Story of greed, failure and a myth called overnight success..!!

This is my first story in any forum/ discussion and what can be a better platform to post it than the RODINHOODER’s platform.

I am Pawan Naulakha and I run my own business in the Textile arena. This interview happened during my business expansion phase when I was in process of increasing my suppliers base and I in turn met with a high profile industrialist in Ludhiana.

I had heard lot of good things about this man and had drawn a picture that he lives a grandeur life. He basically manufactures just shawls and stoles and his production is 5 times compared to production of any other firm in Ludhiana. To give you a figure in numbers he manufactures about 15k to 25k shawls in a single day or in a broader sense 5Lakh units monthly.

I got his phone no, his address and set on my way. The perception I had in my mind of his industry working to the tune of that scale was like a mammoth gigantic building, class office, suited-booted officer sitting and relaxing in his puffy cushion chair ordering all the work to his employees.

As I reached the address provided I could not see some gigantic building anywhere. My driver had to enquire several times that is this the exact location where we were to reach? I got off the car and asked the nearby crowd of people ” Natti paji ( big bro in punjabi ) ki factory yeahi hai? “. “YES” claimed all the standing people in unison.

Two bamboo sticks dug firmly horizontal approx. 8 feet from the ground on either side of the small main entrance and shawls hung over them. I wondered in amusement. I instructed my driver to park the car outside and wait while I walked inside the small unguarded entrance. On walking a few steps I found 2-3 small well type dug structures with coloured water inside it and steel pipes for what looked like suction of the water. Few steps further on the left I found a mammoth room, the size of an auditorium laden with shawls one on top of the other. Thousands of pieces lay stacked in elegant manner. The employes there were constantly wrapping the shawls in a bundle and aligning them one on top of the other.

I enquired “Natti bauji kaha hai?”

Employee quoted “Bauji woh seedhi ( stair case ) se upar chad ke “, pointing towards a narrow stair case leading to an aluminium door with a small glass. 

I climbed up, knocked the door and entered the room of ” Natti Bauji “. A 10*15 sq feet room with shawls stacked on the opposite end, a long table with glass top placed across the room, with a tidy man seemed in his early 50’s sitting in one side of the table and 3 plastic chairs placed on the other side for the clients/ visitors. There was just sufficient space to move between the chair and the table,  the leg space between them was the one we get in the no-frills flights i.e negligible, no offences please. The outside temperature was around 45-46 degrees and with AC in the room I expected the room to be cool, but it was no better than just a fan running in that condition.

He offered me the seat, we smiled and I sat down pulling , oops just holding the side-arms of the chair. We exchanged cards, greeted each other and I explained my business. He showed me the samples which were seriously magnificent and at prices which I just could not believe, 5-7% less than the normal market rate. We ended up doing a good business deal. The whole process took about 35-40 mins and I was comfortable now talking to him.

I am very emotional by nature and generally get attached to people very quickly. It was then that I decided to break the ice and then the real thing happened.

I just asked out of curiosity “Paaji bura mat manna but ek cheez puchu aapse”.

Nattiji ” Are, are puchiye.”

Me : “I have heard a lot of things about you, your caliber, your production strength, your sales etc. You are probably the largest manufacturer of shawls, by volume, in Ludhiana. But still looking at your office, your factory, your living style I am amused.”

I kept mumbling while his smile grew wider and wider.

“I expected a royal man sitting on a crowned seat ordering everything to his staff for follow up’s.”

 NT : ” The man you have heard about is the one who was born a decade back and had died almost instantly, the person you see on the chair is the one who existed earlier and exist in present “

I was amused and thought to myself “What the heck is he talking – born, dead, exist?”. “Pardon me I did not get you” I asked.

NT : “I am 55 right now and I had started working when I was 17 years old. I bought a small shop, did trading of shawls. My pricing, my energy, my courage made me stand out of my competitors and made me the no.1 undisputed seller in the market. The manufacturers used to come to my shop and request me to sell their products. I sold in thousands keeping the price tight but rotating the volumes to a large scale. I signed up monopoly with several manufacturers to just supply me the goods so that I could sell more volumes and earn slightly more profits. The business was wonderful and the operating margins were tight but the volumes was the thing I played on.

I brought few shops, few land and felt that Yes I was on top of the world and I could do anything and everything. I overnight decided that Trading was not a long term game but manufacturing would provide me more profit and a longer span to work. Overnight I decided that I will open a manufacturing unit. I had the land and 1/3rd of the cash needed to operate a large manufacturing unit. I spend all that cash in building a luxurious office and brought the 2/3rd loan to buy machinery etc required to operate the unit.

I knew that this is a long term investment game and profits will take time to pour in. I kept on investing most of amount on look and feel of the office instead of focusing on the main parameter to improve the manufacturing quality. The unit started asking for more and more cash and I was running short of it, the banks also did not allot more than the sanctioned amount. I sold my properties one after the other. 1…2…3..4…7… till finally I had just my house left and even after 5 years of operation the business did not reap profit, I lost my cash, my properties everything I had, but the only thing I had was courage left with me and a loan to repay. 

People lost faith in me and no one helped me in the hour of need by providing any cash.

After a lot of struggle and 6 months of nothing to do I found someone who gave me a small order to procure something. I was desperate and wanted to grab that opportunity with both my hands. I took that order. I came back happy thinking that yes I could finally do it. I called my few near ones and instead of procuring I thought I would manufacture it myself with all my efforts and charge very little profit for it. I called the dyeing master who used to be one of my most reliant man dye the product to colour the piece. He took the piece. I was relaxed and happy that Yes finally I can have something to do.

But destiny had some more trouble written for me, the dyeing master lost his mother the same day evening and he was to depart for his hometown – Seharsha in Bihar – which meant he would take minimum 15 days to go and come back. 

Pressure started mounting, I enquired about the process to dye from several people, dig well behind my home and dyed the cloth myself.

The shipment was delivered just on time. But my heart beat was still running fast – I knew what was wrong”.

Just when the shipment was opened by my client he rung up immediately, and tell you what I was trembling while the phone was ringing, I knew I would be loosing the trust of one more person.

I picked up the phone and trembled hello. A laughing voice greeted me on the other side ” Waah Natti kya rang kiya hai, maza aa gaya, maal dekh ke to dil khush ho gaya”.

He ordered the next shipment – 20 times the first order.”

Though I was not related to him in any sense and I had met him for the first time my emotions swayed with his story from deep sadness to deep excitement. I took a glass of water and felt happy.

NT : ” I left the high profile look and feel office but I became much more satisfied and content with my life. But after few years of doing that I again felt – what was I doing. A smart trader to a manufacturer, though a failure and then the work of a DHOBI..!!! I decided to quit again”

I was left gasping for air then…!!!

NT : ” I quit despite several opposition from my wife, she said we have two beautiful children, your business is doing great we are earning just about great for a wonderful life, but I resisted and stuck to my gut feel. I stood firm and quit again – but this time I quit from a successful business “.

Me : ” I am sure it takes balls to make your wife understand your decision”.

NT : “I opened this very manufacturing unit, stuck to my strength. I knew I dye very well and I work on minimum profit maximum volumes. I reduced the cost on architecture of building but conserved every inch for increasing my production capacity. The 3 wells you see down stairs is where we start with our dyeing process, we stock up our inventory in one large room located down stairs and dispatch it daily overnight whatever is stocked up. The horizontal bamboo’s dented firmly inside the walls of my entrance symbolises firmness to my naysayers that I am strong and standing on my ground and Shawls strung over them are my strength.

Within 7 years of starting business I have brought 5 new properties, started 2 more factories at minimum building cost but maximum volume theory. I focused on my strengths, I worked night and day, for last 20 years till I became an overnight success.

You might have heard of the NT in the alishan building who lived for a few years and died instantaneously, but this is the real NT who lived earlier in his shop and now in his office. “

I stood up with moist eyes, shook hand and saluted the great man.