B2B (Back to books)

I have been away for a while. One thing I did, besides travelling, was get back to books. I had been away from books as well and I felt pretty guilty about that. I finally made amends.

I read a few good ones in the last couple of months: "Rich Dad Poor Dad" (by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter) and "Good to Great" (by Jim Collins). I must say that I really liked "Good to Great" which addresses a single question: how can a good company become a great one. Jim Collins, based on the research by his team, writes about the seven common characteristics that I feel like sharing here - (1) Level 5 Leaders (humble but driven), (2) First who ... then what (right people on board), (3) Confront the brutal facts (and yet never give up hope), (4) Hedgehog concept (identifying what you are best at, what makes you money & what ignites your passion), (5) Culture of discipline, (6) Technology accelerators and finally (7) Flywheel (a focus on continuous improvement).

I had also started reading "The Secret" (by Rhonda Byrne) but it got a little monotonous for me with too much emphasis on the law of attraction. I have paused this for now but will surely take it up soon. I also have "How Mighty Fall (again by Jim Collins), "The Power of Now" (by Eckhart Tolle), "Isn't It Obvious?" (by Eliyahu M. Goldratt) and "Many Masters Many Lives" (by Dr. Brian Weiss) lined up next that I hope to get to in near future.

Talking of travel, it was mainly weekend trips with family or corporate outings. Trips to Goa (with family), Mysore (with family), Ooty (with family & friends) & Coorg (with colleagues) were the best. Acco - Park Hyatt at Goa, Royal Orchid Brindavan at Mysore, Hill Country at Ooty & Club Mahindra at Coorg were really good and I's strongly recommend these places. The Pegasus Institute outbound with the entire office team was also fun. And yes, I almost forgot the trip with team to Kemmangundi which was much more than what I had expected of that place. There was also a business trip to Pune with one of my colleagues (& friend) where we attended & presented at Scrum Day India on "Road2Lean" and "Lean Principles in Software Development". There was more travel but I don't seem to recollect ...

Let me sign off for now so that I can plan for a weekend trip in 1st week of Sep to Masinagudi :)

:PM

A thought ...

Who am I? I am merely one of the 7 billion other humans living on this planet earth. Our planet earth is just a tiny planet solely dependent on the existence of Sun, which by the way is one of the hundred billion stars in our galaxy Milky Way, which in turn, is one of the many hundred billion galaxies apparently forming our universe.

I just realized I am nothing! Still why am I aimlessly running like a machine with so many worries, ambitions, etc. I feel like I am one of those toys which is moving around & making noise after a kid has put in a couple of charged batteries and turned my switch on.

Should I be doing something better ... hopefully one day I will!