Skip to main content

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish by Rashmi Bansal


“Stay Hungry, stay foolish”, the famous quote from the speech by Steve Jobs at Stanford University Commencement 2002, has a lot deeper meaning than it may sound. The message behind the quote was to always be hungry to learn more and to keep an open mind to know more. Rashmi Bansal has caught the same spirit in 25 IIM Ahmedabad graduates who chose to trade path of their own making. They are from different backgrounds, different beliefs in life and different industries they made a mark in. But they all had one thing in common: they believed in the power of their dreams.

As a personal experience, it feels a lot safer to start working for someone else when you are recently graduated from MBA College than to start your own venture. Entrepreneurship needs a strong passion for your dream and a firm belief that you will reach your dream, no matter what. Rashmi Bansal has done a great job in capturing these awe inspiring, motivating, sometimes unbelievable yet simple stories of these entrepreneurs who dared to think beyond placements and salaries.

The stories are categorised in three parts to reflect the characteristics of these entrepreneurs viz. the believers (those who knew entrepreneurship was a chosen path), the opportunists (those who did not plan to take this path but when opportunity knocked they seized it) and the alternate vision (those who are using entrepreneurship to create social impact). Each story ends with an advice from these entrepreneurs which is an indispensable part of the book.   

The book is well-written in the form of short stories and does not need the knowledge of management jargons. The book is quite interesting and inspiring to read and is highly recommended for those who are looking to take risk in their lives and pursue the path of their dreams.

Quotes from the book
"Logic and reason are the naphthalene balls we use to pack them away into a sandook called 'Someday'. But when that day comes we are too old, too poor, too tired or too lazy." 
"Find purpose and the means will follow."


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom

There is a quote in Srimad Bhagavad-Gita in Sanskrit which says “Jatasya Maranam Dhruvam”. It literally means that the star called Dhruv which rise in night has to set but the implied meaning of the saying is “That which is born shall die”. We know that our life is not eternal and there is an end for our life too, but we don’t want to think about our end or even the journey called life. We keep ourselves too busy in our goals and fight so hard to reach those goals that we forget to give time to the most important things in life.  Here is a story by Mitch Albom where he shares the lessons of life he learnt from his long-lost professor. In his last days, Professor Morrie, or what he would like to be called ‘Coach’, would act as a mentor for the writer and answer the questions which were bothering writer from long time. The questions which our generation doesn’t want to think about, may be because we are too scared to know the answer. The writer and his professor takes us ...

Summer Lies by Bernhard Schlink

Thought provoking seven Short stories from best-selling author of "The Reader" exhibit the most humane aspects of our inner inhibitions, our desires and the willingness to go distance to satisfy our deep down insecurities.  Psychologically, the cold winter months cause people to have Seasonal affective disorder with less positive mood but the Spring/Summer months bring the exposure to bright light which in turn increases the Brain hormone Serotonin which elevates our mood. The aptly named book contemplates the human tendencies transforming from dark, grey emotional downside into bright revelation which is not necessarily happy. But the revelation is definitely more clear and open to all kinds of possibilities. All the stories start with an emotional turmoil that journeys through the difficult decisions and are all left open ended for readers imagination for the possible closure of the story.   This 240 pages book is a collection of 7 short stories are unrelated ...

So you think you can market Cricket in India..

          Well, everyone knows that if you ask an Indian about his three most favorite sports then the obvious first choice is Cricket and (not surprisingly) the second and third choices are highlights of cricket and repeat of cricket matches. Jokes apart, but it’s a known fact that Indian sports enthusiast is highly inclined towards just one sports and that’s cricket, even more than the national game hockey. Like any other girl, I too had a very little liking towards sports, and that means any kind of sports. But a book by Shyam Balasubramanian and Vijay Santhanam titled “The business of Cricket: The story of Sports Marketing in India” caught my attention. The book opens up with the Inception of sports marketing in India through cricket, and follows through Indian cricketer’s contribution towards nurturing the sports marketing, Companies involved in Sports marketing and Rise of Cola wars, The fall of Hockey and the Rise of cricket, IPL and T...