I do not know about you but when I think of gratitude, I do not have to think too hard.

Of course I have great parents, sibling, awesome cousins, nephews and nieces, uncles, aunts, friends….but it is to God that I turn whenever I am filled with gratitude.

In 1986 I started my career as a CA….and I had a job offer. This was from a brilliant IT company. The owner wanted me to be the CA to take care of accounts, finance, etc. and he came with a solid reference. A spiritually brilliant man took me to the meeting..and when everything was going right, God whispered in my ear “Why is the Tam Brahm promoter behaving like a …….. promoter?”. The promoter was wearing too much gold. Rings, chains, Rado gold watch,…i felt uneasy. I said no.

Lucky me. His company got listed. The delisted many of his execs landed in jail.

In 1997 one company making tiles called me for a ‘job’. It was paying too damn well. I was supposed to be VP Finance and Ops. I saw the balance sheet. It had about Rs. 300 crores as debt. I called a few people in the ICD market and totalled their debt it was about Rs. 600 crores. I did not know the size of the hole.

Lucky me. I said no. The guy who said yes landed in jail for sure.

Around that time I was helping one packaging company. They wanted me to sign cheques, I guffawed. The Chairman went to jail.

1993: Was cheated by a company owned and controlled by R Subramaniam (Subhiksha fame)…and got bankrupted. Went right up to the CM of Maharashtra. Realized that if you do not know to protect your backside you should not do business. Then learnt to protect myself. In the markets lessons do not come cheap 🙂 . Everything is expensive.

But luck…again…by 2000 had built up capital to quit the brokerage business….

and today when I realize that I could have been in jail, be killed by the broker for pushing him so hard,…or…or….

How can I not be filled with gratitude?