Lucknow (08.08.2025): Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani has addressed India’s young intellectual capital at Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow where he shared his journey as entrepreneur. He called them as the potential architects of the new India.

Adani said, “I have learned – and still continue to learn – that the real world is made up of moments that have no precedent. And when these unprecedented moments come where the data is ambiguous, where the business models break down, and where the road ahead is unmarked, I have come to realize that success is not defined by how well you studied your business cases.”

He urges students to adopt a philosophy that dares to choose:

• Conviction over caution
• Consequence over comfort
• Creation over conformity, and
• Conscience over convenience.

Adani said, “My entrepreneurial journey began at the age of 16, when I left my home in Ahmedabad and moved to Mumbai to work in the diamond trading business. It was my first real exposure to risk, relationships, and the power of global networks. In about three years, I was called back to Ahmedabad to help manage my brother’s polymer factory. It was here that I first understood the importance of scale, logistics, and end-to-end supply chains. These insights would go on to shape my entire approach to business.”

As India began to liberalize under Prime Ministers Rajiv Gandhi and Narsimha Rao, once-in-a-generation opportunity unfolded in what until then had mostly been a supply-constrained market. “I made a massive bet and stepped into the trading business with the aim of building India's largest trading house. We did so in a matter of just three years – and by 1994, at the age of 32, I had taken the company public. Today, that company is Adani Enterprises,” Adani said.

“When I first announced my intention to build a port, most people thought I had lost my mind. Not just because I had never laid a single brick in my life but because I chose to build the port in Mundra, one of India’s largest marshlands in the Kutch region,” he said.

Today, that marshland is India’s largest commercial port. And Mundra has gone on to become the nucleus that anchors Adani network of 21 ports and terminals –spread across 17 domestic and 4 international locations. Adani Ports now handles nearly 30% of India’s sea-borne cargo and also powers India’s largest industrial Special Economic Zone, spanning over 40,000 acres of land.  “For me, Mundra became the start of the journey that shaped the Adani Group – where complexity was not my challenge – it was my calling. A calling where the extraordinary was not the exception,” the Adani Group chairman said.

“That confidence led me to Queensland, Australia. Queensland was the manifestation of my second philosophy, consequence over comfort. It was not that India did not have coal. But India was short of good quality coal. Hence, this project was not born out of ambition for coal. It was born out of a consequence to provide India with better-quality coal. It was born out of a consequence to reduce carbon emissions, as well as to secure India's energy independence,” he said.

“Little did we realize then that the Carmichael Coal Mine would become one of the most contested energy projects of this century. And this was not even in our own backyard. We were building in Australia, in a country where we had no political capital, no historical presence, and no institutional support. The resistance was relentless. Global environmental lobby groups mounted massive campaigns against us by organizing protests across continents,” he said.

International media made Adani Group villains. Banks withdrew financing under pressure. Insurance companies refused to underwrite. Activists blocked roads, filed legal challenges, and even tried to physically disrupt operations of the company. “We were accused in courtrooms, debated in Parliament, and criticised in headlines. Our people on the ground faced harassment. Our permits were delayed, our railway lines questioned, and our right to even exist on that land was challenged,” he said.

He further said, “Every time I flew into Mumbai, the slums below disturbed my conscience, because no nation can truly rise when so many of its people live without dignity. Everyone told me: “Dharavi is too political.” “It’s too risky.” “It’s un-manageable.” And that’s precisely why I said: We must do it.”

Redeveloping Dharavi is about rebuilding dignity for those 1 million people who helped build Mumbai, but never benefited from it.  All these projects have now become playbook at Adani. A playbook of company’s grit, determination, purpose, attitude, and beliefs. “In this age of Artificial Intelligence, algorithmic decision-making, and global uncertainty – what is the true value of education? Frameworks that you study, like DCF models, Porter’s Five Forces, and SWOT analyses have their place in the world of business. But these are built on assumptions and hindsight. They teach you how to minimize risk but not maximize the future. Because the future will never belong to those who play it safe,” said Adani.

And the lift is coming from four unstoppable forces.

• First, Demographics.
• Second, Demand.
• Third, Digital Infrastructure.
• And, Fourth, Domestic Capital.

“For the first time in our history, Indian money is backing Indian ideas – with courage, conviction, and an urgency we have never seen. What I can state with confidence is that your most productive years will coincide with India’s most powerful years. Your career and our country will rise together. You will not be looking at a five-trillion or 10-trillion-dollar economy. You will be looking at an India that would be a 25-trillion-dollar powerhouse by 2050,” he said.

“The global centre of gravity will shift and it will be towards you – towards India. And while you may have studied from books authored across the world, remember that there is something deeper and something very Indian that no textbook can ever teach you,” he added.