18. A Business is a Business

Argentina is a great country. It was amongst the few countries where literacy rate was 98.07 per cent, way back in 2010, and taking into account the population that time, it had the highest number of universities. 

Confucius says that education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds peace. 

I am not sure about the third part, but yes, education passing through the road of confidence certainly breeds hope. And hope works as a catalyst whatever we do.

So, having confidence in oneself is the first step to succeed in life in any field. 

However, not many educated people can build up the degree of confidence required to make it big. One also needs commonsense, the ability to think and behave in a reasonable way. 

Commonsense ability involves knowledge and the observation of the world around you. 

Because if you know what is happening around you, and the need of the people, only then you can decide what to do to achieve your goal. 

And what is the ultimate goal?

Whether you agree or not, the goal is to make money, more and more money. 

I just remembered a story which I read in newspaper when internet in India was in a nascent stage. Those days we were curious to know the possibilities and prospects of internet. 

Although, Larry Page and Sergey Brin officially launched Google in 1998 to market Google Search, we, in India were only aware of Sify, where the major shareholder was Satyam computer (now Mahindra Satyam). 

In India, officially the first public internet service was launched by Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) on August 15, 1995 using dial-up connections with limited access. And the cost was very high.

When you wanted to get an internet connection you had to contact the local Sify agency which provided you internet access attaching a modem to your landline phone. And it was AOL, a US based internet service provider which served like a search engine.

I know it well because I count myself as the early user of internet in Chandigarh when even the newspaper I was working for had no internet connection but I had at home.

What I am going to narrate happened somewhere in the year 1998 or 1999.

In Argentina, a young graduate, Raul Tello was a master in cooking up stories and his women friends always relied on him as most of them were cheating on their husbands and needed plausible excuses. 

Raul never disappointed them. 

Being a webpage designer, he came up with a unique hi-tech solution and founded www.amories.com.ar. 

This website offered a complete package for an annual fee of $60 that could be used to convince the suspecting spouse.

Those days Argentina was facing an economic slump but Tello’s business was on a high growth path. He signed up 300 clients within two months of launching his affair-planning business. 

And within another 45 days reached his target of 1000 clients. It was the maximum he could handle as his website was capable of only taking on 1000 clients. 

The clients were given a coded card with their ‘identity’ and an e-mail password. 

Suppose, a desperate husband gives a call to the given number (of course his wife would have given this number before going to enjoy with her lover), he is told that his wife was here and had just stepped out.

Simultaneously the wife was contacted and told to phone home straight away. 

Tello made a lot of money because those days so many people in Argentina, Uruguay and Peru suspected their partners of infidelity. 

So, to make money you don’t need capital, you just have to be smart.

Of course, you cannot ignore education.

(Top Photo Courtesy: https://arstechnica.com, with thanks)