GET to the TOP

I was little surprised when I saw Suhel Seth in Guzaarish (2010) movie - A corporate chief, moved into Bollywood. I am sure you will also recall watching Suhel in one of the news channels.

Naturally, I was curious to read his book ‘GET to the TOP’ – The ten rules for social success.

When I saw Vijay Mallya’s endorsement on this book cover, I thought author's timing has gone wrong.

Why did the Suhel Seth choose Mr.Mallya during the 'bad times' of Kingfisher Airlines?

But I got the answer after I completed reading this book.

Suhel ensured that you don't loose interest after reading few pages. It is largely divided into three parts
A) How to draw people to you?
B) How to make friends?
C) How to keep your friends?

A) How to draw people to you?

Suhel strikes the chord with the reader in the very first section by advising - 'be interested and interesting' and ‘have an opinion’.
These are his first two rules viz., self development and the impact.

It's so revealing!!!

We would have met many academically bright people in our career, but the successful is the one who is interesting & creates an impact.

B) How to make friends?

Suhel says the trick is to not judge people and accept them on their own terms. Judge their opinions, but not them as people. It's a great piece of counselling, as invariably we exclude people based on their idiosyncrasy.

Being non- judgemental opens up to engaging with all kinds of people and as a result more popularity.

He is critical the way we use Google, to know the background about people and jump to conclusions before we meet them. I agree, generally net savvy people deduce based on the postings in the social networking websites. It's artificial.

Suhel substantiates his views by giving several examples from his experience.
For instance, by being non-judgemental he has friends like Russi Mody, Ananda Shankar- musician, R.K.Laxman and Subhash Ghai.

I liked his trust rule - he says gossip and bitching are key factors of creating distrust among friends.

Networking rule- he says aim always to make friendship, not contacts. Networking should not be seen as transactional. He also suggests seeking for accomplished people, not important ones, as designations are transitory.

The work rule is a brilliant one - make friends out of clients, not clients out of friends. Work must be merit driven and friendship is often driven by values and emotions.

C) How to keep your friends?

He advises the readers to be loyal and consistent with friends.

I am impressed with Suhel, as he seems to be publicly defending Mr.Mallya during the bad times.

I found social success mantras in this book very pragmatic and useful as he substantiates with numerous examples.

This book will be very useful for those who manage HNI clients as he quotes various examples from his work life.