I met Vivek, of Tiwary Entertainment Group at a Wharton event in New York City, where he and his wife raise their children. He spoke about his career as Broadway producer, financier, and comic book writer,  not your typical professions for an Indian immigrant. In this interview Vivek talks about finding his historical mentor in books, writing a NY Times bestselling graphic novel about The Fifth Beatle, and he delivers an eloquent soliloquy on passion and persistence, to make your dream a reality. Vivek also co-founded Musicians on Call, as a young man 25 years ago, which has become a a nationwide movement to bring musicians to patients’ hospital room. Britney Spears, Bruce Springsteen and others have enthusiastically participated.   TRANSCRIPT   Kent(1:51): You have so many stories, i’ve heard you speak before, tell us how you started and how you were influenced by your parents immigrating to America and your grandfather immigrating to Guyana. Vivek: My grandfather was a very self made man. He was born in India, but moved from India to Guyana when he was an infant. It was my great grandparents that moved from India to Guyana. Both were British colonies at the time and as much as I hate to use this expression, the words essentially indentured servants, they moved from one colony to the next seeking a better life and my grandfather’s father was a farmer. My grandfather group up assisting his father. He was a son of a farmer. He used to grow fruits and vegetables and bring them to the food market. At a very young age my grandfather realized that the fruits and vegetables in Guyana were considered exotic in the rest of the world like mangos and pomegranates and that sort of thing. So he got involved in exporting and did very well with that. When you are involved in exporting, to my understanding, it’s not hard to get in the other side of the coin which is importing. He was importing and exporting mostly agriculture and food products etc. etc. because that is what he knew best and ended up doing very well with that. He delved very deeply into the world of agriculture in Guyana, became very successful and raised himself up and became the minister of agriculture of the country. He started moving political circles. When he actually held a position, though, he realized he didn’t like the politics, so he got out of the world of politics and entered the private sector. From there really, the sky was the limit. He started with agriculture and food products because thats what he knew. He started a candy factory, a pasta factory, a dairy factory, again mostly food products, but by the time he passed away, several years ago, he had also opened up a merchant bank, a commercial bank, a marine life and fire insurance company, a toyota dealership, you know, that means that all the companies that operated in Guyana and other countries in South America and the Caribbean, diversified to the point that an outside eye might think it was somewhat random. The common thread in all his companies were they were things that Guyana needed. Pasta didn’t exist in the country prior to my grandfather bringing it in. So he brought in a cheap and filling food. There is a lot of poverty in Guyana so pasta was a very welcomed addition to the available food products. The financial securities sector was disreputable, so he opened up banks and insurance companies that were backed by offshore banks, by American banks, or by British banks, so that the people of Guyana could bank or invest with my grandfather and feel that their money was secure and safe. He really was an incredible guy and really believed much in helping his country. He was an incredible influence in my life. My parents were both born in Guyana. My father moved back to India where he said he studied medicine. My mother moved to London, where she studied law. They both qualified and moved back to Guyana where they met and married, then moved to New York, where I was born.