In my last job as a private equity investor, I came across many Indian entrepreneurs whose parents set up the business from scratch.
I remember one entrepreneur in the medical devices space, whose mother used to go wait outside doctors’ offices for hours, with device samples.
Decades later, her children benefited by selling that very successful business. The parents struggled a lot but finally, their children are now reaping the reward.
I see this story in business after business.
Is it fair? I don’t know.
But if we want to grow a tree, it is going to take its sweet time. If we insist that the sapling grow immediately, we will never plant any tree.
And this is not just in businesses — in any family, children reap the reward of the sacrifices made by parents. And sometimes, the sacrifice is made by many others, including the society.
Subsidized education is nothing less than a collective sacrifice of the people.
Whenever we feel excessively proud, we should remind ourselves that the tree we own was probably planted by someone else. We owe so much to so many.
– Rajan