If you are doing a job, my advice is: whoever serves you... if you get double the salary in service compared to running your own business, then do service. But suppose you get 50,000 in service and 25,000 in business, then do the business of 25,000, not the job of 50,000. Why? Because from this 25,000, tomorrow you may earn 30, 35, 40, 50 lakh, five lakh, ten lakh — there is no telling how far you can go.
Today's calculation is somewhat different, but our effort is to tell our next generation to go a little into entrepreneurship. But now it has become such that we tell the children a comfort zone — no tension at night. Now if you have a business, naturally our situation is different: once the establishment is done, we can make a rule that after seven o'clock we won't talk about business. But our children also see that when Papa comes home, after that the phone and everything continues. After seeing all this, they feel that in today's generation, husband and wife both take education, both get jobs of 80,000 each, and the household runs nicely on one and a half lakh. And then whether you earn one and a half lakh or fifty lakh rupees, you have to spend only that much.
So now slowly, our community — if you look at it, the Maheshwari community, you must know, is called a community of industrialists — but slowly some migration is happening. We feel that the children of industrialists prefer jobs to enter the comfort zone: they do bank jobs or any kind of job. So I feel this is a crucial question for our community right now — we can say this is a problem, there are two or three problems, so what would you say about them?
Very nice. Not just the Maheshwari community — the whole world has this problem. My friend Paragbhai Shah, owner of Giridharlal and Company, went to Mumbai five years ago to conduct a seminar for all our diamond youngsters, and its subject was 'You go out of comfort zone.' 'You go out of comfort zone.' Now you have spoken and told everyone to stay in the comfort zone.
Let me give you a living, breathing example. This is our Bhaveshbhai. Bhaveshbhai, come here. Bhaveshbhai is my PA, and he was a principal in a school — a school we have adopted, a municipal school — and he himself was the principal. He was very brilliant. When Narendra Modi was Chief Minister, he decided that when these people get old and become principals, the school results don't come, so make only those who pass the exam the principals. So in that lot, these people were in one group. We had adopted four schools, all in one complex. Four principals came, and this brother came among them. So I said, we had adopted it, so I used to go to the meeting every Saturday. After two months, I asked him: 'You are so brilliant, and now you have become principal — will you remain a principal all your life? You will become an inspector, and then what will you do? Your life will become completely dull, because there is nothing to do. Comfort zone — go to school for four or five hours, then become a lump of laziness like a log, not caring about anyone, not dealing with anyone — then you will become dull.' So he said, 'What should I do?' I said, 'Come with me.' So he came.
Now, would you find any madman who would leave such a nice government job as a principal and come to the private sector? And there is no guarantee here — if the uncle finds him suitable, he keeps him; if not, he says no. One should become self-reliant, that is how one should live. So this is an example: today, however much salary he gets, how much satisfaction does he get? How much work to do, how to do it, whom to meet — that is what I want to tell you. As an example, we went to meet Narendra Bhai recently — the whole family, 15 people — and this brother used to do all the coordination in the PMO office. He came with us to Narendra Bhai's house. Where would he have got the chance to come to Narendra Bhai's house if he had remained a principal?
[Applause] So you should not worry at all. We cannot improve the whole world. Dongreji Maharaj used to say, 'Do not get into the business of improving the world. I will not get into that business.' Don't get tensed, don't get involved in all these quarrels. If you improve yourself, the whole world is improved. These are the words of Dongreji Maharaj. [Applause] The beginning has to be made by us. We have a son-in-law who says every day, 'God, bless everyone — start with me.' So we have to make the beginning ourselves. Then whatever others do, where is it to us? See, in America, nobody does business — everyone in America is in a comfort zone. I tell you, this cannot be said publicly: the average IQ of America is lower than India's — you can ask them about it. Because those people are in a comfort zone. In the comfort zone, why are our Indian children so powerful? Because they are in discomfort.
Our company's sentence is: 'Problem is progress.' It comes from the heart. I thought that if I had not worked in the fields at 43 degrees, working 14 hours in the open sunlight — that is why I came to cut diamonds, and after working 14 hours, freshness remained, I enjoyed it. Even from six in the morning to eight in the evening, why did I enjoy it? Because I had worked in the fields. There was no AC up there, there was no fan, but there was heat — still I enjoyed it, and in the evening I remained so fresh. So I personally felt that I had the problem of those fields, so I felt very good here. And those 14 hours, six years of work — even when we did our own, we kept working 10 hours every day. Why? Because the work was satisfying, and it was not for money. That is very important. That we don't talk after seven in the evening — that won't work. Brother, our business is not decided at seven o'clock. But if you have a shop that must close at nine in the evening, close it at nine. Then whenever a customer comes, tell him, 'Come tomorrow at nine, the shop is closed.' Brother, your business will grow, my work will grow. If he needs to buy goods from you, and there are eight shops, he will come to you first — the rest are closed anyway.
My experience is that Antwerp is four hours behind — so when it is seven in the evening here, it is three in the afternoon there. If someone wants to sell me goods, he calls me first, and he thinks, 'If I call Govindbhai after seven, he won't take the call, so call him first.' Understand? Who gets up early — the one who profits, or the one who gets up late? You don't know — the business gets missed. We tell them that if this happens every time, it is a matter of loss. So you have to come out of the comfort zone. Even if you become very rich, you have to come out of brands. The brand is ours — we wear brand clothes, use brand things. If we get satisfaction from it, then that is the price of the brand. Our brand — [Applause] — so if we like it, we take it. I am not saying don't take brand things, but don't take them in the name of the brand. If you like the brand, take it.
