CONNECT THE DOTS

Rashmi Bansal’s previous book ‘Stay Hungry Stay Foolish’ was very inspiring, but whenever I spoke about this book to my friends. They said great but ‘they all have an IIM tag’. But in ‘Connect the Dots’ none have one.
This book is all about 20 entrepreneurs who have made it big following their passion and ideas.

My top 3 from these 20 are,
1) Prem Ganapathy, Dosa Plaza
2) Raghu Khanna, Cashudrive
3) Kalyan Varma, Wildlife Photographer

These 3 are incredible…

Dosa Plaza:
Prem Ganapathy, born in Tuticorin studied only till class 10 and at the age of 17 he moved to Mumbai without any acquaintances and became successful. He joined a bakery for cleaning vessels and today he has 26 outlets with Rs.5 Crores turnover.

Cashudrive:
Raghu Khanna , 24 years old from Shimla who joined IIT G. Later on he hatched a simple idea, but a brilliant one – ‘Brand on Wheels’. Used Orkut to sell his idea and today 21 brands use this campaign and drives revenue of Rs.86 lakhs.

Wildlife Photographer:
Kalyan Varma, a techie from Bangalore who quit Yahoo and worked for eco-tourism resort to follow his passion – wild life. He followed his passion and coupled with his photography skills. Now, he works for BBC as consultant and gets paid 300 pounds per day.

All the 20 stories in this book are must read for all of us as there is key learning in each story. If I were to paraphrase their advice to young entrepreneurs, they are as follows,

1) Be Optimistic.
2) Design ‘an idea’ which can add value to customer. Subsequently stick to the idea as it may take couple of years to gain acceptance.
3) Do you homework, in other words – ‘attention to details’.
4) Stand Out and Think different !!!

Eat,Pray,Love

Eat, Pray, Love – Few months back Crossword Bookstores recommended this. I was very inquisitive about this because of its title and it had ‘108 sections’. As per Hindu scriptures this number is very sacred, ‘Rudraksh’ (Utrasum bead tree) also has 108 beads. This is an autobiography of Elizabeth Gilbert a notable writer in New York. On the lighter side, reading autobiographies for me was always a challenge, because when we write about ourselves – we become more creative to overstate ourselves.

But this one was entertaining. Her writing skills are terrific; it is the centre of attention of this book. Her life journey from ‘depression to delight’ is also very inspiring. After author’s horrid divorce, she copes with the separation pangs and falls in love with another person. After sometime he also deserts her. Hence, the author travels to Italy, India & Indonesia in pursuit of happiness.

She explains her state of life before she starts the journey– when the drug is withheld; you promptly turn sick, crazy and depleted. You have now reached infatuation final destination – the complete and merciless devaluation of self.

Eat:
Author explores Italy to seek pleasure– she learns Italian, meets locals, visits all the nearby places of Rome and makes friends in the new country, but still grapples with dejection. She visits the best restaurants and converts herself into a gourmet. She makes an attempt to understand the culture but realizes she likes Italy but was longing for something which is more fulfilling.

Pray:
Author spends her time in an Ashram in India. I appreciate the author for not revealing the true identity of Ashram and her Guru. If she had, then our focus would have gone on evaluation –based on hearsay and media. Initially, author struggles to acclimatize to Ashram life style, attempts to meditate but fails miserably, but after few weeks she finds tranquility and synergizes the religious learning of East & West and feel blessed for her stay at Ashram. There is vast transformation in her outlook towards life.

Love:
Author travels to Bali to meet a ‘native medicine man’. She interprets the social culture of Balinese. I found this very unique in Bali – every one would ask these 3 questions to every stranger. a) Where are you going?, b)Where are you coming from? c)Are you married? Bali’s culture is a matrix of invisible grid, every Balinese knows where exactly where he or she belongs.

Later on author finds her Mr.Right and falls in love and moves back to U.S. Few parts of this section is very engaging but the later part of this section is like ‘me-too’ category.

Every modern woman will love this book and the movie ‘Eat Pray Love’ enacted by Julia Roberts. Elizabeth has exceptional writing skills and cherry picked wise quotes from different ethos.

This one was very profound – Philospher Rumi once advised his students to write down three things they most wanted in life. If any item one the list clashes with any other item, Rumi warned, you are destined for unhappiness.

In case you missed the trailer of this movie, please click the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crNaJjfY57g