Rewriting success, the Indian way. Review on Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch - Arindam Chaudhuri

Sample this: Every time you are about to sign a big contract in life, expect to meet with a fatal accident while getting out of the car….. So what if you have written your exams to your utter satisfaction; do not rejoice, but anticipate that your paper will get exchanged with that of the worst student of your class. Have you worked very hard on the most important project of your life? Stay put. On the day of submission, your computer will be attacked by the latest virus, which will eat up your whole project without a burp.

Believe me this is how every Tom, Dick and… Hari think. That is why they are called Tom, Dick and Hari and not Gandhi, Lincoln and Gates.

Life has its extremes and there are so many things which are beyond our control… But do we live expecting extremes to take control of our life? And then expect success to be with us top?

Most successful men and women don't.

Success is a matter of attitude.. It is a matter of futuristic thinking and planning. It is about doing things carefully. Instead of getting out of your car without looking at the speeding car zooming towards you, you can be more careful… In fact it is also about taking a couple of backups in your computer in case it is the most important project of your life.

And then it is about counting your chickens before they hatch… about a positive attitude… and about believing that: If you think you can you are right.

This extract from management guru Arindam Chaudhuri's jackpot book Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch is the latest recipe for success, hitting India's major stands. '' Anything which is good in theory is the most practical thing or else it is not a theory,'' writes Chaudhuri. Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch is meant for individuals who want to achieve success in life. ''People should count their chickens before they're hatched rather than ma phaleshu kadachana '' , proffers Chaudhuri, who weaves in codes of success through issues like passion at work, winning friends, managing people, setting goals, achieving them, motivating and leading extraordinarily.

The first part of the book starts with basic management concepts and attitude. Asserts Chaudhuri, ''Passion works wonder,'' In the first two chapters, he explains this with the aid of some 25 success case studies. He employs winning illustration of a myriad of success icons - from Gandhi to Martin Luther King, from Honda to Fidel Castro, from Stevie Wonder to Bradman, from Henry Ford to Kennedy, from Buddha to Vivekananda, form J R D Tata to Dhirubhai Ambani, from Beethoven to Helen Keller, from Aung San Suu Kyi to Mao Tse Tung, from Ed Roberts to Stephen Hawking, from Einstein to Thomas Edison. ''All of them have had a high passion quotient'', explains Chaudhuri adding that ''Che Guevara dared to dream of bringing independence with the help of a new army just the way Subhash Chandra Bose did. Both of them failed in their respective missions, yet are counted amongst the greatest success stories. '' The next few chapters add a new flavour to success… It's all about winning friends, motivating people and developing good communication skills. No prize for guessing that these are essentially human relation skills.

But what is more interesting in the book is the fact that Chaudhuri has picked up threads from the Mahabharata and Gita to inspire young managers and develop a leadership success multiplier model for an 'I' management (India-specific management) theory. Thus, the second part of the book puts skill as the second step to success. ''And skill'' , says Chaudhuri, ''cannot be developed without knowledge.'' So inspite of having the best talent pool in the world, our organizations have not been doing well. Theory 'i' is an attempt to understand and define the Indian worker just like the Japanese had tried to do with their ''Z', he adds.

So folks, start counting your chickens before they hatch. But … wait! You can only do that if as Chaudhuri insists, you have the determination, an ability to work with people and a flexible attitude of theory 'i' management with you. Lord Krishna and Gandhi have already shown how the way; it's your turn-now! So, if you think you can, you are right.