Oct 08, 2012 07:33 PM
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“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust…. In something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life” – Steve Jobs.
After the huge success of stay hungry, stay foolish – Rashmi Bansal needs no introduction. She writes to inspire. Her writing is not exactly food for soul but the kick for motivation.
Connect the Dots : The book gives an insight of 20 entrepreneurs who have done so good that they are part of this book. Rashmi Bansal has chosen 20 such people who are not professionally qualified for the field they have excelled in. But yet they have achieved it.
The book is divided in three sections :
Jugaad - It showcases the people who have no formal training in business.
Entrepreneurs like Prem Ganapathy (Dosa Plaza) 10th pass, and was a dishwasher to make his ends meet but now a proud owner of 26 outlets across India; Kunwer Sachdev (Sukam Inverter) a statistics graduate who tried his hands as a cable operator and accidently stumbled upon the idea of inverter and never looked back; Ganesh Ram (Veta) who revolutionized the English speaking courses ; Sunita Ramnathkar (Fem Care Pharma) a humble housewife who experimented in kitchen with a blender ;N Mahadevan (Oriental Cuisines) on his journey from professor to building a food empire across countries ; Hanmant Gaikwad (Bharat Vikas Group) whose mother worked as a teacher and took up sewing jobs to make him engineer but he now owns a facilities management firm with Rashtrapati Bhavan as a proud client; Ranjiv Ramchandani (Tantra T Shirts) who studied microbiology, experimented with career by joining advertising and finally clicked by selling T shirts at Kurla Station; Suresh Kamath (Laser Soft Infosystems) who believes in Love – for people you work with, live with, for what you do, you say and has joined social responsibilities with sound business and Raghu Khanna (Cashurdrive) who clicked the idea of selling on cars, the locomotives as advertisement carriers.
Junoon – The entrepreneurs who dared to think ahead of their time, think different.
R Sriram (Crossword) Books so many that you name it and they have it; Saurabh Vyas & Gaurav Rathore (Political EDGE) Researching for politicians, they really need it! ; Satyajit Singh (Shakti Sudha Industries) commercializing makhana??; Sunil Bhu (Flanders Dairy) it really is a cheesy affair; Chetan Maini (Reva Electric Car Company) They are licensing their technology to GM; Mahima Mehra (Haathi Chaap) did anyone thought of making paper from Elephant or Camel Dung? ; Samar Gupta (Trikaya Agriculture) who can think to grow anything in India.
Zubaan – When creative people express themselves in different ways.
Abhijit Bansod (Studio ABD) From designing Titan Raga to Studio ABD; Paresh Mokahi (Harishchandrachi Factory) the official 2009 Oscar entry; Krishna Reddy (Prince Dance Group) winner of India’s Got Talent; Kalyan Varma (Wildlife photographer) the idiot who left Yahoo and is content with the dream he lives.
The book is divided in small chapters, each with the pic and a small introduction of the entrepreneur and then the success story written in a simple narrative, which is an interesting read. It is a good motivational tool for all those who are looking for something different, and are really not happy with what they are doing. But they are not sure, whether risk is worth taking or how to do it. This book simply gives you 20 odd examples of people who did it. At the end of every story there is a small advice or a jist of experience learning by the entrepreneur. After reading the book if someone thinks to do something what they already did, and copy paste the effort, I don’t know how successful he might be, but if he seeks an inspiration to work on his own dream, then this book definitely is a motivator and helps you to take the first step.
Different Entrepreneurs share the small things that made all the difference, whether it was costing, marketing, value of visibility, dignity of labour or market need. You can name it vision, idea, logic or simply luck, but these people born between 1960 to 1984 did dare to do something different.
A reasonably priced book for Rs.150 is a good read. Recommended.
