Tracing The Success Story Of Gautam Adani

When we read the life story of a successful personality, it gives us a lot of insight into how they have managed and overcome the challenges in their lives. These lessons help us manage our lives and plan a better future for our loved ones. Mr. Gautam Adani is one such shining star in the sky of the Indian economy. 

Adani’s are the second wealthiest family after the Ambani’s, but unlike other business tycoons, Adani didn’t inherit the fortune from his father. Instead, he worked hard to change his fate.  If you look at the success story of Gautam Adani, it reveals his strong will, business acumen, and hard work, which he used to build his stair of success. 

From A College Dropout To A Business Tycoon, His Story Is Nothing Short Of Remarkable

Adani, as a child, exhibited entrepreneurial traits. He dropped out of college after the second year to start a career. He was one of the seven children of his parents, who were economically weak. His father was a textile merchant. 

Adani moved to Mumbai to start working as a diamond sorter. His first job lasted for 2-3  years, but by then, he had learned the nitty-gritty of the business and how it changes with the market. His knowledge of the trade helped him set up a diamond brokerage. It was the first business that he tried his hands at. The next break of his life came when his brother, Mahasukh Adani, called him back to Ahmedabad to work at the plastic factory he had started. Gautam joined the firm, and soon he was importing polyvinyl chloride or PVC to India. The event marked his entry into the global trade arena.

Surprising Facts About Gautam Adani

Adani enrolled to study at Gujarat University but dropped out from his commerce course in the second year. 

Gautam Adani worked as a diamond sorter in Mumbai in the Eighties after dropping out of college and refusing to continue in his father’s textile business. 

Adani started a diamond trading business for a while and turned into a millionaire at 20. He eventually started a commodities import and export firm in 1988.

Adani was reportedly kidnapped in 1998 at gunpoint for ransom after he along with another individual had just left a club in Ahmedabad and were released later.

Adani also had a close encounter with the 26/11 terror attacks; staff at the hotel helped him hide in a basement from the terrorists who attacked the Taj where he was dining. He has been quoted as saying that he saw militants enter the building from the table at which he sat.

Adani Is A Man With A Knack To Recognize An Opportunity When It Comes Knocking At Your Door 

Farsightedness and the ability to seize opportunity are the qualities that differentiate a successful person from the mass. Adani is living proof of that. He identified opportunities when the Indian economy threw open the doors to globalisation.  It proved a blessing to him. Using the situation, he diversified fast to capture the new market.

Adani founded Adani group in 1988, but his company initially was trading on agricultural products and power. But, it changed in 1991 as the new-age of the Indian economy ushered in. Adani took the opportunity to diversify, considering the shift in market demand. Gradually Adani Group emerged as a conglomerate, diversifying into power generation and transmission, coal trading and mining, gas distribution, oil and gas exploration, ports, and SEZ.   

Adani Believes In Giving Back To The Society

Despite his success like a shooting star, Gautam always remained humbled to his roots. Along with his wife, Priti Adani, a dentist by profession and Managing Trustee of Adani Foundation, he is engaged in numerous philanthropic activities. The trust works in improving education, community health, rural infrastructure development, sustainable livelihood generation, and more.

Also Read: Adani Wilmar vs Adani Power vs Adani Port

Net Worth Of Gautam Adani

Gautam Adani, who is the Chairperson of the Adani Group, has a net worth of a little over $80 billion as of January 4, 2022, according to Forbes. At a net worth of $89.1 billion, on November 24, 2021, Adani was for a brief while the richest in Asia, displacing RIL’s Mukesh Ambani. The 59-year-old is #24 on the Forbes Billionaires List 2021 and is placed at #14 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

His Life’s Lesson For All

If we look into his life, Gautam’s journey to the top wasn’t easy. He is a self-made billionaire. And to achieve this position, he had to do struggle like anyone else. But he was also a visionary who has learned in early life to seize opportunities when it comes. Here are the lessons that one can learn from Gautam Adani’s life. 
Understanding The Potential Of An Opportunity Is Important 
Adani is a visionary. He realised how important ports are for the growth of an economy.  Adani understood the potential of merchant ports and was successful in establishing a monopoly over the segment. Today, he is the largest port owner in India and continues to build new ports in the country and abroad.  

Diversification Is The Key

From the beginning, he focused on diversifying his business as the market changed. Starting with exporting agricultural and power products, he diversified his business to other segments like power generation and distribution, oil and gas exploration, logistics, port development. He was quick to identify business opportunities when India’s economic philosophy changed.

He Is Known For His Remarkable Negotiation And Convincing Skills

He once visited the then railway minister, Nitish Kumar, and convinced him to see the importance of integrating ports to the railway. He successfully convinced the minister to formulate the port-rail linkage policy. The policy allowed port owners to run their own rail tracks to the nearest railheads.

He Has Never Stopped Learning 

He didn’t have sophisticated training from top business schools. He learned the business by observing trade tricks, which taught him the importance of demand and supply. He is a keen observer who understands where further demand can arise and believes in seizing the early opportunity.

Adani built a 2km long airstrip in his port, capable of catering to large aircraft. It is the only port in India to have an airstrip. He has plans to turn it into fully-functional to manage transportation of high value, low volume goods like diamond and pharmaceutical. 

Hold Onto Your Values

He is known to be a man of strong values and an unbending attitude. He commented on many occasions that ‘dealing with the government does not mean that you have to give a bribe.’ He had his fair share of rifts with the government and the court. 

Shift Your Focus To Long-Term Value Generation

His strong business sense made him realise the importance of understanding the demand of fellow industrialists and competitors for long-term prospects and profit. And his learnings eventually helped him establish a monopoly.

Adani was ranked the third most remarkable Individual in India by India Today in 2019. His life is a story of how focus and determination can help a man change his humble beginning to become one of the most successful industrialists of his generation.  

Sometimes reading the stories of successful personalities give us the direction in life we sought.