Page 40 - desi pages July 2022
P. 40
Venkat Avasarala
“One cannot get extraordinary without doing extraordinary.
You need to take risks”
“The future rewards those who press on. I don’t have time a good credit history, and was prepared to take up the first
to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I am opportunity that came his way.
going to press on.”- Barak Obama
“One cannot get extraordinary without doing extraordinary.
The above quote by Barak Obama truly describes our You need to take risks”- He says He built Capital, learned
Person in Focus Venkat Avasarala whose perseverance to skills, took risks, and networked with people. He made
attain financial independence is what has brought him here conscious choices by letting go a higher paying job to buy
today as he retired at a very young age of 38 from a full- more time to concentrate on his work after hours and on
time corporate job. His story is not only inspirational, but he weekends. He started small with buying a few apartments
is a person with a lot of courage and passion. and renovating and selling for higher prices. He has now
moved on to building multi-family apartments from ground
Venkat came to the US from a small town in Andhra, India up investing over $130 million dollars. He thanks his Investors
called Kakinada to pursue his master’s degree in Electronical who actively invest with him to grow their wealth through
Engineering from UAH, Alabama. He worked for 14 years these Real Estate Investments.
in the IT domain at several Fortune 500 companies. He is
now the owner and CEO of a multi-million dollar company The perks of working for himself apart from not working for
Stryker Properties. His wife Srilatha also retired recently from anyone else is the flexibility he enjoys with his working hours.
her Bank job to assist her husband. Happiness and comfort are the two big motivators for him
which brought him to Dallas, Texas a few years back from
An incidence that changed his perspective towards life. the east coast. He finds people here warmer and more at
ease. Venkat still travels a lot but now it is mostly for pleasure.
One October morning in 2008, as he arrived at his office
in New Jersey, he saw a fire engine, an ambulance and He has already travelled 30 countries and his goal is to visit
people lying on the floor. Later he found out that the company 100 countries. Apart from gardening, watching science and
had a mass layoff that day of 600-700 odd people. These nature documentaries, he spends a lot of time caring for his
people were in their 40’s and 50’s and were working on dogs.
some outdated technology for the company over many It was fascinating to talk to Venkat Avasarala who dared
years. They were immediately replaced. They were falling to to dream big. The realization that he had on that October
ground and even losing their lives out of worry. This incident morning outside his office in New Jersey is the spark that
shocked Venkat. ‘I had never witnessed people dying in that ignited a revolution within him. During his journey he also
way.’- he says. That is when he realized that he must take recognized that as a community we have immense potential,
responsibility of his future and not depend on being hired. but we always under value ourselves. Therefore, his message
to the young generation is to identify the exceptional world
Once he made up his mind, he started working towards
his goal. His conservative upbringing, where savings and class qualities that we possess and never let others threaten
living within one’s means was a norm served as his biggest our growth. We at FunAsia DesiPages wish Venkat more
asset in disguise. He had already saved some capital, had power to accomplish all that he aspires!
DesiPages DFW | July 2022 VOL 41 | 40

