Unknown Heroes (Rags to Riches)

Every once in a while; one comes across a success story; a story that is built on hard work and perseverance alike. When my Friend Vikas Salunkhe narrated the story to me I was spell bound as there are so many U-turns in his story. If he wanted to go south life took him northwards. Another striking point in the story is how he realized so many times that the turning point had come and trusted himself to move forward. When I decided to write the story I had to coax him to give me detailed insights about his life. This is a long story but I promise you it is supremely interesting and inspiring at the same time. Here goes…

Vikas was born in an affluent family who lived in a village near to Satara (about 4 hours drive from Mumbai). His family was into many businesses with Farming being the main business. They also did very well in the business of Milk, making roads and politics. Vikas’s grandfather was the “Mukhya” of the Zilla Parishad and was very well connected politically. He was fondly called Tatya Patil (Bhau). Vikas always looked upto his grandfather as his idol. Vikas’s dad had run away from home with only Rs 100; to find a job in Mumbai. He had to run away as the family only believed in being entrepreneurs while service was a taboo word for the family.

Vikas’s mother and his other siblings continued to live in the village till Vikas was in 2nd grade; for 10 years his dad was alone in Mumbai. So most of his early life learnings; are from his grandfather. Vikas was named Pandurang which is one of the names of God. His family was pure vegetarian and it was only when Vikas moved to Mumbai that he started having non-veg food.

Bhau would always wake up at 7 am and was very disciplined. The first lesson that Vikas ever learned was from his grandfather was respecting Time. “Waqt se pehle aur kismet se zyada kisiko kuch nahi milta” (Meaning: No one can move faster than time; only time can dictate what a person can become. If it is not your time to get something; you will never get it, whatever the circumstances maybe”). Bhau also said “Always go step by step, one step at a time; if one tries to skip a step the worst will fall on him. Even Sugarcane takes 16 months to grow; one can’t have it in 13 months. So is the story with life.”

From very early on there is always a third person involved in turning points of Vikas’s life. The influence of the third person leads to a total U-turn in his life and thought process. Also everytime the U-turn has lead to very favorable conditions for Vikas.

All stories could not be accommodated in this piece but we have tried to accommodate some interesting parts. We present to you some interesting ones…

Story 1 (School in village)

A teacher working with the school used to take up contracts of cleaning ears and cutting nails of the students. Vikas saw how horrible the experience was for the students and hence he refused to let the teacher cut his nails or clean his ears. At his refusal the teacher gave a royal beating to Vikas. On the same day Bhau walked up to the principal’s office and asked a simple question. Who would be responsible if any child is injured while the ear cleaning takes place? Who would sponsor his medication? He knew that the teacher was not a professional in that field. So he asked “How did the teacher get the contract in the first place? The principal understood the point and shut down the activity altogether. That day young Vikas saw the power his grandfather had in school. He also thought to himself that he was invincible at school; he was the Boss. He continued acting like one till he was there in school.

Story 2 (School and college in Mumbai)

Though Vikas’s mom would many times feel alone in village it was only after 10 years that she really started to want to live in Mumbai with her husband. Bhau always treated her as his daughter and on her insistence he allowed her to go to Mumbai.

The education in Mumbai was a lot different. The schools were teaching in English as compared to Marathi in his village while there were around 50 kids in the class as compared to 15 in his village. All his self-confidence and ego that Vikas had gained in school till that point disappeared. He was a lost boy searching for some light in the middle of a dark tunnel. He had struggled to understand the basic concepts in school as they were taught at a very fast pace.

Vikas couldn’t keep up most of the times. Still as he grew up he took a liking for practical subjects like Sceince and Maths. He was very poor in learning theory subjects as he didn’t like the idea of mugging up concepts. From an early age he was being readied by his grandfather to become a businessman. He would constantly tell Vikas to be an entrepreneur and not work for others. Keeping that in mind Vikas didn’t care much about studies; he always thought that he will be a businessman once he gets done with studies.

Post his 10th grade he wanted to take up architecture as he could make that as his business in the future. For pursuing architecture one needs to take up science stream for 2 years and then pursue architecture as majors. He got a rude shock at the time of admissions as for the first time he came to know that in Mumbai students are given admission based on their caste. People with lower percentage got through in science but Vikas could not.

It took him a while to gulp the whole feeling as his dream of doing business now lied in tatters. He took admission in commerce stream and slowly his focus started to shift from business mentality to service mentality. Unknowingly he had started to walk on the path of his father. Even till graduation he continued to struggle with the studies; he had no idea what was happening.

Story 3 (The eternal Job search and getting first employment)

Vikas was best friends with Pravin More; ever since school days. Both had similar ambitions of finding a good job. After graduation they would sit together; select jobs they would want to do from the job column in the Mid-day paper. They would line up job interviews in such a manner that they can attend atleast 10 interviews in a day. They would buy return tickets in between Borivali to Churchgate. They would start with their first interview in Churchgate and would make sure that the last interview was lined up near Borivali. At that point they didn’t care in which sector they worked at.

Both of them landed a job at a call centre for Orange (now Vodafone). As they started the job they noticed that the women there were not given respect. Anyone would come and abuse them and very vulgar language was used while talking to them. On the 5thday of the job they decided that it was not the place where they would like to work and left the job on the very same day; forgoing their 5 day’s salary.

During the 5 days they spent at Orange they realized that having knowledge of computers is very important and computers is the way forward for the future. They did some research and found a decent computer course in Chetna College. All the info they garnered was online and they had not gone to the college individually. In the interim Vikas had to go to his village to attend a family function.

On 13th May 2005, Pravin called him around 12.30 pm and told him that last day to fill the form was on the 13th itself. The form had to be filled in person before 2 pm. There was no way Vikas could reach Mumbai before 2 pm and fill the form. Pravin had pleaded with the admission department for delaying the deadline so Vikas could come and fill the form but they refused. With no way to secure admission he told Pravin to take admission while Vikas himself would try and find something else for himself. He couldn’t help but remember his grandfather’s teaching at that time “Waqt se pehle aur kismet se zyada kisiko kya mila hai”.

Story 4 (Nature’s fury takes the job away)

The course was to start in August and both still looked for employment. Both of them used to go to cyber cafe to search for online jobs and they landed their second job in one such outing. The cyber cafe owner was friends with a lady having data entry business. The lady was on a lookout for people for the same and had asked her friend to help out. The owner asked Vikas and Pravin if they would like the job. Both agreed and started their second jobs together. They both got their first salary of Rs 1500 in June 2005. The second salary was due to come in July but the on July 26 2005 Mumbai dealt with one of the worst floods in its history. Unfortunately the office they were working in was totally submerged in water and all computers, accessories, files were lost forever. The boss incurred a huge loss and had to close down her business. Vikas and Pravin decided to forgo their stipend. For the second time in 3 months they were jobless.

As Pravin got busy with the computer course; Vikas decided to pursue distance MBA program from ICFAI. He completed the first year in the course and had paid Rs 60,000 for the course including other costs. As the first year completed he was having issues with his nemesis again “theory subjects”. He just didn’t feel motivated enough to go through the second year of the course. He quit the program. He had let his parents know about the same. At that point his Dad told him that he should again start working.

Story 5 (Being a Cashier)

His dad had a friend working with Pantaloon and the friend had agreed to take Vikas on board for the role of a cashier. So reluctantly Vikas agreed to take up the job. It was a second shift job which started at 2 pm and went on till 10 pm. After a few days of work Vikas realized that in malls no one can take an off on weekends and holidays. In fact those are the busiest days for the employees at the mall. Incidentally, Vikas started his job during the Diwali month and did not have even a day’s leave (no weekdays off as well) during that time. In fact he had to sleep in office a couple of times. Vikas wanted to buy gifts for his family with his first salary but he couldn’t go home so he called his family at the mall and bought gifts worth Rs 4500 (out of his salary of Rs 7300) for his parents and his siblings.

Working at Pantaloon was a low phase in his life as he regretted being a cashier. During his stay with Pantaloon he had formed several friendships with like minded colleagues. One such friend was Sadashiv Kale who was working there to meet ends. He and his family had gone through some terrible calamities due to which he also trained to become an Astrologer and excelled at reading hands.

One day during their free time Sadashiv saw Vikas’s hand and told him that he was in the wrong sector. He said Vikas had it in him to be on TV everyday. He rightly predicted certain events from Vikas’s past and so the belief in his prediction rose. He told Vikas that he should be in stock market or in the field of politics. He also had the best chance to come on TV in either of the two fields.

When Sadashiv told Vikas about taking up politics he couldn’t help but remember his grandfather who had a career in the field. Yet Bhau was the one who had put forth a rule in his family that no one after him should enter politics. The event behind such a decision was fatal. One day Bhau had to travel to another village for official work and he used to travel by bike most of the times. On that day there were many people who were going there and they had a car so they insisted on Bhau travelling with them in their car. Bhau’s friend told him that he would bring the bike to the village and Bhau should go in car. On the way the bike met with an accident and his friend passed away. Police came to a conclusion that the driver was hired to kill the person on that particular bike and that Bhau was the target. On realizing that his and his family’s life was at stake because of politics he set a rule that no one from the family would be in politics.

Vikas had made up his mind that he wanted to exit his job at Pantaloon. On 31st December 2006, he was working in office as usual. His friends kept telling him to come for a party and he decided to take a half day. The floor manager refused to give him a leave and after a lot of pleading he got a leave for half day. That half day turned out to be his last day at the job as he decided he didn’t want to do the job anymore and he wanted to start the new year on a fresh note.

His parents had always been supportive and supported this decision of his too. For one month he sat at home thinking what he would do next. By then his friend Pravin too had finished his course. Pravin had been looking for a job and he got to know about a job in the software company. From the time both were looking out for their first jobs; Pravin had Vikas’s resume with him. He knew too well that Vikas might not like the idea of working for the software company. So he applied to the company on behalf of both of them.

Story 6 (Life Changing Interview that Vikas didn’t know about)

On the day of the interview Pravin went to Vikas’s house. Vikas was sleeping at that time. He woke him up and told him that both of them had to go for an interview in the morning. Vikas thought he was joking but on showing a sms Vikas came to terms with the reality. He didn’t want to go but was forced to go by his parents. On the way Vikas had given an ultimatum to Pravin that he should never apply on his behalf ever again. Vikas didn’t even know the name of the company.

When they reached the place there were about 20-25 candidates already present for the interview. Looking at them he thought that he would never get the job and hence he was relaxed. He wasn’t anxious about how the interview would go. When his turn came he gave answers to the simple questions asked in the interview and maintained eye contact. It’s Funny what having no fear does to a person. After 3 rounds there were only 2 people left in the room; Vikas and Pravin.

Pravin was called first for the fourth round and was told that only one person can be taken for the interview and if he had a choice; Who should be recruited? He took Vikas’s name thinking it was a trick question. Vikas was also asked the same and he said Pravin should be recruited. Guess what; Vikas was given the offer letter over 22 other contestants while Pravin missed out narrowly. The reason for not choosing Pravin was that he had not maintained eye contact. The same eye contact that Vikas had maintained as he had already thought to himself that he had no chance to be selected; hence he had no fear of failure.

Story 7 (Learning life changing skills)

Vikas joined the company on 5th Feb 2007 while Pravin was still looking out for a job (cursing himself offcourse). The name of the company was Spider Software and it had made software for Technical Analysis in the equity segment in the stock market. Vikas till that time didn’t know anything about the stock market. The company obviously required the employees to know about the market; so his first assignment at the company was to sit in the conference room for a week and just watch CNBC all day long. After about 4 days he was asked what was Nifty? By then he had enough knowledge to let them know that it was an index.

On that day he came to know about what his profile in the company will be. He had to go to client place and tell them about the software and its uses. On his first outing he had gone with a colleague to learn the process. On his second outing he was pushed inside the pool; he was sent alone to the client. As is the case with most, Vikas didn’t know anything about the software but his stars had aligned by then. The client that he went to was a Doctor and an experienced trader; he had been using the software for quite sometime. He was very welcoming and on learning that this was just Vikas’s first solo outing; he told him in great detail about the software and its uses. He also mentioned that the software had potential to be widely used in the market as it had all the right ingredients. He also said that learning Technical analysis would take him further in his career and that he should start learning as soon as possible. That was the time Vikas for the first time thought that he was now going on the right track career wise.

After two months the company chose a 5 people team out of the workforce of 50 people who would manage relationships with clients and impart technical learning to them. Vikas was among the 5 people. By then, he had read a lot and gained a lot of knowledge about the software and analysis. Every member was assigned a particular area that they alone would cover. Vikas was given the south Mumbai area. This was the area where most of the Stock market corporates used to be. After many client meetings and training sessions Vikas came to a conclusion that less educated or uneducated people possessed far more knowledge about the market or about technical analysis than the more educated ones.

Throughout his training sessions he was lucky to have very good clients who would ask a lot of questions. Vikas would learn on the job through these questions. He had become an expert in technical analysis and on training clients about the same. He also got to learn about people’s behavior towards market. This tool has been very important to judge greed and fear while analyzing the peaks and troughs of the market.

Story 8 (Rejecting the offer by Mr RKD, owner of Dmart)

As he excelled in his work he was sent to the best clients the company had. One day a very famous investor from the Equity market had called for assistance from the company that Vikas was working in. Another colleague had fixed the appointment but he could not go there and hence Vikas was summoned to go there and fix the issues the person had with the software. Vikas met the employees of the investor and they couldn’t explain it to him what the investor wanted and hence the investor himself came to meet him. He was down to earth and very simple person. He had a strategy which needed to be feeded in the software and he patiently explained to Vikas what was needed. Vikas heard all the things and managed to make the strategy on the software. The outcome of the strategy matched the expectations of the investor and he went back to his cabin thanking Vikas and told him to wait for a bit.

After 15 minutes Vikas was called in his cabin (many employees of his are also not called inside the cabin). He was offered refreshments and as he was having tea the investor told him if he would be interested in working for him. Vikas had seen the office and saw only a handful of employees there and the investor seemed old and not that polished (simple) and thought there was not much future working out there so politely refused the offer by saying he had only one year experience and that he needed more experience in the market before jumping to another company. At that time he didn’t know the person who offered him the job was RKD (Godfather of Market) as people know him. He is the promoter of Dmart and known for being a big time successful investor in the stock market.

People die to work for Mr RKD or even meet him and here Vikas refused the job offered by him. When Vikas went to office and narrated the story about being offered a job to his colleague; the colleague was shocked and asked him how he could refuse the offer of a lifetime. Then Vikas quickly went on Google and searched for the name but he didn’t find much info there. He then asked other people in the market and found out how big a person he had just refused. That opportunity never came again and till date he repents refusing the offer.

One Day a similar incident happened. Vikas had to go to a client place because the colleague couldn’t reach there. When he called the client; the client said that he should reach office after 3.30 pm. Vikas had already left the office and was now in confusion as to where he could have his lunch. So he decided to have his lunch on the bench of Ghatkoper station. That day while eating he had a realization as to what he was doing in life. He was getting offers from clients and he had garnered good knowledge in the stream of Technical Analysis.

He had already trained more than 1800 clients till then; clients who had experience ranging from 7 to 20 years in the stock market. He has imparted training to some of the biggest corporates in the stock market like Motilal Oswal, Edelweiss, Sharekhan, Kotak Securities, etc. He thoroughly enjoyed his time there as he was always learning. Also the company remains very close to his heart as whatever he knows about the market is because of this company. To think of it he got through in one most unorthodox circumstances. He didn’t even know till morning that he was going sit for an interview with the company.

Story 9 (New beginnings, start of Portfolio management)

Three of the clients that he trusted deeply and had spent a lot of time with were Sudhir Sir (member of Vidhan Bhuvan; Vikas would often get VIP treatment on his visits to Vidhan Bhuvan), Mrs Sujata Shah (daughter of ex CM of Gujarat) and Deepak Parekh (Diamond merchant). These clients along with his friend Swati would always tell him he should become an analyst because his research was very good. After a lot of thought he realized that that the time to jump higher had come. He needed to now test his swimming skills in deeper water. During that time, he was offered to manage a portfolio of over Rs 2 crore. So he decided to leave his job and take up portfolio management. By then he had already witnessed one of the worst falls in the stock market due to global crisis led by Lehman brothers fall. He started off immediately after the fall.

The fund he got was from a client of Dubai who had a trading mentality and believed in short term trades. The fund was procured by Vikas’s friends in the Vidhan Bhuvan. As he was starting out it took 6 months time to fully invest the amount and Vikas started with short term trades. As time started to bide Vikas came to know the pros and cons of portfolio investing. The flip side was that when you take a portfolio of a person who has short term trading mentality; the portfolio manager doesn’t have a 100% control on what is to be bought or sold. The client is actively involved and he buys stocks on his own through information procured from an external source. Inspite of all the shortcomings Vikas had managed to generate more than 25% returns in one year.

Then calamity struck. Vikas had gone to Pune for the marriage of his sister and had kept overnight long positions in the portfolio. The wedding date had coincided with the result of the 2009 Lok Shabha elections. The result came on Saturday 16th May 2009 and Congress got one more term in the Government. Vikas was happy that he had long positions and that on Monday most stocks would open 10% higher. On Monday when he reached office; terror struck him. He was told that on Friday the client had sold call options (double quantity of stocks held) of the stocks he had bought. A single shift in trade resulted in all the profits being wiped out and left a huge loss to recover for Vikas.

Vikas couldn’t help but think that all his work had gone down the drain. He was heartbroken and hence decided to leave. He also realized that he should have 100% say in a portfolio always and that he was very young for portfolio management and needed to learn a lot more before taking it up again.

Story 10 (First time Analyst and Buying the dream House)

He now came to conclusion that being an Analyst would be the right way to go forward. Hence he started looking for a job. Within 2 months he got the job in an upcoming broking firm called Banhem Securities. The employers liked his confidence and his training ability. He had a clear understanding that he would get a cut in profit from the promoter portfolio along with fixed salary. He was also asked to train big institutions. Finally the designation of Analyst was bestowed on him. As soon as he started the job he enrolled for a distance MBA program from Wellingar college and completed the course in due course.

He also had a constant dream of buying his own house in Mumbai. He felt well settled in his job mentally and financially and hence he decided that it was a good time to buy a flat in Mumbai. After a long search he finalized a home in Borivali and bought the flat on 25th October 2010 for Rs 50 lakh. He had secured a joint loan (along with his dad) from the bank for buying the same. It was a big moment for him as he was only 25 years old and it was a dream fulfilled.

Story 11 (Live on TV)

After 2 years of working on the institutional desk he realized there is a much bigger market in India than institution and that was retail. At that time there were hardly any retail investors in India. He thought that retail investments would only rise from there. He wanted to now taste the retail side of business and hence he started searching for a job in the retail sector. He got offers from three big broking firms namely SBI Capital, HDFC Securities and Nirmal Bang Securities. Among all three he thought Nirmal Bang was offering him a free hand to research independently and hence he decided to join Nirmal Bang Securites.

He started out in Nirmal bang by giving short term recommendation to the clients. He was the first one to be recruited for Technical research and then the team grew to 4 people (including him) who were giving recommendations to clients on a daily basis. After 1 year of service he got an opportunity of a lifetime; he was asked to start preparing for giving interviews to the media. So he prepared comprehensively and the day came. His first Media Interview was on 23rd July 2012 on Zee Business. He appeared live on the channel and his interview went well.

After the interview he couldn’t help but remember his astrologer friend Sadashiv who had predicted that Vikas would come on TV way back in 2006. After 2012, Vikas has now become a famous TV personality who continues to give TV interviews every week. He now comes live on CNBC, Zee Business and others and his articles have been featured in famous newspapers like Economic times, Dainik Bhaskar. His views are aired on popular websites like Money Control. He hasn’t looked back since.

Story 12 (Wining the Advisory Competition)

In 2017 Vikas received a call from CNBC requesting him to take part in an Advisory Championship which was sponsored by CNBC. Most of the analysts from big broking firms were taking part in the championship. He took it up as a challenge and you know what he came out on top. Vikas stood Second in the overall competition. He also won 1st prize in the intraday segment. He beat scores of people who were highly skilled and are a force to rekon with in the market. This award was the icing on the cake.

Vikas has been with Nirmal Bang since more than 7 years now and has a experience of working in the stock market of more than 12 years. He has been going from strength to strength. He has continued to train clients at the company and is called at different locations in India to give insights on the market and educate the clients. He has also graduated to being an AVP (Assistant Vice president) in the company and continues to go to work with the same motivation as he had before.

Another milestone for Vikas was that he got married on 17th May 2017 and his love story continues to bloom with his wife and his passion “Stock Market”.

What Next

Vikas has seen so many ups and downs in his life. He has been holding a dream through all the ups and downs in his life. That dream is to empower people about the stock market. He wants to train people about how to trade and invest in the market. He feels everyone is entitled to his knowledge too. He wants to go to whole expanse of India; cities and villages alike and impart that knowledge he has to empower them. That’s his way of giving back to the society. He is in the process of making the blueprint of the same.

Conclusion:

Writing this story has been very rewarding. There have been so many instances which opened my eyes during his life. His life has many twists and turns and whenever the direction of life changed there was a third person involved in form of a catalyst. Life took a U Turn everytime he wanted to go in a certain direction and the path that he took has been rewarding more times than not. He (through his life) has shown that Time is everything. Going step by step is the only way to organic growth. It is the sure-shot way to achieving success and holding on to it.