ASSIGNMENT
COMMUNICATION SKILLS
BOOK REVIEW ON:
“STAY
HUNGRY STAY FOOLISH”
TEACHER: DR. CHETAN TRIVEDI
DR. HIMANSHU SRIVASTAV
NAME:
SATYAM VINODBHAI SARVAIYA
BRANCH:
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT)
SEM:
1
YEAR:
2016-17
ENR
NO: 160210116043
Source: Wikipedia, the talespensieve, the views paper.
KEY FACTS
1.
TITLE: "STAY HUNGRY STAY FOOLISH”
2.
AUTHOR: RASHMI BANSAL
3.
PUBLISHER: WESTLAND LTD.
61, 1ST FLOOR, SILVERLINE
BUILDING, ALAPAKKAM MAIN
ROAD, MADURAVOYAL, CHENNAI 600095.
4.
DATE OF PUBLICATION: 2012
5.
PRICE: Rs 225/-
6.
COPYRIGHT: CIIE, IIM Ahmedabad 2008
7.
ISBN: 978-93-81626-71-9
8.
PROTAGONIST: WILL POWER AND DETERMINATION
9.
ANTAGONIST: LOSSING FAITH IN YOURSELF
10.
THEME: STRUGGLE OF 25 IIT GRADUATE.
Source: Wikipedia, the talespensieve, the views paper.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR.
·
Rashmi Bansal is an Indian non-fiction writer and public
speaker.
·
As of 2016, she has published seven best-sellers, all addressing
entrepreneurship in an attempt to provide encouragement to young men and
especially young women.
·
Her first book, ‘Stay hungry stay foolish’,
which traces the progress of 25 MBAs, has reached sales of over 500,000,
breaking the Indian record for non-fiction works.
HER
BOOKS ARE:
·
Stay Hungry Stay Foolish.
·
Connect the Dots.
·
I Have a Dream.
·
Poor Little Rich Slum.
·
Follow Every Rainbow.
·
Take me Home.
·
Arise Awake.
Source: Wikipedia, the talespensieve, the views paper.
PLOT:
· Stay
Hungry Stay Foolish is a
book by the Indian non-fiction author Rashmi
Bansal.
· It
features the stories of 25 MBAs from IIM
Ahmedabad who left lucrative jobs
to follow the rough road of entrepreneurship.
· It is
an IIM Ahmedabad publication.
· Stay
Hungry Stay Foolish created
a new record in Indian publishing by selling over 300,000 copies and has been
translated into eight languages.
In 2005, during his famous commencement
speech at Stanford University: Steve jobs quoted the
farewell message placed on the back cover of the 1971 edition of the whole
world catalog: “Stay hungry. Stay foolish”.
Source: Wikipedia, the talespensieve, the views paper.
THEME:
It’s a book
written by an IIM-A (Indian Institute Of Management) Alumni, about
IIM-A Alumni who are entrepreneurs, published by CIIE in IIM-A. The
fact that the book is focused on IIM-A alumni, is probably its strength
and weakness. The book gives us a peek into the minds and lives of some
truly exceptional first generation (mostly) Indian entrepreneurs, each one an
IIM-A alumni. The fact that it focuses on one institute graduates should
have made the difficult decision of whom to include and whom not to
include, a bit easier for the author. But this has also restricted the
inclusion of various other entrepreneurs who might have had a different story
to tell.
After reading
halfway this book you feel like you are reading the same thing over and over
again. The author goes out of the way to emphasize that almost every individual
portrayed in the book is a first gen entrepreneur coming from a middle
class family. Some of the recurring themes in the all the stories are
“Don’t chase money, enjoy the work, money will come”, “When the company is new
it’s almost zero holiday work”, “Entrepreneurs have a heavily unbalanced
family life and have to sacrifice a lot.”
Except for some
jargon that is thrown in, which might need most of us who are not MBA grads to
refer online, the book is a light read. The way the book is organized and
typeset is another feather in the hat of the publisher. The edition I got had a
witty title, nice photograph, a small summary, and a mini prologue preceding
every interview. Each interview is followed by some Advice from
the interviewee meant for young entrepreneurs.
Source: Wikipedia, the talespensieve, the views paper.
My
observation:
The entrepreneurs in this book have been classified into three categories:
The Believers, The Alternate Vision and The Opportunists. The Believers – as
the name suggests, knew that entrepreneurship was their Final Calling and hence plunged right into action as soon as they got their
chance i.e. just as they graduated from IIM-A or after working for a couple of
years. In the second category were The Opportunists – they were the ones who
never planned on taking the entrepreneurial path but once they saw an
opportunity, they not only seized it but also capitalized on it. The third
category was the one with The Alternate Vision – these were entrepreneurs who
not only explored the financial arena but also aimed for social development.
The Believers held on with their belief until they succeeded, The Opportunists
proved that entrepreneurial mind set could be developed if one had the right
inclination towards it while ones with The Alternate Vision used their
creativeness on a social platform.
The author has followed a very interesting format for each of
the 25 stories – each of them kick start with an introduction to the
entrepreneur, their background, their business arena followed by their story of
success & the challenges that they faced. The author then has a
conversation with the entrepreneur after which each entrepreneur chips in a
word of advice for the budding entrepreneurs. A point worth noting here is that
the author has covered a wide of range of business arenas – from education,
engineering, agriculture, hotels, business process outsourcing, investment
banking, clinical research and a lot more. Also, as opposed to popular belief,
the individuals covered in this book are not just the youth but include
graduates from the 70s and 80s. This is an interesting point as it goes on to
prove that there is really no age or a fixed business arena to start afresh
& plunge into entrepreneurship, if you have the passion. Needless to say, SHSF is a work of extensive research and filled with practical wisdom
and concise pointers for aspiring entrepreneurs.
While the read provides a lot of strategies, the one fact the
author brings out straight is that there is no consistent formula for success.
The only way to move ahead is to learn from one’s own mistakes and have a
staunch belief in one’s ideas. Also, while persevering to prove yourself, one
must also keep their options open and learn to acknowledge every opportunity as
it knocks your door. The most inspiring & optimistic story for me was that
of entrepreneur Sanjeev Bikhchandani who founded Naukri.com. Needless to say, this is
a motivating read that encompasses an array of individuals who come from
different backgrounds and have different interests but have one thing in common
– determination and commitment to their beliefs.
Overall, this is a
well-structured book with easy language and compact format but after a certain
point the read tends to get monotonous. However, it is one of those tell-all
reads that can be termed as the “book of facts” on Entrepreneurship.
Source: Wikipedia, the talespensieve, the views paper.
