In 2017, Prafull Billore received his result for the Common Entrance Test (CAT). He had failed, again. In the last three years, this was his second failed attempt. Just like the 2 lakh students who appear for CAT every year, Prafull also aspired to pursue an MBA, or so he thought. Born in a middle-class family, it was his parents’ dream to see their son successfully clear the CAT and enroll in a prestigious college. Since the last three years, he had dedicated almost 8–10 hours every day to study for the CAT. Prafull’s brain was overwhelmed with reading comprehensions, logical reasoning, and data interpretation questions. After hearing the news of his second failure in three consecutive years, he broke down.
In an effort to take a break from this failure and get away from the reaction of his parents, Prafull decided to leave Bengaluru and head to Hyderabad. Soon, he spent some time in Chennai, shifted to Delhi and eventually landed up in Ahmedabad. He realized that he was chasing one city after the other, in the hope of finding a purpose. But he asked himself how long would he keep running away from his problems. That’s when he decided to stay back in Ahmedabad and hunt for a job. He remembered reading in a book that many successful people often started out doing odd jobs. So he decided to apply for a job at McDonald’s. Prafull got the job at McDonald’s, where he earned ₹37 a day. Because of his lack of experience, he started out at the very bottom. He worked as housekeeping staff, moved up to the kitchen staff and soon got promoted and became a cashier.
After spending six weeks at the restaurant, Prafull was performing well at work and was progressing up the ladder. However, there was an unsettling feeling that was weighing him down. He kept thinking to himself that he did not have his own unique identity. Since he was spending his time working for an employer, the hard work he invested in his work did not transform him. He started wondering, ‘Why should I spend my time selling burgers for a company when I can sell burgers on my own?’
At that time, Prafull recalled the wise words of Robin Sharma – ‘Dream big, start small, act now’. If he couldn’t sell burgers or start his own restaurant, he wanted to sell something that he could relate to, something that would connect India. That is how the idea for his business came to him. Prafull decided that he would sell chai or tea. Reminiscing about his days of CAT prep, he could remember the countless cups of chai that he had consumed. Tea felt like the product to sell, something that unified all Indians regardless of their backgrounds. He thought to himself – after all, wasn’t Tata just a seller of steel and Bata a seller of shoes? So why was he afraid to sell tea? This realization changed his outlook towards his own idea. No idea or business is too small. He decided to finally pursue his passion and start selling tea.
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Even running a small roadside business requires money. Prafull settled on a plan to ask his father for a loan. He convinced his parents that he was pursuing a short-term course related to business and he needed a small amount of money. And that is how he secured seed funding of ₹15,000 from his clueless father. on the first day of his chai stall, he didn’t get a single customer. Despite setting up a small makeshift stall, spending hours preparing delicious chai, no one bought even a single cup from him. But by then Prafull had realized that no one in this world was ready to help those who didn’t help themselves. He woke up the next morning with new energy. After setting up his stall and preparing tea, he started walking around, approaching customers on his own. He eagerly told them about his new stall and invited them for a cup of chai. Intrigued by this young man speaking in English and selling tea, a few people agreed to visit his stall. On the second day of his stall, he earned ₹150 from five customers. As his daily earnings started growing, it was becoming increasingly difficult for him to manage his full-time job and run a business. He knew that it was time to choose between a steady income and his dream. He decided to take a leap of faith and quit his job to run his business full-time.
Just as things were looking up for him, Prafull received a call that made him stop midway. In the last few months, he had been so busy figuring out how to manage his time, he had not had the time to tell his parents about his tea stall. When he received a call from his father, asking him about what he was doing in Ahmedabad for so long, Prafull chickened out and lied to his father. He told his dad, ‘I have decided to fulfil your dreams and pursue an MBA over here. So I need some more money from you.’ He knew his parents sorely desired the day when he would complete his MBA. So he found a local community college nearby and finally enrolled himself for MBA classes. Once his college started, he was pretty much spending his whole day in classes. To his shock and dismay, Prafull realized that none of his peers wanted to be where they were. Most of them were attending MBA classes at the behest of their parents or some others were there because they wanted a simple certificate. Every moment that he spent in the class, away from his real business which was thriving, felt like a moment that was wasted. He wondered what was the point of a course that looked good on paper but couldn’t add value to his real life. Determined to pursue his dream of running a business, instead of just pursuing an MBA, he simply walked out in the middle of the class and never looked back.
Also read: This hand-rolled Tripura tea variety just fetched ‘highest-ever’ price in state — Rs 12,500/kg
Once Prafull started running the tea stall full-time, he finally felt liberated. He started spending more time improving the quality of his tea, thinking of new ideas for his stall and envisioning plans for expansion. Reflecting back on those days, he says, ‘If you do something then do it so well that no one should be able to do it better than you. I had this burning desire in me to become the best chai wala that this country had ever seen.’ As his business grew, it began attracting a lot of appreciation and attention. Unfortunately, the attention soon turned negative. Small business owners and other roadside vendors became disgruntled with his success. Prafull soon started receiving threats from local goons, asking him to shut down his stall. Even though initially he brushed these instances away, after a while he was given an alarming ultimatum. After months of running a successful tea business, his stall was forcibly shut down.
In search of a safe haven, Prafull went outside a hospital and decided to set up shop. He went inside and requested to meet the authorities. He explained his idea to the management and urged them to take rent from him. He wanted to legally and rightfully set up his new stall so that no one else would have the power to displace him again. The hospital authorities agreed and within a few weeks, his second stall was up and running. All this while, he had been so focused on selling tea, he had never thought of a name for his business. As he took these new steps in his venture, he sat down to make a list of names. He thought of hundreds of options and struck every last of them down. He wanted the name of his business to reflect his identity. After all, his tea stall was all that he loved and owned. After ruminating over a few days, Prafull hung up the sign for his new stall. The sign proudly stated – Mr Billore Ahmedabad Chai Wala, which has today become MBA Chai Wala.
After naming his new stall, there were many people who openly mocked him. How could a person who had never completed an MBA be called MBA Chai Wala. But Prafull had learnt his lesson by then, which he shares, ‘The people who are not there to support you through your struggles also don’t deserve to be heard during your success.’ Within a few years of pursuing his passion for selling tea, Prafull soon transformed his stall into a chain of cafes and franchisees which has a turnover in crores today. In addition to growing the business, he also started supporting important causes like women’s empowerment and economic upliftment of underprivileged people by conducting fundraising campaigns and social events. Even though his parents’ dream of sending their son to a business school never got actualized, Prafull was invited by the most prestigious schools, including IIMs and Harvard Business School to share his business journey as a speaker!
This excerpt from All you need is Josh has been published with special permission from Bloomsbury.
Real hero for the real life..
Now that’s dramatic – walked out in the middle of the class and never looked back.
Great inspiration , well done