RBI and Legal Banking License
Hey friends, you know, from 1935 to 2021 which is around 86 years for that period, RIB had not given legal banking licenses to any financial institutions. Regardless of how famous and trusted a bank is, in the year 2021, a person forced RBI to change its policies.
Well, who was the one who did this, he is the most controversial shark of Shark Tank India, who is also the author of this book, Ashneer Grover. But how did it happen? His company Bharat-pay was such a company that RBI had given legal banking licenses.
And it didn’t happen itself. But Ashneer had a vision from a long time ago that he wanted a banking license from RBI. But he did not know what to do. But he noticed before applying the application, that the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank of RBI were sinking, and they were in great need of funding.
Ashneer observed and analyzed the situation very well and after thinking a lot, he decided that he would take advantage of this opportunity. He placed bid for both banks by collaborating with Centrum company, and surprisingly his bid was accepted! and through this, he solved the huge problem of RBI.
All the money of bank holders was drowning, they got the money back because of this. and this thing in itself was a very brilliant move due to which RBI had approved the license of Ashneer. So the first lesson that you are getting to learn from Ashneer book Doglapan is ‘critical thinking and having a presence of mind’.
Critical Thinking:
What does critical thinking mean?
Before making a monkey decision immediately in anything think a little about it, observe it, and analyze things. solve the problem based on data and other information and then communicate on that basis, the thing Ashneer did.
If you want to move forward in your life, then critical thinking will be very important for you!
How can you improve critical thinking?
On this, one of my favorite authors, Jordan Peterson says, that by doing two things you can improve your critical thinking. The first is reading books and the second is writing.
If you do both these things regularly, then it will give a push to your critical thinking. The discourse was different from the books, now let’s come to the second most important lesson of the book. Where he says that ‘Job is necessary but it won’t make you rich’.
Job Is Necessary But It Won’t Make You Rich:
When he completed his education at INSA Lyon University and IIM-Ahmadabad, he decided finally he will work for the first few years and then launch his startup,
knowing that he would need a lot of network, capital and experience to start a startup, he could gain while making money in a job! That’s why in 2006, Ashneer joined Kotak Bank as an investment banker.
After working hard for seven years, he felt that now they should enter the foreign market. After Ashneer joined American Express Bank in 2013, and after joining Amex, he also got a lot of international exposure.
Now, due to doing all the work he has learned more about all the ins and OUTs of finance Which helped him a lot to build Bharatpay. As an investment banker, he got the opportunity to learn more about Paytm. Because Amex was about to invest $2.5 million in Amex.
Ashneer had to work on this deal. Because of this, a very good friendship was formed between Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Ashneer. Ashneer had got a lot of information on the business of the Paytm wallet, which was going to help him a lot in Bharatpay.
Unfortunately, the deal with Amex got canceled, but Ashneer has a lot of knowledge of fintech, and for nine years, you can say due to working in Amex, Kotak, PC&J, he had realized that if he wanted to become a big shot and make a lot of money then he would have to become a job creator, not a job seeker.
However, just like all the Indian family members his family didn’t want him to leave his job, and did not change the stable income. But still, Ashneer wanted to earn big money.
That’s why he again made a big decision in his life to leave his job. See guys, there is an important lesson in the book Rich Dad Poor Dad, that is ‘Minding your own business’. Robert Kiyosaki, in his book, that do the job where you want to do but mind your own business.
This means that keep learning there. Which will help you in moving forward in life and Ashneer Ji also did the same. Due to this, you can say, he was able to develop Bharatpay in which he had an 8.4% stake and its total worth was 1920 crores One more thing that happened with him along with minding your own business due to which he was able to make so much money.
Having Powerful Connections:
Which is ‘having powerful connections’. Ashneer says if you want to become big in life then you have to make power connections. and to make power connections you have to add value in the life of another person. Ashneer says that by helping anyone you can get a lot of benefits from him in the future.
For example, in 2015 when Ashneer met his batch-mate Albinder Singh then he was working in Grofers, and he was stuck in a problem. Then he asked Albinder to make a formal pitch deck because Grofers needed funding from Sequoia Capital. at that time, Ashneer had helped Albinder, and due to this he got $10 million and then Grofers started its operations.
When Albinder Ji saw the work and expertise of Ashneer he asked him to join Grofers, after which Ashneer accepted the offer of his batch-mate, and started working in Grofers. after joining Grofers, what happened some vegetable sellers filed a case against Grofers.
The buyer gave the order of 500 rupees of organic vegetables, but the delivery partner of Grofers took the cheap vegetables from the local shop and had delivered them there, due to which the buyer filed the case against Albinder in court. again Albinder was very upset with it.
Then again Ashneer took this matter into his hands, and Gopal, his brother-in-law who was a famous Supreme Court lawyer with his help, spent ₹25 lakhs instead of ₹500 but he also won the case. and because of this, his name came on the leaderboard of Grofers just took off.
Where there were orders worth just $30, now more than 30k had started coming. and Grofers had shifted from a small office to a 50k sq. foot. and you know when Ashneer left Grofers the total net worth of Grofers had become $370 million.
How did all these powerful connections become?
Because of the help, which you also should do. You also have to remember that only connections aren’t enough! along with connections, one more thing helped him to move forward in his life, and that was the lesson ‘shut up and take the opportunity’.
Shut Up and Take That Opportunity:
Although he used to belong to a middle-class family, in childhood, he got the chance to travel to Canada. Because his maternal uncle used to live there. and his mind was opened as soon as he went to Canada. Because he had seen a different world there.
Lavish lifestyle, high-end services, and all these things, and then he decided to do something. Although he was living a satisfied lifestyle in India, the lifestyle of Canada was something different. He got a chance to fulfill his dream. He was getting a chance to visit France through a scholarship! now the interesting thing was that that only five students got the chance to go to France. and one of them was Ashneer.
The scholarship was that if he cleared the scholarship exam, then he would get 600 euros monthly. But only two people were going to get this scholarship. Then it came to Ashneer’s mind that if he does not share this thing with his friends then it can benefit him! Because he didn’t want any competition, and only 2 out of 5 were about to get the scholarship, so he applied quietly, after which he got the scholarship! Now in this whole situation.
Delegate:
That is about ‘Delegating’. He says, teachers used to give us advice during exam times, that we should solve all sums ourselves. Don’t take help from anyone. Study alone. But Ashneer says what we learned in school is completely opposite in startup world.
He says that if we do everything ourselves then what would people do? Ashneer says, as an entrepreneur you should learn how to delegate your work. Because if you are just stuck in process, then how would you scale your business?
You won’t be able to do that. That’s why, as an entrepreneur you don’t have to do labor work, rather you have to do mental work, where you have to get the work done from people, and make strategies of growing the business, through mental work. and I completely agree to this. When I started delegating the work, after that I saw huge growth. and got time and freedom to do other things. Which was not possible for me earlier?