Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Gulati credits balance in family, life
When he got home from work each day, Jack Gulati had a routine.
After announcing he was back, he would immediately change out of his work clothes and into his “home” clothes. Bringing his work life home was not allowed.
“Business time was for business, family time was for family,” Gulati said. “When I came home, I would not bring any work home with me. My practice was when I came home I said ‘hi, honey, I’m home.’ Then I would go upstairs and change from my business attire to my home attire. Then I would come down and hug my wife and my children.
“Switching from business to family helped me immensely to put my business problems on the back-burner and vice-versa.”
The 78-year-old businessman, who is best known for his ownership of the Reading Royals hockey team, Stokesay Castle and SunnyBrook Ballroom and defense contractor Fidelity Technologies Corp., gave a virtual keynote address Tuesday morning to kick off Kutztown University’s Entrepreneurship Week.
His topic was “Balancing Business and Family for True Happiness and Wealth” with the subtitle “Now 78 and finally retiring, or maybe NOT.” Gulati admitted that he’s now entering his fourth try at retirement.
“The lesson here is that age should not be a barrier to being an entrepreneur,” he said, “as long as you have the vision, the prospects, the enthusiasm and the energy to pursue new ventures you can be successful and become more successful.”
Gulati has carried those aspects, along with remembering family, throughout his life and career.
American dream
Born in India when it was still part of the British Empire, his family immigrated to the U.S. after his section of the country was incorporated into Pakistan after independence and his father lost his business. Settling in New York City at age 15, the young Gulati had dreams of being a movie star in Hollywood. When he was
old enough, he drove out west but only got as far as Wisconsin when his car broke down.
Gulati managed to hitch a ride to Minneapolis, where he was dropped off at the University of Minnesota. Changing gears, he stayed for four years and earned a mathematics degree.
“You should be open to where fortune and opportunity take you,” he said. “You never know where the next challenge lies.”
With that degree, he landed, ironically, in Southern California to work on computers for NASA and the Department of Defense. As it turned out, living in (or near) Hollywood wasn’t for him.
“The lesson here is to be thankful for having not gotten what you had wished for,” Gulati said. “You never know what would’ve been if I had gotten to Hollywood the first time and not enrolled at
the University of Minnesota. I’m thankful for the wish that I had, but did not get.”
When he was 25, his father, who had opened a hardware store in Manhattan, was killed during an armed robbery.
“For the first time, I recognized the importance of a family in a significant way,” Gulati said. “At that time I didn’t realize the major effect my father would have had as I lost my mentor.”
He moved back to the East Coast to be closer to his family and found a job near Philadelphia.
“Family is everything,” Gulati said. “Nothing should ever supersede your family.”
Building an empire
It was also around at that time, at age 26, Gulati started his own business, the first of 44 worldwide. His longest tenure was with Fidelity Investment Corp., which he formed in 1977 at age 35 and is still active with to this day.
“When I started my first company, I never desired to work for anybody else,” he said.
However, as he traveled the world — at one time Gulati owned 10 companies in Europe — he realized that he needed help to manage the companies and formed a board of advisers with handpicked experts.
“No entrepreneur will have emphasis and expertise to know what everything means,” Gulati said. “Therefore, you must find people that you respect and be prepared to listen to their advice.”
Gulati himself was ready to pass on his advice to his three sons. He wanted them to eventually take over at Fidelity Technologies
and he made sure they were properly educated and ready for it when he first retired in 2004. The Muhlenberg Township-based company is still going strong today with 450 employees and more than $64 million in annual sales.
However, each time he retired, Gulati came back with a new venture. Those included saving some Berks gems such as the Royals, which were on the verge of leaving town in 2014, or Stokesay, which needed to be revamped to stay in business.
In fact, giving back to the local community also plays a role in Gulati’s family-first philosophy of a successful entrepreneur.
“The lesson here is that an entrepreneur has to look beyond dollars and cents and look at his obligations to the community,” Gulati said.