Great Books

Recently I have the read the following books which I consider outstanding

  1. Discover your Genius by Michael Gelb. He has analyzed the ten most revolutionary figures from history and drawn parallels with the relevance to us. I loved the chapter on Columbus. While most hugged the shoreline Columbus went into uncharted waters with wind against his back. The primary traits of Columbus were courage, optimism and vision. I found this book inspiring. Some of the others featured were Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein. His other book How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci was also a good read. One of his discoveries while reviewing all these successful people is they all had a journal where they articulated all their thoughts, plans and actions.
  2. Speed of Trust by Stephen.M.R.Covey – This was a great read. My takeaways where that when trust is low the speed is less but cost is more. When the trust is high the speed is high and cost is less. He also says we should first have self trust by making promises to ourselves and keeping it. Once you establish trust at the personal and organizational level success follows.
  3. Think Big and Kick Ass – Donald Trump and Bill Zanker –This is a good book and inspires us to think big and told in the inimitable style of Donald Trump. He says we have to think anyway so why not think big and achieve our dreams. I found it to be quite inspiring.
  4. Drive and A whole new mind by Daniel Pink – I found these books interesting. One thing he recommends is to switch of one day a week without any emails, facebook or any other distractions and just relax. Also allot some time for creative thinking and keep a journal on thoughts, goals, mission and vision. Also think in one sentence what you want your life to stand for and then break it down into smaller questions. For example when we think of President Franklin Roosevelt we think of someone who revived the country from the Great Depression and won a war.
  5. Talent is Overrated – Geoff Colvin – This book suggests that all the people whom we think as talented are actually those who have succeeded through deliberate practice for years. There is a 10 year rule that anyone successful would require 10 years of deliberate practice before they become great. This applies to most of the successful people.

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