Once wanted to be teacher: Mukesh Ambani

Mukesh Ambani on Saturday revealed that he once had a very different career goal in mind before his father asked him to join the Reliance Industries.

“Before my father (the late Dhirubhai Ambani) brought me into Reliance, I wanted to work for the World Bank for a while or teach in a university,” Ambani said, speaking at the India Today Conclave here.

“With my wife (Nita) being a teacher, she is now telling me it’s high time I have taken up teaching. So going forward, both of us will be involved in education a lot more. It’s something we want to do more for our own personal satisfaction,” he added.

To a question as to what money means to him, the country’s richest man said “nothing”.

“Money means nothing to me really. My father used to always tell me that if you start anything just to make money, then, in his own words, ‘you are a fool’, because you will not be good at anything else and also not make money.

“Instead, if you start with a purpose... you want to do what nobody else has done, then money is the by-product but that by-product should never be important,” he said.

“You should clearly know what you want to do, in what you want to be the best, and what you are passionate about.

“If you keep dreaming again and again you will convert those dreams into passion. And if you are passionate about something that will define your purpose,” he said.