Flight to the Unknown Island of Dreams

FLIGHT TO THE UNKNOWN ISLAND OF DREAMS

The headmaster of a school located in Gorur, a small village in Karnataka, asked a bunch of students if they were willing to take a competitive administration exam for a novel military training school called Sainik School. A fifth grade boy raised his hand without a thought, not even knowing what really the word 'military' meant. Growing up by the bank of river, he had only one dream- stepping out into the unknown. It was this adventurous trait in him that went on to define him in the future. The boy was Captain G.R. Gopinath, the father of low cost airlines in India. His entire journey portrays how beautifully he handled the challenges that he faced at every step of the ladder to success, and the optimism with which he approached each event of his life. He has a remarkable zeal of making unseen, unknown and practically impossible jobs possible. There are many incidents in his life which have inspired me in different ways, as they have discoveries of challenges and the exhilaration that innovative entrepreneurs face in India. Also each and every chapter of his life gives a feeling of his determination to get things done in spite of the challenges.

Like Captain Gopinath, one thing that I believe in is "Follow your heart and the success will be yours". His stint with the Indian army had been wonderful, but it was, in his own words, "too regimented and predictable" for his liking. And hence, one fine day, he decided to change his course of life and quit the Indian army. He moved back to his village where he took up the new task of setting up a farm on a barren piece of land. He had a vision, and he did anything and everything that he could to achieve it. Each time after falling, he tapped into an unknown inexhaustible well of optimism and energy, and summoned the strength and courage to start all over again. This incident imbibed in me a feeling that nothing is impossible if you have the determination and will power to achieve it.

There is also a lot to learn from Captain Gopinath's plunge in politics. This was his first encounter with politics and he had to undergo a great deal of ordeal in election campaigning. Though he had no money to fight the election on his own, he always had the confidence of creating something out of nothing. He ultimately lost by a huge margin. On his failure in politics, he said, "Yes, there was disappointment, but there was also a curious sense of exultation. I had discovered a strange power within me". I now have strongly started believing that each failure in life is a step to learning something new.

Captain took up flying low cost airlines as his next venture. This demonstrated the spirit of true entrepreneurship as defined by Peter Drucker, who says "Entrepreneur is the one who creates wealth where it did not exist earlier by creating a new market