Adhip was a college friend with a quirk. While all my friends in college, just like me, planned to look for a job after graduation, Adhip spoke of starting ‘on his own.’ He said he had the entrepreneurial spirit, like his dad who had started an engineering works that produced railway parts. Did he intend to start a factory, I asked him? He surprised me by saying he would like to go into food services business. Apparently he had been taking cooking lessons from the chef his father employed and he fancied a classy restaurant could do quite well in the city.
After we graduated, Adhip did start a small coffee shop that offered a few select food items. I invited some college friends and went for a party, and, since I had meanwhile found a job, could afford to refuse Adhip’s gracious offer to be the host. We liked the cozy warmth of Adhip’s place, but I heard that the coffee shop folded a few months later. Adhip did not get enough clients as a competing chain opened a café nearby.
That seemed to have little deterred Adhip’s spirit when I met him next at a friend’s birthday party. As he had lost the capital his father had advanced him for the restaurant, he had started a business that did not require a capital outlay: he secured orders for small parts from manufacturing companies, which were then made by his father’s factory according to the given specification, and Adhip supplied the finished parts to his clients and paid his father and retained a decent margin for himself. His company, he stressed, was independent of his father’s and he operated from a tiny office rented near his father’s plant.
Adhip’s business prospered. He took pains to understand his clients’ business and supply parts, fashioned scrupulously, that more than met their requirements. His reputation grew along with his list of clientele. We had lunch together and he mentioned that his father wanted him to take over the parental factory, but that he preferred to run his own separate business.
That seemed to have little deterred Adhip’s spirit when I met him next at a friend’s birthday party. As he had lost the capital his father had advanced him for the restaurant, he had started a business that did not require a capital outlay: he secured orders for small parts from manufacturing companies, which were then made by his father’s factory according to the given specification, and Adhip supplied the finished parts to his clients and paid his father and retained a decent margin for himself. His company, he stressed, was independent of his father’s and he operated from a tiny office rented near his father’s plant.
Adhip’s business prospered. He took pains to understand his clients’ business and supply parts, fashioned scrupulously, that more than met their requirements. His reputation grew along with his list of clientele. We had lunch together and he mentioned that his father wanted him to take over the parental factory, but that he preferred to run his own separate business.
I was out of the country for some years, and when I returned I called old friends including Adhip. He invited me to lunch at a new restaurant downtown. It was a large, modern restaurant with an open look, located on a major corner, and I was received royally when I mentioned the host’s name. Adhip came and joined me, not from the entrance but from the kitchen, and I knew instantly then that he had never given up his idea of a classy restaurant that could do well in the city. The buzzing restaurant, packed with diners, told me what Adhip modestly elaborated later: his was now the prime dining place in town.
His father had chosen to retire, and Adhip had appointed a common friend, a qualified engineer, as a manager to run both his father’s old plant and his parts business. His focus was on providing the best value for money – the finest cuisine and ambience – in the restaurant business.
Adhip was on his own. I was impressed. He had been anything but disloyal to his dream.
His father had chosen to retire, and Adhip had appointed a common friend, a qualified engineer, as a manager to run both his father’s old plant and his parts business. His focus was on providing the best value for money – the finest cuisine and ambience – in the restaurant business.
Adhip was on his own. I was impressed. He had been anything but disloyal to his dream.
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