What It Takes to Be An Entrepreneur

Private equity investor Luis Miranda, ’89, said becoming a successful entrepreneur requires taking risks, working hard, keeping your life in balance—and a little luck. 

“People are risk averse,” said Miranda, who is currently a director of the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA) and is a member of the board of governors of the Centre for Fuel Studies and Research. “In many cases, the risks we perceive in life don’t really exist. Risks are actually limited.”

Miranda gave the keynote address at the 2008 Tata India Business Conference on May 17 at the Charles M. Harper Center in Hyde Park, an event that drew hundreds of students, alumni, and friends of Chicago GSB for a day of panel discussions.

Miranda, who earlier in his career was a key member of the start-up team at HDFC Bank, India’s leading private sector bank, said there are no shortcuts in this world.

“There is never a situation where it’s easy to make money,” he said. “There are no free rides. There is no other way than hard work—and luck. Luck is so important. The biggest changes I’ve made in my life have been because of chance meetings and chance interactions, which have been the reasons I’ve moved around the way I have.”

Miranda said he learned the power of networking through these fortunate encounters. “A friend urged me to go to Tokyo for a meeting, so I flew there for one day. I met the representatives of two large financial institutions. Both had gone to Chicago GSB. I ended up that day raising $100 million from those two institutions. I learned the power of networking. It created an opening for discussions. That’s so important. The Chicago GSB network does work.”

Miranda said entering into a new business venture with an open mind and “can-do” attitude are essential to success. “If anything makes me angry, it’s when someone tells me something can’t be done. If you have a problem, you can either sit around and complain about it or you can fix it. People focus on a lot of excuses, on why things can’t be done. I say let’s fix it and figure out what needs to be done. It’s a matter of looking at things differently — seeing the glass as two-thirds full.”

Setting your priorities is another matter that ambitious entrepreneurs need to consider, he said. “Do I want to be a Jack Welch? I don’t think so. To me, what’s important in life is family and kids — that my kids can connect with me, that I have friends, and there’s some money in the bank. You need to put things in balance. You have to figure out what’s important to you and then focus on that.”

Miranda said many people questioned his decision to return to India after graduating from the GSB. “I never regretted going back to India because it was home,” he said. “It wasn’t fashionable to go back then. I never expected all the changes that happened. I never thought the universe would move to India. Twenty years back, no one talked about India. When I was in school, I did a course in the Japanese style of management. Today, no one talks about Japan.”

Miranda, who chairs the Asia Cabinet of the GSB’s Global Advisory Board, was presented with the inaugural “India Leadership Leader” Award from the student-led South Asia Business Group for his contribution to building infrastructure private equity in India.

—Mary Paleologos