Top 11 Success Principles to Learn from Baba Ramdev

India Today magazine named him as one of the 50 Most Powerful People in India and a New York Times article called him “An Indian who built Yoga Empire, the symbol of New India and a fusion of Richard Simmons, Dr. Oz, and Oprah Winfrey”, he is the famous icon Baba Ramdev.

Ramdev is a well-known yoga guru who founded the Patanjali Group that has a huge market share in Ayurvedic products ranging from health care, hair care, dental care, toiletries, food and more. And the brand and company are growing at an incredible speed.

Baba Ramdev was born in a poor family where both his parents were farmers. And he claims that he was paralyzed when he was about two years old, but was later cured by practicing Yoga. Since then, Ramdev has been a student of Yoga. And in 2003, Aastha TV featured him in the morning yoga slot where he managed to attract a large following. This jumpstarts his career in Yoga, where Ramdev goes on to teach yoga to celebrities both from within India and overseas.

Today, Baba Ramdev is considered one of the most successful entrepreneurs in India through several businesses he started and also one of the most respected Yoga gurus in the world. Here are the 11 success principles you can learn from him.

Principle # 1. Commit to Never-ending Improvement

Ramdev’s journey to success proves to be a long journey and not an easy one. And like most of the other highly successful people, he did not achieve it overnight. Behind his muscle flexing and knowledge about nature, lie years of practice and building an expertise in yoga and products of Patanjali.

According to Ramdev, he started to practice yoga at a very young age. And due to his passion for yoga, he became a student of Acharya Baldevji in Gurukul Kalwa, a residential schooling system in ancient India. This was his time where he was exposed to yoga and where he learned the most of it.

While living in Kalwa Gurukul in Haryana, Ramdev offered free yoga training to the villages there. This was his time where he learned and improved his technique and knowledge of yoga and nature.

Ramdev believes that life is a journey full of learning. And he dedicated his success to his commitment to improving and consistent learning. Thus, whenever you see him move his muscles in a bizarre way, do not freak out as he is a trained Yogi, someone who has practiced the art for years.

Principle # 2. Never be Afraid to Go Big

Baba Ramdev is a visionary entrepreneur who has a big dream. He clearly understands that his Ayurvedic range of products have a huge market abroad and he is never afraid to expand to the international market and compete with other big brands.

Balkrishna, Ramdev’s partner in business has become one of the richest men in India and their brand, Patanjali is the market leader in the Indian fast-moving consumer goods sector. Ramdev focuses on propagating Yoga and Ayurveda to create demands and markets, while Balkrishna focuses on creating the products.

And in 2011, when Patanjali took its selling effort from the conventional distribution network to retail outlets, the business has grown tremendously and its profits multiplied manifold.

And when Patanjali faces competition from the multi-national companies, Ramdev continues to march forward without fear and says that he wants to instill the Swadeshi pride so that the Indian money will not flow out of the country.

Ramdev has been very bold with his statements and decisions. He says, “MNCs are creating special war rooms to combat Patanjali. We are not into any such war rooms. We don’t analyze other companies’ strategies or conduct market surveys and feasibility studies. It is only when people ask for cheap and healthy options that we try to respond.”

Principle # 3. Build a Team of Skilled People

In order to build a successful business like Patanjali, you need people with knowledge and skills in your team to execute your plan. The success of Baba Ramdev’s brand is because he knows how to select the right people for his team.

The majority of the people Ramdev hired are experts and specialists in the field, especially in science and biology, particularly with the ones with PhDs. Even for yoga, he chooses instructors who truly understand and practice yoga for life. He understands that in order to go far, he needs a team of people who can support his dream and his venture.

Behind every successful organization, there is a group of dedicated and skillful team. There is no exception for the few organizations started by Ramdev. When the people you hire in your business are remarkable, your business can grow tremendously. On the other hand, if the people you hire are subpar, they will bring your business down along with them. Hence, choose who to hire properly.

A company only exists because of the people in it. If there are no people within the company, it cannot survive. Steve Jobs from Apple understands this as well, and thus, he is only looking forward to hiring the A-players in the industry. The same goes for Jeff Bezos of Amazon.

Principle # 4. Build a Brand that People Trust

When it comes to promotion and marketing, Baba Ramdev clearly understands that in order for a business to succeed, he needs to build a brand that people trust. And so he brands himself and associates his name with Patanjali’s products. He personally endorses the products and is ubiquitous on most of the branding.

And because of his personal engagement with his products, he managed to successfully build the products’ credibility. The brand, Patanjali has gained enormous popularity and Ramdev himself has also built up a large following over the years. Many may know Ramdev as a Yoga guru, but little did people know that he has over half a million followers on Twitter. Not only that, he consistently engages with his followers and updates them with Patanjali’s products information. He is truly the product of his brand.

Besides, Ramdev believes that no one knows about your product better than you do. And because of this principle, he openly endorses and promotes his products to the people he meets, even the high-profile individuals such as the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. For instance, when he met with Lalu Prasad Yadav, a famous politician, Ramdev quickly made him a model to test out one of his latest Patanjali products.

Principle # 5. Adapt to the Technology

Adaptability is one of the keys to a business’ long-term success. When the surrounding changes and if your business is not able to adapt to the change quickly enough, your business may suffer a serious loss or even goes bust.

Ramdev understands the importance of staying up-to-date and he has taken his business on the internet. People are able to buy the range of Patanjali’s products from the e-commerce platform the business provides. Not just that, it has been reported that Patanjali Ayurveda is also selling through over 4,700 retail outlets, easily available to anyone who is keen to buy.

Ramdev also uses social media platforms such as Twitter to personally replies and engage with his fans. Furthermore, Patanjali started their website as early as 2011 when e-commerce in India has just started finding its feet along with other big players in the market such as Flipkart, Amazon and Myntra.

Even though Patanjali is a locally powered website, the website is well-stocked, often updated, and some very cool and friendly features including attractive videos to show the functionality and details of the product.

So if you are serious about building a successful business, make sure your business is able to adapt to the current changes as quickly as possible. Look at big companies like Nokia and MSN, because of their delayed in adaptability, competitors come in and totally conquer the market.

Principle # 6. Understand the Market

You cannot sell something that people do not want. It will be extremely challenging if your product is not what the market wants. Ramdev knows this and hence, he leverages his knowledge of Yoga and Ayurveda, and then combines them and sell using the latest platform and sales strategy.

He also knows that with the rising stress and negative energy in the modern world, people who live in the city have a strong demand for yoga. This is one of the reasons he expands his business into the Western world and the Patanjali brand is very well-received.

Most of the startups in India only focuses on the local Indian market, especially for spiritual-related products like the Patanjali brand. However, Ramdev understands what the market wants and with the help of regional languages, he has a firm grip on the overseas market as well as the younger groups. He uses Facebooks to post alternately between Hindi and English.

Over the years, people have become aware of the harmful and unhealthy consumption of fast food products such as instant noodles and carbonated drinks. When the news that harmful substances like lead and MSG were found in Maggi broke out, the whole country went furious and Ramdev saw the opportunity and announced that Patanjali will be launching a safe and healthier version of the noodles.

Therefore, find out what your market wants and then deliver it. Do your market research to understand what the people want just like Baba Ramdev.

Principle # 7. Have Someone to Look Up to

Ramdev believes that we need to be inspired each and every day in order to stay motivated and work toward our goals.

After the long day at work, Ramdev used to come home and stared at the pictures of his idols, Subhas Chandra Bose, an Indian nationalist whose defiant patriotism made him a hero in India, and Bhagat Singh, an Indian socialist revolutionary. And Ramdev is always inspired to be a great hero like them.

So who do you want to be and who inspires you the most? You need to have someone to look up to. Arnold Schwarzenegger says that he was inspired to go into the bodybuilding career by his idol, Reg Park. When he saw the poster of Reg Park starring in the movie, Hercules, Arnold knew it very well that he wanted to be like him. And thus, this has inspired Arnold to build his body, which eventually made him a movie star and act as the lead actor in his own version of Hercules.

Even Warren Buffett, one of the world’s richest men has an idol where he learned directly from. And his name is Benjamin Graham, the best-selling author of “The Intelligent Investor”, who became the mentor to the young Buffett.

Principle # 8. Practice Yoga and Stay Healthy

Another one of the important success principles you can learn from Baba Ramdev is none other than practicing yoga daily and stay healthy. This principle may be common from people like Ramdev because he is a yoga teacher. He believes that in order to build a successful business and achieve remarkable results in life, one not only needs a brilliant mind but also a healthy and fit body.

There is no way you can produce amazing success if you are always sick and have no energy. Success requires a healthy and fit body to go through the day-to-day process of building it. The problem is that most people will sacrifice their sleep and health when it comes to building businesses.

Never let this happen to you. No matter how busy you are, remember Baba Ramdev, learn and practice yoga every day like how he did it. When you are healthy, fresh, and energetic, you are able to accomplish more and get more done during the day.

Principle # 9. Have a Clear Vision of the Future that You Want

Since the inception of Patanjali in 2006, Ramdev and his partner Balkrishna already have a very clear vision of the future that they want to build. They have absolute clarity about their goals and objectives and what they want to achieve with Patanjali. They are aspired to establish the science of Ayurveda and achieve their targets through the merger of the ancient wisdom and latest technology. And they did it successfully.

Plus, the duo also understands that in order for the business to survive and thrive over the long-term, they need to conquer other markets and industries. This obvious with Patanjali’s products expansion into different kinds of markets such as beauty, food, lifestyle, and also the medicine category.

Apart from that, Ramdev has made his products widely available by working together with other retail outlets including Pittie Group and Kishore Biyani’s Future group. And because of this merger, Patanjali’s products are in hot demand in Reliance retail, Star Bazaar, and Hyper City. The success of Patanjali will never be possible without Ramdev and Balkrishna’s vision of transforming the ancient wisdom into cool products that everyone wants.

Principle # 10. Endure and Work Hard

You cannot achieve great success without any hard work. While this is a common success principle, most people never really practice it. Like all other famous brands, Patanjali did not launch and become successful overnight. Baba Ramdev and his team have poured in a lot of hard work and effort into making the business work. You can see it from Ramdev’s hardcore marketing strategy and branding.

Other than that, learn to rise above your struggle. It is just like Baba Ramdev never let his struggles stop him in his way, you can learn from his tenacity and determination in achieving your goals. And when you are feeling tired, exhausted, or lose faith, practice yoga and meditation.

Endurance is extremely important in business. When Ramdev went on to make bold statements such as saying he wanted to stop multi-national companies from raking profits and channeling the money out from India, he has directly and openly declared war in his business with big competitors. He needs to have a lot of determination and endurance to win the game.

Principle # 11. Giving Back to the Society

One of the main objectives of Ramdev is to make a truly 100% Indian product for his own country. This is why he came up with the Swadeshi factor to encourage the people of India to buy locally made products. And that is also why Patanjali created a range of diversified products and offered them at a low price.

Besides building businesses and products to contribute back to its people and country, there are also reports claiming that Patanjali aims to donate most of its profits over the next couple of years into non-profit organizations for social and development causes.

Like all other highly successful entrepreneurs, Baba Ramdev always has a passion to serve the community and giving back to the society. And it is the passion of making the world a better place that inspired many extraordinary people, not the monetary rewards. Remarkable people like Mahatma Gandhi, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Mother Theresa, etc, always have a bigger passion to serve the community and contribute to the world.

The same goes for Baba Ramdev. He is also driven to serve the Indian community and economy by producing products using the ancient Indian wisdom and offer them to the common people especially those who are living in the rural area at a more affordable price.