Nithin Kamath's Luck Took 25 Years

I read Nithin’s post to my wife Ishi as we sipped on our coffees. Then I turned to her and asked

“How long has it taken you to get to where you are?”

Ishi said:

“14 years. 9 of them have been with UN Women. I have had to work hard to get to where I am.”

She then asked me:

“How long has it taken you?”

I said:

“18 years. There is no way I could have predicted my journey from Startup to Private Equity to VDRs to now building a $1 Billion business.

Then I paused and added:

“There is no way Nithin could have predicted his meteoric rise either. He was in the water so when the wave came, he was ready to ride it.”

First Useful Idea: You got to be in the water to catch a wave

Nithin says that “Things in business compound over time, especially if you like or love what you are doing and if you are lucky to be in the right place and time.”

This reminded me of Charlie Munger’s 2017 interview at the University of Michigan. He said: “I did not intend to get rich. I wanted to get independent. I just overshot! And by the way while you’re clapping, some of the overshooting was accidental. You can be very deserving and very intelligent, and very disciplined, but there’s also a factor of luck that comes into this thing.”

Ishi then asked:

“Isn’t it easier to catch a wave if you love what you do?”

I said:

“Of course! Do you think anyone can do work for 25 years if they don’t love it? Hell no! If you’re counting hours, even a year can feel like a lifetime.”

Second Useful Idea: If you love what you do, catching a wave is inevitable

25 years is a lifetime of work. Zerodha and Nithin’s work through it is likely to continue for another 25 years. If he didn’t love what he did, he would have swum to shore at the first sign of turbulence.

A business without obstacles does not exist. And the only way you can stay the course is if you love the work. Even if Zerodha hadn’t become as big as it has, Nithin would still have caught waves and been successful.

But loving the work and catching waves isn’t enough. You also have to deserve the success when it comes. My recent watch of Charlie Sheen’s documentary on Netflix highlighted this insight well.

Third Useful Idea: You got to deserve the success you get otherwise you will blow it all up

Charlie Sheen, like Nithin Kamath, also caught a wave, also loved what he did and was also wildly successful.

BUT Charlie Sheen got his success too fast and too easily.

When you get success too easily, you don't value it. You should feel like you had to work to get to where you are. Otherwise you will end up throwing it all away.

"I don't think he (Charlie Sheen) believed that he deserves what he's got. If he believed it he might stop burning it all down." - Jon Cryer, Charlie Sheen’s colleague

I like Nithin. He has no airs about him. He is down to earth and authentic. What he does with his money through Rainmatter and his behind-the-scenes backing of founders who come under attack for doing the right things like Revant Himatsingka reveals character. Money has only amplified who he already is.

Fourth Useful Idea: You don’t need money to be a good person. Money only amplifies character

“Of the billionaires I have known, money just brings out the basic traits in them. If they were jerks before they had money, they are simply jerks with a billion dollars.” - Warren Buffett

Here is Nithin’s post on LinkedIn which triggered all these useful ideas:

Someone on Reddit asked what does Zerodha do differently, how are we profitable, why don't IPO etc. This is what I replied:

Hmmm... so you forget that we have spent 15 years getting here. And maybe another 10 years, before Zerodha, I was involved in the markets in some form. So, 25 years in all. Things in business compound over time, especially if you like or love what you are doing and if you are lucky to be in the right place and time.

When we started Zerodha, we started off as a partnership firm because the exchange deposit requirement was lower, Rs 90 lks compared to Rs 1.5 cr. The start was mainly enabled thanks to the NSE Now trading platform, which came free of cost if you were an NSE broker. For the backoffice piece, sending contract notes, maintaining ledgers, etc., we signed up with a vendor who basically gave it at almost 0 cost. This was provided that we tested out his platform.

So the money we have spent on Zerodha is maybe ~Rs 10lks, and that is all the money that has gone into the business till date. Rs 2.5 lks for our website, Rs 5lks for our office interiors (we had an office before), and Rs 2.5 lks for miscellaneous. So, we came from an extremely middle-class background and had no rich uncles. 😀 Dad was a bank manager, and Mom taught Veena.

Our rise coincides with India's rise. We were present at the right place and time with the right products and initiatives. Any gyan any founder gives, eventually comes down to getting timing right, and this has got everything to do with luck. 😀 I was just reading about Jensen Huang from Nvidia, he survived in the business for 30 years until he hit the right place and time. For a long time, people might have questioned what he was doing until very recently. 😀

Now that there is no pressure to give any exit to any investor, we can continue doing what is right for the customer, sometimes even at the cost of the business. For example, our no spam or no tracking policy. I believe that the philosophy with which we run Zerodha will be our real moat as a business. It is very tough to stick to it as a public company.

Summary

1. You got to be in the water to catch a wave

2. If you love what you do, catching a wave is inevitable

3. You got to deserve the success you get, otherwise you will blow it all up

4. You don’t need money to be a good person. Money only amplifies character.

The waves will come. The real question is: will you be in the water, ready, and deserving when they do?

See you all next Sunday!

👋 I’m Harsh. I build businesses with people I like and collect useful ideas to build unfair advantages.

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Harsh Batra (Connect with me on LinkedIn)