My Story

His uncle’s advice, “Instead of expecting or chasing good things in life, create good where you are and from what you have,” is the mantra that has helped Ganesh Jivani, MD of Matrix Comsec, come a long way and become a successful entrepreneur. In a candid conversation with Baishakhi Dutta, senior journalist for Electronics Bazaar, he shares his invigorating 25-year journey in the security and telecommunications industry.

Childhood

I was born and brought up in a small, remote village near Morbi, Gujarat, into a farming family. My family consisted of my grandparents, uncle, aunt, parents, siblings and cousins. I had an idyllic childhood, playing in the fields and sleeping under the stars. The economy and livelihood of our entire village was dependent on agriculture, which was the only mode of sustenance. During those days, droughts were very common, leading to serious scarcity of water and food. For us, the rain brought happiness. But when the rains played truant, it was a fight for survival till the next monsoon season. I grew up mostly watching my grandparents and later, my parents always worrying about the rains and working hard to feed the family. My father realised that education was the key to prosperity and made sure I focused on my studies right from the beginning.

Education

Starting from my primary education up to the seventh grade, I attended my village school which had only two classrooms and three teachers. We did not have a high school in my village. So, we used to walk to a nearby village for the eighth and ninth grades. I was one of the few lucky boys to be sent by my parents to Rajkot for higher secondary education (10th to 12th grades). After completing my schooling, I did my BE in computer science at the MS University of Baroda, Vadodara—a course I completed in 1986.

My experience as a young graduate