Books you must read...

Screw It, Let's Do It by Richard Branson

This is a short autobiography of one of the most admired business personalities in the world, Richard Branson. There is a lot of interesting trivia that one can come know reading this book like how Branson met Pil Collins, why did Elton John compose an album for Princess Diana, what got Banson into the jail, what's the connection between Branson and Amundsen. Besides these trivia what really grabs your attention is the determination that Branson towards all the things he has done in life so far. This book also answers your question on what sets a world class business leader aside from the mediocre ones. This book is one of the 'Quick Reads' editions that is 100 pages written in simple and plain english. You just need about an hour to read this book.

"Always beware if the risks are too random or too hard to predict, but remember, if you opt for a safe life, you will never know what it's like to win."

"Chase your dreams, but live in the real world.

"Never do anything if it means you can't sleep at night."

"Challenge is the core and mainspring of all human action. If there's an ocean, we cross it. If there's a disease, we cure it. If there's a wrong, we right it. If there's a record, w break it. If there's a mountain, we climb it."

Inside Steve's Brain by Leander Kahney

This is a book on Steve Jobs, the face of Apple. I would strongly recommend this book to managers, techies and aspiring entrepreneurs. If you've ever wondered, "What's so great about apple?" or " What's so great about Steve Jobs?" then this book will be able to answer. Its facinating to read about how Steve Jobs plans every single product launch to the minutest of details. The book also explains the miticulous approach of Steve Jobs when it comes to developing products. Each apple product is designd to perfection and the motive behind designing each product has always been to redefine existing standards and taking it to the next level. This makes apples products far mor supeior in the market and the only thing other companies can think of is to try and catch up. There are definity a lot of things to learn from Steve Jobs, and this book clerly highlights those and goes a lot in detail making it easier for the reader to look at the big picture. If you have already read or planning to read Steve Wozniac's (co founder of Apple) biography, then let me tell you there is a bit of cotadiction between both the Steve's version of the story.

Some Exerpts from the book....
"What makes Steve's methodology different than everybody else's is that he always believed that the most important decisions you make are not the things you want to do, but the things you decide not to do."

"A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them."

"Design is a funny word, some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, its really how it works. The design of the Mac wasn't what it looked like, although that was part of it. Primarly, it was how it worked. To design something really well, you hav to get it. You have to really grok what it's all about. It takes passionate commitment to really thoroughly undersand smething, chew it up, not just quickly swallow it. Most peple don't take the time to do that."

"When you start looking at a problem and think its really simple, you don't understand how complex the problem really is."

"Innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10.30 at night with a new idea, or because they realised something that shoots holes in how we've been thinking about a problem. It's ad hoc meetings of six people called by someone who thinks he has figured out the coolest new thing ever and who wants to know what other people think of his idea."

"The older I get, the more I'm convinced that motivesmake so much difference."

"You can't be too far ahead, but you have to be far enough ahead because it takes time to implement. So you have to intercept a moving train."

"It gave a tremendous level of self-confidnce, that through exploration and learning one could understand seemingly very complex things in one's environment. My childhood was very fortunate in that way."

PJ Time

 This is the December editon of Dadly PJs & Onliners.

Auburn: Hey when do we start the Christmas decoration.
Vimal: Let's first find out if the birthday boy is ok with all this.
Auburn: Who's the birthday boy noe?
Vimal: Jesus Christ.
Auburn: Oh God, should have thought of that.

@ Auburn's Bachelor Party
Rishi: How old are you Auburn?
Auburn: 27.
Shashi: Hey yesterday you said your were 26?
Vimal: Hey Happy Birthday Auburn.
Everybody in the room: ?!?!?!?!?

@ Auburn's Bachelor Party

Shashi: Do you know the latest craze in China, selling virgin chicken. Restraunts that claim they serve virgin chicken attract a lot of crowd.
Baba: What's a virgin chicken?
Vimal: Egg. So omlette and egg burji are in demand now in China.
Shashi: Dai.....
Everybody in the room: Ha Ha Ha....

@ Auburn's Bachelor Party
Rishi: Hey where did you get the spring roll from?
Auburn: In some shop in commercial street I didn't plan to pick up spring rolls, the guy asked us to have a bite. It tasted good so picked up some for the party.
Vimal: So what would have happened if Auburn actually had to eat spring rolls there instead of just having a bite?
Baba: What would have happened?
Vimal: Bite would have become Kilo Byte!
Rishi: Hey send this guy home man.

@ Auburn's Bachelor Party
Thomas: One of my friend is selling his Ford Ikon, if you are really intrested I can take you to his place one day.
Baba: Ya please let me know.
Thomas: Sure you can probably take it for a spin and then decide if you want to go for it or not.
Vimal: Hey in that case make sure you take Mutthaiya Muralidharan along with you.
Baba: Why?
Vimal: He is a good spinner naa...
Everybody in the room: Aiyyooo....

@ Karthik's Party, looking at Rishi's 100 Pipers bottle...
Vimal: Rishi where are the remaning 95 Pipers?
Rishi: What?!?!?!
Vimal: The label says 100 Pipers but there are only 5 in the label.
Rishi: The rest are in Scotland.
Some other day @ Auburn's Bachelor Party
Rishi: My brother is going to Scoland in Jan and even I'm planning to go there at that time.
Vimal: That will be good, finally you'll get to meet the remaining 95 pipers.
Rishi: Wha? Oh ok... Yaaa....
Everyone else in the room: ?!?!?!?!?!?!

At an ad hoc drinking session outside the Leela's, at a time when everyone was drunk...
Chetan: Guys name any 10 great men in the world.
Jones: Bill Gates.
Amith: Niel Armstrong.
Vimal: Jack Daniels, Johnny Walker.
Russel: Michael Dell.
and so on, then
Chetan: Good so all these men, they had a dream, they were detrmined to pursue their dream and they lived their dreams. Right? It was no rocket scince for them to achieve their dreams.
Vimal: But Chetan, for Niel Armstng it was rocket science.
Chetan: Good One....
Everyone: Ha Ha Ha....

Chai: What movie is this?
Vimal: Taken.
Chai: What's it about?
Vimal: The whole movie is about a kid sleeping.
Chai: What?!?!?!?
Viml: It's about a kidnap.
Chai: Oh God.

Vimal: Hey how long Tequila has been in existance?
Chai: I don't know, it didn't come with a birth certificate.
Vimal: ?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Vimal: Nice shirt, how come this one's with a ChineseCollar.
Auburn: I Like this Mandrain collar, but the tailor didn't make it the way I'dasked him to.
Vimal: You should have written the specifications in a piece of paper and given it to him.
Auburn: No I actually gave him a sample shirt and he still screwed it up.
Vimal: Sample shirt doesn't work you should have written the insructions and givn it to him.
Auburn: How will that help?
Vimal: He will Read & Taylor (Reid & Talor) naa...?
Auburn: Started......?!?!?!?!?!

Leeni: Harmoica is like a mouthorgon right?
Vimal: Nope its a girl named Monica who loses everything.
Leeni: Ok. No more questions.

Vimal: Where is this guy comming from?
Amith: He had gone to attend an interview for a vacancy in our xyz department.
Vimal: That's a tough job and he wants to move there?
Amith: Yup.
Vimal: Ask him to keep a fire extinguisher with him all the time.
Amith: OK.
Shashi: Why?
Vimal: His ass will be on fire most of the time naa that's why.

Chai (holding a beer bottle in his hand): Hey where is the opener?
Vimal: Must be sleeping.
Leeni: Yaa he played the whole day naa so should e tired.
Chai: What?!?!?!?!
Vimal & Leeni: You were asking for Sewag right? He's the opener....
Chai: God.

Vimal: Hey check out that name board, it says Legal Answer.
Amith: Where?
Vimal: See there it says Laajawab.
Amith: Ok.

There's a new social networkig site for all the donkeys out there, its called AssBook.