Importance of Entrepreneurship in Economic Growth

Once I was asked to deliver a paper at the Conference I thought for quite some times. The Audience would be the best qualified people of the field and the time would be after lunch. This was scary as to keep the audience ready to listen something that was too dry, may prove to be an uphill task.

So I thought and decided to throw a quiz and tell a few stories instead.

Let’s begin with the quiz. The idea of the quiz is inspired by an address of the President of ICWAI at a Seminar in Mumbai, but the information is quite universal and I read this many times back in the US while I was at the Harvard.

It is about someone and I will give a few hints after which the audience has to guess who the personality is.

The hints are:[i]

    • He bought his first share at the age of 11 and regrets that he started a too late!
    • He bought a small farm at the age of 14 with savings from delivering newspapers!
    • He never travels by private jet although he owns the world’s largest private jet company!
    • He has no driver, no personal security, no laptop and no cell phone!
    • His company donated $ 31 billion to charity but he still lives in the same 3 bedroom house that he bought after his marriage 50 years ago!

Some more clues?

    • He does not socialize with the high society crowd. His pastime after he gets home is to make himself some popcorn and watch TV.
    • Bill Gates met him for the first time five years ago. Gates did not think he had anything in common with this gentleman. And he scheduled a half-hour meeting.
    • Their meeting lasted 10 hours and Gates became his devotee.
    • His company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns 63 companies. He writes one letter each year to the CEOs of these companies giving them their goals for the year.
    • He has given his CEOs only two rules:

          1. Do not lose any share holder’s money and
          2. Do not forget rule no (1)

The person we are talking about is Warren Buffet. His...