Book Reviews : Pt -2

Continuing on previous post Book Reviews Pt -1, I will review below 2 books in this blog post:

1. The Subtle Art of not giving a Fuck – Mark Manson
2. The Ride of a Lifetime – Bob Iger

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck

I personally liked this book a lot! If you have been reading books on Spirituality and Hindu philosophy then the underlying concepts in this book will be nothing new to you and most of the ideologies presented in different chapters of this book will make immediate sense to you. But this doesn’t decrease the value of this book but on the contrary it makes even more sense to read this book since the way Mark present these ideologies in a sugar coated urbanized way, it’s really easy to relate to them and perhaps even adhere to them in our day-to-day life.

The general theme along the book revolves around – not getting too worked up about external (wordly) matters. In the starting chapters Mark utilizes his own experiences and lays of do’s and don’ts for leading a meaningful and a happy life. Every circumstance in life is treated with same emotions irrespective of whether it’s good or bad, it’s all about perspective. Later chapters involve more practical examples of history and famous figures providing a more concrete way living’s one life and also pointing out at – how twisted or rather misinterpreted different events and books are from history. Having patience, emotional control, delayed gratification, control over your urges and desires are few of the points discussed throughout the book along-with different ways of achieving them. Last chapter that talks about Death & Fear is pretty philosophical and eye-opening. Mark talks about the transformation he goes through after losing his best friend in his teenage years. This is an excerpt from that chapter that I liked a lot:

This willingness and even exuberant interfacing with one’s own mortality has ancient roots. The Stoics of ancient Greece and Rome implored people to keep death in mind at all times, in order to appreciate life more and remain humble in the face of its adversities. In various forms of Buddhism, the practice of meditation is often taught as a means of preparing oneself for death while still remaining alive. Dissolving one’s ego into an expansive nothingness – achieving the enlightened state of nirvana – is seens as a trial run of letting oneself cross to the other side. Even Mark Twain, that hairy goofball who came in and left on Halley’s Comet, said – “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”

In different religions and philosophies, from Hinduism to Buddhism, from Christianity to Islam, from stoics to Lao Tzu there are discussions of certain idealistic (non-materialistic, intellectual) people who are given different names across different scriptures and holy books – some call them as observers, some as sthir pragya and some as Insan-i-Kamil etc. The ones who live in this world, performs all their duties of this world but are not moved by anything that happens in this world i.e. they have attained a state where nothing affects them anymore and they have an acceptance of of their own insignificance and immateriality, also the insignificance of this world and have attained a state of nirvana as described by the Mark in above lines. I know easier said than done! but we can at least try 🙂

The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learnt from 15 Years as CEO of Walt Disney Company

This is an autobiography by Bob Iger who was the former CEO of Walt Disney. This is a story of how Robert who started out as a simple camera/lighting assistant initially in ABC Entertainment grew up to become the CEO of one of the largest companies in the world. It is indeed a crash-course on leadership traits, managing a team and running a big company as well.

Across the books Bob gives us different excerpts from his whole professional career which in turn gives us the necessary traits for a good leader. Bob presents a very honest view of different leaders he worked with and learnt from, as well as all the decisions that he took that turned out to be great or some that weren’t so great after all. Taking risks, Trust on people, Embracing change and Innovation, Integrity, Hard Work, Honesty, Humility and Boldness are some of the traits that resonates in all of the decisions that Bob took along his carrier. One of the great things is the transparency by which Bob presents each and every instance in his professional career. There were many instances in which Bob took probably wrong decisions but the reason as well as the consequences of those actions along with ,how it should have been done… are mentioned clearly without any biases in the book.

There are a few chapters, the later ones wherein Bob meets Jobs for Pixar and the impact and influence of that relationship on Bob is phenomenal which shapes many later decisions taken by Robert and many other acquisitions such as Star Wars and Marvel Universe. There were many instances in his career wherein he takes a less conventional path which later paves a way for Disney’s success – a true Visionary. Robert learns every good trait from each leader he worked under or worked with, he mentions with utter respect as well as full transparency for all the good and the bad traits of each of them. His personal relationships, sacrifices and sacrifices of his closed ones are also talked about in the book from time-to-time.

The Last chapter basically summarizes the whole book and the different leadership lessons point-by-point that one can take from Robert’s journey. It’s indeed a great read! There are many great excerpts in the book but this is the one that I liked the most:

Hold on to your awareness of yourself, even as the world tells you how important and powerful you are. The moment you start to believe it all too much, the moment you look at yourself in the mirror and see a title emblazoned on your forehead, you’ve lost your way.

Both of these books are a great read and I highly recommend them! 🙂