deepcontemplator

thinking deeply about things that matter

Category: Book review

  • Influence is your superpower – Book Review

    Having influence in your life is such an important skill. Throughout my growing years I always assumed that I didn’t matter much and hence couldn’t exert any influence whatsoever. However later I realized whether you know it or not, you always have some influence.

    With that preamble, you can imagine how happy I was to read Influence is your superpower – Zoe Chance.

    When the subtitle said – “How to get what you want without compromising who you are”, I wanted to gobble the contents in an instant!

    Overall the book is a great guide in understanding, nurturing and embracing being an influential person. It does deliver what it promises and I had multiple Aha moments as I went through the book.

    There are many points in the book, which resonated with me deeply which I intend to cover as part of upcoming posts. For now, I wanted to list the biggest takeaways –

    1. The power to say NO
      We hear it a lot, but yet we keep giving away free yes’es in a variety of situations and to various people. You end up being stretched thin and everyone loses finally. The book makes a passionate case as to why you are well in your right to say no and choose yourself. If you have a history of people pleasing like me, saying no would mean internally you imagine yourself ruining their plans, dreams and their world! But it doesn’t have to be so dramatic. As Zoe says, when you say a No, “Be warm, clear and firm”.
      And move on.
    2. Ask
      This was a big eye opener for me. The simple act of asking for what you want. You can skirt around the bush and drop all types of signs and hints. You are then left despairing how the world is filled with people who just don’t seem to have the capacity to process your unsaid needs and desires. The message is clear and direct here – “Ask more often, ask more directly, and ask for more”.
    3. You can always negotiate
      This is a huge one as well. Firstly just understanding what negotiations even are. It aren’t always those big board room meetings. It could be just who among your friends will end up traveling the most for the lunch meetup. For me the biggest takeaway here was “Negotiation is always possible”
      I had kind of started to realize this after I heard how people had negotiated home loan rates (apparently they are) , or stuck a deal with their spouse to attend that party alone, or even just traded for a better looking set of goodies at birthday party! So always remember, can this be made better so that everyone gains more? Point noted.

    I am glad I read this book and sure that there are lessons which will distill slowly and organically. This book will definitely be among my top reading recommendations.

    Lets use our influence skills to dream bigger and better as Zoe closes off her book.

    Overall rating – 5/5

  • Zero to One – Book review

    Zero to One – Book review

    So I recently read this book Zero to One by Peter Thiel. The tagline says – Notes on Startups or How to build the future.

    I was not quite sure of what to expect from the book. The last time I seriously thought about entrepreneurship was way back in engineering college third year where we had a subject on the same. At the same time I had just managed to (not so) successfully lead our college fest. So the lessons post that experience were quite relevant.

    Overall impressions

    I must say I really liked the book. From the get go it does not get into preach mode on entrepreneurship. But its an honest view on what makes companies work. The main theme of the book is that competition is bad for everyone, and creative monopolies help move the world forward. The author says the prospect of having a monopoly business and hence the high profits one can make from it is a primary motivation for entrepreneurs to take risks. Or at least the author wants the world to be so.

    You are not a lottery ticket

    This is my favorite chapter from the book. And it was one of those moments as if a brick fell on my head and woke me up from my stupor.

    Well I don’t know if I ever will be an entrepreneur, but this lesson will be valuable for life in general. The author asks us to stop treating ourselves and our lives as if controlled by some external factor altogether by luck or chance. The existence of serial entrepreneurs shows how it is not at all a matter of luck.

    The idea that life is not all about luck is an important one which we need to keep reminding ourselves. Whenever we see successful people, we know that they perhaps worked hard. But the other idea which usually surfaces is that luck played a major role as well. We downplay how much deliberate action can have an impact on our lives.

    This weaves into the theme from The six pillars of self esteem (another of my favorite books), where the author goads us to not be a bystander in our own life, but to take conscious action and steer it the way we want it.

    Conclusion

    Overall I liked the book a lot. It gave me a new way to think about founding a company. And by doing that maybe it got me thinking about how you can think about founding yourself and your life again, and again.

    Rating – 4/5