73 million bucks! Already feeling the goose bumps guys? Try guessing? No, it’s not some lottery stuff. It's something else. Something way awesome. Rs 500 crore it amounts to. The figure itself is mammoth to such an extent that a middle class person can't even earn a tenth of it in his entire lifespan. And this is way higher. Because this means success. And an inspiration for you.
So what it can be? If I say it's the salary of a person for a financial year, what would you say. No, neither its Google's Sundar Pichai nor anyone else from Silicon Valley. But something to proud of. Well, let’s conclude the suspense here, he is none other than the CEO of SoftBank, Nikesh Arora. And his journey from dreams to reality is an equally amazing one, as compared to his numerous talents.
He is the son of an Indian Air Force Officer in Ghaziabad. He is also an IITian, having completed his degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT BHU. Yeah, even an Electrical Engineer can be a CEO. Obviously, engineers can be anything, from book writers to actors to cricketers, we have them all.
Keeping aside the humour, his way to success was never so smooth. Even being an IITian wasn't enough. So he went to USA at the age of 21 to complete MBA from NorthEastern University. Did it help? Not at all, as he was rejected in several interviews and had to do with the $200 he was given by his father.
It was only in 1992 that he got the job in Fidelity Investments. Was in-charge of the finance and technology portfolios and did such an amazing job that he was promoted to the position of vice president of the company within few years. Can't even imagine that in today's world with recession looming over the corner. Even excellent guys are getting just 5% appraisal in many of the companies as of now.
In 2001, he entered the telecom sector, tried his hands on that, and joined the T-Mobile International Division as the Chief Marketing Officer. And thereafter, he never looked back. In 2004 he joined Google, still small at that time, and was in charge of European operations. His splendid work was soon rewarded with promotion to Chief Business Officer of Google in 2011. And thus he became the highest paid officer of the company. Such an inspiring story he created.
Soon he became Senior vice president of the company and increased its revenue tremendously by bringing in more advertisers for Google's YouTube site. Yeah YouTube is owned by Google. And you thought you know everything.
But that was not all. In 2014 he quit from Google and joined SoftBank and soon became the company's President & Chief Operating Officer. Under his tenure, SoftBank invested $62.7 million in Snapdeal and $21 million in Ola cabs. Thanks to this guy that these companies are so big today. SoftBank has also invested in many startups including Grofers and Housing.com in his tenure.
In the financial year 2015-2016, he received $73million, which amounts to almost Rs 500 crore, from SoftBank. And thus he became world's third highest paid executive.
He married the daughter of Indian City Properties CEO Vikram Thapar's daughter, who herself is a successful businessman (actually businesswoman) in Delhi. As of now, in 2016 he has resigned from SoftBank.
In an interview, he stated three main factors for his success – hard work, fate and his adaptability to situations. He is truly one of the rare gems which India has, a success star, in true meaning.
