Lessons Learnt form Rich Dad’s Before You Quit Your Job

I recently left my job and relocated to a new city. During recession this was a bold move. I came upon the book, ‘Before You Quit Your Job’ by Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter at my cousin’s place. Though this is a book which might inspire entrepreneurs more, there are quite a few lessons for any professional in it. I will put just some of them here.

Negative people are not the same as brutally honest people. It is necessary for someone to know all the hard and difficult facts about one’s situation.

There’s a difference between help and a crutch. Since arrogance leads to ignorance, it’s necessary to ask someone about something you don’t know but do not ask for too much.

Mentors are important to keep one in tract. You may not know your mentor personally as a book and also a role model can serve as a mentor figure.

The best answers are found in the heart and not in the head.

Many a time people are not as successful as they would like to be is ‘fear’. This fear is the fear of failing. This fear also prevents one to take risks and wait for the perfect situations.

What was effective ten months ago may not be effective for the current context. It’s essential to upgrade yourself and change might not be so much unsettling after all.

You do not need to be the first to win. How you market yourself or safeguard your findings and find the right people to promote it determines your position.

Just knowing what to do does not mean you know how to do it. Many times it is observed that top students at school do not perform in an outstanding way in life.

The book is written in clear and concise language and is nicely segmented for good understanding. It is a must for anyone having a hidden entrepreneur inside. Good examples from real life experiences are drawn to explain certain ideas.

Best Ghost Story- 'For One More Day'- Book Review

Have you ever lost someone…and wished you got just another chance just another day to make amends?

I do not know how much I cried reading this book. I am staying alone for the past one year. Even before this I have stayed alone for different periods of time at different locations all for the sake of work and career. It’s only recently that I have noticed a change in me. I do not miss my parents that much. I do care about them and call them everyday but they have stopped being an integral part of my life.

I have studied English Literature among other things and so I know that the book which makes you cry and that also as long you read it, is a great piece of art. The novel’s protagonist Chick wants to kill himself and has a near death experience or something like it during which he meets his mother who has died eight years ago. The book is about the ‘...One More Day’ which Chick gets to spend with his mother.

Chick’s realizations, regrets, pain, failures, sentiments all become ours as we undertake this journey with him. Mitch Albom is a sports writer and his protagonist is a baseball catcher who has failed to make it big in life. Chick’s mother says that ‘belief, hard work and love’ are the three essential things in life. After reading the novel you will realize that ‘Love’ is by far the greatest.

Chick is redeemed by love. A love which always existed but he never acknowledged it, instead he chased the love which was actually a mirage. I have seen so many parallels. J was so much loved and cared by S but J all the while craved for some importance and recognition from her parents. In this process she completely ignored S and ended up hurting and ruining S. When she realized it, she was sitting in front of S’s picture. S was killed on duty on the border. J had never answered even one letter written by S.

J and S do not exist in this novel but there is Chick and his devotion to his father who had abandoned his family and who had another family and a son which Chick never knew of. The strong personality of Chick’s mother Posey Benetto who supports her family single handedly and sends her son to university. Chick comes to know of all the hardships she had endured long after she is dead.

The book has a wonderful unity of time place and action. Though the narrative goes to flashback mode and then to present, it’s very smooth. There is an epilogue where the narrator changes. The Book surely has autobiographical elements- for example the mention of the Halloween mummy outfit which is matched by the picture of the author in a mummy outfit. If you have read Charles Dickens ‘A Christmas Carol’, you will know how a supernatural story may not necessarily give you goose bumps. Like that book here also the protagonist has three meetings. The epiphanies or sudden realizations also occur all through the novel. Well yes… this novel is a ghost story.

Somehow Posey Benetto’s character reminded me of Bathsheba Everdene of ‘Far from the Madding Crowd’. Hardy had mentioned that she was made of what great men’s mothers are made of. That is the irony when you see Chick’s character in contrast with that of his mother.

People who love us unconditionally never ever come back to claim it. But Chick’s mother comes back and you have to read the novel to know the reason.