A Child’s First Teacher

As a child, Anil Jethmal would enjoy listening to his father’s business phone conversations. With an international business, and thus having markets in different time zones, his father would have his business phone conversations during all hours…day and night. So, whenever his father would make business calls from his home office, Anil Jethmal would listen in with fascination.
Anil recalls being amazed by his father’s command of complicated business concepts and by his breadth of knowledge. But, it was when his father would combine those skills with his jaw-dropping mathematical abilities, that Anil was truly mesmerized. His father would calculate revenues, shipping rates, profits, duty taxes and currency rates across his various global markets…without a calculator or even pen and paper. In the next room, Anil Jethmal would listen to these conversations…frantically trying to keep up…even with a calculator, a pen and paper in hand.
Over time, Anil began asking his father questions about the essence of those phone conversations. Sensing his son’s emerging interests in business and economics, Anil’s father took every opportunity to nurture and further those interests. A patient and brilliant man, he would relate everyday life to business. At the supermarket, he would explain why the price of milk went down from the previous week; while waiting on line at a gas station, he would explain the relationship between geopolitics and the cost of gas. In fact, Anil Jethmal fondly remembers that his fascination with the foreign exchange market began simply enough…with the various coins that his father would bring home from his international business trips.
Anil Jethmal has had the opportunity to learn from many renowned business leaders and economics professors in his life. However, he is quick to point out that none were as brilliant or as effective as his very first teacher…his father.