There are very few English books written with Indian audience in mind and Rashmi Bansal’s Connect The Dots is amongst them. The book is specifically for people who talk to themselves in Hindi but with the world in English.
Connect The Dots is a collection of 20 inspiring stories of entrepreneurs who never went to any B-school. Written in the form of a conversation, where the author questions the subjects and complements their words with insightful statements as well. If you are an entrepreneur you will resonate well with her words.
The 20 stories have been divided into 3 sets viz. Jugaad, Junoon, Zubaan. In Jugaad, the author has covered entrepreneurs who created business the Indian way, thorugh Jugaad. Finding alternative ways to do things that is completely against what industry has been doing. With stories like Su-Kam Inverters and Tantra tshirts, this section will tell you why not to give up. Most people start with a failure early in the venture but persistence does pay.
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Junoon is a collection of 7 entrepreneurs who were crazy about a particular idea, whether it was Reva electric cars or Haati Chaap paper. My favorite amongst these was the story of Shakti Sudha Industries from Bihar which will make you believe that even in the land of crime, business can thrive. You need to find the right path and know how to take people together.
The last section Zubaan carries 4 stories of creative people who just followed their dreams until they reached to a height where the whole world knows them. The section features Prince Dance Group, techie turned wildlife photographer Kalyan Verma, Paresh Mokashi of ‘Harishchandrachi Factory’ fame and designer Abhijit Bansod.
All stories have a few adventurous moments where the entrepreneurs share some little known facts about the industry or something special they did to beat the system.
It’s truly an inspiring book for all those fence sitters still waiting for the right time to jump into Entrepreneurship. You will learn to swim only when you jump into deep water and these stories will give you courage to do so, as they are 20 more reasons for you to believe that you will ultimately get there.
One fact is evident that the author has thoroughly enjoyed writing the book and all thinking-Hindi-speaking-English junta will enjoy it too. For the rest of the audience, though the stories would inspire but you might find it difficult to connect with the author’s dots.
Recommended: Steve Jobs’ Stanford Commencement Speech 2005 – The speech that inspired the title of the book.
Unpluggd 2.0 is coming soon to Delhi with 5 successful entrepreneurs sharing their journey and the highs/lows of it. Don’t miss it!
[Naman is a startup enthusiast and has worked with couple of Indian startups as Product Manager. He is the founder of FindYogi]
