Book Review - Stay Hungry Stay Foolish by Rashmi Bansal

This is the first Rashmi Bansal book I am reading, and I have to admit that her writing makes for an interesting read. Stay Hungry Stay Foolish is a very interesting and diverse collection of stories of Entrepreneurs – I wont say Case Studies, as the focus is on the individual rather than the company, the Brand or the strategy employed. And this is just about the only negative I can spot in an otherwise near-flawless book on Business in India. A worthy addition to any regular reader on Business, rated 4 stars.

THE BOOK

The book’s collection of Entrepreneurs is subdivided into 3 interesting heads : The Believers, The Opportunists, The Alternate Visionists. The first – the Believers – consists of examples of Entrepreneurs who went into Business straight after their MBA: the Opportunists went into Business when opportunity presented itself; and the third group – those with creative intent or social causes at heart. This classification makes it interesting, to say the least.

Perhaps the best part is that the Author has focused on a large cross-section of sectors, and has avoided the temptation of giving IT examples or new industry examples only. You will find represented here examples from the sugar trade, retail, mining, education, finance, BPOs, apparels, healthcare, marketing and advertising, social enterprises, and more. Now this is the frontispiece, and the most important reason for reading this; a balanced and well-distributed collection that gives a good and fair representation of the entrepreneurial spirit in our country in modern times.

THE ANALYSIS

All of the stories are fascinating, and all give pertinent and vital life and/or business lessons that hold us entertained and enthralled throughout the book. The real key to enjoyment of the treasure of real stories of this book is to rise above them, and try and dig deep into the small and big lessons you can draw, as the people go into their pasts, their struggles and go about setting up their companies. Most of the stories have some real struggle involved, though there are one or two who had a silver spoon and thus real stress, worry or struggle.

The one string that runs through all, bar none, is the strength of the central idea they had, and its vitality, intuitive logic, insightful direction, and problem solving capability. That is one strong, repeat strong – learning from the book, as I have myself observed in earlier business writings on my blog. Any business is only as good as the central idea that drives it. Nowadays we call it POC, Traction and Scalability; rising above the jargon, forgetting the MBA-giri we all learnt, we can boil it down to the core idea being Robust, strong, logical, solving a defined customer need, and with a solid base.

Next, do you need to be first in the market in order to succeed? Not really, and you don’t need, or rather shouldn’t need, Rashmi Bansal’s writings to tell you that. Think Oppo, Vivo, Sunfeast, Unibic and many other real examples. But here you can find examples of people who went ahead and did it – and how they did it, in a fascinating couple of stories. The core aspect is, along with the core idea, dedication, dream, a proper strategy of all 4Ps and proper functional planning, and of course – access to funding, capital, finance, finance, finance, finance, finance. Repeat that word as many times as you can. Without finance, without proper financial planning and cash flows, even the best ideas go kaput.

Another strong aspect that comes through is sacrifice -  the sacrifice of time, of comforts, of family, all for a vision that might seem a chimera to everyone but you yourself. An entrepreneurs life is a hard one till the business becomes self-sustaining; till the cash flow stabilizes. And that is also the key to survival – proper financial planning, proper cash flows, access to capital. I cant stress this enough; having seen businesses crash due to funding problems. If you don’t have access to capital, a strong bank balance that can sustain you 2-3 years  – don’t start. Unless, of course, you have a fabulous central idea; and self-belief to sustain. Few people possess both those, even in Entreprenuers.  

CONCLUSION

This is a set of stories of people rather than strategies, companies; which isn’t altogether a bad idea. At the core, Business is about people. And it is people who drive business to both success as well as failure. Though I do feel the author could have gone far more into the strategic aspects of Business, letting us learn deeper realizations and learnings; what is there is more than good enough, in that it motivates, gives some lessons, and gives a diversified look at the Business Environment. I am now eagerly looking forward to reading and reviewing her other book on my blog! And, at the risk of boring my reader, let me reiterate – Central Idea + Robust + Strong Strategy + Sacrifice + Intuition + Ideation + Self-Belief + Finance + Finance + Finance + Finance + Finance + Finance + Finance = Success in Business….. the last book review I did also showed exclusive focus on Finance, so did this, and many others. Wish more people read, understood these realities of the Business Environment!