While working in Yamen Dheerubhai realized that the cost of the silver content in Yemeni Rial was more than the value of the currency. So you could melt the coin and sell the silver content for more than the value of the coin. The margin was thin; to make a decent profit would require melting thousands of such coins.

Ambani started collecting Yemeni Rials, bringing them to India on his vacations, melting them and thereafter selling off the silver component of these coins. Accounts vary, but this activity must have been carried out on a very large scale, as the Yemeni central bank officials soon realized that there were hardly any coins left in circulation in the country. It could very well be that the silver brought in this way ran into a few tons. We must appreciate both – the sense of spotting an opportunity, and the determination to not let it go, no matter what.

The money realized from this sale of silver was the seed capital for the start of his company. This was also the beginning of his belief in ‘low margin + huge volume = good business’ philosophy.