Brij Sharma
Electronics
President & CEO | PowerVolt, Inc | Chicago, IL (USA)
Ancestry & Birthplace:
Udhowali Khurd, Gurdaspur, Punjab (India)
Residence:
Chicago, IL (USA)
Success Comes to Those who have an Eye for it
From a small village in Punjab, he is an innovator and a philanthropist. This visionary has changed his fortune and is today employing many.
I was born on 19 July 1946 in a small village, Udhowali Khurd. My parents had moved to Karachi in united British India, where my father, Banarsi Lal Sharma, was a school teacher. They returned to their native place just a year before partition and my father, whom I addressed as Bau ji, started a retail and wholesale grocery business. Through his hard work and pragmatic approach, he soon started a brick kiln and bought some agricultural land. While he was ambitious, disciplined and extremely dedicated, my mother, Mangli Devi, as a hardworking homemaker, was on her toes the whole day to take good care of the family. Since my chachi1 was almost always unwell, everything fell upon her shoulders. I was the most mischievous, and probably the most-scolded one too, among my four brothers and three sisters. I invariably did whatever I was not supposed to do: climbing trees and falling down, thus injuring myself or risking my life by swimming across the village canal. Bau ji and chacha2 would often catch me red-handed and scold or slap me! Bau ji would ensure I revised everything that was taught in school each day and prepare for the lessons to be taught the next, the reason I excelled in academics throughout.
You get it only if you really want it
In my village school, where I studied till grade 6, or the school in the neighbouring Dharowali village, where I studied till grade 10, my excellent performance made me sort of over-confident but college changed my views. DAV College, Amritsar, was different. The students here were way smarter than me; while I was proud of my 610 out of 750 score, they were casual with 745. Inheriting hard work from my parents, I studied well and a semester later, I was ahead of them. In the second year of pre-engineering, I bagged the 10th position in the state merit list, while none of them made to that list.
I wanted to study further but my family was against it because the college was in a big city, which, they believed, spoilt kids. It left me so upset that I ran away from home to Amritsar with all my savings of Rs 50, and stayed with a close friend, Satish Chander Sharma, but realised that my father would reach there the first thing looking for me. So, I left for Jalandhar, where I knew no one. Coincidently, I met one of Bau ji’s old employees, Niranjan Singh, with whom I had made good friends. He gave me place to stay, but as luck would have it, the very same day Bau ji caught me. He asked me to go back home with him, to which I blatantly refused until he agreed to my further studies in the city college.
The life-changing notices!
Earlier, it was commonplace that the eldest in the family decided everything and the others would simply comply; in our family, it was Bau ji. Once he visited me in the hostel at 4 in the morning and flared up on not finding me in my room; to add to it my roommate told him I was there when we went to sleep that night. Only when I emerged from the shower, towel wrapped around, did he calm down. It was a part of my daily routine to say my prayers and study before I headed for college. I still remember my last exam was on 6 May; he asked me to be home by 7 because I was to be engaged to some Vijay Kumari on 8 May 1965! I hadn’t till now even seen her picture! Four years post our engagement, while I was still trying to meet her, I was once sent back by her grandfather because the custom didn’t allow meeting. Six months later, I and two of my friends tried once again, bypassing the grandfather. I joined them inside later with the family consent. Initially it angered both the families, but they later accepted it and we started exchanging letters!
Once I completed my Electrical Engineering, I took up a job with Advani Oerlikon, Pune, and started learning designing and manufacturing welding equipment. My salary, Rs 250, was barely enough for me and yet, my wedding was fixed for 7 October 1970. Bau ji wasn’t perturbed when I shared my plight of not earning enough to support a family, he sent me some money to buy two pants and shirts. The wedding was a big show.
The haste that bothered me back then has now, I can proudly say, converted to a very successful life.
I left for Germany, having found a job there, in February 1971 aiming to learn business in two years and eventually start my own business in Punjab. In the meantime, my family welcomed our son, Ajay, in July 1971 back in India. Vijay and Ajay joined me in Germany in November 1971. For the lack of funds, I had to extend my stay there. Soon, I got a job offer from the Brazilian Government, where my stay and travel expenses were to be taken care of by them; I couldn’t have denied. I next joined Siemens do Brasil as a Sales Engineer where I was promoted as the Department Head within the next 3–4 years. By then, I had also learnt English, German and some Portuguese.
The ingredients of a dream
We had fallen in love with Brazil in our 10 years there, made some great friends and achieved substantial success. Ajay was studying in an American school and had plans to pursue further studies in the USA and we decided to tag along. One of my college friends, Shalabh Kumar, had started a company, Autotech Corporation, in Chicago, where I worked for eight years. My long-forgotten dream to venture out on my own started re-emerging. Though he accepted my resignation as the Director of Sales, he requested me to stay for a year more and I readily agreed.
I formed PowerVolt in 1986 from my basement. Initially the business was slow, which forced me to buy a gas station, Shell, and subsequently two more, Amoco and Citgo, which we ran for another 15 years. Vijay took a job in a factory to support the family and later started running the gas stations as well, as I empowered PowerVolt. I also bought out a company, Ztran. The rest is history.
Vijay, currently, is the Treasurer and takes care of all the finances of the company. I am now a supplier to Shalabh’s company too and we share a great customer-vendor relationship and a deep friendship. In the meanwhile, Ajay completed his MBA from Loyola University of Chicago. After working with Microsoft for eight years, he willingly joined PowerVolt and today is the Vice President here. With his dedication and commitment, he has driven PowerVolt to being medium-size conglomerate over the last decade. His wife, Dalvina, a Brazilian, is an accomplished dentist. They have two sons, Nicholas (9) and Alexander (5).
We are now a group of three companies: PowerVolt, Wabash and Ensign; have three plants in the USA and one in Mexico; employ over 125 families. Starting from the basement, we have grown to be the suppliers to some Fortune 100 companies, which was almost unimaginable to me once.
While I am thankful to the Almighty that we have achieved so much having started from scratch, I feel it is my duty to give back to the community. I am the Vice Chairman of Board of Trustees of Hari Om Mandir in Medinah, Illinois; a Patron Member of Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago in Lemont, Illinois; the Chairman of United Punjabis of America (UPA); Advisory Board Member for Federation of Indian Associations (FIA) and Indian Community Outreach (ICO). In 2012, I took the responsibility of better development of the gurudwara in my village in Punjab. Furthermore, as Chairman of Indian Event Management (IEM), I helped organise Chicago Indian Icon in 2013, showcasing the talent of artists of Indian-origin abroad to preserve Indian culture.
A very outgoing person, I mingle with people very easily, the reason that even after 50 years, I am still in touch with my college friends. Whatever I am or have is all thanks to the lessons of Indian culture.
Philosophy
Whatever you do, you must do it with full concentration and conviction, efforts and energy.
I love…
Swimming. Back in my childhood, I loved swimming across a 6–7 feet deep canal, which was on my way to school. Not only did I swim across it but also I helped others swim across it, carrying their books safe and dry.
Success Mantra
Hard work, persistence and the will to excel equal to success. A sacrificing nature is another must.
I’d suggest the youth…
to define their goals early. And then work towards them with full intensity and dedication.
The world doesn’t know that…
I once wanted to be an IAS officer. Too bad I chose the wrong subjects and could not clear my exams.
AKA
President & CEO, PowerVolt, Inc. | PowerVolt Inc Chicago
Gallery
ISBN : 9788193397695