“I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines. They go to bed every night a little wiser than they were when they got up and boy does that help, particularly when you have a long run ahead of you” – Charlie Munger
As we are ready to welcome the first day of the year 2020, I share my learnings from the 15 impactful books I read in the last year – 2019.
1) Atomic Habits by James Clear: James Clear talks about improving 1% every day. The 1% every day can make us 37 times better in a year.
2) The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy: From Darren I learned about “Thanksgiving Journal for Partner”. This habit can dramatically change a negative mindset into a more positive one, by simply focusing your energy on looking for the good in many situations.
3) The Joys of Compounding by Gautam Baid: From this book, I learned about self-improvement. It is said, “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”
4) The Ten Commandments for Business Failure by Donald R. Keough: From this book, I learned when it is a good time to pull the trigger to start a business and why many businesses fail. Running your own business may be a dream, but don’t let it to become Nightmare.
4. A) When is a good time to start a new business?
4. B) Why Businesses fail?
5. Anti-fragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb: In this book, Taleb talks about the difference between fragile, robustness & anti-fragile businesses. The modern world may increase technical knowledge, but it will also make things more fragile. He also highlighted who are our true heroes.
5 .A) Difference between fragile, robustness & anti-fragile businesses?
5. B) Our true heroes:
6. Disrupt & Conquer by T.T.Jagannathan & Sandhya Mehdonca: From T.T. Jagannathan I learned simple rules for running the business. Common sense is not so common, it is a fallacy that has been foisted on us by our culture of ideology.
7. Intelligent fanatics of India by Rohith Potti & Pooja Bhula: This book covers seven intelligent fanatics from India; some of these businesses are not listed on Indian stock exchanges. “Slow Philosophy” of Naturals Ice Cream caught my attention. The Slow philosophy is not about doing everything at a snail’s pace. It’s about seeking to do everything at the right speed. To make a parallel of this philosophy in reading, slow reading is about nothing less than the love of wisdom.
8. Loonshots by Safi Bahcall: This book tells you how to nurture the crazy ideas (which most industry people think won’t work) that win wars, cure diseases & transform industries. “If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.” – Albert Einstein
9. A Bank for the Buck by Tamal Bandyopadhyay: This book covers the arduous journey of HDFC Bank: India’s largest private sector bank. HDFC Bank’s journey seems smooth in hindsight but at its initial set up time, the management was not sure about the survival of the bank. You’re not going to avoid tough times. We’re all over the barrel some of the time.
10. Bottle of lies by Katherine Eban: Brilliant piece of investigative journalism, the book unspools a colossal fraud that subsisted in a great Indian pharma company. The book covers the rise and fall of Ranbaxy and the dark side of Indian pharma forcing us to pause while consuming those exotic pills manufactured by giant brands.
11. Factfulness by Hans Rosling: This book covered ten reasons why things in the world are better than we think and how we are wrong in our thinking. This book highlights the plethora of improvements visible in all spheres of life in the world. We often divide countries into two categories: developed and developing countries. The author has given us the income-based framework and emphasized to categorize the people, not the countries.
11 .A) 16 Things which are increasing & decreasing over the periods:
11.B) Four Income levels for categorizing countries:
12. Retire Rich by P.V.Subramanyam: This book covers the basics of personal finance & the power of compounding. I really like the author analogy of “What I see versus what you see”. We need to broaden our perspective. We need to see the hole too, not just donut.
13. Dalal’s Street by Anurag Tripathi: This book covers the story of four friends who graduated from a business school & enter into the broking industry. This book gives the reader a 360-degree view of stock markets in a fictional setup. A financial thriller where friends become competitors in their struggle for survival.
14. Masterclass with super-investors by Vishal Mittal & Saurabh Basrar: This book is a curated compilation of the journey of 11 accomplished investors, how they identify new ideas through case studies, what is their investment process, their mistakes & advice for new investors. It helps you in finalizing your own investment philosophy.
15. Investing the last liberal art by Robert G.Hagstrom: This book aligns and explains how investment management works in the context of a number of seemingly unrelated disciplines including Biology, Economics, Mathematics, Philosophy, Physics, Psychology, and Literature. The book encourages us to develop multidisciplinary attitude that connects different academic disciples and applies them to investing.
