GO KISS THE WORLD

This book written by Subroto Bagchi, Vice Chairman & Gardner, MindTree, Bangalore has been with me for some months. After having done a perfunctory scan and ‘mota mota’ reading, I kept it in my rack of pending books to be read. In between so many books came and went (including Bagchi ’s ‘The High Performance Entrepreneur’) but somehow I could not lay my hands on it for long. Having got some free time on Sunday the 14th August, I took the book and completed reading it within the next four hours in one sitting. In one reading because the book was so interesting, well written, well printed and contextually well composed. If I didn’t read this book it would have been a great miss for me, certainly. My Independence day SMS greetings to friends contained a one-liner from this book (“Our achievements are as good as the value that they create for others”- can it be said better?)

Instead of writing a review about the book, I thought it fit to place here some of the other insights that I picked up from the book, as below:

1. Your pain is as large as your inability to see the pain elsewhere
2. When you make a choice, you also chose the consequences
3. You can acquire any amount of material success you want but do not expect that to be the source of your happiness
4. Sometimes, one has to blessed to be ordinary
5. Success creates entrapment as it is much easier to stay with the familiar
6. Perception is reality and it takes time for perception to build (as told to him by Sridhar Mitta)
7. While it takes time to build perceptions, it takes even longer for perceptions to change (as told to him by Sridhar Mitta)
8. What makes an organization truly memorable and provides it with not just differentiation but defence is its EMOTIONAL INFRASTRUCURE. Emotional Infrastructure is the collection of all emotional aspects of an organization. It is the shared consciousness and soul of the enterprise. It goes beyond just culture
9. Most men takes more out of life than they give to it, a few give more than they take out of it. The world is run by the latter.
10. No other profession takes the true worth of your own abilities than a sales job for the simple reason that the outcome of the job is binary; you either made a sale or lost it.
11. Those who write well, learn to synthesise their ideas better and it makes them better thinkers.
12. Success is your ability to rise above your discomfort, whatever be your current state of wealth.
13. There are two futures; the future of desire and the future of fate. The man’s reason has never learnt to separate them (Written by J D Bernal in his book ‘The World, The Flesh & The Devil’ as quoted by Bagchi)

Throughout the book one found several similarities of the background, the thoughts and actions of the author with oneself. Thus the empathy factor while reading the book, has been the highest.

Bagchi ’s way of expression, clarity of thought and contextual communication are brilliant. Somewhere he said he would have made a better teacher. Indeed it is true. Reading the book, one couldn’t have thought of a better teacher than him.

For professionals and entrepreneurs, it is a book worth reading. I strongly recommend it to all.

In this connection, I also deem it fit to add the thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi as expressed in ‘Young Indian’ in the year 1928. He had mentioned seven SINs therein and they are:

* Politics without Principle
* Wealth without Work
* Pleasure without conscience
* Knowledge without Character
* Commerce without Morality
* Science without Humanity; &
* Worship without Renunciation of EGO

Continuing with the thoughts of Subroto Bagchi, I feel that knowledge of the above sins and behaviours based on that will reach a professional and an entrepreneur way above the rest.

Are you listening?