Simply Fly - Review

Simply Fly- A Deccan Odyssey, is an inspiring autobiography of serial entrepreneur Capt. Gopinath, Father of low cost Indian airlines

       It is about a boy who grew up in a remote village of Karnataka’s Hassan district and went from riding a bullock cart to owning an airline.

       Gopinath studied at NDA and was commissioned as an officer in the Indian Army and served in the Bangladesh Liberation War. He resigned from army after 8 years of service and came back home with Rs 6000 as his settlement money from army.  

       With this money he then set about converting a piece of barren land, which was given as a compensation to his family by Govt., into farm for ecologically sustainable silkworm rearing and ended up winning the Rolex award for it. Then he turned into motor cycle dealer, an agriculture consultant, even entered into politics joining BJP. (though he isn’t successful in election, he developed a network which helped him a lot later).

      Tapping the 'helicopter service' business in India, along with some of his friends in army, started Deccan aviation, which turned out to be very successful. He takes up low cost airlines, Air Deccan, as his next venture, inspired by the story of Vietnamese orphan girl who takes to flying helicopters to help her country rebuild after the 1969-75 Vietnam War. This idea is a perfect example of 'fortune lies at the bottom of the pyramid'.

       The rest of the story is about how Capt. Gopinath develops Air Deccan into largest airline in India. Because of the difficulties in handling the growth of Air Deccan he joins with Vijay Mallya, who is already running Kingfisher airlines. Because of the attitude of Vijay Mallya towards the low cost model, Gopinath leaves Air Deccan and starts a logistics service, DECCAN360.

       Gopinath talks not only about his ventures but also about how his innovations touched the lives many. His story is also humorous in some parts.      

      Throughout the book his attitude “when you decide that you won’t give up till it happens, then it happens" is reflected. This book is not just an entrepreneur’s journey but also about changing India. His childhood,army life and the challenges he faced in Air Deccan in the end are really interesting,

My favorite lines from this book are

A lot of people come to me and say, ‘I have set up a business. My boss does not know. My company does not know. When the business succeeds, I will resign.’ My reply is, ‘That business will never succeed. Your business will succeed only when you can’t pay your rent, you can’t pay salaries, you can’t buy your wife a sari and you can’t pay your children’s school fees. Then you will learn to innovate. You will be forced to improve. Nothing breeds innovation like necessity. Necessity will ensure you do not become complacent. You will be unable to sleep because your business may go bankrupt. This is how your business succeeds. Any other way of setting up a venture is a recipe for disaster.’

A must read.