"Future Will Never Belong To Those Who Play It Safe": Gautam Adani At IIM Lucknow

The future will never belong to those who play it safe, Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani told students at IIM Lucknow today while delivering a keynote address that spotlighted his entrepreneurial journey.

"The future belongs to those who maximise possibility, and maximising possibility means stepping into an unknown territory," he said.

Gautam Adani said it was both a privilege and a responsibility to be speaking at IIM Lucknow. "A privilege, because I am speaking at an institute that represents the finest of young India's intellectual capital. A responsibility, because I am not just speaking to students of management. I am speaking to the potential architects of the new India," he said.

Mr Adani advised the students to trust their instincts when "data runs dry". "That is how the future is saved, not through corporations but through courage," he said.

He also said that it was the "bold path – the one filled with risk and resistance – that shapes leaders the world remembers".

"Business frameworks offer you a canvas – pre-measured, pre-marked, and safe. But India does not need more painters who fill in the blanks. It needs those who can question the canvas itself. Those who can paint with colours not yet imagined," he added.

And this, right now, is your moment – because India is the canvas that is standing at the edge of something extraordinary. The winds of destiny are on our back. 

Highlighting the importance of struggle in life, he said, "I have always believed that anything worthwhile achieving will test you".

"I can tell you that every meaningful journey I have taken has almost always faced moments when my resources ran dry and my support systems failed. Only one thing always remained with me, the burning conviction that my bold dreams were worth the struggle," he added.

"Entrepreneurial Journey Began At 16"

Mr Adani, during the address, remembered his entrepreneurial journey that began when he was just 16.

"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," he said.

"It was my first real exposure to risk, relationships, and the power of global networks," he added.

Mr Adani also spoke about the time that shaped his entire approach to business.

"...After about three years, I was called back to Ahmedabad to help manage my brother's polymer factory. It was there 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," he said.

"Then came a moment of national transformation that put India on a different growth trajectory," he said. "As India began to liberalise under Prime Ministers Rajiv Gandhi and Narsimha Rao, I saw a once-in-a-generation opportunity unfolding in what until then had mostly been a supply-constrained market," he added.

Mr Adani said he then 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," he added.

"Conviction Over Caution"

Mr Adani also spoke about how the Mundra Port came into being. 

"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.

"I still recall that when I presented the idea, some of the bankers laughed and asked, "Mr. Adani, how do you expect us to finance land that is under water?" And they were not wrong. Mundra had no access, no industry, no precedent," he added.

And that's when, he said, his philosophy of conviction over caution came into play.

"Because my conviction was not about asking the bankers to fund a piece of land. I was asking them to fund a possibility no one had explored. Maps will only take you where someone has already been. But to build something truly new, you do not need a map. You need a compass that points to the possibilities," he said.

"And my compass of conviction pointed me to Mundra. Today, that marshland is India's largest commercial port," said Mr Adani.

He said that Mundra became the start of the journey that shaped the Adani Group.

"Consequence Over Comfort"

Gautam Adani also spoke about a coal mine project in Australia's Queensland that has faced environmental resistance. He said Queensland was the manifestation of one of his philosophies: "consequence over comfort".

"It wasn't that India lacked coal, but India was short of good-quality coal... It was born out of a consequence to reduce carbon emissions, as well as to secure India's energy independence..." he said.

"We were building in Australia, a country where we had no political capital, no historical presence, and no institutional support. The resistance was relentless. Global environmental lobby groups mounted a massive campaign against us, organising protests across continents..." he added.

Speaking about the challenges that he faced in the country over the project, he said, "Our permits were delayed. Our railway line was questioned, and even our right to exist on that land was challenged. Everywhere we turned, the message was clear, but we did not give up."

"And today, our Carmichael project powers industries, supports several thousand livelihoods in Australia, and has built an Indo-Australian corridor that is both commercial and strategic," he added.

"Creation Over Conformity"

Then he spoke about Khavda, which is the testimony of his third philosophy - "creation over conformity".

"If Mundra was marshy land under saline water, Khavda was saline water under marshy land. In fact, Khavda is such a desert that I was told even camels refuse to walk on it. And our initial studies showed it to be impossible to build any stable structures on this land, let alone the massive 700-ton wind turbines that we had planned," he said.

"And yet, we declared that we would build the world's largest single-site renewable energy park - spread over 500 square kilometres, generating 30 GW of green power - at this very location," he added.

The group's renewable energy arm, Adani Green, is building the world's largest renewable energy park at Khavda in Gujarat with a target of 50 GW by 2030.

The "Hardest Project Of All"

Then, he spoke about the "hardest project of all", redeveloping the slums of Dharavi.

"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 unmanageable," Mr Adani said.

"And that's precisely why I said: We must do it. And redeveloping Dharavi is not about laying bricks or yet another slum redevelopment project. It is about rebuilding dignity for those 1 million people who helped build Mumbai, but never benefited from it," he added.
 

(Disclaimer: New Delhi Television is a subsidiary of AMG Media Networks Limited, an Adani Group Company.)