Ten Books to be Chewed and Digested

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed
and some few to be chewed and digested.
- Francis Bacon

Whenever I meet a new set of students at the beginning of a semester or trainees in a workshop, I invariably hear myself telling them two things in the very first session, quite involuntarily. The first thing I tell them is, ‘Where you will be five years from now will depend on three things; the books you read, the company you keep and the decisions you take’. The second thing I tell them is that I will not take the blame for their failure nor credit for their success. It is time they took ownership of their lives and take responsibility. The first amuses while the second shocks most of them. One student told me that he was very scared when I told them that I would not take responsibility for their failure. He said he had grown up thinking it was the teacher’s responsibility to ensure that the students succeed. He said he felt an unknown fear grip him. His eyes widened with wonder and pride when I told him it is time he grew up to recognize that there is only one person who is responsible for his success and that person is he himself.

I normally keep suggesting books to my students as I go along trying to cover the topics we need to finish for the students to pass their exams. But I have come to realize that they just scribble them on a note book or a piece of paper, which more often than not, is either misplaced or lost. Most students when they come to my class in a business school; or working class people when they come into my workshops, come with a strange mind set which I can understand but cannot really sympathise with. They take weird pride in stating that they do not read books and that they will, given a choice, never read one. I just tell them that there is really no choice. Do they believe me? Certainly not. Not in the beginning of the workshop or the beginning of a new semester. So it is no surprise that the little piece of paper they scribbled the name of the recommended book on, finds the shortest root to the dustbin. Years ago I used to fish these out of the trash cans and have fun with my students in the last session by passing the little slips of paper around and asking them to try and recognize their handwriting. I do not do that any more as some the students who were first to throw away the little pieces of paper with the names of the recommended books on them at the beginning of the session turned into avid readers by the end of it . They were the ones most likely to ask for a consolidated list of books.

My current assignment with a new business school was no different. Students were amused and not so convinced, to put it mildly, about reading more books especially when they had to study many subjects and read so many really boring course books. Also+ understandably the massive pressure of finishing time-bound assignments takes its toll. Yet predictably some students came up and asked me for a consolidated list. I promised them that I will spend at least one session talking about not only some of my favourite books but also my favourite films. Unfortunately I could not do that because some assignments took longer than I thought they would. I should perhaps be a little less sympathetic about extending deadlines for turning in assignments. But then there is a brighter side to the whole thing. I have been thinking of adding a section on books on www.employee2owner.com for quite some time now and had been postponing it. Procrastinating is second nature to me. I announced in the class that I will put up the list of recommended books on the site by Monday, September 3. With this article I will not only be starting a new section on my website but will be able to keep my September 3, deadline. That is the difference between ‘just working’ and ‘working with goals’. When you work with “goals" you get results.

The list of ten books that I put up in this post is obviously not exhaustive and is in no particular order of recommendation, though Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad, which is the first on the list here will always be the first book I recommend to young people who are on the verge of deciding what careers to choose. In general I recommend these books because I feel that these ten books are the basic reading for anyone who wants a good perspective on how to be the kind of person future world citizens ought to be. These books need to be read again and again till they become an integral part of our intrinsic thinking. These books should lay the foundation for a successful life in the Information age though some of them were written in the early part of the twentieth century. It just goes to prove that the basic principles of success and character never change.
I hope to talk about these books in future posts.

The Books

Rich Dad Poor Dad: by Robert T. Kiyosaki

Seven Habits of Highly Successful People: by Stephen R. Covey

The Magic of Thinking Big: by David J. Schwartz

How To Win Friends and Influence People: by Dale Carnegie

Skill with People: by Les Giblin

Personality Plus: by Florence Littauer

Fred Factor: by Mark Sanborn

Shantaram: by Gregory David Roberts

Revolutionary Wealth: by Alvin Toffler and Heidi Toffler

The Warren Buffett Way: by Robert G. Hagstrom

Direct From Dell: by Michael Dell and Catherine Fredman

Chicken soup for the Soul: by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen

The World is Flat: by Thomas L. Friedman

Did I say I will recommend ten books? I will settle for a dozen – a baker's dozen, if you
please.

Happy reading.