Top 5 books I enjoyed reading in 2013

Here are some of the books I enjoyed reading in 2013. These books have been my best friends and have made me go through a holistic transition to become a better person

1. The ONE thing - What’s the ONE Thing you can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary? In the number one Wall Street Journal bestseller, Gary Keller has identified that behind every successful person is their ONE Thing. No matter how success is measured, personal or professional, only the ability to dismiss distractions and concentrate on your ONE Thing stands between you and your goals. The ONE Thing is about getting extraordinary results in every situation.

2. The Go Giver - Most people just laugh when they hear that the secret to success is giving...Then again, most people are nowhere near as successful as they wish they were."

The Go-Giver tells the story of an ambitious young man named Joe who yearns for success. Joe is a true go-getter, though sometimes he feels as if the harder and faster he works, the further away his goals seem to be. And so one day, desperate to land a key sale at the end of a bad quarter, he seeks advice from the enigmatic Pindar, a legendary consultant referred to by his many devotees simply as the Chairman.

Over the next week, Pindar introduces Joe to a series of "go-givers:" a restaurateur, a CEO, a financial adviser, a real estate broker, and the "Connector," who brought them all together. Pindar's friends share with Joe the Five Laws of Stratospheric Success and teach him how to open himself up to the power of giving.

Joe learns that changing his focus from getting to giving-putting others' interests first and continually adding value to their lives-ultimately leads to unexpected returns.

Imparted with wit and grace, The Go-Giver is a heartwarming and inspiring tale that brings new relevance to the old proverb "Give and you shall receive."

3. Dan Brown's Inferno - You probably already know about this... so I will not say more of this novel

4. Life After Life (ebook) - On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born, the third child of a wealthy English banker and his wife. Sadly, she dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in any number of ways. Clearly history (and Kate Atkinson) have plans for her: In Ursula rests nothing less than the fate of civilization.

Wildly inventive, darkly comic, startlingly poignant — this is Kate Atkinson at her absolute best, playing with time and history, telling a story that is breathtaking for both its audacity and its endless satisfaction.

5. The difficulty of being good by Gurcharan Das. Why be good? What exactly is Dharma? How does one practice it, and to what effect? Gurcharan Das's superb exposition of the dilemmas and ambiguities inherent in the Mahabharata shows us how we can come to terms with the uncertain ethics of the world today, a world that is uncannily similar to that of the great epic.

If you got time, try these. Reading them will make living better and different.

Thanks for readin

rgds
Maddy

Always being told that you have the potential

A couple of days ago I had a chat with a old best friend, Shaiju Matthew - the genius modest author of a best selling novel, filmmaker, screenplay writer and direver, a perfect aquarian who is extremely creative and talented and luckily happened to be my friend (heeeheee).

I can now proudly say I know a friend who is on Wikipedia. (I m such a selfish bugger). But this has been his own fight, his own battle with his own life, and he won one, and has made a permanent historical entry in the big world. Of course everyone around is proud of him, if you ask him how he did it, knowing Shaiju he'll make a modest line masking all the hardwork and sacrifice he had to make to get here. He'll simply shrug away or say something that would make you wonder how he got here in such a simple way. Trust me there is nothing that's simple. Shaiju (dont beat me for this, I am quoting your name without checking with you), always believed, he had potential to do something. He had that faith and it has only gotten stronger over the years.

Another friend of mine is now in Pixar, as a graphic animator who once used to tell me real stories about unicorn and dragons that existed and he used to draw them. He passionately believed that another world existed which is not visible to us, according to him there is an entirely new universe. And he (requested not to share his name), took this belief into his art, and today he is out there creating what he loved the most.

Then there is Rakesh Madupu, a data network wiz, he can do magic (coincidentally another Aquarian). If you spend 10 minutes talking to him, you would have learnt something new and exciting. If you sat for 5 minutes of his class in training, you can crack CCIE even if you knew nothing about data networking. He is a genius. He learnt all his skills on his own, just by books. 

A colleague Rajat Saxena, he makes everyone around him at work feel like they're at a pool party and not at work. When he is in office, productivity would skyrocket to its maximum horizon. He is that good. He had the potential to turn work into fun.


Similarly I have been lucky enough to come across a few genius people in my life. There are geniuses, Edison once said “A genius is often merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework.” and everyone is Talented, everyone has a potential. Every single human being is special. Its only the weight-age of passion makes all the difference.

Edison also said "“Unfortunately, there seems to be far more opportunity out there than ability…. We should remember that good fortune often happens when opportunity meets with preparation.”

 As far as my story goes I am happy where I am with the clarity of where I am going.

So while talking tech, creativity, and so forth with a few of these awesome guys, it was a completely unexpected turn when with one of them we started talking about the question of, “How did we become the old guys? we're only 28! did we start too early that we're mid way already?” Oh! we are close to 30! we crossed 20 just a few months ago and now 30 is coming towards us fast and is accelerating! The background music from a few movies showing flashback scenes in black n white I had seen before … started to play in my mind as we talked. In the end we concluded that we have to keep on learning new things, and learn what we can from everything that comes our way
This morning I woke up and remembered a story that helped me get out of my “old man” thing from yesterday. It was told by a wise young man that another friend had met at a conference a few years back. It went like this,

    When you’re young and up-and-coming, everyone tells you … “You  … have such potential. Such great potential!”

    When you’re older, everyone tells you … “You did such great things. You … really made an impact!”

The trick I’ve figured out, having had the chance to meet and talk with incredible people from all generations, is … to always be told … no matter how old you are … that, “you have potential.” The key to life is always being told that you have potential. And yes you all might have already figured out "positive attracts positive" :)

Life hack - Truly transformational

As my 100th Blog, I wanted to share a key secret to what anyone wants to become! these days I am very interested in Design thinking, data science and quantum physics.

Somehow, I have found an inclination towards these and develop a life hack thread that could perhaps answer some questions I transcendentally try to explore. Speaking about transcendence and exploration, Ever wondered why us humans took to travel to space and explore?? why there was a need to even explore? watch this awesome video for an answer..

while you do so keep this in mind "When we dream of space, we dream of transcendence. ... We dream of what we might become." - marina Benjamin

And then think of all that you want to become.  Then watch the video below. No matter who you are, or where you are, you wont be the same after watching this!

Thanks
rgds
Maddy