Enthusiasm is the genius of sincerity and truth accomplishes no victories without it. And  Gururaj Deshpande of Sycamore Netwrok is one man who is always seen brimming with energy, enthusiasm and dollops of attitude. Deshpande describes himself as "a crackpot who hit the jackpot". But don't take him seriously, for he is no crackpot, but a brilliant entrepreneur. Born and brought up in Dharwad, Karnataka, Deshpande grew up in a middle-class family. His father worked as a labour commissioner in the first post-British Indian government. He earned his degree in electrical engineering from IIT, Madras, thereafter; he enrolled in the University of New Brunswick's graduate-level engineering programme at the age of 22.

He then went to Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario for PhD studies in data communications. His idea was to teach at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or Bell Labs. However, Peter Brackett, an entrepreneur-turned-Queen's professor, lured Deshpande away from academia. The two then together launched venture Coral Networks, network hardware firm, in 1987. However, due to differences between Brackett and Deshpande, the venture ended in failure. Not discouraged, Deshpande went on to set up Cascade Communications, a provider of wide area network switches, in 1990.

The gamble paid off. From 1990 to 1992, Deshpande served as president of Cascade and from 1992 to 1997, he served as Cascade's executive vice-president of marketing and customer service. Deshpande was also a member of the board of directors of Cascade since its inception and was chairman of the board of directors of Cascade from 1996 to 1997.

In 1997, Cascade was sold to Ascend Communications for $3.7 billion. By that time 72 percent of all Internet traffic was coursing through Cascade's products. A year later, Deshpande floated his second billion-dollar company, Sycamore Networks. The company, which is listed on the Nasdaq, develops and markets optical networking products for telecommunications service providers worldwide. Sycamore is a formidable rival to some powerful competitors, including the much larger Nortel Networks, Cisco and Lucent Technologies.

Deshpande served as chairman of Sycamore's board of directors since its inception in February 1998. So, what makes Deshpande different from other tech entrepreneurs-the ability to take the first-mover advantage. He has a knack of spotting the next wave of technology just a wee bit earlier than most competitors. That has been the distinguishing feature of all his three start-ups. Despite all his billions, Deshpande is a down to earth man. "I make the best dosas in the world" is his way of boasting. His family is strongly rooted to Indian values. His wife's sister, by the way, is married to Infosys founder NR Narayanamurthy. So, what philosophy does he follow to make his ventures successful? "The machine has to run by itself and you're just there," he says gleefully.