from no no I make it and all that so how much were you making in revenues back then in the chocolate business per month uh uh I was making my turnover was around anywhere from 50 to 70,000 a month that's really good this is in the '90s early ' 90s early '90s and what are the margins in this business the chocolate business uh around more close to like 18 19 20% so 50,000 per month means you took home 10,000 rupes as profits per month easily so you already got a year worth of your income through this business correct wow okay then then what happened this sounds like a good trajectory what happens yeah so then what happened was government's changed in Maharashtra and my raw material was coming from outside Maharashtra where was it coming from I have no idea okay now 30 years later no idea but it was coming from outside Maharashtra and they slapped an octro on it which was some princely sum on the total of whatever it is and that reduced my margin from this 18 19% down to around 50 16% okay and in those days you could park your money in the bank and get 15% in an FD in an FD got it so it made no sense for me to just do all this yeah just to make 15% might as well just park that money in an FD yeah instead of putting it in the business correct it makes no sense so then reluctantly and all that you know cross my heart and all that had to close the business down let those two people go okay how old are you at this point of time maybe around 26 so so I Clos it within a year okay okay Clos it within a year and how much had you saved by then had you made a savings by then uh I would say I had totally saved maybe around 50 60 Grand so what's next chocolate business you shut down within one year yeah so then during the after I shut it down then uh my dad went through a brief illness and passed away okay and at that same time I was also looking for opportunities to get out of India simultaneously this uh flight attendant friend of mine to thisy the friends you made when you in your first job yeah he spoke to the guy at the college Hospitality College in Switzerland hey you got this guy he's a great guy can you give him a discount and this that and the other uh the fees in those years was six lakhs so was the early '90s early '90s six lakhs to go study in Switzerland so basically you already studied Hospitality now this was like a masters in hospitality and it wasn't a masters it's just a higher diploma did you have six laks no so what did you do do he they were able to give me a 50% discount he said okay it's 6 lakhs but if he's good right we'll give him 3 lakhs off so like a scholarship like a scholarship like three lakhs off whatever the balance three lakhs three lakhs three lakhs so here I am now and my mom with uh seeing me every day going out for seminars and doing this and doing that and I come home and I and my mom's been my biggest champion yeah you know she sees me wanting to go and then I come back and I tell her oh Mom listen the Swiss college is giving me three lakhs off or whatever it is now I just need to make three lakhs and so what she does is she puts a big Stone on her heart she says okay dad's got some money that's coming because he passed away understand she's a brand new Widow right and uh her son wants to leave the house the nest and go and become something or whatever so she says okay here's the money she gave me around 2 lakhs and then the friend from the US did another one lak or something like that that's how I got out of the country so then you go to Switzerland I go to Switzerland so okay so now tell me you went to Switzerland how long was the program so you basically study for 6 months and then you do a 6mon internship so I did the internship and while I was doing my internship I was applying all over Europe so I would stay late after my shift and then I would go to the hotel uh office and then I would print my resume on the hotels uh you know at Hotel expense put it in envelopes put stamps ticket write address send them out so then I got I got a letter from uh one of the uh five star hotels in the US because I was applying all over the anybody and everybody huh how much would you would they pay you for that uh they would pay me around 30,000 us time a year a year so it'll be around 15 20 lakhs back then back then but at least you would be able to recover the 3 lakhs that you spent easily yeah right so I was down to like I think uh 4,000 Franks 3 4,000 Franks then it cost me almost 3,000 for my ticket from Switzerland to us 3,000 Franks 3,000 Franks I reached there and um I went to the hotel I said Tada here I am I finally got my Visa I made it here let's when do I start they say oh no by the way we have postponed the program for 6 months okay this is the management training program management training program was postpone 6 months now I'm down to my last th000 bucks I've got no money uh and what am I supposed to do now yeah so my daily I'm looking around 35 bucks to survive for a day okay and you have $1,000 left so that's a month one month one month of that's a month yeah and I'm out of huh I don't know what to do and you have to wait for another 6 months and then I have to wait for another 6 months so then uh across I there is a gas station okay right run by an Indian guy so I go and chat that guy up and say Hey you know this is my situation blah blah blah uh can I get a job of some kind and he said yeah you can pump gas okay so then I start pumping gas because I I have to make money somehow I have to survive I have to exist during that process I would meet a whole bunch of people right yeah people want to sit back in their cars and say okay yeah give me 10 on Supreme and whatever it is so then I'd make friends because they see you there every day and they are regular customers so every 2 3 4 days you see them back so then I struck up a friendship with a guy who was a white guy so he was a businessman got it right and he wanted cheap help and I seem to be the ticket it and he says okay um I can pay you only 30,000 a month uh a year $30,000 a year a year that's good only that is what you came for that is what I would be if I was a management training correct right but now here's this guy so then I counter I said no no you need to get my green card also so he said yeah yeah we'll do that not an issue so he dumps an entire nightclub and a restaurant on me okay to run and he takes off looking for looking to open another venture okay he comes uh every day so at the age of 30 you're running a restaurant and a nightclub and a nightclub and a massive nightclub okay uh in close to Washington DC and you are making $30,000 a year making 30 30,000 bucks plus tips I go through that for 3 years okay and then I get the green card okay and during that process uh I met my ex-wife then we basically we just uh we got married and not with the blessings of my mom which was kind of terrible so you got married now financial responsibilities are more so financial responsibilities are more so what's what's next what did you do next so then I moved to Texas okay because that's where she's from and then I hunt for a job and I finally get a job and I worked for one of the top uh golf uh Resorts and what was the pay like at this point of time pay at that point was not great but it was anywhere from 4 six but with all your all the perks and everything that you would get it would go up to almost 7 $70,000 $70,000 go on what else after that so that was kind of enough for me to run my family or my you know just two people right then something interesting happened at the golf resort okay uh I used to do my rounds you know it's making sure everything is okay so I would step in every Ballroom or whatever it is and all that and I chanced upon a meeting where these guys techies in that time huh were having their company Retreat turned out to be Michael Dell oh with his uh close team so he's like the founder of Dell the Dell yeah okay with his uh close team doing a company retreat but everybody's in shots and flipflops and they're sitting and I'm standing right at the back of the room and just listening pretending to see that everything is okay listening and so they're talking about everybody's got stock options they work 9 to5 they work Monday to Friday and somebody's bought uh the latest Honda S car and something and I said then I'm saying to myself standing there if you can do it I can do it again the aspirations increase yeah so then I search around and I find a place which does night school uh teaches it okay Microsoft certified training centers so then I finish my 10 12 hours here what do you finish 10 12 hours of work on the job then I go to the night school and learn what and whatever become Microsoft certified A+ B+ whatever those certifications but as a person who studied hotel management were you able to keep up yes how you've got your syllabus now you just study now okay okay okay then like an idiot I Chuck my job okay because I the golf course the golf course job uh I said well now I'm a brandly new Mentor it guy I'm going to get a job just like that that but absolutely disastrous move because for 6 months I couldn't get a job everybody look at my resume and say Hospitality Hospitality Swiss school this that what are you doing in it yeah whatever I had saved gone okay I say Monday morning I'm going back looking for a job in the hospitality Friday evening 4:00 I get a call so uh they said hey can you start on Monday okay uh I said sure So uh then I went in as a temp and when I I went to the property the property had no sign on it or whatever it did but it turned out to be a satellite office for Motorola okay okay so if I walked into a department I was an employee of Motorola and I was in a department in those days because it was flying high it was the boom time I could go to my boss and say you know I'm really not happy with this laptop uh I need the latest MacBook Pro with uh you know bells and whistles and all that and then guy said oh sure why don't we do that so he just put a requisition and 5 days later this guy would get a brand new Macbook now he's already got one MacBook Pro in his drawer he's got one here he's got a desktop and then he has got one at home but nobody was tracking the assets of the companies of the company oh okay the it assets of the company so this was an initiative to now start tracking the uh it assets of the company because people are just ordering left right and Center nobody knows where you know all those kind of things so I got started off that way from a temp you from attemp he be I became a fulltime and then within 3 years I was the guy who was spearheading the it asset management for the entire Western United States and South America so you had both these report to me within three years okay so you're in a mid-30s by now I am around 34 33 34 right now and how many years were you in Motorola 5 six years and by the end of your career in Motorola how much were you making I was making around 75 then basically Motorolla went down because Nokia came up okay right and there was a massive shift and it was basically did he lose your job that time yes during that time then I went through a divorce okay so it was like I say it was it was a it was a difficult time okay I came back to India thinking I'll just refresh myself I go to Goa because that's where I'm from okay we have an ancestral home there H and then I live like a bum on the beach huh you know I live the beach life for like you were like 35 3 7 and what what about your financial situation at that point of time do you have some savings yes it was okay I had probably around maybe around 60 70 grand saved up $60 70,000 in the meantime I I become a uh I took a whole bunch of courses and became a Forex Trader you took a course and became a Forex Trader Forex Trader so I moved to Dubai so then I got like around four five customers I started trading their money so did you make how much money were you making I didn't make much money okay and whatever I made I then kind of gave back to the markets uh in trading itself in losses and uh so then the I told my client see boss it's not happening okay right uh so then I stopped trading I just I said I can't do this to myself and then I bump into another guy in Dubai who was an acquaintance of mine back in Motorola okay who was working for uh company called cre crwe Pioneer in LED lighting I said boss I don't know anything about LED lighting zero I know nothing about LED lighting so she's saying no no don't worry we'll back you up you just be appointment you set up Channel Partners you blah blah blah blah blah that was my first full jump into being an entrepreneur I get a local partner in Dubai get a trade license and I open up a company and now I'm representing cre from the US in the Middle East I don't own anything correct I'm representing this brand so now I have to go to these guys and I have to pitch saying that by L lighting company this is the best in the world these are the innovators blah blah blah were you getting like a commission for everything that you're selling absolutely so then it's sort of like being an entrepreneur in yeah yeah being an entrepreneur during that process then I buy a place in duai it was a loan this is the house you give for rent today that is the house that's on rent okay so how much had you saved with that light business I would say at least around 4 CR 4 CR you made in that 4C because while I was making I was investing it where were you investing it they have a stock they have their own Stock Exchange okay you were investing in the Dubai stock market Dubai stock market and there was a guy who was doing it for me saved money simultaneously invested in the stock market of Dubai so that four crores is today close yeah with the with yeah with the uh real estate and all that everything works out to around 12 very nice so that's where we are today that is where we are today and then okay so then currently you in the Solar business so how did that happen now so then I go out there I say well what is the industry that is up and coming and I figured it was renewable energy and solar so then I go and I get certified in solar H I go again you studied again I studied and then I start out I just put myself out there when did you start 2019 okay and what about your spirit of Entrepreneurship how is it still alive at the age of 60 because it is tough to be an entrepreneur it is extremely tough especially for a guy like me who comes back to India after 30 years has to figure it out as to how does business operate in India how do you operate in business you know very different yeah and I come back and I've got a funny accent and I've got you know people look at you like crazy you have to get up to speed with your Hindi and your marati and you know so all those things those are like the initial challenges but now you want to be in India on now I absolutely want to be in why is that because I see India Rising very fast I think we are finally taking our place uh on the global stage so you realize that and then let me take a let me be a piece of this future of India in the Solar renewable space correct basically we do full service solar installations for institutions commercial buildings Residential Properties so what is the average ticket size in the space solar project Consulting and execu uh this is a high ticket space when you're doing it for say um uh institutions stuff like that so your average ticket size is anywhere from 30 lakhs to like 4C okay and what is the margins in this business around 10 to 15% so how how big is your team now my team is very small how many so I've got basically three people and then I Outsource the ex stuff execution stuff makes sense so what is like your annual turnover in this business uh right now this year it will be in the 20 to 25 CR 2025 and you will net like 2 CR 2 to three CR around so that's the amount of money your business is generating right now right now and wow the goal is that next year I will do uh 100 100 CR next year 100 CR next year okay because it's just a matter of skill scaling correct right projects are around there it's a high ticket item okay but there is value there's massive value right the customer saving massively uh and uh in terms of electricity cost they're saving electricity cost right so 100 crores next year and then what CR next year and I've got an outrageous Target of 1,000 crores in three and a half years 1,000 CR in 3 and a half years three and a half years just because the market size is so massive okay Market size is so massive uh by 2028 the size of the market is roughly around 2 and a half lakh crores Indian market Indian market interesting so now that you've reached this point where you're making a few crores a year like how has your lifestyle changed like how how do you spend your money these days uh my life uh I don't spend money okay I am not a I like good brands um but I'm very lowkey huh uh you have which car do you drive I don't have a car right now I have no I don't have a car I I use Ola over how is what about your house you do you have you bought a house here another house uh I have a place in Vidya vhar okay and uh is it a big house it's 500 square ft okay not that big not that big you've almost seen everything that life has to offer right yes yes no regrets anymore no regrets I think my key learnings from interacting with you is that uh do not be bound by what you study and then only do that kind of a job because the key learning from you is that you learned you never stopped learning you took course after course after course started with hospitality went into it Forex Trading then you got into selling lights and now you are going going into solar projects so that that just tells me that there's nothing you can't do in life right no I mean see we in India are raised to believe that you are born an engineer you will die an engineer yeah your father is a doctor you have to become a doctor the way I see it if I could go through so many different Journeys in so many different spaces yeah it's absolutely possible to do it even if there's somebody out there who's probably 50 right now you know and at the crossroads of his life and trying to figure out oh I'm retiring in five six years what do I do I thank you so much for being a part of the show thank you Shan and I'll see you in the next one
