N. R. Narayana Murthy

Growth is painful. Change is painful. But, nothing is as painful as staying stuck where you do not belong.

To me, patriotism is about working ethically and wholeheartedly in our chosen field.

Often times I have been asked about the attributes for success, and I have said that you need two attributes for succeeding as an entrepreneur: one, courage, second, luck.

I was the first businessman to say, 'You should give tax benefit to only small companies. You should say your profits are exempt to a limit of Rs. 50 crore or so, but beyond that, you should pay taxes.' I have been arguing with successive finance ministers on this.

Infosys demonstrated to the world that an Indian company could implement standards of quality, operations, finance that compare with the best. That is a legacy I am happy with.

Mahatma Gandhi was someone who demonstrated the tremendous power of leadership by example.

Leadership is about doing the right thing, even if it going against a vast number of naysayers and mediocre people.

All developmental activities for the common man such as education, healthcare, shelter and food distribution should be handled by reputed private sector institutions. It should be a competitive market in order to prevent the formation of monopolies.

India is known for much development that has happened since our independence, but at the same time, we have also failed on many levels. It is the responsibility of the future generation to ensure that all these failures are corrected and help create a civilised society with equal opportunities for one and all.

The lack of financial strength to avail healthcare is a major challenge.

Engineering or technology is all about using the power of science to make life better for people, to reduce cost, to improve comfort, to improve productivity, etc.

It's very important to learn quick lessons from your failures, very important to recognize symptoms of failure pretty early, and it is very, very important to not to be attached too much to the idea - you have to know when to give up an idea.

When you run a part of the relay and pass on the baton, there is no sense of unfinished business in your mind. There is just the sense of having done your part to the best of your ability. That is it. The hope is to pass on the baton to somebody who will run faster and run a better marathon.