Speech by Narayana Murthy - Summary

Delivered at the New York University on May 9, 2007 

He talks about four events from his life and the lessons he learned from these five events

 

Event 1: When he was a student at IIT Kanpur how he had a chance encounter with a famous computer scientist from a U.S University who was visiting IIT Kanpur. The scientist was giving an informal talk to the students while he was in the cafeteria. Narayana Murthy went from cafeteria to the library and read all the five articles suggested by the scientist. He left the library determined to study computer science. He tells that sometimes valuable advice can come from unexpected sources. 

 

Event 2: He was hitchhiking from Paris back to Mysore, India, my hometown. He was travelling through Yugoslavia (now Serbia) and Bulgaria in the year 1974. He took the Sofia Express and met a girl. He started talking to her in French and the talk was political. Policemen who came inside summoned by the fellow passenger took him and locked him in a prison. He was inside the prison for 72 hours without food or water. He was bundled into a train leaving for Turkey. As he left the Railway station, the police told him that it was only because he was an Indian that they are letting him go. This experience made him hate the ism of communism and he decided to become a compassionate capitalist. He wanted to be an entrepreneur and provide jobs for people. He believed from that day that is the only way we can remove poverty from society. This led to the founding of Infosys in 1981. 

 

Event 3: When all the five of the seven founders met in an office room in Bangalore. They came together to sell Infosys for $ 1 Million. He took an audacious step when he offered to buy the shares from each one. He didn’t have a single penny with him. This made others think and they decided to reject the $1 million offer. Infosys’s net income became $800 million and it created 70,000 well-paid jobs and created millionaires. 

 

Event 4: 1995 Meeting at the Taj Residency where he was able to negotiate a business deal with a Fortune 10 company. This became a turning point for Infosys. The crisis that happened in 1995 was a blessing in disguise. 

 

He talks about the four lessons that he learned from these events:  

 

1.     Importance of learning from experience 

It is not important where you start, it is more important how and what you learn

2.     Power of chance events - The way we respond to the chance events is very crucial. 

3.     The growth mindset leads you to embrace challenges, to learn from criticism. 

The fixed mindset a tendency to avoid challenges, to ignore feedback

4.     Self Reflection - In other words Self-Knowledge - Greater awareness and knowledge of oneself which will lead to courage, determination and humility. 

The best use of your wealth is to share it with those less fortunate - It is a sacred responsibility