A Delightful Read:

All these years we have been thinking, to be successful one should be an MBA, but Rashmi
Bansal clearly disagrees with the above statement and defends it with her latest book named-
“Connect the Dots”, a book that brings forth the true stories of people who made it big, without
any MBA degrees. This book is contrary to its prequel, which brought forth the success stories of
people with MBA degrees, the ones from IIM’s. People who read “Stay Hungry Stay Foolish”
created a mental model that success is only for the MBA’s, and not for the normal bunch. This
belief created quite a stir, before Rashmi realized and decided to write a book exclusively
encompassing the success stories of people without MBA’s, thus was born “Connect the Dots”.

The book is divided into three parts namely Jugaad, Junoon and Zubaan, wherein Jugaads are
the type of people who didn’t get any formal training, but learned by experimenting, observing
and applying. It includes someone like Kunwer Sachdev of Su-Kam, who created 500 cr business
from scratch; Ganesh Ram- Founder of Veta, India’s largest English training academy, who
started in an era when there were no BPO’s in India. Junoonis are the type of people who are
passionate about something that is ahead of its time, Chetan Maini, founder of Reva, designed a
solar car when Global warming was not so well known. Zubaan constitutes creative people who
made a difference in their respective chosen arena, like Paresh Mokashi, the creator of
Harishchandrachi, India’s official entry to Oscars last year or Krishna Reddy, whose Prince
group consisting of daily wage laborers won “India’s Got Talent”. The author underlines the fact
that none of the people mentioned in the book have MBA degrees, but what differentiated them
from the rest of the world was their relentless dedication and endurance, number of hours
diligently spent, and their ability to never give up, irrespective of the number of failures.

“Connect the Dots” narrows down to be a contemporary fiction, every story narrated in the book
will hold a special place in your hearts; few chapters will definitely sweep you off your feet,
especially the first chapter which contains the story of Prem Ganapathy, who came to Mumbai
with no money at all and today owns Dosa Plaza, a fast food restaurant with 26 outlets in the
country. You will connect with each and every character in the book, if you don’t, the book will
actually create a relationship between you and the characters in the book. One book you ought to
read this summer, buy it, lend it or even steal it, I don’t care, but you better read it without fail.
Closing words from the author states: Entrepreneurship is all about following you heart, one
who fails to follow his/her heart lives in mediocrity.