Pujit Aggarwal Redivivus - Review

 

      Most professors are conformists. They play it safe, walking the tightrope of normative rubrics. But this tutor was different. He converted his once-a-week tutorial class into a seminar that required each student to read critically a nontechnical book of his choice, write a short review, and introduce the book to the class from the podium. It would be followed by a Q&A with comments, queries, and a critique of the presentation.
    
      The professor did not intervene unless the session stalled or stagnated on account of the difficulty or the irrelevance of the query. He exemplified the vital role of the facilitator.

      This arbitrary adaptation of the stereotype had three distinct advantages. It initiated inquiry and research on your own hook. It necessitated due attention to writing skills---grammar, lexis, idiom, and punctuation. Last but not least, it posed the challenge of overcoming the fear of speaking in public.

    “It is ok if you have ants in the pants as you take the stand and utter your first sentence,” assured the tutor. “Most public speakers are prone to butterflies in the stomach, but they soon learn to overcome the initial nervousness and transform their fear into high the octane fuel to power their speech.”

    The book I introduced and reviewed in the tutorial was The Power of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz, first published in 1959. I primarily read it because Luke Johnson, the serial entrepreneur from the UK, has repeatedly recommended it as one book that changed his life. Luke is the son of Paul Johnson, a formidable polymath who has authored over 50 books including his most famous book Intellectuals. Today Luke is worth more than a couple of million pounds. His keen business acumen is matched by his inclusive philanthropy. He has set up a think tank called Centre for Entrepreneurs wherein budding and partly burnt-out entrepreneurs train in the nuts and bolts and imponderables of the alchemy of business.

     Luke has been lecturing on risk management and innovation on both sides of the Atlantic and writing a weekly column on the evolving dynamics of entrepreneurship. A ravenous appetite for high risk and total aversion to any risk at all, are the bulimia and anorexia of business enterprise.

    Luke concedes that the book he recommends is not great literature. It is rather in the sub-genre of pop psychology. It is simple but profound in highlighting the go-getting, can-do attitude of the American frontier spirit.

    This fragment is morphing into a review of the reviewer as well as the book he so ardently recommends. Luke has trodden the risky trail from the foothills to the glory of the summit. Nourish the appetite for risk. At the same time entrepreneurs need to know what it is like to be in the trenches, fending off creditors, engaging in hand-to-hand combat with competitors, and surviving against the odds---thanks to perseverance, animal spirits, and unremitting resilience.

    You can dip into the book anywhere and avail yourself of the homely, folksy tips DJ Schwartz purveys in every chapter. He was a professor of marketing at an American university. Luke Johnson is extensively available on the internet. He is busier as a brilliant speaker than as a projector---an old-fashioned term he uses for an entrepreneur.

        He is overbooked as a brilliant speaker. He charges a handsome fee.                                                

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