More respect for bizmen, please

I feel bad for entrepreneurs in India Sure they may have a lot of money and a few fancy homes some may make it to the covers of magazines and one or two may even get invited to accompany the Prime Minister whenever he goes abroad but it still feels as if they donrsquot get much respect from the average Indian until they make it big I thought about these maligned folk all through January while Americans celebrated a criminal act against a CEOThis lack of respect may have something to do with how so many businessmen have disappeared with abnormal sums that donrsquot belong to them but there could be other reasons I havenrsquot fathomedConsider that old gentleman from Bangalore who is routinely reviled on social media which always confuses me It happens whenever he opens his mouth in public which is sad because it admittedly happens a lot I havenrsquot been able to understand why he is treated with such disdain given that his ideas are often of the highest quality One of them involves us all working 70hour weeks so that millions of Indians can rise out of poverty Embrace capitalism he says presumably because it has worked for him even if his employees disagree Hersquos right because itrsquos how all developed countries rose to the top on the broken backs of citizens who died young And yet this perfectly simple solution from a simple man with a simple wife who recently purchased a simple home worth R50 crore is mocked relentlesslyThe reaction to that gentlemanrsquos nuggets of wisdom prompted me to worry about entrepreneurs in India and whether we have been treating them with the respect they deserve I thought about how one of them was shunned a few months ago just because his electric scooters failed to start stop or function the way they were supposed to There were thousands of disgruntled customers apparently and the poor man was being reviled just because he refused to acknowledge that his product was a failure The poor entrepreneur was turned into a meme when all he wanted was to be a millionaire He should have been celebrated as an inspiration but was compelled to quit a social media platform instead It prompted me to ask since when have failures been attacked in this country If we continue down this path we may no longer have politiciansThis may have something to do with our culture We only celebrate entrepreneurs when they graduate to the position of business barons after which we applaud their every move When theyrsquore on their way up we revile their ideas Then if they get to be rich enough we are happy to shut our city down if their offspring decide to have an engagement party Itrsquos as if therersquos a threshold their bank balances must cross before we place them on pedestals reserved for people genuinely deserving of respectMy humble proposal therefore is an annual awards ceremony for entrepreneurs judged by common Indians alone The awards currently in circulation are all sponsored by business magazines and media houses which makes it easy to predict who will win something because we can all see the companies who advertise Not that this is cheating of course the politically correct term is lsquoadvertorialrsquo No my proposal involves a public voting system that allows us all to participate and nominate entrepreneurs who are trying to change our lives with their products services or ideasI acknowledge that it may be hard to find nominees who arenrsquot fighting cases of fraud but that little hiccup shouldnrsquot get in the way of us celebrating the spirit of entrepreneurship before these enterprising men go to jailFelicitating more entrepreneurs in this way will make them feel loved which in turn may make them think about their countrymen a little more than they usually do if they ever become billionaires Itrsquos like an investment that may pay off in surprising ways Maybe one of them will think about the award someday in the distant future and pay us all back by not cutting down a forest to build a mallPandering to the ego of rich folk is a trick as old as time and I feel as if we havenrsquot been doing it enough We have to do more to make them feel respected even if they arenrsquot because if therersquos one thing they all understand itrsquos the importance of being shallowWhen he isnrsquot ranting about all things Mumbai Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet He tweets lindsaypereiraSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper