Would OYO's founder have started the company if he knew what he knows now? Probably not.
🎥: Raj Shamani
🎥: Raj Shamani
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00:00If I knew 20% of what I know today, I would have never tried.
00:03I was the black sheep.
00:04I wanted to be as far away from home as possible.
00:08And I figured that from Rayagada to Kota will be a three-day train journey.
00:13So I'll give you a quick background about myself.
00:19I grew up in a town called Rayagada.
00:22This is in the Andhra Odisha border.
00:25So I speak both Odia, Telugu, and of course, Hindi, English, and so on.
00:32And I'm the youngest of four kids, right?
00:34So the three elder siblings of mine, two elder sisters, one elder brother, and I'm the youngest.
00:39So all the elder three siblings were Asian parents dream, engineering, business school,
00:45good job, everything, right?
00:48All the tick marks that you expect from Asian parents.
00:51I was the black sheep.
00:52I always wanted to do something different.
00:54So my parents were like, okay, we got 75% of the portfolio right.
00:59This one, we'll see how this turns out, right?
01:02But you know, credit to them.
01:03I think, you know, because my elder sister, you know, was good in education, she wanted
01:10to make a difference.
01:11I've always seen that the elder siblings sort of inspires the other siblings to pursue a
01:16certain path.
01:17So I think because she was responsible, I was half as responsible at least.
01:21So anyway, long story short, I went to Kota, Rajasthan for my 11th and 12th grade education.
01:26It was partly because I wanted to pursue engineering.
01:28Okay, okay.
01:29Tell me honestly, was it your choice or you were forced by your parents or elder siblings
01:34to do so?
01:35So you will understand that fully when I tell you the second.
01:38It was absolutely my choice.
01:40But the reason was very simple.
01:42I wanted to be as far away from home as possible because I wanted to pursue my whatever entrepreneurial
01:48or new things that I wanted to do.
01:50And I figured that from Raigada to Kota will be a three day train journey, right?
01:56Because you have to go from Raigada to Bhubaneswar, Bhubaneswar to Delhi and Delhi to Kota.
02:00It's three train rides, right?
02:02So, you know, I thought that, you know, nobody's going to come visit me, I will go visit them.
02:07So I have all the time for myself.
02:09So this just makes you feel like it would have been more deliberate.
02:12And also I am very thankful to my parents to consider that because, you know, all my
02:16three elder siblings, they went to places in and around the place I grew up at, right?
02:21Like, you know, the town I come from, if you go to Barampur or Belange, these are smaller
02:28towns in Odisha, those are considered like cosmopolitan upgrades for potential 11th and
02:3412th grade, right?
02:35But people would go to and you know, there are great educational options there, right?
02:39So but for me, I just wanted to be closer to, you know, cities where new businesses
02:45were getting built or something new was happening because I wanted to be a part of the story.
02:48I didn't know what I'll do, why I'll do.
02:51And this idea got started because I started selling telecom SIM cards when I was in my
02:566th or 7th grade.
02:57At 7th, you started selling SIM cards?
03:00Just as a summer thing, right?
03:01To do something new.
03:02So that got me thinking that, this is very good.
03:04I want to do more and more of these things.
03:07So you know, I think that that sort of inspired me to come to Kota.
03:10I think right after 12th grade, there are six months between school and university.
03:13I was naive enough to think I should start a business of my own.
03:16A guarantee, I think, nowadays when I reflect back, if I knew 20% of what I know today,
03:22I would have never tried.
03:23So that's why I said naivety is good.
03:25If you know less, it's good because at least you feel like you can do it.
03:28Because you don't know how hard it is, how risky it is.
03:31It is.
03:32You know, your journey makes me feel like you're poster boy for two things in India.
03:35One, like the entrepreneur dream, Indian dream, everything, go hustle, do it.
03:41When you're young, you can go build something, right?
03:43You're a poster boy for that.
03:44And you're a poster boy of everything what Indian parents don't want you to do.