Bharti Enterprises CEO Sunil Bharti Mittal, and Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar were on Saturday given honorary degrees by the Manesar campus of Amity University. In its second convocation, the Manesar campus saw the graduation of 862 children along with Mittal and Shekar.
Described as "a man of immense purpose and resources, who is a trailblazer in the field of Indian telecommunications," Mittal was conferred the degree by university founder Atul Chauhan and Vice-Chancellor PB Sharma.
Speaking to the eager graduates, Mittal described how on a similar day in 1976 he waited for his degree from the Wharton School.
"When I started, there was little space for young entrepreneurs like me, and the government controlled everything -- what you made, how much and when. Today, you can dream of what you want, make that and there will be loads of capital," he said. "What sets apart a good entrepreneur from someone who doesn't make it is the tenacity, passion and patience to cross the line." He asked the graduates to look for opportunities in spaces where one can find a solution to a social problem.
"It is when we got big and lazy did someone like Vijay came in. Every now and then, the big boys will slip," he said.
Vijay Shekhar, who was given the degree soon after, was brought on to the dias as someone who was "farsighted and hardworking, and struck the lives of millions of Indians", said that he was proud to have the degree. He spoke of how hard it was for him in engineering college as he came from a Hindi background, and even shared his fandom for Mittal. "I wrote blogs on him," he shared.
He said that he worked hard after college to get his company up and running, and would walk 14 kilometres from Vasant Vihar to Kashmere Gate as he did not have money for travel. "Before I launched Paytm, my company had made $25million in profit, and even my board of directors told me that it was a bad decision. After we had spent $10million, and the warning signals were ringing, I told my team, 'Either we will be a comet and fade away, or we will shine bright as a star," he said.
He asked the graduates to take advantage of the fact that India's GDP will double in the next 4-5 years. Mittal, speaking to dna, said, "He's absolutely right. We're looking at thousands of Vijays in the coming years."
