In a fascinating chat with Indian-origin American author Ruchir Sharma, Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath revealed a surprising detail about his early career.
Kamath said that he used to earn just $1,000 a year working at a Bangalore call center in early 2000s.
This was a stark contrast to Sharma, who shared that he was offered a whopping $100,000 job by Morgan Stanley in 1996, when he was just 22 years old.
When Ruchir Sharma chose money over PhD
Sharma, now a well-known name in the finance world, recalled how Morgan Stanley, one of the first major foreign firms to set up in India, spotted his talent.
“I was all set to pursue a PhD,” Sharma said, “but they asked me, ‘Do you want to study or make money?’ I chose money.” The offer was life-changing – $100,000 was a fortune in the mid-90s.
He shared that Morgan Stanley hired him to do global macro analysis from India, with a promise to move him to New York later.
Kamath reveals his humble beginnings
Kamath, listening intently, couldn’t help but appeared in awe of Sharma at the contrast.
“Five years after that I was earning $1,000 a year at a call center in Bangalore called 24 bar 7,” he shared. Sharma was amazed, exclaiming, “You started in the call center world? Fascinating!”
In the same podcast, the duo also spoke about India’s economy, which Sharma said is unlikely to grow beyond 6% unless major structural reforms are carried out. He explained that while India has traditionally been driven by its services sector, the next big phase of wealth creation will come from manufacturing. Sharma noted that the number of billionaires from the manufacturing industry is rising quickly, and if India continues to open up its markets and stay competitive, this could be the country’s big opportunity.