Books that captivated my mind this August!

The psychology of money by Morgan Housel

This is not a technical book at all. It teaches us about how to think, manage and invest our money without needing to spend time crunching numbers on excel/other platforms. Morgan Housel delivers his teachings through 19 simple and easy to understand chapters. The premise is that people in the real world don’t make financial decisions based on complex mathematical calculations. They instead do it at the dinner table or in casual conversations where they bring in their understanding of how the world works, their ego, pride and other unique features they care about… This was a joyful read and it impressed me so much that I started thinking about money differently after reading this book. Until now, as most of my friends would know, I was a “live in the moment” guy which I still am. I had the same mindset for money as well but this book poked me to think differently and I’ve since then started to think medium/long-term from a financial perspective.?

I’ll leave you with this key fact “$81.5 billion of Warren Buffet’s $84.5 billion net worth came after his 65th birthday”

The promises of giants by John Amaechi OBE

I picked this up from Adam Grant’s book recommendations. The book has just published in July 2021. For the curious, the OBE in John's name stands for Order of the British Empire. Everyone knows that the world needs more leaders but this book further elaborates by saying “The most unlikely of people, in the most improbable of circumstances, can become extraordinary”. These are the people John Amaechi calls “giants” - and the argument is that anyone can be a giant in our own lives. The book is a collection of promises that we are meant to take (more like an oath) to help us work on ourselves first to then create a good environment for the people around us eventually impacting our entire workplace. John is a former basketball player and now works with organisations to create and nurture leaders.?

It is a beautiful book and I “promise” to refer to it time and again in my life.?

The ride of a lifetime by Robert Iger

This book is a memoir written by Robert Iger who lead Disney through some interesting and turbulent times. His story to the top is simply fascinating. While this is a memoir, it is written in a compelling manner filled with emotions just like a Disney movie. I loved how Robert explains a situation through the lens of all parties involved - full of empathy. It takes a lot of guts to admit your own mistakes, show your vulnerable self, “know” what you don’t know when you’re in such a position leading a massive organisation. Robert Iger is an epitome of the leader we all want to be. To quote him, the reason he left Disney at the time is “I really?wanted to leave at a time that felt good, that I had accomplished a lot, that I had not hit too many speed bumps, or suddenly that my luck would run out or all of those things. I wanted the timing to be right, and 15 years felt like enough”.

Clearly a legend of his times and a “giant” by all means.

Bad blood by John Carreyrou

This book is about a former Silicon Valley startup called Theranos which was founded by Elizabeth Holmes. I hadn’t heard about Theranos nor had followed any of the news articles about it until I read this book. And if you are on the same boat, then here is some context, Theranos is touted as the biggest scam in the Silicon Valley and is a lesson in how not to run a startup. Elizabeth Holmes was a very intelligent, smart lady who made some really bad decisions and continue to run the company unethically. While justice is still taking its course on Elizabeth and her allies, this book, written by a journalist, is an output of investigative journalism and is an account of Theranos’s journey from the lens of the different people it touched directly and indirectly. It doesn’t take into account the inner workings of Elizabeth’s mind which, to be honest, is very crucial to look at. I do hope justice prevails. I learnt quite a lot from this book and can understand how humans make judgements at critical moments. I share Bill Gates’s one-line summary after he read the book - “I couldn’t put down this thriller with a tragic ending.”

P.S. This book is currently being made into a movie with my favourite Jennifer Lawrence in the lead and directed by Adam McKay (The Big Short, Vice)

The Practice by Seth Godin

This book reminded me of The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday. Seth Godin takes us through hundreds of short proses based on his collected wisdom through experience, meeting new people, founding companies and more importantly observing the world around him from a different perspective. Some of the content in the book repeats itself probably to push the point harder on us. I’d suggest reading the book a few pages a day over the course of a few months. Whenever I see the word practice, I get reminded of the famous proverb “Practice makes a man perfect” - ignoring the focus on gender, this book enables us to “work” on ourselves, our skills and our actions. Seth argues that the path forward is about curiosity, generosity and connection. As humans, we must strive to do that in order to create new things for the common good going forward.

The midnight library by Matt Haig

A fiction book to end the month and I was so hooked to it that I finished it in 2.5 days. One of my close friends recommended this book to me and when she narrated the plot to me, II made the decision to read it. The plot goes like this - Nora gives up her life owing to depression but between life and death, she lands in a library where she meets her favourite librarian who introduces her to the books in the library. They are essentially the “what ifs” / different lives that Nora would have lived had she made different decisions across her lifetime. She is allowed to open, read and “live” them.

I will just stop there even though most of the other book summaries online give you a little more detail. Isn’t that captivating? I just couldn’t put the book down. It has a slick yet detailed and descriptive narrative. It teaches us to love our life and live it to the fullest. An impressive way of using the multiverse concept without the need to focus on the science behind it. A beautiful story and one that will touch and warm everyone’s hearts.?

Before the story begins, Matt Haig inserts this powerful quote by Sylvia Path:

I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in my life.?

With this book, things came in a full circle - You have only one life but multitudes of possibilities to live different lives every moment of every day.

If you’re going through any difficulties in life, please know that they are only temporary. They can either be solved or lived with. Please reach out if you need to be heard.?

Thanks for reading!