400 rejections, security guard job, then CEO made of $ 130 billion company became UP’s Chhora

New Delhi. Nikesh Arora, CEO of Cyber ​​Security Company Palo Alto Netws, is not interested in any introduction today. At the time when Arora took command of the company, its valuation was $ 18 billion, which has now increased to $ 130 billion. Nikesh Arora, who has worked in veteran companies like Google and SoftBank, has achieved this position after much struggle. Born in Ghaziabad, UP, Arora had to struggle a lot in getting a job after completing his studies. In an interview, he said, “I applied for a job in more than 400 places and got rejections from everywhere. But I should keep all the rejection letters, these are still my inspiration.” He says that the deficiency teaches you jugaad, gives strength to do more in less resources.

Nikesh Arora’s father was in the Indian Air Force. He used to be transferred from one city to another. Arora said, “We used to change the city every few years. This brought the power of adaptation in life. I learned the feeling of honesty and justice from my father.” Nikesh Arora studied engineering from Banaras Hindu University (BHU), after which he thought of studying in America. They did not have much money. He did not apply for those business schools in America. He got admission and scholarship at North Eastern University.

Nikesh Arora was refused by 400 companies to give jobs. But he did not give up and wandered for jobs. Finally in 1992, he got his first break in Fidality Investments. Here he played many roles and later became the Vice President of Fidality Technologies. He said that initially he was described inappropriate for high finance, but he did not give up and started teaching that course after studying CFA.

Important role played in Google and Softbank

In 2004, he joined Google. In the next ten years, he contributed to transporting Google’s revenue growth from $ 2 billion to $ 60 billion. He then joined the SoftBank and worked with Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son. Nikesh Arora says that Masa Son gave him a special learning – “Do not waste time to fix bad investments, pay attention where you are already doing good.”

Nikesh took some time break after separating from the softbank. Tried to learn golf, but failed. After some time he took command of Palo Alto Networks. At that time the company’s valuation was $ 18 billion, which has now increased to $ 130 billion. Describing the secret of the company’s success, Arora says, “Cyber ​​security is a fast growing area. The more we depend on technology, the more danger will increase. So we have invested first in AI and cloud technology.”

In the discussion in the year 2012

Nikesh came into the discussion in 2012 when he became the most expensive employee of Google. At that time, Google gave him a package of $ 51 million. This package was much more than the package being received by any other executive. Leaving Google, he also got a record package when he joined SoftBank. In 2014, he was given a package of $ 135 million by SoftBank. In 2018, Pao Alto Netws hired on a package of Rs 860 crore annually. Apart from this, he was given shares worth $ 125 million and a target bonus of $ 1 million.

Nikesh described his experience as “eyes open” with Chatgpt. There is a tremendous race in the US about AI, where plans are being made to create computing infrastructure operated from nuclear energy. But for India, he said that the real opportunity is in local data and knowledge. He says that “no need to be first, be intelligent”.

He says that there are people in India who can make local AI global. Arora said, “Our traffic, our languages, our culture-this is the strength of India. The self-driving car trained in America will not be able to run on the streets of India. In such a situation, Indian companies can make their mark by molding Global AI in the local context.”