When Vishnu Doerga met his future wife at the age of 18, he shared his dream: that he would be paid to study for the rest of his life. Skip forward to the present day and education is at the heart of what he does – whether it’s teaching others through his own consultancy and coaching business, or educating himself through conferences, courses, books, traveling and the wisdom of mentors.

Vishnu began his career as an engineer within his uncle’s rice-milling company. He was very smart but, he admits, also “very undisciplined”. Eventually, he was fired for breaking the rules one too many times, yet he took with him a wealth of knowledge garnered from his uncle – the first in a series of important mentors. From there he went into drainage and irrigation, then hardware, before breaking out and registering his own business on February 14, 2000.

Vishnu’s roots lie on both sides of the Corentyne River and for the past 25 years, Vishnu has lived in Guyana. Recognising the high standard of products in the former Dutch colony, he used his last paycheck as an employee to begin importing consumer goods into Guyana – taking advantage of the duty-free trade permitted between the two CARICOM countries: “We started with Power dishwashing liquid, and I just started to rotate the cashflow so fast, almost daily.” The business grew and within a few years, Vishnu hit another goal of his: “I always told myself that when the company can run without me really being actively involved, that would be time for me to retire … I aimed to hit that by 30, but it actually happened at 27.”

But Vishnu was not ready to stop just yet. By now he was living in Berbice, close to the border with Suriname. He started to get active in the Upper Corentyne Chamber of Commerce and noticed there was an urgent need for business education. “I realised that the reason people in Berbice don’t do as well is that they don’t have the required resources including access to modern tertiary education,” he said. “So I wrote a proposal to USAID under the Governance Enhancement Project and we got almost US$30,000 for a six-month education programme.”

By the time he left the Chamber of Commerce, Doerga says, he had established financial stability and increased membership significantly. Meanwhile, the USAID project, which saw the participation of experts from global universities gave him a renewed taste for learning. “As I was doing it I realised how much I did not know, and how much I enjoyed education,” he said. “That was a wakeup call for me … and then Nations [School of Business & Management] advertised an MBA so I thought, why not?”

He ended up graduating top of his class, and with a keen sense of the importance of what he had learned: “I thought, everybody needs to know this. This is the reason this country suffers so much: people really don’t know what they’re doing. But they say, like I used to, ‘I’m doing decently, why should I know more?’ and it’s exactly that reason why we continue to be in the state we are. Because we’re getting by, instead of really prospering.”

So he came back to Guyana’s capital, Georgetown, bought the ActionCOACH franchise, and started to offer services in coaching and training. Within two years he also became the President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce, assisted in growing membership and helped earn the chamber its highest-ever income level and surplus to date. The success helped his own business too, he said, “because people then knew that I could really do what I said.”

This year Doerga plans to exit the distribution business and focus harder on ActionCOACH, which is now in its fifth year and has evolved into ActionINVEST Caribbean Incorporated as it attracts more clients from the Caribbean. But the skills he learned as a young engineer have far from been wasted, and continue to bear fruit – as Vishnu’s ‘can do’ philosophy demonstrates: “Unlike a lawyer or maybe an accountant, an engineer can’t say: it cannot be done. I’ve always found that there are solutions. If a human made it, a human can solve it.”

Questions

How did you arrive at the idea for your business?
I was working with a hardware company and a French company came in that had been hired to fix the foundation of a local hospital. We didn’t have the big parts they needed – generators, an excavator, that kind of thing – so they asked if I could help find them. So I did that in my spare time and soon my income for a single day was higher than my monthly salary. I left that job and, with my last month’s salary, started my company on 14 February 2000. I started helping people figure out engineering problems then moved into distribution, consulting and coaching. After completing my MBA I bought the ActionCOACH franchise and we’re now into our fifth year and have grown significantly.

Your key driving force to become an entrepreneur?
I think it’s just to stop with this ‘getting by’ mentality and to get to true prosperity, because I know it’s possible. As an engineer, the skill is built in – an engineer can’t tell you that a problem can’t be solved. I always see better ways and if people don’t want to put them in place, I feel like my value isn’t fully appreciated. I realised that if I worked on my own and delivered the value I know I can, salaries don’t compare to what’s possible.

Greatest challenge being an entrepreneur?
Attracting people who understand the vision, selecting them, training them to be part of your team – that is both a challenge and an opportunity. I think the real challenge, though, can be the people around you. Every single day we evolve, but some people prefer the old version and do their best to keep that version alive. When they don’t want to become better versions of themselves, that’s their choice but when they’re holding other people back – I have an issue with that.

What has been your most satisfying moment in business?
I’ve traveled around the world because of my service to the private sector – I’ve been to Singapore, Brazil, Hawaii… so many places. Getting my MBA at 32 was a highlight as well. And I recently finished my PhD in Management, specialising in entrepreneurship, after three and a half years. The highlight would be seeing my wife and daughter taking an interest in the business and pursuing studies to better equip themselves to provide value to those we serve.

What piece of advice give to other young people who want to become entrepreneurs?
Get fantastic mentors. Today I pay some of my mentors and coaches because they’re able to look and me and say: ‘Why are you doing it that way? Have you considered this way?’ I know how valuable that is. But remember: mentors are not perfect human beings; they’re flawed like all of us. Find someone who does the thing you aspire to be really well and ask them to mentor you on that part.

How do you define success?
Unlocking my own potential first of all and then utilising that to unlock other people’s potential so that we can have better lives – to me that’s success.

Who has been your greatest inspiration?
My parents got divorced when I was 8 or 9, so I spent a lot of time with my maternal and paternal grandmothers. They really took me and my brothers under their wings. The belief they had – this unflinching belief that we would grow up and be very successful –it was magical. So it was just hardwired in my brain: if they said it, it had to be true!