The land of entrepreneurs

 The land of entrepreneurs

By

Murali Murthy

There are zillions of movies, biopics, web series made on how some entrepreneurs were born, how they created unicorns, got millions of funding and made it big, somewhere far, somewhere in the west.

We (not so) young entrepreneurs have to get the right inspiration, practical use case and awakening examples.

Our eyes light up, ears stand straight and get orgasm when we hear a company got Funded. The definition of success of a business has unfortunately come to - being funded.

Business principles, profitable model, bottom line, ethics, courage, confidence, risks all have blurred.

To be inspired, motivated, let's stop looking out, but start looking in our own backyard.

The Maiyas, the Kamats, the Bhats, the Pai, the Hollas, the Aithals - known for setting up extremely successful, profitable Hotels and most of them are now a chain of restaurants or a stand alone gem.

I am talking about those daring Young men and families who migrated from the Udupi / coastal belt far and beyond, across India.

Many stories that we have seen in Movies that a young boy ran away from home in Udupi, went to Mumbai, joined a Hotel as a cleaner, promoted as a Cashier, ended up buying that Hotel.

This is definitely not a story imagined, this is a true story of many Udupi families I have known.

The story of none other than Preeti's grand father - Sitarama Maiya, whose Uncle had a Hotel in a remote town in the then Andhra Pradesh. Mr. Sitarama Maiya was asked to relocate and take care of this Hotel after the Uncle passed away, who had very young children.

Once the children grew up, Mr. Sitarama Maiya moved on and wanted to setup his own Hotel. He started scouting for a place, and kept traveling up North till Nanded in Maharashtra, where there was no other South Indian Hotel.

He got his wife to run the Kitchen and he setup a small Hotel opposite to the Railway Station.

Slowly made progress and purchased a plot, built a small hotel. He kept improving the Hotel, furnitures and expanding every decade.

The eldest Son Vasant Maiya (my FIL) after finishing his LLB, took charge and started running the show along with his younger brother Nityanand Maiya.

Both brothers made New Udipi Hotel, a famous South Indian Hotel in Nanded!

Imagine someone as humble, as simple as Mr. Sitarama Maiya, from a very small town near Udupi, migrating to a remote Town amongst unknown people speaking unknown language, yet setting up a successful Business, way back in the 1940s. They even helped others in the family to setup Udupi Hotels in the nearby towns.

And this story is not unique, the template is same across all the budding Hoteliers from Udupi belt migrated to various parts of India and setup successful business.

If entrepreneurship is about being enterprising, being street smart, being gutsy, having self confidence, risk taking ability, and confidence to sell anything, ability to engage in interesting discussions even with strangers, ability to multi task, learn and improvise, treat life and life experiences as Institution, without any backing of Investors, Funds, then such people and businesses should be our inspiration.