Gambling and doing business is almost same; the only difference is that gambling requires luck while business requires hard work and intelligence. Both come with high risk; you can’t really predict what is going to happen next.
Nothing is a piece of cake – effort, time and experience make it look easy. Doing business is something that requires you to step out of your comfort zone and push yourself to the maximum limit, sometimes even beyond. When you hear that crack of a bone, that’s when you realize that a limit has been reached. That’s what you will have to do: reach that cracking point.
Failure is nothing but a point where you accept that you have failed. Failing has nothing to do with losing, but quitting means accepting defeat.
It isn’t easy to make it big as a family business. These people showed the world how it is done. Here are our picks of the two most successful family business stories.
Sun Pharmaceuticals
Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited is a multinational pharmaceutical company in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It was founded by Dilip Shangvi in 1983.
Dilip Shangvi was born in a town known as Amreli in 1952 on 1st of October. He got his early education from Ajmera High School and then attended Bhawanipur Education Society College for further studies. He did his Bachelors in Commerce from the University of Calcutta.
Dilip’s father owned a wholesale drug business in Kolkata. Dilip used to help his father with his business. While he was assisting his father, the idea of manufacturing drugs came into his mind instead of merely distributing them.
With a capital of Rs 10,000, Shangvi established Sun Pharma in 1983 in Mumbai. Initially, Sun Pharma was only manufacturing five drugs. After many, many sleepless nights and limitless work, today, Sun Pharma holds the title of being India’s most successful drug company.
The first acquisition made by Sun Pharma was of Knoll Pharma, a company based in Ahmednagar, Maharashtra. Later on, Sun Pharma took over an American drug manufacturer known as Caraco Pharma and expanded its reach to the American market in 1997, and then an Israeli Company Taro Pharma in 2007.
Sun Pharma has been a part of 19 successful joint ventures and acquisitions. Now, Sun Pharma ranks fifth in the global generic drug market.
Walmart
Walmart is a well-known name worldwide. It is the world’s largest chain of stores and biggest grocery retailer. It’s known to generate larger revenue than any other company. It is owned by the Walton family, successors of Sam Walton who first founded the Walmart.
Sam Walton was born on March 29, 1918, in Kingfisher, Oklahoma. He lived there on his parent’s farm until 1923. He graduated from the Hickman High School in Columbia, Missouri, in 1936 and later joined the military. In 1945 he retired. At the age of 26, Walton took a loan of $20,000 and added the amount of $5,000 he saved from the military and got hold of the Ben Franklin store in Newport.
He used a variety of products and made sure that he was never out of stock. He launched the first Walmart in 1962 in Roger, Arkansas. His agenda was to promote the products made in America and raise its sales more than any foreign brand.
His efforts and unexampled ideas took him to the peaks of success. Waltons, now own more than 11,000 branches of Walmart all over the world which includes, more than 600 branches of Sam’s Club.
Walton died of blood cancer in 1992, April 5th, leaving his business to his children and wife.
