Ganesh, a young man in his early twenties, was angry with his grandfather. "The old gentleman lives in the past. He believes his mission in life is to trouble me. Even though most families in our cities do not follow joint family system, my parents still cling to it and make my life miserable."
"I am sorry to hear your woes. Why does your grandfather trouble you?" I asked and he replied, "He does not respect my interests and privacy. Whenever I watch television he would say that all movies are gross, violent, vulgar and silly and they corrupt my mind. Whenever my friends visit me and have fun, he would hang around to spy on us about what we talk and do. Whenever my father gives me pocket money, he would insist on getting an accurate account of the previous month's pocket money. Whenever I browse the Internet, he would do surprise inspections to ensure that I visit only kiddy websites. The list is endless. And my parents say that what my grandfather does is correct."
"I can see how much your parents care for you and your bright future. Every country has its own values, habits and tradition. There are many advantages in living in a joint family. Petty quarrels among the members, egoistic and selfish attitudes and, in some cases, financial reasons have disturbed this system," I said.
"I am against my grandfather, not joint family system. I believe he hates me because I don't have a job and depend on my father for all my needs. He keeps complaining that I always waste my time in useless activities. But he is the one that wastes all his time in such things. I will give you an example. When he was a teenager he saw a powerful and beautiful advertisement in a newspaper. He was so impressed by the ad that he cut it out and kept it in a file and from that day he has been collecting any ad that attracts his eyes. He wastes many hours a week on this nonsense, boasts he has collected tens of thousands of ads and calls it a great hobby " Before he could pour our more words of displeasure against his grandfather, I interrupted, "Do you know that a bad customer brings luck to the company because he brings out the weaknesses of the business? Well, I don't know about your or his weaknesses. But certainly I know your grandfather is sitting on goldmine and you can help him discover it."
"I don't understand," said Ganesh.
"All creative ad professionals live in stress as they have to keep delivering new ideas for ads. It is an open secret that ideas, sparks and inspiration come to them when they see other ads. However, if they use a contemporary or recently new ad, even if they modify it, they will lose their reputation and in some cases job also. So, they will be greatly benefitted by the old ads. Many entrepreneurs in the United States and the Europe have realized it, have launched websites that offer access to old European and American ads on fees basis and are making money. To the best of my knowledge there are no Indian websites that offer collection of Indian ads," I said.
"Can you give me some tips?" he asked. "First scan all ads. Then build a website that will show the thumbnails of the ads. Visitors should be able to search through the ads to get relevant ads. When they find an interesting ad they will pay you, access a password protected website and download a copy of the ad," I said.
"I sounds interesting. I'll talk to my grandfather about it tonight," he said.
The next day Ganesh contacted me. "When I told my grandfather about the project, he responded positively as he values his ad collection more than his life! But he felt that as he had many good friends in advertising industry, we could approach one of them and do the project in joint venture. I too felt it was a good idea. So, last night he called a friend, the owner of a medium sized ad agency and explained to him about the project. His friend was so excited with the project he came to our house at 5.30 AM this morning to finalize the deal. Now I am the managing director of the newly formed company. Yesterday I was jobless. Today I am an entrepreneur looking for good employees!" he said.
"Congratulations. Do you have anything to say about your grandfather?" I asked him.
"Old is gold," Ganesh said with a smile.