In a candid podcast appearance, Hotmail Co-founder Sabeer Bhatia delivered a harsh critique of India's prevailing definition of success, arguing that the national obsession with financial achievement and academic performance is fundamentally misguided.
According to a report by Economic Times, Bhatia believes Indians are measuring success the wrong way by linking it only to money, power, or academic marks.
"First of all, success is all in the heads of people. And Indians, over the whole culture, it's all about success, success," Bhatia stated.
"The problem with people in India is they equate success with how much money you've made. My life experience has taught me that money does not translate to happiness," he said.
The tech entrepreneur emphasised that life should be about finding happiness rather than chasing conventional metrics of achievement. He advocated for a more nuanced understanding of fulfillment, suggesting that many may find greater purpose in simpler pursuits than high-status careers or wealth accumulation.
"The purpose of life is to find meaning. Every one of us is born with a purpose. Some of us are meant to be athletes. Other people find happiness in just doing a small amount of work, opening a small store, starting a flower shop and going home happy," he explained.
Bhatia also called for a cultural shift toward values like humility and integrity. "People in India have to learn how to value humility... understate and over-deliver, not overstate and under-deliver," he noted in the podcast.
Taking aim at India's education system, Bhatia criticised the excessive pressure placed on academic performance and the emphasis on rote memorisation without genuine understanding.
"My kids don't worry about marks. I don't care about marks. I care — do they learn? Have they learned the idea, the concept?" he questioned. He contrasted this with Silicon Valley schools that allow talented students to advance at their own pace in subjects where they excel.
When comparing India and China's economic trajectories, Bhatia offered a stark assessment: "China brings the manufacturing, and the US brings the intelligence and intellect, together, that combination represents the power of the whole world."
In contrast, he warned that "India has to decide what it wants to specialise in. Right now, it's not specialising in anything. It's becoming a jack of all trades and worse, a cheap jack of all trades."
The Hotmail co-founder pointed to Germany's decades-long specialisation in quality automobiles and America's focus on software as examples of strategic economic positioning that India should emulate rather than attempting to compete across all sectors without developing excellence in any particular domain.
