The Dream: How I Learned the Risks and Rewards of Entrepreneurship and Made Millions by Gurbaksh Chahal

that can be deadly. You must always negotiate from a position of strength.
They want me
, I kept telling myself.
They need me
.
    When I arrived, I was in total awe of their offices. They had sleek, high-end furnishings, magnificent views of the Hudson River, and a basketball court on the roof. It was an incredibly posh environment, the exact opposite of our offices inSan Jose, and this only added to my tension. Still, the meeting went very well. None of them seemed fazed by either my youth or my appearance, and they listened attentively when it was my turn to speak. I described my performance-based model, talked about the speed at which the company was growing and about our profitability, and when I left their swank offices I felt as if I had definitely piqued their interest.
    By the time I got back to San Jose, though, it was clear that DoubleClick was not going to be buying Click Agents, but they did arrange for us to meet with Value Click, another big player. I flew down to Los Angeles and took a cab to the ValueClick offices in West Lake Village—I was too young to rent a car—where I met with Jim Zarley, the CEO, and a couple of other executives, including Sam Paisley. The conversation was a little awkward, mostly because I needed to protect my company’s ideas, and I was careful not to reveal too much about our business model. Still, I knew what they wanted to hear, and I wasn’t shy about discussing the bottom line: Click Agents was a hugely profitable company, and it was continuing to grow at a robust pace.
    But I didn’t have to say much beyond that. In the middle of our guarded conversation, I got the distinct impression that they had already made up their minds. They needed us—we were taking away market share—and they were eventually going to buy us. Maybe not that day, or the day afterthat, or even in the next month or two, but I was confident it would happen before long.
    The experience taught me another lesson: Don’t tell people what they ask you, tell them what they need to hear to fall in love with you.
    On my way out of the office, I overheard a few whispered comments about the turban, and I found it more than a little disturbing. These people were either bigoted or plain stupid. The turban is a religious symbol, no different from a gold crucifix or a yarmulke, and I thought the behavior of those few employees was both childish and disrespectful.
    On the flight home, I couldn’t stop thinking about it, and I was still thinking about it long after I’d landed. Up until that point, I had been a disembodied voice, communicating on the phone or via e-mail, hidden away in my office. But my company was evolving, and it was time to show my face to the world. I needed to be comfortable with my appearance.
    Two weeks later, I found out that DoubleClick had decided to invest in ValueClick, not in Click Agents, which was not totally unexpected. In March, with the Nasdaq at over5000 and close to peaking, ValueClick came out with an initial public offering (IPO). It sold for $18 a share, becoming one of the last companies to go public before the dot-com bust. The price quickly shot up to $24, but it began to sink almost immediately, and it dropped all the way to $7. At that point, I knew it wouldn’t be long before I heard from ValueClick again. The company would be looking for an investment to boost its value, and we were just the ticket. Click Agents was still going strong and still making serious money.
    As I waited for that to happen, I remembered that first meeting with ValueClick, and I went to see my sister, Kamal. She was in her office, working away.
    “I need you to do me a favor,” I said.
    “What?”
    “Go with me to get my hair cut.”
    “What? Are you crazy? Dad is going to kill you!”
    “I don’t care,” I said.
    We got into my Lexus and drove to Supercuts. When we walked inside, everyone turned to stare.
A guy with a turban getting a haircut. How weird is that?
Suddenly I was afraid to