Kalpana Saroj’s life (2)

 Kalpana moved to Mumbai where she got a job at a factory . She was unable to work the sewing machines, so she picked.....




 Kalpana Saroj’s life (2) 

Kalpana moved to Mumbai where she got a job at a factory . She was unable to work the sewing machines, so she picked lint off the fabric. She was paid just 15 cents a day, but she was ambitious. While her co-workers went to lunch, she practised on the sewing machines . After some time she was promoted to a tailor making $5 a day. “It was the first happiness in 15 years,” she said: “I’ve earned millions. But that initial $5 was the most satisfying.”

Kalpana saved her money and eventually was ready to start her own business. Together with some other poor, but ambitious women, she got a business loan from the government . They opened a furniture business, and it thrived. Kalpana started to make a name for herself as a savvy businesswoman.

Kalpana next invested her money into real estate and development. Kalpana moved from real estate to invest in a sugar company and finally, her most audacious deal, buying Kalpani Tubes . It was a company with 24 million dollars of debt and mired in lawsuits. She said, “Only a mad person would sink 116 billion rupees in a company with no profit in sight, and that person is me.” Kalpana’s Midas touch turned the company around, and it’s now worth over 100 million dollars.

Kalpana isn’t in it just for herself . She takes pride in giving back to her community. She has returned to her village and set up schools and given jobs to abused women . And she has created an NGO teaching poor people how to get business loans. She says: “Ivy League degrees and fancy MBAs are not what makes an entrepreneur . Grit, perseverance, and a superhuman ability to have faith in yourself do.”