So when the 27-year-old director built a new office for his family companies -- Rathi Transpower and Polybond India, which make rubber components and water-pump parts -- executives got a meal allowance instead of a waitered room.

CNN: Recasting the Mind

So he made a dramatic career switch, breaking free of Microsoft's golden handcuffs in 2003 and three years later starting a company called Fair Trade Sports, which makes balls for soccer, basketball, football and rugby using rubber cultivated in pesticide-free plantations in India and Sri Lanka.

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