A big compliment

Quite some time back I read about Yossi Vardi. And one of the things he conveys is:

Judge the individual over the business plan.

If the size of any business is calculated by the money it earns, then any compliment in the context of business could be judged by the same metric, right? :)

Some time back I pitched for funding (for a business idea) to one of my Dad's business associates. A director of a fairly well-known and financially sound construction company based in Ahmedabad, was also present during the pitch.

He seemed to have taken a little interest and listened to a part of what I had to say. At the end he said (in typical Gujarati) to the associate I was presenting, "Chhokro saaro laage chhe. Ek-be khokha naakhi ne bhooli java na." It means, "The boy seems good. Invest a crore or two and forget about it."

My valuation as a business professional at a crore or two is still notional coz that compliment didn't manifest in real. But that notional value was good enough to get me started; one estimate of the size of my idea - as mentioned in the presentation at that time - stands at Rs. 1500 crore :).