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He is managing director of Asia & Africa General Trading, a company dealing in import and export of food commodities. Sethi owns and runs the company with his wife. Together they manage offices world-wide and in the UAE.
But flashback to 2005, to say life was a struggle was an understatement.
#RagsToRiches #Millionaire #HardWork
See more at https://gulfnews.com/videos
He is managing director of Asia & Africa General Trading, a company dealing in import and export of food commodities. Sethi owns and runs the company with his wife. Together they manage offices world-wide and in the UAE.
But flashback to 2005, to say life was a struggle was an understatement.
#RagsToRiches #Millionaire #HardWork
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hello everyone. I'm sitting here with a very interesting person. It's always nice to meet
00:05such people. Mr. Amit Sethi. He has, well, I wouldn't want to say it's a rags to riches story,
00:13but it's pretty much a story where he struggled to be where he is today. From the narrow lanes
00:19of old Delhi, where his father owned a little tiny shop, to now running a business that has
00:25a turnover of over 500 million dirhams. And look at us, we're sitting here in his plush signature
00:31villa in Palm Jumeirah. Something that I don't think he would have thought would be the case
00:39years ago, but here we are and it's all because of his hard work. So congratulations. I must say
00:46that. And we're here actually to understand your journey because of course there are a lot of
00:52people like you, a lot of success stories like you who've worked hard, but it's always interesting
00:57to see how, you know, they work so hard when times are bad and then they come out a success.
01:03So tell us about your journey, Mr. Sethi. Well, I have been always having that entrepreneurship
01:11qualities in me since my childhood, you know. So soon after my high school, I joined my,
01:19I started helping my father in his work and it was very interesting for me. So that was in old
01:26Delhi, in Chawri Bazaar, which is a very narrow lane and you know, you have to be there on time,
01:32on work. Where the lights are hanging down. Absolutely. And you don't know when you're
01:36going to be electrocuted. But the vision was of course to grow. It's all about the vision
01:44in one's life. And we thought that we have to grow in life. So we knew that Dubai is a very
01:53upcoming and you know, very enterprising place. And we also thought that Africa is a place where
01:59there's a lot of business, a lot of growth there. And to trade in Africa, Dubai is probably the best
02:04place. So definitely when I came here in 2005, it was a very struggling time because when you're
02:14living in India, you have your home, you have your office or you have your place. Yes. But when
02:19you come here, you know, you own nothing. And then slowly you have to rent it out and you know, start
02:25living here. But it was very difficult. I have to say that when you came here in 2005,
02:34it's rather a tricky time because Dubai was booming then. But then the big slump happened
02:41in 2008. So there were mixed events happening. Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, when there are
02:50hard times, you need to stick to the core. And you have to stick and you have to really work hard,
02:55have patience, and then look towards your growth path. Right. So when we came, I was living in a
03:02shared apartment. And I brought my wife, my four year old daughter to Dubai with me,
03:09that we'll live here and you know, it will be a great life. But when we came actually here,
03:13it was very tough. Yeah. In six months time, I had to send them back. And it was a really
03:21painful for me to send them back. But we did that. I mean, but next three years,
03:28I worked very hard, almost 18 hours a day. And every day, no Fridays, no Sundays,
03:34I just kept on working. So when you came here in 2005, you had your own setup.
03:40I started a company of myself here. Okay. But then, you know, of course, to start a company
03:48is not an easy job. You really need to, you could not hire people, you do everything yourself.
03:53Yeah. So we started a company, but it was actually 2008-2009 that we really established
04:00ourselves and started on the growth path. Okay. So you mentioned how you sent your family back
04:06within six months. So when did they come back to live here? They came in 2009. So that's when
04:10things started moving? Yes. When things started moving, we called them back and I said,
04:15please come back. Now we are more prepared, more living here. Yeah. And we were enjoying.
04:20Okay. So tell us about how that growth happened and how Dubai really helped you,
04:27you know, be where you are today. You know, the ease of doing business in Dubai
04:31is probably, everybody admires. Yeah. We had a great time. The business was going very smooth
04:38because the business started going very smooth because of the structure, infrastructures here,
04:44because of the facilities by the government, by the proximity of this state, of this country,
04:50from Africa, from Asia. That's right. I think three-fourths of the world
04:55is within eight hours of this country, which is amazing. Amazing. It's quite interesting because
05:01your plan was initially to reach out to Africa, but Dubai was just, became incidental. I mean,
05:08you, it was just, and look at this. Absolutely. Absolutely. It is totally destiny. I would,
05:13I would put it as destiny that we were supposed to go to Africa, but we land in this beautiful
05:18country. And, but of course, from here we are taking care of all our African buyers. We have
05:24offices now in African, various African countries, and we do a lot of trade imports and exports in
05:33Africa. Okay. So tell us about your business and how the growth happened in the sense that
05:39how did you achieve this high turnover? You know, what was that magical moment? There was,
05:45there was a time we have been working in commodities. So there was a time that when
05:49the prices go up, most of the people, they, they don't perform their contracts. Now we did that.
05:56We always performed our contracts. We have been honest to our work and people, we gained that
06:00trust all over the market. And we have been the official sponsors of Gulf food for last seven
06:06years. So that has given us a lot of mileage. And I feel it's the team, it's the team, you know,
06:14the, you, you get a team, you handpick your team and the team really makes these things happen.
06:21Tell us about like a day in the life of an entrepreneur. Tell us how your day begins and
06:27ends. Oh, my day starts about say seven o'clock. I will go walking on this beach. Okay. I go about
06:35four kilometers and then come back about eight o'clock, get ready, read newspapers. And by nine
06:42thirty, about nine o'clock, I'll have my breakfast. Nine thirty. Yeah. I will leave for my office.
06:48Okay. But then we have a very long working hours. I work from nine thirty till about nine thirty at
06:54night. Okay. So we have to work twelve hours a day. Okay. And by twelve thirty. Of course,
06:59it's your baby. So you'd have to work so hard. Absolutely. Absolutely. There is no, you know,
07:03there is no, you know, elevators to success. You have to take the stairs. That is true.
07:08So there is no alternate to hard work. We come back by nine, nine thirty home and probably have
07:15a quiet dinner with our family. And then that's the day off. Okay. That's that's really nice.
07:21And how many people work for your company? About 85 people working for our company as of now in
07:26UAE. Okay. What are key things for a leader today? I mean, who is a leader according to you?
07:35Person with a great vision. Yeah. I mean, this is what I personally feel that
07:42one who can who has a great vision and the other who can actually form a good team.
07:51I would again emphasize human resources, probably the best resources. Yes, we can find or we can
07:57avail in this world. That is true. Having good people to work for you is is like an asset.
08:03Absolutely. They become your family. They become your assets. They are the biggest assets. All
08:08right. Challenges today in the market as an entrepreneur? We feel that I mean, of course,
08:15the growth is always there. The growth is always there. But I think presently, you know, cash flows
08:24or, you know, these these money rotations in the market is a bit challenging, but but it's still
08:28okay. Still to find the best people could be a challenge. But if you still have the best people,
08:33you can definitely grow. Okay. Do you want to share any five tips for, you know, budding entrepreneurs
08:41for millennials who want to go get out there? Have a great vision. Have a great vision. Yeah.
08:48Don't lose hope. Patience. Always have patience. Yeah. Time will come. The success will come.
08:54Keep on looking to your target. Don't don't lose your focus and be very honest and truthful to your
09:00business, to your work, to your any work that you do. Be focused. Be honest. And success is coming
09:06your way. Okay. So on that, it's a wrap for full story on Mr. Sethi's life. Do log on to www.gulfnews.com
09:16and you'll find the entire details there. This is Anjana Kumar for Gulf News.
09:24Transcribed by https://otter.ai