The book is about the entrepreneurs journey.

Vithal Kamat writes about his life and the hard work he put in, the mistakes made and the lessons learned from it. It sounds familiar like any other entrepreneurs autobiography, but what made it special was that this was an Indian and almost everyone has heard about the famous Kamat restaurants! It was good to read the story of the restaurants and the people who make the place what it is.

Theres never a dull moment with 54-year-old Vithal Kamat, executive chairman and managing director of Kamat Hotels India, the Rs 112 crore, Mumbai-based, hospitality group that has brands such as the Orchid Hotel and Lotus Suites among others. Hes full of storiesabout life, experiences, people. Hes put it all down, in fact, in a booka management bookIdli, Orchid and Will Power! But this is just one side of him. There are many more facets.

My father Venkatesh was already into the restaurant business when I was born. He was an industrious man, who began working in a restaurant at the age of eight. Satkar, a popular restaurant in Mumbai, was started by Venkatesh Kamat way back in 1950. But this was not the first. The senior Kamat began his journey as a restaurateur with a small property in Mazgaon, Mumbai. This was followed by the Krishna Bhavan in the predominantly Muslim area of Null Bazaar in Mumbai. Samrat, Suvidha, Suruchi, Senate, the list...

My fathers commitment to his work, his discipline, determination and self-regulation were a source of inspiration for me and my siblings. My mothers ability to manage a large family, her sacrificing nature, for instance, she pawned her jewellery when my father needed money to start Satkar, were not lost on us. An engineer by qualification, Kamats initiation into the family business happened by accident. His fathers trusted aide, his brother-in-law, had betrayed him. There was no one to assist him in his business. Thats when Kamat and his elder brother stepped in to help their father. The dream of a blissful professional life was set aside forever. Life had...

when Vithal was a kid, his uncles son was getting married and in that event, the soft drinks were not cooled and there was just 15-20 min before the guests started arriving. Young Vithal then used his knowledge of how kulfis are made, took fistfuls of salt and threw it on the ice which made it drastically go down in temperature and hence all the soft drinks were chilled in 15 min

The same goes for many of his tactics such as putting free buses to and fro the airport to his hotel, the Kamat Plaza, to make waiting less stressful for travellers and that became an instant hit. He said that brought in more customers than any amount of advertising could have done. Eventually, the airways people would suggest travellers to rest at Kamat so as to make them less annoyed about delayed flights, etc. A win-win-win situation indeed.

Vithal proves time and again how his networking and at the same time being known for their hospitality and credibility helped him in many a situation.

Vithal has lost a lot while trying to make his dream The Orchid come true, especially after all the property was usurped by his younger brother, and he had taken many high-interest loans so that he could build his dream hotel while his father was alive (who was dying of cancer). And yet, all the goodwill that he had generated and his will power slowly helped him eke out of the pit and the dream came true. This part of the story was heartwrenching and inspiring at the same time. These are the kinds of stories that we see in movies but this is a real true story.