You all know about some of the more famous names from Silicon Valley such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerburg, Jeff Bezos etc., who became billionaires at a very young age. Let me throw some more lesser known names such as Sean Parker (Networth USD 2.10 Billion, Approx. Rs. 10500 Crores – Founder of Napster and Investor in Facebook and Spotify), Peter Thiel (Networth USD 1.50 Billion, Approx. Rs. 7500 Crores – Co-Founder of Paypal and Investor in Facebook) and Pierre Omidyar (Networth USD 6.20 Billion, Approx. Rs. 31000 Crores – Founder of Ebay). All these mind boggling numbers are totally legitimate money which has been earned through skill and intelligence unlike clumsy practices adopted by most of the Indian businessmen.

Now whether you aspire to be an employee (of an MNC earning Rs. 1 Lakh a month) or a typical Indian Businessman (running a company Revenues worth of Rs. 25 Crore a year): How many years would you take to make USD 1 Billion or Rs. 5000 Crores? Not even in the next lifetime, right? Now relate this with this question: “How many self-made millionaire (not billionaires) youngsters have India produced?” (I see you scratching your head!)

If I ask you that what was the common trait among all of these names then you would say, they are all entrepreneurs! Right? Though, the point which I want to make here is different. I want to ask why USA have been able to produce so many of such path breaking young billionaires and not India?

Is it that India do not have required talent? Is it that all such talent migrate to USA? Is it lack of risk taking ability? Is it lack of ability to think out of the box? Is it lack of Support system? Is it lack of Facilities? Is it lack of Environment? Is it a policy issue? Is it a cultural issue? Is it so, that we do not have a proper and practical education system? What is it exactly? I would say, it is a mix of some of these factors, but more importantly, (1) it is lack of a mature financial system that can support the talent and their ideas and (2) lack of knowledge and guidance for budding entrepreneurs for nurturing them in order to make it big.

Before coming to these two major points, I would site some of the more common and day-to-day examples with which you might relate yourselves.

If you are a kid of businessman, then you are expected to take care of your father's legacy and business. If you are a kid of a middle class employee (What the hell!), then you are expected to earn degree of an Engineer / a Doctor/ an MBA/ a CA etc. Not many parents let their sons/daughters be what they are and become what they want to become. They would not encourage you to follow your dream. They would certainly not ask you to become a self made multimillionaire. Because they do not think, it is humanly possible. Or let me put it this way, they would not encourage you to do anything path-breaking or unconventional. I agree that it is a cultural issue but also it also reflects that as a society, we lack knowledge, foresight and wisdom. In that sense, we are backward!

Whether you agree or not, we fear the unknown and hence we do not believe on our own capabilities as much as we should. Not everybody is a natural risk takers but we worsen the situation as a society as we tend to demotivate and discourage who dare our “conventional wisdom”. We are too smart for our own good.

A budding entrepreneur is considered as an unemployed here and people treat him as if they themselves have achieved nothing lesser than Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi or Steve Jobs. (Have I heard “Hypocrites”?) After all, no entrepreneur earns right from day one and sometimes till next two to three years unlike their employed friends. In fact, most of the multimillionaire young Indians have only made it big through one way and that is by inheriting wealth from their filthy rich politician or businessman parents. Just have a look around, you would come to know.

Now let me come to the main points which I mentioned earlier; (1) Mature financial system that can support the talent and their ideas and (2) Knowledge and guidance for budding entrepreneurs for nurturing them in order to make it big.

I read a nice tweet on my twitter account (@rohitchourasia) that Indian Venture Capitalists act more as Private Equity Investors. Let me tell the difference between the two, if you do not know it already. Venture Capitalists (along with Angel Investors) are supposed to be the individuals/ organizations, who invest in a company at a very early stage, some times even before the inception of the company. Naturally, early stage companies have more inherent risks than a matured company. Private Equity Investors are the companies who infuse equity in a matured and established company. Contrary to what happens in more developed economies such as USA, UK or Japan, in India, Venture Capitalists tend to cover most of the risk factors before committing to invest to invest in a budding company as if they are Private Equity Investors. Hence they are more on a contradictory ground to their basic definition. This is what indicates towards an immature financial system which does not help nurturing entrepreneurs. At the end of the day, how can a person or organization who themselves try to cover all or most of their risks can be expected to stimulate risk taking environment of entrepreneurship? Let's call it “demand” side. (You would come to know why, later!)

On the other hand, most of our bright young Indian minds do not know what entrepreneurship is all about? What is an IPO? How does marketing, technology, finance and operations work in a professional environment? They have only heard the stories of silicon valley legends but can not relate with them at all. Such stories of teenage self-made multimillionaires have become so unbelievable not only for Indian youngsters but also for India as a society that they have almost gone to mythical standards. They simply do not know that how a company is valued? or what kind of ideas sell in the market? or what exactly an investor (Venture Capitalists or Angel Investors) look at before they back any company? Although, what they do know is which is the latest Bollywood item number? Or which model has stripped yesterday? Or which cricketer is “Great”? Let's call it “supply” side. (Have you got it why did I call the earlier paragraph or “Investors” as Demand? Cool!)

Considering both supply and demand sides as immature or weak, how can we expect to produce path-breaking and world beating ideas and entrepreneurs? Those guys in Silicon Valley do it regularly. Let me tell you that they are as human as we 1.25 Billions are! From my limited experience, I can bet you that world beating ideas such as Facebook Or Spotify Or Youtube Or Twitter Or Pinterest could never have been backed up any investor, if that would have been generated in India. If you have read this article, you should be able to reflect on that why do I say so?