Kishore Borra

Good morning. Greetings to you all in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It’s an honour, it’s a glory. I thank God for giving this opportunity to me. Anytime I’m asked to come and speak, I want the audience to leave the place with something that they can utilise and apply. For that to happen today I want you to do two things. One, I want you to look for one idea from each of the speakers that you can take away and apply because what I know is, one idea applied well could change your life forever. The second thing that I want you to think about is — you are not here by accident. You are here by God’s master plan. You are here by God’s design. Think of it this way — every single thing that you have done in your life, every single decision that you have taken till today, has brought you to this very room on this very day in this very moment. In other words, what I’m trying to tell you is you are built for this moment. You are built for this moment. As the day progresses, what I request is that you prayerfully step into it, take it, say it, and make it yours.

As brother said, my name is Kishore Borra. I’m a father of two boys, husband to a superwoman, and a lecturer-turned-IT professional currently working as managing director of an IT company in Hyderabad. Let me also tell you in the beginning — I am an imperfect but incredibly, incredibly blessed child of God. I come from a farmer’s family, from a small village in coastal Andhra Pradesh, Guntur district, which is exactly 400 kilometres from here. I grew up very poor in a humble and modest environment. Life wasn’t very easy, but let me tell you, I lived with our parents, grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles, so it took a while for me to realise that I actually belong to a poor family. 

These are my grandparents.You can see my paternal grandparents and maternal grandparents. My father was the second-eldest in the family. He was the only child out of five who was allowed to go to school but unfortunately discontinued his graduation and he squandered foolishly. He wasted his youth until he got married. And look at my maternal grandparents. They’ve given birth to 16 kids. My mother was the 16th daughter. And they could never afford to go to a hospital. As a result, only six out of 16 survived. The remaining 10 died between the ages of 2 and 5 years. They lived for 95 years and they are from a Hindu background. They loved each other so much, no wonder they gave birth to 16 kids. When we look at my paternal grandparents, my great-grandfather, five to six years before his death, around the time of Independence, he was introduced to Jesus by a British missionary. He had so much influence on his three kids that he utilised the last five years of his lifetime to lead his people to Jesus. These are some of the latest pictures of my mother, father, and my brother.

I saw two people from our village going to the USA after completing their BTech in computer science. And I saw their entire family lifestyle change. That’s when the concept of the American Dream popped up in my head.

We have a small piece of land that’s our primary source of income and sustenance. We used to live in a small house with a thatched roof and mud walls. And we did not have electricity until I attained the age of 15 years. Both my mother and father worked as daily wage labourers. My mother came from a Hindu background but my grandmother led her to Jesus and though she is a first-generation believer, she relied heavily on Jesus. I cannot tell you for  how many countless hours she prayed. I witnessed this while growing up. She has provided that priceless protection of prayer to all our family members. Because of her prayers my father got a job as a branch postmaster in our village. My father stopped working as a daily wage labourer but my mother continued to work as a daily wage labourer. She sponsored the education of myself and my brother. She is a great woman, she’s a woman of great faith, will, and sacrifice. She actually helped us to become who we are today.

My father taught me and my brother the concept of humility and integrity. He taught us no matter how big we are, how well we would do in our life, he asked us to stay humble. And his definition of integrity is: Our words and our actions should match with each other. He taught us very early in our life that our talk talks, our walk talks, but our walk should talk more than our talk. He taught us to bring that congruence between our actions and our words. He is one of the greatest fans of me and my brother. Knowing your father is your greatest fan always gives you a special feeling. 

My brother is a qualified chartered accountant. Currently he’s working as the Vice President, Operations in a fintech company in Hyderabad. And not only that. What I’m really proud of is that he planted two churches. He’s currently pastoring two churches in Hyderabad. And as I told you, I grew up very poor. And we hardly had luxuries in our house.

When you look at my childhood, you would find me doing three things. Either you would see me herding our buffaloes because they were like a second family to me for many many years. Or you would see me either working in our small farm or working in our neighbours’ farms, or joining my mother as a daily wage labourer during my childhood. Or the third thing is, if I’m not herding buffaloes or working in my farm, you would find me playing cricket with my friends in our village or taking on the neighbouring village cricket teams. 

If you continuously pray to God and if you really value the opportunity that you have got, you will succeed no matter where you are put.

Going on to my education, I am a product of government education. I studied in Telugu-medium schools. I learned English alphabets when I was in fifth standard and sixth standard because I had to take up English, I had to clear the English exam in seventh standard. I saw two people from our village going to the USA after completing their BTech in computer science. And I saw their entire family lifestyle change. That’s when the concept of the American Dream popped up in my head. I suffered with self-doubt, not being able to explain my thoughts properly during my childhood. Even in school, two teachers used to teach from first standard to seventh standard. If it rained, there was no school. If one teacher was on leave, almost half of the school would be in the playground. 

So, when this American Dream popped up in my mind, I always used to pray. My mother happened to be one of our Sunday school teachers. I always used to pray to live a bigger and more beautiful life, and I wanted to change the lives of my parents and extended family members too. Then, I moved on. I used to use a bicycle to go to other schools to do my eighth standard, ninth standard, and tenth standard. I used to ride my bicycle 7 kilometres daily. When I did my Plus Two (Class 12), I used to ride by bicycle 15 km a day, when I was doing my graduation, 18 km a day.

My mother never allowed us to watch TV or go to a movie theatre until I had the opportunity to go to a nearby town to do my Plus Two. When I went there, what I was doing when I completed my Plus One and when I entered Plus Two, what I started doing was every single day — there are six movie theatres — every single day I used to go and take my bicycle, go to the neighbouring town, bunk college, and watch a movie. I used to watch the same movie six or seven times. I used to curse the theatre management for not changing the movies. That was the routine of the first part. For the second part, I know every single spot where cricket was being played in the town. I used to go and play cricket. I stopped going to college, I bunked all classes. My father and mother had no clue. And as a result, I flunked my 12th standard. It was like a crushing blow. I felt like a failure. I was in denial. I went into depression. I did not listen to my mother and father, and that’s when God sent my grandfather into my life. 

I always thought that you need to be a born genius, you need to be born with certain gifts, traits, and talents; only then will you be able to succeed as a leader. I didn't realise that you can actually learn it, practise it, and master it. — Kishore… Share on X

My grandfather started spending a lot of time with me. He is the one who taught me: Do not let failure define who you are. He told me: “You have the belief and power to be anything that you want.” And he told me that everyone can improve, everything can be improved, and every day has possibilities for improvement. I never never looked back from there. He helped me to start going back to church and start reading the Bible. 

And then I did my Bachelor’s in Electronics and I topped the college. Then, I went on to do my first Masters in Physics. I secured a gold medal. Later, I cleared the GATE exam, I went on to do my MTech in Energy Systems from SV University, Tirupati. Again, I got a gold medal. But remember, I had this American Dream, right? So what was I doing? I was always trying to do something related to computers. So when I was doing my BSc I did a Diploma in Computer Applications, when I was doing my first Masters, I did a Postgraduate Diploma in Computer Applications. So, I entered into the world of computers because of my American Dream, but the moment I started doing programming, I thought, This is the area that I really want to be in. I started really liking it. 

You never know. If you really put your heart to something that you’re really passionate about and seek God’s guidance, things will move forward. And if you look at my work life, the first four years of my life were into teaching. The next 20+ years were into the IT field. What happened was, when I was doing my MTech in Tirupati, I started teaching Java as a part-time job. And I went to Bangalore to do my MTech project work and I started teaching Java in an institute. It was 2001 and I don’t know how many of you remember, the Y2K boom was over and there was a recession all over. People were not getting jobs. Having done two Master’s degrees, having secured gold medals, I no longer wanted to be a burden to my parents. So what I did was, someone offered [a job] in one of the engineering colleges in Bangalore and I joined as a lecturer there. 

And then immediately, as soon as you start getting decent money, your parents obviously think about getting you married. And I got married — six months after getting my first job — to my wife, who is from Hyderabad. Then I had to relocate to Hyderabad, and then I was looking for someone who would pay a decent salary in the teaching field. I don’t know how many of you know about Sri Chaitanya and Narayana groups — they are corporations and they specialised in teaching IIT aspirants and NEET aspirants. So I was there for three years, teaching physics to IIT and NEET aspirants. I used to burn the midnight oil and spend a lot of time on it. Meanwhile, my wife completed her MCA and MTech in Computer Science. She got an IT job and God used her to ignite the passion and my American Dream, my IT dream again. 

I don’t need to preach sermons. My character, who I am, would actually help people to get their focus on the God that I believe in.

And I heard her talking every day about the kind of work that she’s doing. And look at me, teaching nine hours a day, six days a week, and then I burn the midnight oil. Because what happened was Sri Chaitanya got fooled. They thought, This guy has got two Master’s degrees, gold medals. He can do well. But they didn’t know I was the youngest senior lecturer in the entire State at that point in time. And I had to really struggle very very hard to teach, not to compete with other lecturers, but to compete with students. You understand what I’m saying? 

So then I started praying, “God, you know all my life I’ve wanted to get into the IT field so can you please help me to get into the IT field?” And at the same time I used to go to — we go to a church called NLAG in Hyderabad, and there was an announcement about baptism. And I started praying to God. Generally what we do when we seek something very passionately is we add fasting to it, right? So I started fasting and praying, and asking God, “Can you please help me to change my profession?” Because my vocal cords started giving problems as I was teaching nine hours a day. 

Then I started putting conditions on God. I said, “God, if you can help me to switch my profession, I will get baptised and I will follow you for the rest of my life.” And within a week’s time, every single day when I would go to bed, someone would whisper in my ears, “Why don’t you reverse the order? Why don’t you get baptised in water and then see what God can do with your life?” I obeyed it. And if you go and see my church records, in 2004, you would hear me saying the same words, standing in the baptism tub. And within one month I started getting some job interviews. But I could not clear any of them. But I continued praying. 

And very soon God opened a door for me in the company where my wife was working. They needed someone who knows IT, who has got an IT background, but who can also teach their customer base across the world. And now, here I am, teaching physics for nine hours a day, and I have to clear an exam in C and C++. I didn’t know how to do that. But my wife was pushing. She was praying. And I was reluctant. Though I wanted it badly, I didn’t want to relate to myself as a failure. That night, God showed me a book in our house. That was a book which my wife had used to clear her MTech Computer Science exam in Osmania University. Trust me, I went and read that book during the weekend, and every single question in the examination came from that very book. And I topped among all the people who had taken up the written test. 

Remember, if you’re really aspiring for a great career in the corporate world, remember one thing — no one pays for average. You have to be excellent in what you do.

God has got mysterious ways, right? It’s like you are in a different world, and when he feels like that’s the time that he wants to bring you into another field, then he would very easily show you a way and when all other doors are closed he will open a door for you. Then I got selected and I worked for a company called Intergraph for about 10 years. God has given me an opportunity to work as a software developer and then a lead developer, project manager, and senior technical manager. By the time I was leaving that company, I was actually working as a senior manager-technical, who is responsible for strategy and delivery of geospatial projects. 

Every single time when I look back, God has always sent someone, starting from my grandfather, to some of the teachers, professors or some of the people at at my workplace, who didn’t look at me for who I was but who could become with a little more training, a little more help, and by providing a little more resources. If you continuously pray to God and if you really value the opportunity that you have got, you will succeed no matter where you are put.

But look at God’s sense of humour. God has given me an opportunity to go and work all through the world. I worked in New Zealand, worked in Australia, lived and worked in Singapore, Germany, the UK, and Canada, but not America. I got a visa. I was supposed to fly in two days. During the weekend I was supposed to fly to the US and out of a lot of excitement I started doing all the projects and I also started sending deliveries, and the project manager in the US felt, We don’t really need to spend a lot of money to bring this chap here. He can do a fantastic job staying back in Hyderabad. 

When I was working for that company, God always placed me with a lot of talented people and my default mode was always to learn, to seek from others. I’d always be looking at what I can learn from this brother, and what I can learn from this sister. How would I add value to the person who is sitting on my right? How do I add value to the person sitting on my left? I would never look for credit but I would always try to add value to myself and add value to others. And that’s been my default setting for more than a decade. 

I used to report to a gentleman by the name of Dr Julian Kardos who happens to be from New Zealand, from 2012 to 2014. He resigned and went to New Zealand saying, “I want to start something.” He wanted to set up a retailing company in New Zealand. And to cut a long story short, three months down the line, he flew back to India and he gave me a call. He asked me to come and meet him in Taj Krishna, Hyderabad. I went to him, knowing that he’s up to something, and at the most he would ask me and my wife to leave our jobs, go and work with him in New Zealand. Little did I realise that he was actually wanting me to join forces with him and set up an IT company in Hyderabad. And now, again, to cut a long story short, after nine-and-a-half years, right now we have a team of 200-plus highly-talented individuals. We have built the world’s best retailing and telco platform. We are selling electricity and gas in Australia, and we were selling electricity, broadband, and mobile services in New Zealand. And I am part of an executive team which is generating more than $200-million revenue year on year. I asked God to change my job, and see what he has done in my life. 

When I realised that I was reaching a bottleneck, when I started building this company, I started realising that I started recruiting people who are smarter than me. Within a year or so I recruited 40 people and then I started realising that it’s beyond me. I was trying to do something which I am not good at. Because all my life I was focusing on architecture, design, coding, delivery skills, but not leadership skills, connection skills, relationship skills. And that’s when I started seeking earnestly. And then again God miraculously opened a door for me. 

At my church, I saw them selling Global Leadership Summit DVDs. I went and purchased one of the DVDs, and when I was going back from church, I inserted it in my car and I saw John Maxwell popping up on the screen and trying to say, “Leadership is influence. Nothing more, nothing less. Leadership has nothing to do with titles. Leadership is not a licence to do less; it’s a responsibility to do more.” And he started telling me that leadership is not a born talent; it’s actually a skill which you can study, practice, and master. That was one of the defining revelations in my life. I always thought that you need to be a born genius, you need to be born with certain gifts, traits, and talents; only then will you be able to succeed as a leader. I didn’t realise that you can actually learn it, practise it, and master it. 

Then I went all the way to the USA. That was the first time God opened the door for me to go to the US. I went to the USA, got mentored and trained by John C Maxwell and then I came back, I read his books, I started practising it in my organisation, and created wonders. Now, I put all my learnings in the form of two books. Now, standing here, I can confidently tell you I know a thing or two about how to hire right, how to train right, how to treat right, how to position right, how to pay right. 

And I’m coming to a close. This is my joyful crew. That’s my wife. We’ve been working together for the last 18 years for two corporations. She is my true accountability partner. She’s the one who brings out the best in me. And we always enjoy windshield time. We never bother or complain about Hyderabad traffic because we have quiet windshield time. And I don’t think I would have achieved so much in my life without her support. My elder son is just completing his MBBS. He is currently doing his house surgeon posting. My second son too wants to become a doctor. 

If you ask me to say one word that’s indispensable for your corporate success, I will use the word ‘credibility’ without any hesitation. My definition of credibility is character and competence.

God has put me in a position of strategic importance. Hyderabad, hosts close to 2,000 IT companies. More than 10 lakh people are currently working there. HYSEA stands for Hyderabad Software Enterprise Association and it represents more than 90% of Hyderabad’s IT and ITES exports, both in terms of revenue and headcount. God has placed me in the managing committee not once, not twice; for the third time now. And I’m trying to add value to myself and add value to the wider ecosystem. I don’t need to preach sermons. My character, who I am, would actually help people to get their focus on the God that I believe in. 

And my last slide — so this is my strategy for achieving excellence. Remember, if you’re really aspiring for a great career in the corporate world, remember one thing — no one pays for average. You have to be excellent in what you do. All of us will have uphill aspirations and downhill habits. Nothing in your personal life and professional life which is worthwhile is easy. It’s all uphill. And if you ask me to say one word that’s indispensable for your corporate success, I will use the word ‘credibility’ without any hesitation. My definition of credibility is character and competence. 

Let’s say you want to go to a nephrologist. You ask your friend, “Hey, can you suggest a good nephrologist in the city of Chennai?” He says, “Yeah, Mr X is a good person. He is highly talented. But there’s a problem. He’s got a private practice. He will ask you to undergo tests when they are not needed. He will ask you to undergo a surgery when it is not needed. And there are rumours that he has already stolen a few kidneys from his patients.” Would you be comfortable going to that doctor? No. “Can you give me another alternative?” He says, “Yes, I’ve got one more person — Person Y. He is a believer and he goes to church every single Sunday. He does not have a private practice. He will not ask you to undergo tests when they are not needed. He will not ask you to undergo a surgery when it is not needed. But there is a problem. His success rate is 50%. And there are a few patients who died on the surgery table.” Would you be able to go to that doctor? No, right? In the case of the first doctor, character is 0, competence is 1. Credibility is 0. In the case of the second one, character is 1, competence is 0. So I encourage you to work on both your character and competence.

And I feel like I’m still a work in progress. And God is still working with my life and helping me to unfold my potential and be a blessing to many. As I work to do more, be more, and become more, and be a blessing to others, I request you to please pray for me and my family. Thank you, LeadTalks, for giving me this opportunity.