Zerodha’s Nikhil Kamath Opens Up About School Dropout Experience: ‘My parents Had Given Up On Me’

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New Delhi: In a recent interview with The Print, Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath discussed his experience as a school dropout and addressed the societal stigma attached to low-barrier jobs despite achieving significant financial success.

When asked about the reactions he faced after dropping out of school, Kamath mentioned that his parents surprisingly took the news better than he anticipated. He humorously remarked that “My parents had given up on me. It felt like they had lost hope.”. However, he noted that his extended family placed a high value on higher education. ()

He started by stating "I feel like the psychology behind it is very interesting. So my first job at a call centre in Bengaluru when I was 17 used to pay me ₹8,000-9,000. I was feeling really good about myself because I had a wage, I had access to more money than my friends had access to at that point in time, and I've been precociously greedy for financial independence. You feel good from 17 to 22, while your friends are at college," ()

He further added, "You start feeling unnerved when your friends graduate college and get their first job because there is societal stigma around a job which does not have an entry barrier. It could be any job. Call centre jobs did not require a degree they did not require expertise or proficiency of a certain kind, so societal stigma is there. You can be in a call center earning ₹1 lakh per month but a doctor earning ₹25,000 per month gets more societal acceptance. So by 22-23 when my classmates graduated and they started becoming doctors and engineers then you start feeling a little conscious."

Kamath noted that, inevitably, comparisons with one's peer group arise at some stage in life regardless of how the group came together. He mentioned that such comparisons didn't affect him psychologically as they might have others due to favorable circumstances. However, he acknowledged that if faced with similar situations today, the outcome could be different.