History has a record of many of the successful people, who, now stands at the peak of success but was once nowhere close to either a rich family or any of the best degrees. These people are called as the ‘extraordinary’ people by the ordinary people.
‘The Economic Times’ has listed four outstanding personalities, who not only excelled in their works but also has set an example to be followed.
Founder and CEO, Quickheal Technologies
It is very hard for everyone to believe that the founder CEO of India’s largest internet security provider, Quickheal was once a radio mechanic. It is even harder to believe that in the name of education, the founder CEO has done the basic matriculation with an additional basic computer hardware course.
After completing his matriculation, Kailash Katkar started working in a local radio and calculator repairing shop in Pune. It was in the year 1985, when he was only 19 years old and had no other options other than working for
At the age, when most of the teens dreams about the best colleges and the higher degrees, Katkar was sent to Mumbai to have a two months workshop training by the owner of the shop.
Katkar’s strong determination and devotion made him an expert mechanic within a short time and after a few years, he was also keeping all the records of the repairing shop for his employer. Since then, things were going all favorable for Katkar in the repairing shop. The big turn happened to him in 1990, when he moved out of the repairing shop and decided to have his own repairing shop.
Katkar’s first computer break happened to be two personal computers from Pune with an annual fees of
Very shortly, Katkar and his younger brother, who is a computer engineer, started developing antivirus software. They sold their first antivirus for
Since then, there was no looking back and today, Quickheal is the largest internet security provider in India with 610 employees, 23 offices across India and a reach to 50 countries.
Chairman and Managing Director, Omkar Speciality Chemicals
Born and brought up in an Indian middle class family, Pravin Herlekar is an IIT graduate. Like the other middle class kids, Pravin’s life was also the same. Right from his childhood, he was made aware about the very common Indian belief, ‘study hard and you will have a nice life!’
Life was also going the same traditional way for Pravin. Change happened to him, when he was in the final year of his Chemical Enginnering from IIT Bombay and was about to complete his internship. It was in the year 1972, when during his internship, he met the then Managing Director, KC Shroff of Excel Industries, Mumbai. Pravin also gives the credit of all his success to Shroff. The discussion with the MD of Excel Indstries changed Pravin’s life forever.
After the discussion with KC Shroff, Pravin decided to start his own chemical lab. Even though lack of cash and space were the main restraining factors for this determined grad, he did not kept his goals of having a MNC limited to his dreams. To achieve his dreams, he first acquired proper entrepreneurial knowledge from Mumbai University and upon completion of his post graduation he worked with multiple big shots of the corporate market. He worked with State Industrial & Investment Corporation of Maharashtra, FDC, Aegis Chemicals and Milton Group.
He used most of provident fund in researching on deriving new particles and while he was doing all these, hi wife was taking care of the household expenses. The dream came true for Pravin in March, 1983, when he developed ‘molybdenum’ and ‘selenium’ derivatives in his kitchen lab.
After Cipla decided to launch an anti-asthmatic product, Pravin got the big break as he was capable of supplying the ‘selenium’ oxide; which was very costly and had to be imported during those days.
Success started flowing into his hat after getting the deal from Cipla and today, Pravin is the founder Chairman and also the Managing Director of one of the reputed chemical companies in India which has been accepted decently in the global market too.
Founder, Zao Foods
Mitali Kalra holds an MBA (finance) degree from INSEAD, France. She completed her MBA in 2008. After completing MBA, she worked in corporate headquarters like Dubai and Singapore for almost one year.
In 2010, Mitali returned back to India and started working with KPMG. After leaving KPMG, she worked with Deloitte. During her working tenure in India, she was blown away with the lack of nutritious food options in India; especially in and around her workplaces in India. This was the beginning of Zao Foods.
While the idea of coming up with a nutritious food café came to her mind, she was having a well established career in investment banking. It was pretty tough for her to change her dream into reality. Even, her parents were not supportive in her initial days of entrepreneurship and asked her to get back to her corporate career.
Finally, fighting against all the odds, Mitali invested
Her café offers a list of healthy and nutritious foods for the food lovers. Her café took a couple of months to come to the notice of the food lovers. With a menu, that offers wholewheat pasta, wraps, soups, salads, low-fat smoothies and shakes, and many more, the list of her customer is increasing with every passing day and she is putting in all her efforts to have the best results.
Within the very first year of becoming an entrepreneur, she has achieved a turnover of more than
To keep the vibes of her café alive and fresh, she organizes workshops and different types of events at regular time intervals. She is all set to go for some more outlets for her food business and to offer healthy and nutritious foods to the Indian food lovers.
Founder CEO, Under the Mango Tree (UTMT)
Honey is considered as one of the holy and healthy drinks in India. Honey has more than hundred benefits. Drinking honey on a daily routine, not only assures a good heal, but also keeps people away from several diseases. But for Vijaya Pastala, honey is one of the most important ways of living life; honey is the best way for Vijaya to make profits.
Vijaya Pastala is a graduate from MIT, U.S. After completing her graduation, she returned to India and got engaged in helping the 1993 earthquake people of Latur, Maharashtra. During those times, she had a small team and her office used to be very small room with tin roof. Her office was very congested and thus she moved her office to under the shade of a mango tree.
While continuing her kind service from under the shade of a mango tree, she made plans to name her future ventures, if there comes any as ‘Under the Mango Tree’.