I got this book along with a set of 4 other books. As I normally do with all new books (or music), I quickly skimmed through a few random pages and decided to settle down with Super Freakonomics. I followed it up the the remaining 3 and finally started reading Simply Fly a couple of days back.
Capt. Gopinath’s story is very engaging. His story reminds me of the Indian soda commercial “Seedhi Baat, No Bakwaas” (Straight talk, no BS). He is the kind of entrepreneur I like. He believes in doing rather than talking.
“Strategy” is the most abused word in the entrepreneurship universe. It’s easy to understand why – the word makes one “sound” intelligent. The more one peppers one’s talk with the word, the more “entrepreneurial” one will come across.
If you are looking for high octane BS and to pick up new business buzzwords to add to the BS toolkit, this book will disappoint. You can probably count on one hand the number of times Capt. Gopinath has used the word “strategy” and other similar intelligent sounding buzzwords. He went on to build India’s largest private Airlines by doing what made sense to him – not by giving presentations and talking endlessly about strategy.
His mantra is simple – immerse yourself in your work. Talking is not the same as doing. (Are you listening Obama?)
