“If you are born poor, it’s not your mistake.
But if you die poor, it’s your mistake.”
-Bill Gates
In this modern world where money is considered next to God, the above-quoted words best describe the lot. People today can cross any limit to earn money and become rich. People blindly run after money in the now turned materialistic and mean world with a dream of becoming a “billionaire” someday. But this dream turns into reality only for a few of the many and in this piece of work, we draft the life story of such a great, humble, noble billionaire.
Born into a middle-class Kannada family, in the town of Sidlaghatta, Mysore on the 20th of August, 1946, was a boy who is a current billionaire and an inspiration to thousands, Mr Nagavara Ramarao Narayan Murthy. Hailing from a small town with a big dream in his eyes, Mr Narayan Murthy became the “Father of the Indian IT Sector” and was one of the twelve greatest entrepreneurs as listed by Fortune Magazine.
Narayan Murthy was the fifth born of the eight children of his father. His father was an honest school teacher who could barely afford their living with his earnings. Murthy was a brilliant student and his father wanted him to go for the civil services, but instead, Murthy was inclined towards engineering and had got admission into IIT by cracking the entrance with a good rank but unfortunately, his father could not meet the expenses and hence he was forced to study at the National Institute of Engineering, Mysore, where he completed his graduation in the year 1967.
He completed his master’s degree from IIT Kanpur in the year 1969 in electrical engineering. In an interview, he quoted his father’s words,” if you are smart you can go to any college and do something worthwhile” and he proved his father right. Murthy’s initial dream was to become a junior engineer in a hydroelectric power plant but destiny had different plans set for him.
The Indian Institute of Technology in India is considered to be life-changing for students and Murthy was no different. When in IIT, he was inspired by the enthusiasm and positive outlook of the young professors. It was here that he was introduced to the miracle machine – “Computers” and he was hooked to them. The new journey of his life began with an unconventional job offer of a Research Associate at IIM Ahmedabad which he joined despite having better offers from Telco and Air India.
At a salary of 800 rupees per month, he used to work dedicatedly for about 20 hours a day. He even modelled and executed the first time-sharing computer at ECIL. Murthy then went to Paris which can be considered as the most influential years of his life. He knew there was a great deal to learn from the west and it was in Serbia, where he was put in jail for 60 hours and was freed as he belonged to a friendly country, he realised the harsh concepts of capitalism and socialism thus turning him into a “compassionate capitalist” putting the foundation rock of his new life in India, the “Infosys.”
Mr N.R. Narayan Murthy first started a company called Softronics, which did not last more than eighteen months. His second venture started when he took a sum of rupees ten thousand as the first investment from his wife, Mrs Sudha Murthy and along with six other software professionals set up the base for “Infosys” in the year 1981. The team had plans to build an institution in India itself. Infosys got its first contract from Databases, New York.
Murthy stayed in India to work on the infrastructure while his colleagues went to the US to work on a site project and thus they decided to import a computer to have a better and enhanced version of their work. Initially, they had to face a lot of struggles as nobody was convinced enough to provide them with a loan, they didn’t get access to telephone lines, computers to be imported took a lot of time but luck was in their favour and life took sweet turns when Murthy happened to sit next to K.S.N Murthy of the Karnataka State Industrial Investment and Development Corporation who sanctioned their loan and after a year they got their telephone connection too.
After years of turmoil and hard work, they gained a lot of experience to carry forward their company in the smoothest way possible.
Narayan Murthy considers himself lucky and indebted to God for having got so much from society and being in a better place as compared to many of his friends who were rather way more smart and accomplished than he was. He believes life has always turned the good cards on him by God’s grace. In the year 1990, the company was struggling to make any good profits and Murthy’s colleagues were planning to sell the company. Murthy had different plans.
He after a long discussion convinced them that if anything goes wrong, he will buy them out. He showed his great leadership skills and thus was the beginning of a long marathon that Infosys was now going to be a part of. With several new policies of the government, liberalisation happened. Also, the main reason behind Infosys coming up was the diversification of the policy of foreign investment. They moved with a view of changing the future and always believed in their karma and were hooked to their roots.
Mr Narayan Murthy served as the CEO of Infosys for 21 long years and became the chairman of the board from 2002 to 2006. He retired with the title of “Chairman Emeritus” in August 2011. He was again made the executive chairman and director of Infosys from June 2013 until June 2014. Murthy has also served as an independent director of HSBC, DBS Bank, NDTV, ICICI. He was also a part of the advisory committee of the United Nations, Ford Foundation, Cornell University and many more. In 2005, he served as the co-chairman of the World Economic Forum in Davos. His present-day net worth stands at around 4.3 billion making him one of the top 100 richest men in India.
Narayan Murthy is now 75 years old. He is married to the eminent author and social worker, Sudha Murthy who does philanthropic work for his company. He is blessed with two children, Rohan Murthy and Akshata Murthy. He has also authored books like ‘A better India: A better world’, A clear blue sky and The Wit and Wisdom of Narayan Murthy. His work and dedication have been acknowledged with many awards from around the world. He was awarded by the Government of the UK with the Honorary CBE, Officer of Legion of Honour by the Government of France and many more. He was honoured with Padma Shri in the year 2000 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2008.
“if you have a dream in your eyes, and you work hard every moment to attain it, nothing can stop you.” Narayan Murthy faced a lot of struggles and difficulties in his early life but he was always ambitious and with his skills and leadership, he paved his way for success. He made sure he was always doing justice to his wealth by regular social work.
He is an inspiration for all the young and budding entrepreneurs who look up to him as an idol. He has always said that his motto in life is to “Reach the Unattained Goals” and he utterly believes that the pleasure of success comes from the journey itself and not the destination. Murthy through his extraordinary outlook towards life and business has sparked the fire of entrepreneurship and motivated the youth to achieve their goals.
