Book Review: Stay Hungry Stay Foolish

I have to admit, amongst all the books that I received on my birthday this year, I was attracted to this book first, only because of its catchy title. Goes to show that good branding and naming of your product is half the battle won. Similarly in the world of books too, any experienced publisher will tell you that having an attention grabbing title is a prerequisite. 'Stay Hungry Stay Foolish' as a title for Rashmi Bansal's first book is an excellent choice. It is borrowed from Apple's Steve Jobs' now famous commencement address made to the 2005 graduating class at Stanford University. 'Stay Hungry Stay Foolish' were the famous last words of the speech, which meant that all of us have this innate, burning desire, something like a hunger to do something great and big in our lives. We need to work on this hunger, to achieve greatness in our lives. If we do not work on it, we will stay hungry, and stay foolish.

For reference sakes, following is an excerpt of the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005, in the concluding part of which he mentioned these now famous words.

"When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."

The book captures the lives and times of 25 such IIM (Indian Institute of Management) Ahmedabad graduates who chose the rough road of entrepreneurship. These guys worked on their hunger, and did things that people of their times deemed foolish and even after that they remained hungry for something more. This is a brilliant concept, and especially in today's recessionary times, when the world has a bleak vision of economy and salaried jobs in general, it could come as an inspiration to those who want to set out on their own. That is not to say that entrepreneurship is a cushy path, as a matter of fact, all the entrepreneurs in the book did what they did not for the sake of money, and some did not even end up making that much money, but they were in it for creative satisfaction.

In a sense of achieving what the author had set out to achieve, Rashmi has made an inspiring book out of 25 different tales. The 25 entrepreneurs are from different strata of society, started off at different stages of their lives - some started right after their IIM stint, some started after 20 years of working as corporate honchos, and they are from different industries - Retail, Sugar, BPO, Education, Healthcare, etc just to mention a few. It seems a good selection of inspiring personalities and tales, and probably it does propagate the message that as a predominantly young country (as per the latest census, more than 50% of India is less than 25 yrs of age), we should look beyond placements, jobs and salaries; rather we should believe in the power of our dreams.

But whether the book is a good research effort of the lives and times of these 25 individuals is highly debatable. There is an inevitable sense of anguish when one finishes the book, because the research done is really very poor. What Rashmi has effectively done is just write what the interviewee said. Each of the interviews have the same set of questions and after the 5th or 6th tale, most entrepreneurs sound the same. 'First 3-4 years were difficult times, starting a business in India is a behemoth task especially because of the bureaucracy involved, family life suffered, partners moved on, finally somewhere along the 4th or 5th year the business began to break even'. What would have helped better would have been a different perspective rather than just that of the individual. In many cases what the entrepreneur says sounds pretty much like blowing his own trumpet. Rather if Rashmi had chosen to interview the entrepreneur's family, friends, partners, co workers, juniors, etc. we could have seen a different picture emerge.

But that would mean years of research in itself, and maybe coming up with a volume which would cost more (the book is priced at a very economic Rs 125), and would need more time and insight to come out with. Maybe that is what an IIM degree equips you with (IIM-A is Rashmi's alma mater as well). More sense while it comes to producing, branding, marketing and pricing your book. With a minimum production time of about 2 years (and that too with a very active full time job in hand), and a very economic cost, Rashmi is aiming for massive sales of her book to make money, rather than charge more a better quality. Looks like she has cracked the formula. In that respect, we can easily equate her with the Chetan Bhagat (known for 'Five Point Someone' and 'A Night at the Call Center' amongst other books) from the school of Indian Fiction writing. Chetan comes out with very pedestrian potboilers in quick succession (every year or two, he has a new book out), prices them moderately and makes quick and easy bucks. His books sell because the plots relate to and reach out to the entire computerized, gizmoized, Indian IT/BPO geek community who are used to getting away with introductory sentences like "Myself IT Gizmo" every time they are asked to do so. It's a sad, but true fact, that as a country we write complex computer code better than a simple, gramatically correct sentence. Incidentally Chetan went to IIM-A as well. That makes me think, why didn't she include Chetan also in one of the 25 entrepreneurs? Hmmm...Inclusion might mean admitting that his is a successful formula which she is out to replicate with this book of hers, and maybe she doesn't want to do that.

Other than being poorly researched, the book is also poorly written. Rashmi introduces herself as as a writer, entrepreneur and youth expert in the book. Just because you write a blog about youth, which probably a few hundred young guys read, doesn't make you a youth expert. I write reviews on movies and books on my blog, that doesn't make me a movie or a book expert (ya, I know my place!). I don't even understand what being a youth expert means and entails. Maybe she advises young girls what beauty cream to apply when there's a pimple situation, but wait, doesn't that make you a skin expert? Similarly the entire book is riddled with phrases, usages and acronyms which make it a very substandard showcase for Indian English writing. There are entrepreneurs in the book describing their IIM A days saying they took "a few courses like LEM and PPID". Sorry dear reader, this book was meant as a year end scrap book for all my IIM A classmates. Too bad, if you can't understand what it means. Then there are abundant Hindi words and sentences making their way into the book. "Aur itni jagah mein bhi ek 14" ka TV kone mein laga diya tha jahan par cricket dekhte the. So it was a lot of fun. Those were the real days I think...." After every second sentence written in English she feels compelled to break into Hindi. Sample this entrepreneurship mantra: "Find something you want to do, that you are passionate about and paisa to koi na koi dega. Unless it’s a stupid idea!" By now you get the drift of how she writes, I guess.

Maybe if Rashmi had focussed more on doing a better job of what she set out to, it would have been an enjoyable read. All in all it is indeed a great concept, which deserved more research and patience, rather than being put together hurriedly.