THE 3 MISTAKES OF MY LIFE

It is the story of Govind Patel and his two friends Ish and Omi . All of them were of different temperament , skills , passion and demeanour in life.

The book resembles a Bollywood flick as it portrays everything friendship, breach of trust, shattering of dreams, political and naturalcalamities , love, passion , hatred et al . Govind, a young boy in Ahmedabad , with an aptitude in maths opens a cricket shop along with his two friends Ish and Omi in a temple premise. They face varied hiccups in realising their goals in life.

As the name suggests , the book revolves around the three prime mistakes committed by Govind owing to most mundane reasons .
First, out of greed he lays all his eggs in one basket and puts all his savings and his friends to own a shop in a mall. Unfortunately, due to earthquake the shop gets destroyed and he loses all the savings of his life.

Second mistake committed out of lust and overwhelming impulse when he screws up his friend Ish sister . Ish had asked him to teach his sister Vidya maths.He gradually falls in love with her and crosses all limits of trust and faith. Almost at the end of the plot Ish comes to know about their coition and break all ties with Govind for three years. Ish’s apathy and his own culpableness coerces Govind to pop up sleeping pills and write an Email to Chetan Bhagat.

Third mistake committed was out of fear while saving a muslim boy Ali from the mob. The boy was gifted in cricket. Ish pledges to give him a national presence . But while a mob attack , Govind gets delayed by a second in taking decision and the boy’s wrist gets injured which damages his flair of batting

The book depicts multiple emotions like all three of them betting their lives for a stranger and counter religion boy Ali, Ish’s passion for cricket and how he tries to fulfill his unrealised dream through Ali,the ugly face of politics and much more

The language is quite simple and lucid ,hence, can be enjoyed by all age groups.

GO KISS THE WORLD

My profuse thanks to Subrato Bagachi for providing us such a wonderful book to read. It is a magnificient collection of his real life experinces, learnings and answering most pertinent questions we face in our day to day life.

He had a humble beginning of his career as a clerk in a government office and went up to co-founding MINDTREE – India’s first venture funded IT Services Company and get publicly listed. All this was possible by sheer hard and smart work , picking up from his own mistakes , listening to his senior’s suggestions and adhering to his mentor’s advice.

I have quoted a few excerpts from the book which I found quite relevant and practical.

Blessed are the one’s who get a genuine adviser at some point in their life. They will not only caution and prevent you from falling into a trap but also bolster and guide you through as you tread different walks of life. In his words:

“ Most people covet good jobs , great postings , higher salaries etc. what they call as job satisfaction. I would , however , trade all of that for opportunity to work for a great boss. “His mentor was Dr. Sridhar Mitta who has set up Wipro’s R&D from scratch. From him he learnt his first rule for managing is to listen. “This most bosses find difficult to do because in order to listen, you must first suspend all judgement”. This is a clear stark portrait of today’s managers who barely have any time to listen to their subordinates or advice him.

One of subrato’s challenge when he returned to India was to give Wipro’s R&D office a contemporary look.On the contrary, his this endeavor was negatively reflected in his 360 degree feedback as not being cost conscious. Being upset he went to Dr. Mitra wherein he was advised “ we live in a world in which perception is reality . And that it takes time for perception to build up “. Understanding the implication he went back and worked with same fervour but this time conscious of his actions and words.Again, next year he got same feedback from his peers . Devastated he once more went to Dr. Mitra . Dr. Mitra said, “ while it takes time to build perceptions , it takes even longer for perceptions to change .” He understood the significance of the fact and says that “ in our work , we need to be sensitive to feedbacks and work to correct ourselves but shouldn’t expect people to change what they think of us overnight . Negative public opinion most often has some basis and we must have the grace to accept it. “. Over a period of five years he was finally able to transform the R&D division.


He has discussed in the book the importance of a salesperson and the essence of selling. He exhibits a brilliant insight on sales. As per him:
“ No other profession teaches you the true worth of your own abilities than a sales job. Reason , the outcome is completely binary. Either you have made sale or not. It requires one to listen so much . Learn to read body language and emotions. Learn to isolate the stated needs from unstated concerns of customer. Like an iceberg nine-tenths of a customer’s needs and requirements are hidden below the surface of what he’s telling you as you are pitching your products. A good salesperson learns to understand and address these.
Selling and negotiations are intertwined . You negotiate with your colleague, boss, peer, children and complete strangers. Only selling teaches you nuances of negotiation. “

I found his tip on frustration quite germane . He says:
“Frustration without capability to change things is like a radioactive material burning inside you. It is the difference between your ambition and your capability. Either improve your capability or lower your expectation. Don’t sit there with the radioactive turned inward. Not everything around you can be changed by you. Focus on issue that fall in overlap of your zone of concern and zone of influence. Concern without influence is of no use. “

His book is full of such interesting anecdotes, tips and quotes. A must read for all.