‘The Hunger To Achieve More Is What Makes Us Do Things’: Samit Garg

‘The Hunger To Achieve More Is What Makes Us Do Things’: Samit Garg

The Vice-President of Events and Entertainment Management Association (EMAA), Samit
Garg, recently came to Odisha to motivate local event management companies. Besides being
the man behind most of the celebrity weddings, Garg owns E-Factor, one of the top event
management companies in the country, as well as a Rajasthan-based hot air balloon company
named SkyWalks. Having such a strong reputation, Garg shares his story of ups and downs in
an exclusive interview with My City Links.

What motivated you to get into business?
I am a poor man. So I dream keeping my eyes open. I set my own targets and achieve them
by myself. In real terms when you talk of motivation, I think we are our own motivations. We
are our own inspirations because it’s all about what’s happening within you. I wasn’t joking
about being poor at all. The reason why I repeat it is because I still have the hunger to grow.
So if there’s anything that I have achieved in the span of last 17 years, it’s because of hunger.
The hunger to be able to do more, to be able to achieve more is what makes us do things time
and again.

As far as my journey is concerned, when I passed out of college, my first job was with my
father. I worked as a clerk in his office. It was way back in 1992-93 and I drew a handsome
salary of Rs 2200. I helped my father with filing documents and typing letters. The advantage
of this was that without having gotten into business, I started learning about business. When
you’re in a certain environment, you only hear people around talking about business, type
them in letters and file them also. So I started to understand what business is. Luckily that
intrigued me and I got into business.

Was E-Factor your first ever company?
No. In fact it was the last company before SkyWaltz. While learning what to do with life, I
experimented with a couple of things. I started with mushroom farming then dairy farming,
dabbled with stock market and tried setting up an aviation charter company. While trying my
hands on different things, some succeeded and some did not. I eventually moved to Delhi.
That is when I came into the business of event management. For me, the event management
business started in 1998-99. E-factor thereafter was formed in 2001.

That’s wonderful. Would you to tell about something about something as new as hot air
balloon?
It was in 2002 when I went to Germany for a training program for events. I was on a taxi
going from Frankfurt to Stuttgart and saw a hot air balloon. That was the first time in my life
that I saw one in real. Earlier, I had seen them only in the movies, posters and paintings. The
fact of the matter is that I saw a hot air balloon in real life and coincidentally the balloon was
drifting towards me. I requested the taxi driver to look for a hard shoulder and park the car,
which he did. In a few minutes, the balloon was flying over my head and I realised there are

people in the basket of the balloon and they were waving down. The moment was too
exciting. That is the first time the thought occurred to me that why can’t it happen back
home? So I got the idea in 2002, but we established the company in 2009.

You are such an amazing storyteller. Do you think storytelling has to be part of the
process?
I believe some qualities are inborn in all of us. Maybe I was gifted with the talent of
storytelling so that might be the reason why you think so well about me. But on a serious note
yes. I think in our business, it is very important, especially in the events and the experiences
business. If you have to be successful, you’ll have to be a good storyteller. That’s what we
are doing. We are selling stories, we are telling stories. After having told and sold stories
comes the aspect of implementing the stories. Implementation is the third stage. So
everything is about stories. Today, you’ll write an article about me which is also going to be a
story.

Wonderful! How do you think your father’s business helped you to achieve greater
heights?
There are two kinds of businesses my father was into; one which he used to and another,
which he never used to do. He was a special class contractor for the ministry of defence.
That’s what my father was doing as business. What he was not doing as business is he was
letting me do mistakes in life and learn. For any human being to become successful, learning
and experiences play a major role. I have always learnt this from my father that there
shouldn’t be any barriers to learning and experiences.