I just watched a podcast with Mohnish Pabrai and finally found someone who resonates with what I’ve been saying for years: “Entrepreneurs never take risks; they initiate something and work their ass off to minimize those risks.”
To me, Palki Motors was never a risky investment. I had some money that I was initially going to use to buy an apartment, but I hated the idea of putting my hard-earned money into something that wouldn’t grow.
I did the math: an apartment costs 40 lakh taka, and if I rented it out, I’d earn no more than 20k per month. It would take 200 months, or 16 years, just to break even. Yes, I’d have a place to sleep, but in my 30s, that idea felt unromantic. Deep down, I always wanted to see a graph showing incremental growth, so an apartment seemed like a dead investment. Instead, I sold it and invested everything in Palki.
Before starting the company, I sought feedback from my family, friends, mentors, and close contacts. They told me a bunch of scary things about why I couldn’t do the business and how I would fail. But instead of being afraid, I took note of the points that could make me fail and worked on overcoming them.
I found a simple solution: if I could address those potential failures, success would be inevitable.
After running the company for almost two years, my well-wishers still try to scare me, but nowadays it’s just one point: Is my product reliable? This is my current challenge, and I’m committed to making my product reliable.
Here’s the list of concerns I faced and overcame:
• You need land to build cars. Where will you get it? • The prototype will cost a lot. How will you get the money? • You need funds to rent a workshop. How will you afford it? • Welding the body, weatherproofing, and assembling are very difficult. Will you be able to do that? • You won’t get road approval. • You won’t be able to ensure the quality like Toyota. • Remember, you’re competing with Toyota. Their parts are available, they have resale value, and they’re very durable. You’re nothing compared to Toyota. • Assembly costs could be so high that you won’t make a profit. • Your battery won’t be good enough. • The warranty you provide will cost you more than expected. • Why would people buy cars from you instead of other car makers? • Since charging facilities aren’t widely available, people won’t be interested in buying electric cars. They won’t be able to go outside of Dhaka. • Cars are about showing off; people buy them for luxury. Your car is cheap, so people won’t buy it. • If you want to sell this as CNG, people won’t recognize it as such. • You’re just buying parts from China and assembling them in Bangladesh. You don’t have anything innovative. • CNG car owners won’t buy the car because they don’t know how much it will benefit them. • The car won’t be durable enough to last more than five years.
Just imagine, how hard was it to take those feedback on your face. I remember, I cried once.