VIVEK WADHWA: My father was in the Indian Foreign Services and as a result of that even though I was born in New Delhi, I never really lived in India. As a family we stayed in Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia (in fact, I am an Australian citizen) and the US. When I was really young my father was posted in New York. Even though the stint was not a very long one, it was long enough to deeply impress me. Growing up, I often dreamt of going back and the first opportunity I got, I jumped on a plane to head off to New York for a Master's in Business Administration. I was doing pretty well in Australia. But there was always a sense of alienation and a feeling of being able to do only that much in the country. Despite being a citizen I felt like a foreigner. And I faced some xenophobic incidents. Having said that, I do not believe that there is such a land which is super-sanitised or super-sensitised minus any form of discrimination. India is divided along the lines of region, religion and caste. The north does not trust the south, the south believes it is cleverer and then there is that entire religious divide which is ridiculous. Parts of USA does not trust its immigrants. One should not make the mistake of judging an entire population of a country by stray incidents alone. Having said that, at an official level, Australia was yet to learn what to do with its immigrants policy-wise. And given my ambitions and aspirations, I felt that the US was a better fit and it felt more like home. It was a limitless land of opportunities. Honestly, India was never an option. Until quite recently, India was not a place where unbridled ambition could be realised. It is only recently that the country has witnessed major growth. Today it is a great time to be in India. Unfortunately, even if I would have grown up there, I would have joined the hundreds of youth who made a beeline for the US. I came to NYU to do my MBA and stayed on after I received an offer from Xerox Corporation. It was the company that helped me apply for a Green Card. I was married soon after. Post-marriage, the two of us decided to try living in Australia–to see if I felt differently about the country. I did not. The second stint made it even clearer that I really wanted to be in the US, so we shifted. I was in the IT field and wished to rise within the corporate world. But fate had other plans. I was in First Boston and for them I had developed a technology to automate the way slants of the computer system were developed. It was such a successful project that IBM—a technology firm—came to First Boston—an investment bank—to commercialise the technology and fund a company. Strange to have a tech firm offer capital to a bank to develop technology, but it happened. And I became an accidental entrepreneur. That was in 1990 and the software firm called Seer Technologies was tremendously successful. We grew to become a $120-million company in five years and soon took it public. Seer Technologies broke all industry records. My second company was called Relativity Technologies which was also super successful till the Dot Com bubble burst which impacted us in a big way. The company got into trouble and I turned it around and then I suffered a massive heart attack at the age of 45 years. I woke up in the hospital fighting for my life while one of my venture capitalists was trying to steal the company from me. It was the only healthy company in their portfolio and obviously an Indian already dying would not fight back, they thought. Indians were not aggressive enough and preferred not to sue people. The venture capitalist wanted his brother to be the CEO of the company. I survived, got out of the hospital and took them on. They were stunned that I was fighting back because no one dares to go against powerful venture capitalists. I won the lawsuit in a big way. By then I was sick of the IT industry, the greed and the ruthlessness of the world. So, I decided to exit that world and become an academic. Believe it or not, before I joined Duke University I did a small stint as a Bollywood producer. My youngest child, an America-born raised outside India, might I point out, suddenly developed a burning passion for Bollywood. When he expressed his desire to become a film star I decided to help him out. Within a short while my son became completely disenchanted with Bollywood and returned to the tech world, to which, I can safely say he belongs. I too exited from the crooked Hollywood-Bollywood worlds. Sitting on a hospital bed after a near-death experience, seeing my former friends try to steal my company, the negativity of Bollywood, all these experiences have added a lot to my character—I guess they have made me fearless. After my attack I did a lot of soul searching: if I am given a second chance would I do things differently? I realised that I would. I would do more for others. So, the attack was the turning point of sorts—while during my stint as a company builder, the goal was just wealth and money, it became much more in the later years. It was all about giving back and it has been a more rewarding experience. It is good to see Indians become so successful as a community in the Silicon Valley. I guess the success is owing to the fact that the community learnt to put their differences behind when they came to this country. In the US, there are no Bengalis, Gujaratis, Hindus or Muslims. They are just Indians. As I have pointed out in my columns in the start-up world, success is about networks and mentors. This is why most Indians are successful in the Silicon Valley— they have established their mentoring networks and actively helped each other. Despite constituting only six per cent of Silicon Valley’s working population in 2000, this group founded 15.5 percent of the Valley’s startups between 1995 and 2005. The first generation of successful founders took it upon themselves to mentor the next generation. I have often called the US and especially the Silicon Valley as the largest meritocracy in the world. As I have been more and more integrated into its world, I have also come to realise its shortcomings. There are very few Blacks, Hispanics and women who are represented in the group. There is still a massive bias against these communities and gender roles are still strictly endorsed. Therefore, my current endeavour is to put the spotlight on this discrepancy— between the projected image of the Valley and the reality of it. It is never easy to do this job—I also receive threats when I try to suggest that not everything is as rosy as one would think in the land of opportunities, however, as I have said before, my life has toughened me up to a great deal. Since I have become an academic, I have also been a vocal critic of US policies, especially those relating to immigration of skilled workers. Unless it corrects its flawed immigration policies and lets skilled workers be a part of the technology industry the reverse brain drain will continue. I strongly believe that. Having said that compared to several parts of the world, America is a fair country. Admittedly, in any other part of the world I would have been deported for my strong views. Instead, the US government awarded me an official recognition (Outstanding American by Choice) in appreciation of my efforts to make the country more competitive. The country continues to amaze me—because it knows how to award the voices of dissent as long as they are for the better of the society. And that is why I believe some countries lead the world and its economies, because it believes in dialogue, disagreement, debate, challenging norms and thinking outside the box. These are qualities that all developing nations (including India) should learn. And it should look within itself to find solutions to local problems. Each problem is unique. In America society’s heroes are not just political figures, but opinionated, non-conformist entrepreneurs. And that is because the Americans respect independent thinking. If from the childhood, a child is encouraged to pursue her dreams, challenge authority, she learns to work in tandem and to compete. The American Dream is of working hard, thinking smart, perseverance till one achieves success. And when the success is well earned it is also celebrated. America should recognise its unique strength—that it welcomes foreigners. Through American history: wave after wave of immigrants has landed on American shores, embodied its values, and helped its citizens think smarter. And thinking smart and green are the ingredients for long-term success for any country.