Is it really better to sell milk than to work at MNC?
Introduction
Recently, a close friend of mine who is working as an Associate Vice President(AVP) in a large MNC software company, sent a story in Whatsapp. I thought it is a very interesting story that needs to be shared with our readers. At the end, I have shared my view on the story.
The story of two youngsters!
Mahesh passed B.Tech and got a job as a software engineer in a top software company during Campus Recruitment. His salary was 3.6 lakhs per year. Mahesh family, relatives and friends wished him success. That’s it - Mahesh's was very happy and thought that from that day every day will be a happy day.
Venkaiah was a neighbour of Mahesh who failed in his Degree. His family and relatives made fun of him. Every one gave him various suggestions like to sell idly, pan shop, sell milk, etc. Venkaiah's parents was very much embarrassed. Now what to do…? Venkaiah asked his mother 2 lakhs and borrowed 2 more lakhs from a friend . With these 4 lakhs, he bought 5 Murrah buffaloes and started a small dairy farm business.
Mahesh bought a new bike for Rs 72,000 through finance to go to office. Venkaiah bought a second-hand TVS for Rs 10,000 to carry his Milk Cans to sell milk. Every morning Mahesh proudly said ‘Hai’ to Venkaiah. Venkaiah with embarrassed look said ‘Hai’ and left to their duties. Both of them worked hard in their new profession.
6 months passed away...
Mahesh cleared 20% interest over bike; still actual price of Rs 60,000 was pending.
Meanwhile Venkaiah cleared 1 lakh out of his 2 lakh borrowed money.
Both faced each other, Mahesh gave small smile thinking that when he will clear Rs 60K.
Venkaiah also gave narrow smile by thinking about his remaining 1 lakh loan.
1 year passed away...
Mahesh was having high hopes on salary hike. But due to recession, he only got a small salary hike.
Meanwhile milk price was steadily increasing. This resulted in decent profits to Venkaiah which helped him clearing 1 lakh loan amount.
By now, Mahesh cleared his bike loan and got a personnel loan of 2 lakhs for 16% interest. Mahesh bought big LED TV, high end laptop with that 2 lakhs.
Mahesh showed off his new stuff to everyone. Meanwhile, Venkaiah saved his profits and slowly bought more buffaloes. He also hired a worker to help him. His income doubled.
1 more year passed away...
Mahesh got promoted and got 10% salary hike. Now Mahesh bought a new Maruti Swift car through Car loan. Venkaiah now had more 20 buffaloes and 20 heifers and
was making Rs 70,000 profit per month almost twice as much as Mahesh. He also bought a Auto with his savings to transport milk. He setup his own milk sales point.
Now when they face each other, Venkaiah smiled confidently from his own Auto.
1 more year passed away...!
Mahesh got just 10% salary hike even with 1 rating and now was getting 4.8 lakhs per year. Mahesh was happy about promotion and now applied to 40 lakhs home loan
and bought one apartment. Meanwhile Venkaiah buffaloes number crossed 60. Venkaiah built an independent house in the suburb and bought an Innova car without any loan.
1 more year passed away...!
Mahesh got promoted as Project Lead and now got a salary of 7 lakhs per year. Meanwhile Venkaiah increased his buffaloes count to more than 100.
He set up a small milk processing unit. He now employed 25 workers. His monthly profit was more than 4 lakhs per month and he did not have any loans.
Venkaiah was fully enjoying his daily work.
That morning when they both crossed each other, Mahesh gave tensed smile by thinking that when he will clear his 40 lakh loan.
That night Mahesh was in a deep frustration. Even though both of them worked hard in their profession for nearly 5 years, Venkaiah owned 4 crores of properties,
earned 4 lakhs per month, provided jobs to 25 workers. Whereas Mahesh salary is 7 lakhs with 40 lakhs debt and an unsatisfactory job.
Conclusion
I have experience in both software and dairy farming and can understand the perspective but I presume that this story was written by a software guy. I can tell for sure that dairy farming is not as rosy or easy as described in the story. Following are the important points to note from the story to make it a reality:
- Dont worry about what other people think about you or your profession.
- Start small and understand the details before expanding.
- In the initial days, try to do all work by yourself and keep costs low.
- Try to directly sell your milk to consumers.
- Take good care of female calves/heifers which will increase your buffaloes count.
- Dont barrow too much money or at high interest rates.
- Reinvest the profits into your farm for the first few years.
- Work very hard - i mean really hard :)