Two books and half a review

I have been busy lately that my most prized activity of the day, bedtime reading has been abandoned in favor of a few extra minutes of well-deserved sleep.

I browse bookstores in airports and quite frequently stock up on books. I have even finished reading whole books while waiting to board delayed flights! Given such a track record, I have missed feeding my reading habit and only in the last week have I got back on the reading wagon again.

What am I reading now? A book called "Connect the Dots", the words printed upside down on the front cover, with little "." (dots) where the "o" should be in the two main words of the title. Cute. It is a book compiled by Rashmi Bansal, considered a bestselling author due to the success of her previous compilation, "Stay hungry stay foolish." The author is not truly a writer, but more of a narrator of the true stories of people. An IIM-A graduate herself, she chose 25 IIM alumni who had ventured into the world of entrepreneurship and told their stories.

The current book, though based on similar lines, i.e. stories of 20 people, has one thing in common - they do NOT have management degrees. Many are not highly educated and all of them have no formal training on starting or running a business. They have achieved varying degrees of success in various fields, ranging from retail restaurant chains, quirky t-shirts, software and cheese.

Both books leave you feeling cheated, not for the stories of courageous individuals who stepped off the beaten track but for the quality of the writing. Pedestrian prose, very few insights and poor quality of narration. The books are poor literature but the people themselves, specially in "Connect the dots", are stellar examples of how one person can overcome ordinary challenges and create extraordinary ventures. A little common sense, a lot of commitment to the cause and immense faith in oneself, is all that is needed to create successful business because all the degrees in the world will not instill these qualities in you if you don't possess the seed to begin with.

My other disappointment is with the fact that both books feature only 2 women each - either the sampling is skewed (for the stories that were selected) or the statistic is sad, if the selection truly represents entrepreneurship potential of women. I think there are many women entrepreneurs out there who routinely forge a new path but perhaps their company turnover is not sufficient to make it to this list.

Therein lies the problem - the perception of success in your work-life, measured by the money you make, is like measuring rain water in rupees - the value of life-giving water when you need it most, is ridiculous when weighed in terms of material wealth. Perhaps women (and some men too) measure success with different yardsticks.

To quote Anand Halve, founder of "Chlorophyll" - a brand consultancy, featured in the earlier book who mentioned that they use three yardsticks in order to work on any project "It must give us money, or it must give us fame, or it must give us great joy".

Perhaps one day there will be a book on people who chose paths that diverged from the road well-traveled, and chose the one that lead to a joyful life.