Circumstantial Entrepreneurs

In India, there is an incredible number of entrepreneurs about whom we never really hear and when we do, it is mostly to make fun of them or their brands or their companies. I will admit I am a bit disappointed with the IIM people. They are India’s best brains and make no mistake I have tremendous respect for them and yet, if I were to ask you to name one guy who owns a “manufacturing unit”, who is from IIM, you may not be able to come up with an answer. (Of course, if you are from IIM, you might know someone).
My dad’s job is such that he gets to meet these factory owners who are doing tremendous business using their brains alone. Many of the stories I have heard are just too incredible and so I would like to share one of this guy who owns a manufacturing unit is Faridabad (a place close to New Delhi).
This guy is 7th grade dropout and does not know how to write (half illiterate). He started his career when he was in class 7th as a factory worker and slowly learned everything there was to know about the trade. After 7 years of work, a group of wealthy people approached him and told him to run a complete manufacturing unit on their behalf. They even got him the orders. He looked after the day to day activities. And at last he decided to start his own manufacturing unit. And so he set it up in 2005. He saved on cost by using waste material from big manufacturing units. As an analogy, when a big factory produced a big steel pipe, this guy used the steel that was left out as waste by product of manufacturing. This allowed him to buy steel at a very low cost and then add tremendous value to it.

This guy started in 2005 and now his turnover is close to $4 million. This is without any venture capitalist funding.
The irony is that the guy might probably hire someone from IIM soon enough to help him expand.