Review of
book-Dream With Your Eyes Open
Dream with your eyes open is an entrepreneurial journey of Ronnie
Screwvala, published by Rupa. Any Indian who loves cinema, will definitely know
who Mr.Screwvala is, but only few know how a Parsi kid, went to become 75 most
influential person of the 21st century.
When I started reading the book,
a question popped up in my head-Is Ronnie born genius or he was just more aware
and observant than his peers? Well a difficult question, though I think he was
mix of both. It is commendable how a 10
year old decides to charge ticket, for giving a peek into the red carpet
premieres, from his veranda. This incident clearly reveals a curious, observant
and an alert kid, who knows how to make best of the situation.
Ronnie’s book is
refreshingly honest, where he is not scared to share even his failures with the
readers. I think this quality makes him look more humane. It is a famous saying
that a leader shouldn’t come across as a person who is infallible. Because then
the followers can never relate to him. Let a leader be a human with its own
share of victory and failures.
The narrative is interesting,
where Ronnie discusses the high and lows of his journey and how he reacted in
different situation. He is never influencing the reader, on what one should do
in case of an obstacle. He is citing his case study and leaving the
understanding part open to the readers. Every chapter is followed by pointers,
which will act as reminding points of that chapter. Currently Indian climate is
becoming suitable for entrepreneurs, but due to less or no guidance many people
don’t venture out on their own. Everybody cannot get venture capitalist or
angle investor, in such instances books like these come handy.
The book highlights few of the
interesting aspects of business, Ronnie suggests that you should be highly
innovative and ruthlessly disruptive. Generally once a business starts doing well,
the entrepreneurs gets into the comfort zone and frequently they miscalculates the
challenges ahead. I think this is one of the key reasons behind many of the
leading brands, getting wiped out from the market. I strongly suggest this book
to the current breed of entrepreneurs and also to those who want to be
entrepreneur sometime in the future.
Why should you read the book?
- What better way to take guidance, then from horse’s mouth.
- To understand the journey or path of entrepreneur ship.
- To understand that even these leading tycoons fail at some time but they refuse to give up.
- To analyze self and see whether you can reach to that heights, which you dream of.