This is among the few books that I have been gifted. Though it has been around since a while and based on the number of times I have spotted this at the airport, I believe that this is popular among business executives. Given my repulsiveness to cliche bestsellers, I never picked this up until I was gifted one. And I have to admit that I was missing out on a lot!
If I had to summarize the book in a single sentence:
21st century version of the must-read ‘Think and Grow Rich’ by Napoleon Hill
The fundamentals of success and happiness remain the same; however, the change in context over a century implies that the approach needs to evolve. Although the original text from Napoleon Hill has been revised numerous times over the decades, the change in context may make it difficult for millennials and Gen-Z to relate, adopt, and apply.
For instance, the rules of the game business success during the industrial revolution were different than those during the dot-com as well as cloud (or SaaS) revolution. Furthermore, these rules are being challenges everyday with subsequent AI evolution. For instance, Facebook took a few years to reach a few million users; whereas, ChatGPT surpassed the benchmark in a matter of days! And there is not point in discussing how many months it tool to manufacture the 1000th Model T.
However, the similarity in both the books is emphasizing the fundamentals. Despite the contextual variances, the commonality in all above examples is their ability to attain scale and solve problems. But over the years, the approach has changed. Technology has empowered individuals to attain leverage, especially with zero marginal costs, without requiring too much capital. Whether my ability to create bestseller e-learning courses from my study room or SaaS platforms such as Zerodha that enable millions of trades daily without raising a single venture dollar.
Although the approach and ingredients of success have changed over time, this book emphasizes the importance of knowing the fundamentals. And even from my experience as a consultant, I have found that not so academically brilliant students with basic financial literacy do much better with business and personal savings than those who ace at calculus.
Finally the book moves on happiness, self-care, and ideology. And just as the approach adopted in the previous section, rather than being prescriptive about approach, it provides clarity on the basics such as decoupling success and happiness. And with such clarity, one might re-think beliefs and definitions regarding happiness, challenging stereotypical perception of happiness. Since clarity is indispensable prior to any thought or action, this approach is much better than a prescriptive one.
Following up this section with self-care, rather self-development, by sharing personal experiences regarding the positive impact from habits such as meditation. Moreover, it also highlights common pitfalls and misconceptions, while addressing the common excuses and workarounds. For instance, I could relate to the narrative that describes shower thoughts as accidental meditation. Though I do not yet meditate, I have used this realization to better utilize this accidental situation.
And finally it delves deeper into character building with the final section on values. Although this is a crucial, in most societies it is left to the environment and experiences. On the side-note, Japan being an exception, making it primary agenda of pr-primary schooling. Instilling the right values, behavior, and social thinking are necessary, as they integrate into the psychic personality, directing actions and responses. And I believe that such an approach has the potential to solve numerous socioeconomic challenges across the world.
However, as far as the narrative of the book is concerned, continuing with the approach adopted previously, it is perhaps the most practical piece of philosophy that I have ever read. Rather than prescribing philosophy or shortlisting ideologies, it describes the approach to learn practicalities from philosophy and adopt them in life.
If wisdom could be imparted by words, we would all be done here
Though this book is full of quotes, as it is an amazing compilation of tweets, elaborated by beautiful narratives, my favorite quote is the aforementioned. As despite gaining the knowledge from this book, I have been unable to adopt or live true to all principles. In fact, I have realized that this is one of those books worth re-visiting from time-to-time rather than reading it for the sake.
Finally, the basics that need to be covered in a book review:
– Not only informative but also packed with practical wisdom
– Easy to read, but needs time to absorb, and much difficult to apply
– One flight book, with the potential to alter your destiny
Feature Image Photo by Anik Mandal on Unsplash
Savvy Munshi 