Why shouldn't Good Guys make Money?

"He is such a good guy, he is helping society and the poor - but wait a second he is making money. How dare he sell his soul to make money?"

We keep hearing that every now and then. What made me write this is recently in the case of  , we had people blaming Vikram Akula for making money out of his micro-finance venture. According to people, he is only supposed to work hard, build a business from scratch and dedicate his life to give loans to the poor and help them improve their life. God forbid, if he makes any money for his hard work all sorts of allegations will be thrown at him and his investors. Just because someone is nice and helping society, it doesn't mean he will do it for free.  We should be proud that he was able to make a couple of hundred crores through honest means.

Unfortunately people, who blame him, don't realize that for anything to grow into a movement it needs to be commercially viable. Once a venture is commercially viable it will attract partners, investors and healthy competition.   It would be strange if somebody told a journalist or doctor, "Hey you are such a good guy, you are helping the country – but how dare you sell your soul and charge a salary or charge patient?" 

Instead of criticizing people who know how to create wealth for themselves and their partners and investors, we need to learn from them - What can we do to create businesses that have an impact on the society and create wealth?

If we want India to become a super-power we need to encourage society to be happy and proud of the achievements of fellow Indians rather than feeling jealous of them. While good guys (and gals of course!) need to be encouraged to enjoy the wealth they have created, we as a society need to stand up and speak against the people who have made wealth in the wrong ways.

Wealth is a root cause of evil. This is not at all an Indian concept or philosophy. It is simply propaganda promoted by people who don't want others to get wealthy.  It has always been a part of ancient Indian culture to celebrate and worship Goddess Laxmi. If you acquire her with the right means, you are in no way selling you soul. In fact like Lord Vishnu, you are welcoming her presence in your life.

When people earn thousands of crore through scams such as the Common Wealth Games Scam - that is the time when we need to express our displeasure. When a tread-mill worth peanuts is purchased for several lakhs and the money of hard-working tax payers is siphoned off - that is the time to get upset and furious.

People who blame the good guys for making money need to start targeting the bad guys, don't you think so?