"When my generation grew up, our only sources of knowledge were books, teachers, parents and friends...." — Vivek Wadhwa

During the dot-com days, one could take just about any company public and reap fortunes. All you had to do was to make sky-high projections for growth, say you were in the Internet space, and go along with unscrupulous investment bankers and their analysts.

When I became an entrepreneur, I had the knowledge to develop and manage budgets, market products and review legal contracts.

The mentor-mentee relationship is ideally like that of the guru and disciple: motivated by the desire of the guru to impart knowledge to the disciple.

After my health suffered due to the stress of running my second company, I had to switch careers. But I still didn't want to go back to the corporate world. So I became an academic.