In our childhood, we’ve all dreamt of being a proud owner of something lavish or absurdly expensive; be it a car, a mansion, that Gucci outfit you saw at the mall but did not have the justification to buy, etc. Even when we grow up and start understanding the value of every single penny, there’s still that small child within us whose dreams we want to fulfill and end up doing so, even if it’s not justifiable. All to satisfy that young child.
My father, Co-Founder of a listed multimillion-dollar IT company, Infobeans, is an amazing father. Mr. Avinash Sethi, how do I explain him to you? He is the humblest person I know. He would be the perfect “your friendly neighborhood Spiderman” (excluding all the spider stuff, and more of the friendly neighborhood man stuff). Why do I say that my father is the humblest person? Becoming so successful, especially coming from not a very luxurious childhood, he has always been down to Earth and respected every single person, no matter what position they stand in front of him. He always made sure that he never lost touch with his roots.
Even though his financial condition was better than ever when I was born, he still managed to keep his children away from the blinding allure of money. Not that he was cheap, he gave my sister and me the best possible childhood we could ask for, but he made sure our comfort never became superfluous. Growing up as a teenage boy, I always wanted my father to buy a luxurious car. I always dreamt of waking up to the sight of a Porsche Taycan in my house’s driveway, and there “Mr. Perfect” was driving… the ugly 13-year-old Honda City. Almost all his colleagues and employees used to come to work in a better car than his, and it was so hard for me to accept the fact that he did not care about this at all! If I had a bank account like his, I wouldn’t stop for a second to think about my purchase.
The reason I compared him to a superhero is that even though he bought fake Crocs for himself, he always bought me the real ones. Now, can you imagine how annoying it would be seeing such an idealistic man growing up?! I mean, I used to feel guilty for all my purchases. He always bought me clothes from the biggest brands and bought his own from the cheapest deals possible. He is someone who can comfortably buy a Ferrari but never did.
It’s not that he did not dream of such cars or guilty pleasures; he just kept that inner child of his beneath the needs of the people he loves, and that’s what made him a superhero in my eyes. It all seems so funny, now that I realize how irrational I was, and sometimes still am, but I would never accept this in front of him. I have an ego too huge for that. A lot of people strive for the lifestyle my sister and I received upon birth, and yes, we are super lucky. But I believe that more than the financial stability, I am luckier to be born in the house of the man who constantly teaches me the value of money and how important it is to be respectful to each and every one. I’m glad I’m the son of “The Man who never bought a Ferrari.”