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Why I Failed: Lessons from Leaders
Prominent personalities open up about failure and learning from it
Failure that dreaded word. The fear of failure curtails growth and inhibits people from taking risks. Getting people to talk about failure, especially their own, is the singularly most difficult thing to do. In Why I Failed, Shweta Punj does just that by getting leaders to share experiences of when they did not succeed and how they turned it around to their advantage to emerge indomitable and stronger than before. This book shows that it is okay to fail as long as you treat failure as a stepping stone for greater things.
Failure that dreaded word. The fear of failure curtails growth and inhibits people from taking risks. Getting people to talk about failure, especially their own, is the singularly most difficult thing to do. In Why I Failed, Shweta Punj does just that by getting leaders to share experiences of when they did not succeed and how they turned it around to their advantage to emerge indomitable and stronger than before. This book shows that it is okay to fail as long as you treat failure as a stepping stone for greater things.
- GenresNonfictionBusiness
181 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
28 people are currently reading
482 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
May 18, 2024
5.0 ⭐
GENRE - NON FICTION
Well to be honest I had not much high expectations from this book and kept ignoring it for the past 2-3 years and boy I was proved wrong.I took this book to read at the right time I believe altough because it has been just that phase in my life where I contemplate being a failure.
About the Book - Shewta Punj the Author is a journalist and in this book she has explained the failure experience of 17 Indian Leaders from various fields like Sports, Finance, Medicine and Entrepreneur mostly "WHY I FAILED IS LESSONS FROM LEADERS" in short.
The book is well written, the journey of each of the individual is explained in a very engaging and interesting way. The book also includes many quotes from these 17 notable people, at the end of every chapter the author also makes it a point to highlight the advice these 17 people have given from their respective failures.
A must read for all those who are looking for inspiration, self help and Non Fiction book.
This book was Pleasant Surprise to me. 😃
Thank you 🙏
GENRE - NON FICTION
Well to be honest I had not much high expectations from this book and kept ignoring it for the past 2-3 years and boy I was proved wrong.I took this book to read at the right time I believe altough because it has been just that phase in my life where I contemplate being a failure.
About the Book - Shewta Punj the Author is a journalist and in this book she has explained the failure experience of 17 Indian Leaders from various fields like Sports, Finance, Medicine and Entrepreneur mostly "WHY I FAILED IS LESSONS FROM LEADERS" in short.
The book is well written, the journey of each of the individual is explained in a very engaging and interesting way. The book also includes many quotes from these 17 notable people, at the end of every chapter the author also makes it a point to highlight the advice these 17 people have given from their respective failures.
A must read for all those who are looking for inspiration, self help and Non Fiction book.
This book was Pleasant Surprise to me. 😃
Thank you 🙏
December 11, 2015
Shweta Punj, the author of Why I Failed has written down about the entrepreneurial ventures of a number of famous personalities who fought their way in this world and came over with their successful ventures.
There are a couple of mindblowing stories in this book that are possibly a must read to people looking for an advice in the business sector.
Not just only the business sector but also about managing your life, your career and all things that come in the way with your profession.
It's a simple and easy to read the book.
For more exciting reviews follow
BookRature
There are a couple of mindblowing stories in this book that are possibly a must read to people looking for an advice in the business sector.
Not just only the business sector but also about managing your life, your career and all things that come in the way with your profession.
It's a simple and easy to read the book.
For more exciting reviews follow
BookRature
November 4, 2013
Failures are for long considered as the "stepping stone" to success. This book reiterates the very fact using the real life incidences from the leaders of various fields. It is a collection of failure stories rather than success stories, which we are more accustomed to, and that is the primary reason I chose this book to read.
But, as one reads one narrative after other, one would realize that the stories are at very superficial level & makes a very little impact on the mind of readers. What is described in the book quite well is the circumstances & how a failure happened, but there is a huge problem when it comes to analysis of it.
In some cases the analysis of failure doesn't even cut the ice, and only dilutes the original narrative, thus impacting the strength of the narrative as a whole. All in all a read which can be done if you are looking for a productive way to kill time.
But, as one reads one narrative after other, one would realize that the stories are at very superficial level & makes a very little impact on the mind of readers. What is described in the book quite well is the circumstances & how a failure happened, but there is a huge problem when it comes to analysis of it.
In some cases the analysis of failure doesn't even cut the ice, and only dilutes the original narrative, thus impacting the strength of the narrative as a whole. All in all a read which can be done if you are looking for a productive way to kill time.
November 23, 2017
it gives you the ability to identify your inner strengths and at the same time motivates you to achieve something higher in life by battling any obstacle that comes ones way
May 24, 2025
Dear Reader,
Good morning,
I have completed reading the book *WHY I FAILED* Lessons from Leaders by Sweta Punj.
Isn’t the fear of *failure* a barrier that often holds us back from getting what we really want and becoming who we want to be? Why does failure feel so wrong? Unfair? Discouraging? Why does it hurt so much to fail? Why does failure seem like the end of the road? Failure can feel worse than death. Remember the ‘Why didn’t I just die?’ feeling? Certain failures can just kill us and many of them make us want to bite the dust.
In India, we look at failure with much disdain and discomfort. From the moment we step into the real world, so to speak, it is ingrained in us that we always have to succeed at everything. We cannot fail. History only applauds winners.
This book is built around stories of people who screwed up, sometimes again and again. These stories involve imagination, miscalculations, illusions, misadventures, ambition, inspiration, and most importantly courage. Each story is revelatory at several levels, exploring failures of varying degrees and varieties—messing up on the first big opportunity, failing in coping with bureaucracy and nepotism, failure of life’s circumstances, failing to lead and making others follow your vision—every chapter offers an insight into failure of a different kind.
The sixteen failure, aka success, stories chronicled in this book are an attempt to start a conversation on failure, to encourage those reading the book to get out of the box, to pursue their dreams not for love of success but for the adventure of failure, to not let others decide the life you want to live for the fear of failure.
This book is for all of us who constantly think about ‘what might have been’. It is for those corporate guys who believe learning from failure is pretty straightforward—ask people to reflect on what they did wrong and insist on avoiding similar mistakes in the future. It is for all those entrepreneurs who have chosen their path and have embarked on a journey that would be tumultuous.
*As Confucious said, ‘Our greatest glory consists not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall.’*
*History across the world has been made by extraordinary minds driven by extraordinary failures.*
Be cheerful, wipe thine eyes; Some falls are means the happier to a rise.- William Shakespeare, Cymbeline. Act IV, scene ii
*It’s always better to have tried and failed, than to have not tried at all.*
*1 Story of Abhinav Bindra:*
*WHY HE WON:*
In 2008, when Bindra represented India at the Beijing Olympics, theoretically Bindra’s mind was in a terrible state for the competition.
At Beijing, Bindra was desperate to win. ‘More than anyone, I had something to prove to myself, to the world,’ he says.In that crucial moment, he was doggedly focussed on his target; at that second, it didn’t matter whether he would lose or win. He just had to focus all his energies into getting the most out of that second when he fired the winning shot.
*WHY HE FAILED AT THE LONDON OLYMPICS:*
a. What differentiates the winner is the person who is able to bring everything together on that particular day in that particular moment.
And that was Bindra’s failure. He couldn’t bring all his energies together at that very moment when he fired the deciding shot. He was not as frantic. Not as desperate.
b. That Bindra was under tremendous pressure would be a colossal understatement keeping in mind the expectations he was carrying with him, not only of the entire nation, but his own too.After winning a gold at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, he was expected to win it again.
c. To win, you have to have the ability to endure those difficult moments. In London, I was not scared. I was relaxed, normal, happy, calm, and composed. There were parts of me that carried insecurity.
*Advice:*
• You cannot be focussed on the outcome. When you are performing, you have to be completely immersed in that moment
• You have to have the ability to cut the thoughts of winning, achievement, medals away from you. The moment you think you can win gold, you will lose focus.
2. *Story of ANU AGA:* (Anu Aga has accomplished in a lifetime what most people can only aspire to in many. She led a near 30 billion dollar group, Thermax, from 1996 to 2004. Taking on the reins from her husband, she pushed through difficult decisions, and has been a driving force behind the turnaround of the group. A recipient of the Padma Shri for her work in the field of education, she is also the chairperson of Teach For India foundation and a member of the Rajya Sabha in the Indian Parliament.)
a. When Anu Aga, director and former chairperson of Thermax Ltd, the 32.46 billion rupee energy and enviornment efficiency business, suddenly found herself at the helm of the company after her husband’s sudden death, she went through a period of immense self-doubt.The shareholder blamed Anu Aga for her inaction. It was that letter that convinced her that the company needed an outside perspective.
b. When Aga thought of bringing in a consultant to do a stock check, she faced resistance from almost everyone in the company. Colleagues and employees questioned her and were fairly adamant in their opposition.She hired the services of Boston Consulting Group (BCG). What followed were a series of tough decisions.
*WHY SHE FAILED:*
a. She tried to be someone else.
b. She tried to capitalize on strengths she did not have and ignored what she did.
*Advice:*
• Never confuse your being with your doing
• Strengths and weakness are a part of a human being. Apply all your strengths to your work
• Rely on your intuition
• Have faith in your common sense
• Remember, you don’t have to live the way the world expects you to. Do things which give you satisfaction
3. *Story of MADHUR BHANDARKAR:* (Madhur Bhandarkar is a filmmaker with a difference. His cinema is unlike the grandeur and mush of Bollywood. With his first hit film, Chandni Bar, he told the story of the bar girls in Mumbai. What has followed since are a series of films reflecting on the different aspects of the society we live in. Films like Corporate and Page 3 were dubbed as a disturbingly accurate portrayal of our society. Known for his thorough research and eye for detail, he says, if he weren’t a director, he would have been a journalist.)
a. Failure, much like success in the entertainment universe, takes on gargantuan dimensions. You are a star one day, and a nobody the next. And there is really no one who wants to know, be around, or even be associated with a nobody..
Madhur Bhandarkar’s journey in the film world is teeming with failure, rejection, tears, and humiliation. And this cycle of rejection and failure, he says, continued for decades until he made his first hit film Chandni Bar that catapulted his status overnight from a nobody to a somebody.
b. Bhandarkar’s first film, Trishakti, took three years to make. It was a film where Bhandarkar was led more by the commercial viability of the film than his own intuition and instincts.
The film had flopped. He thought his career was over. Nobody wanted to associate with him.Whatever little brand equity Bhandarkar had built over a decade was destroyed overnight, and with that Bhandarkar lost out on all the ‘friends’ in the industry. ‘People would ignore him blatantly. They would walk away, not respond to phone calls. He was not invited anywhere. This phase was a huge learning experience. He was boycotted by almost everyone.’
c. Bhandarkar, who till then had been a flop filmmaker, a nobody, had transformed into one of the brightest directors in Bollywood. ‘In those three hours the entire equation changed. People couldn’t believe that the same Madhur Bhandarkar who had made Trishakti had also made Chandni Bar.’ ‘People who wouldn’t look at me earlier, started calling me up. I became the blue-eyed boy of the industry.’ ‘If Trishakti wouldn’t have flopped, he would have stuck to the same pattern and fizzled out very quickly. He realized that neither success nor failure is permanent. When he got the National Award, he had to pinch himself.’
*WHY HE FAILED:*
He didn’t follow my intuition.
He let people dictate what they wanted him to be.
*Advice:*
• Don’t let circumstances faze you
• Do what you love. It’s better to be the king of hell, than a slave in heaven.
4. *Story of NARAYAN VAGHUL:* (Narayanan Vaghul, banker, Padma Bhushan, one of the financial architects of India. He has been a key driving force behind the transformation of ICICI from a development financial institution to India’s second largest bank. It’s been his foresight and vision that has given wings to many dreams. A visionary, he is known to understand ideas and concepts that most don’t. Former chairman of ICICI bank, he is a visiting professor at The Stern School of Business. He also serves as director on the board of several companies.)
a. *FAILING BY DESIGN* Designing or strategizing your failure could propel you to be a catalyst in driving greater change, attaining a higher purpose, and striving for excellence.
Barring a few, almost every industry was under strict government control, including banking. And as chairman, Vaghul had a daunting job of exercising independence in decision making in a public sector bank at a time when government interference in private and public sector was rampant.
b. The bank was a government-owned entity and Vaghul’s principles did not allow him to take crucial decisions at the behest of political entities. Vaghul had the commitment, the vision, and the ideas to make the bank grow. But the political interference in the running of the bank disappointed him and he decided to quit. He failed at balancing his expectations of himself and of others. He was dispirited to the extent that he allowed his motivation and drive to be eclipsed by external influences. ‘Looking back, I don’t think I was in a position to take on the challenge of political influence over Bank of India,’ he laments..
C. In 1985, Vaghul was appointed as chairman of the then Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI), now known as ICICI Bank. Vaghul led the transformation of ICICI from a small size, long-term credit bank to India’s second largest bank.
*Knowing when to walk away is probably one of the tougher decisions in the life of a professional, a politician, or an entrepreneur. As you take that decision, you should know your reasons for doing so—whether to reinvent yourself or to fight for your principle or to find purpose. Often this is the time for introspection, self-evaluation, and great learning.*
*WHY HE FAILED:*.
1. He couldn’t balance between my expectations of him and of others.
2. I couldn’t manage the political pressures that came with the position of authority.
*Advice:*
• When in doubt, step back and reassess your priorities • Remember, you don’t have to follow others
• Make yourself of steel
• While money is important, aiming on a broader social objective will help you perform better.
• Don’t lose sight of your long-term goals
• Never compromise on ethics.
*Story of KIRAN MAZUMDAR-SHAW:* (Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, shines like an outlier in corporate India. Founder of India’s first and largest biotechnology company, Biocon Ltd, Kiran has been a trailblazer as she has gone about charting her destiny and building a billion dollar group. She is a recipient of the prestigious Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. Mazumdar-Shaw continues to inspire men and women to step out of their comfort zones and break the boundary walls.)
a. Women fail themselves when they opt for an ‘easier’ option than their passion. Or when they go out of their way to fit into the mould. The tendency to refrain or give up even before really trying reflects in the choices women make and that impacts the life they aspire for.
b. What she did not do when she failed to get a job as a brewmaster was to feel defeated. She did not question her own abilities; she instead followed her passion of working with enzymes and used her knowledge to create her own opportunity.
‘You must be able to distinguish between a real failure and a perceived one that will help you decide your strategy,’ she says. Such an insightful, analytical approach towards failure could only come from someone who has had the courage to fail, bounce back, and fail again..
*FAILURE IS NOT FINAL, GIVING UP IS:*
I failed to get financial support. I failed to recruit people I wanted to. The first fifteen years were all about survival,’ says Mazumdar-Shaw looking back at the initial years of her entrepreneurial life.
Growth was slow, as a pioneer Mazumdar-Shaw faced resistance and discrimination from all quarters—employees didn’t want to work for a woman and investors remained wary of investing in a woman-run company. But Mazumdar-Shaw persevered. The company started to make profits and almost a decade later, Auchincloss sold his stake in Biocon to Unilever.She says, ‘You must understand why you are failing. You are failing because your credibility is at stake. You have got to make credibility to ensure people trust you.’.
She sold off the enzyme business she had spent fifteen years building, and put in all her energies into the biopharmaceutical business—where the first batch of enzymes failed.
Years later, Mazumdar-Shaw failed again, this time at her dream project of building oral insulin. The drug failed to give the desired outcome in the clinical study.
Nearly a year later, in March 2012, Mazumdar-Shaw suffered another setback. Biocon’s global partner, Pfizer, and Biocon decided to part ways.
*WHY SHE FAILED:*
In my initial years, She couldn’t get others to see her vision.
She failed at getting the best talent to work for her. during her early years of entrepreneurship.
Pfizer deal fall-out was a perceived failure. We were not looking in the same direction.
*Advice*:
• Always distinguish between perceived and real failure
• Break down failure and strategize
• Don’t take failure personally
• Whenever you fail, do not have a knee-jerk reaction
• Deal with failure: There is learning in every step.
6. *Story of Captain Gopinath:* (Captain Gopinath gave the Indian middle class wings with India’s first budget airline—Air Deccan. He is known as much for his success and vision, as his failure. A retired Captain of the Indian Army, Captain Gopinath has been a serial entrepreneur, an author, and a politician. His is a story of relentless energy, passion, and adventure.)
a. Captain Gopinath’s story of embarking on entrepreneurship after retiring from the army is one such story of immense conviction, a vision, huge success and a heart-breaking failure.
b. In 1997, Gopinath co-founded Deccan Aviation, a charter helicopter service. In 2003, he went on to establish Air Deccan, a low cost airline, and in 2009, he started Deccan 360—a freight flight business.
Deccan went through a period of turbulence and uncertainty. The airline was losing money; flights were getting cancelled, delayed. Employees were quitting. An airline needs skilled people apart from high capital. There was a crisis almost at every front—financial, technical, and human resources.
*FAILURE TO CONVINCE:*
There was immense pressure from all sides on Capt. Gopinath to sell the airline. Investors, board members, and other stake holders were looking to Capt. Gopinath to get them the returns on their investment. There was a sense of impatience emanating from all sides, and Gopinath succumbed.
*Gopinath’s dream was to make an everyman’s airline, to make flying affordable for all*
*FAILED MY EMPLOYEES:*
When Captain Gopinath embarked on his next entrepreneurial venture, the logistics business, he says, he had the biggest investor. ‘Reliance was looking at getting into logistics and I was looking for a strategic partner.
‘But something went wrong in the relationship with Reliance. The other partner pulled out. In that sense I was a failure—I was not able to capture their imagination to continue the partnership which affected the rollout of the business. When Reliance came in, there was a huge noise in the market, everybody was falling over to invest; but when they (Reliance) decided to discontinue further investments, it affected the business. Employees had followed me like a messiah, and I felt I was not in position to fulfil their dreams. In that sense I was a failure. I had set out to achieve something and I had failed.’
*WHY HE FAILED:*
1. Over optimism and not looking at the shadows 2.Headlong rush in to starting ventures and finding investors
3.Could communicate the vision of the dream, but failed to keep the conviction
of all in the vision intact.
*Advice:*
• If he had gone through a logical process, he wouldn’t have done many of the things, because he would be weighing out the obstacles. He was not ready to listen to anyone. Leadership is the ability to understand what your own inadequacies are and surround yourself with people that are better than you.
*Story of SABYASACHI MUKHERJEE* (Sabyasachi Mukherjee, the young designer from Kakinara, started from nothing, went through a long period of intense self-questioning, followed by burst of fame. When his class at NIFT was designing evening gowns, he was the only one working with Indian designs. He says, he has always been the one to choose a ‘wild romance’ over a ‘tepidly happy existence’. Sabyasachi has been lauded as the fresh voice in Indian fashion.).
Afailure of the mind can be one of the most devastating, challenging experiences of a lifetime. The point when your mind stops seeing, sensing, believing. There is darkness all around and all you can see is a deep, black hole. Several situations could push one into that state of limbo where you could spend days just staring at the ceiling and not leave your confines for months. The country’s most celebrated fashion designer, whose designs have a soul and speak myriad languages, Sabyasachi Mukherjee, went through such a phase not too long ago. He felt stifled, without a voice, a thought to share. ‘I went through four years of severe depression. For eight months I wouldn’t get out of my room, I would just lay there and stare at the ceiling.’
Fashion was not considered as a career; there was no access to any fashion press, anyway very limited in those days in Kakinara. There were barely a handful of fashion designers to speak of.
Sabyasachi went through depression at a time when it was still an alien disease for middle-class Indians. Psychiatrists were consulted as Sabyasachi went on for months without meeting or talking to anyone. It was a period of agonizing loneliness. Nobody understood him, not even his parents, and he began to give up hope.
And that’s where Sabyasachi rekindled his wild romance with fashion. His father was clear that he could only afford to pay for college fee and not support the extra infrastructure costs that came with a fashion degree. The family also went through a financially tumultuous period at that time. Not only was pursuing fashion a wild gamble for him, it was during this time Sabyasachi’s entrepreneurial skills were truly tested.
*HE HAS A DREAM*
Sabyasachi did his first exhibition in partnership with a Marwari housewife in Kolkata in the early 2000s. The exhibition was a huge success, selling out in the first fifteen minutes. However, recognition of Sabyasachi’s talent upset his partner considerably. She took advantage of the fact that both parties were not bound by any contractual obligations, and refused to pay, leaving Sabyasachi literally.
Good morning,
I have completed reading the book *WHY I FAILED* Lessons from Leaders by Sweta Punj.
Isn’t the fear of *failure* a barrier that often holds us back from getting what we really want and becoming who we want to be? Why does failure feel so wrong? Unfair? Discouraging? Why does it hurt so much to fail? Why does failure seem like the end of the road? Failure can feel worse than death. Remember the ‘Why didn’t I just die?’ feeling? Certain failures can just kill us and many of them make us want to bite the dust.
In India, we look at failure with much disdain and discomfort. From the moment we step into the real world, so to speak, it is ingrained in us that we always have to succeed at everything. We cannot fail. History only applauds winners.
This book is built around stories of people who screwed up, sometimes again and again. These stories involve imagination, miscalculations, illusions, misadventures, ambition, inspiration, and most importantly courage. Each story is revelatory at several levels, exploring failures of varying degrees and varieties—messing up on the first big opportunity, failing in coping with bureaucracy and nepotism, failure of life’s circumstances, failing to lead and making others follow your vision—every chapter offers an insight into failure of a different kind.
The sixteen failure, aka success, stories chronicled in this book are an attempt to start a conversation on failure, to encourage those reading the book to get out of the box, to pursue their dreams not for love of success but for the adventure of failure, to not let others decide the life you want to live for the fear of failure.
This book is for all of us who constantly think about ‘what might have been’. It is for those corporate guys who believe learning from failure is pretty straightforward—ask people to reflect on what they did wrong and insist on avoiding similar mistakes in the future. It is for all those entrepreneurs who have chosen their path and have embarked on a journey that would be tumultuous.
*As Confucious said, ‘Our greatest glory consists not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall.’*
*History across the world has been made by extraordinary minds driven by extraordinary failures.*
Be cheerful, wipe thine eyes; Some falls are means the happier to a rise.- William Shakespeare, Cymbeline. Act IV, scene ii
*It’s always better to have tried and failed, than to have not tried at all.*
*1 Story of Abhinav Bindra:*
*WHY HE WON:*
In 2008, when Bindra represented India at the Beijing Olympics, theoretically Bindra’s mind was in a terrible state for the competition.
At Beijing, Bindra was desperate to win. ‘More than anyone, I had something to prove to myself, to the world,’ he says.In that crucial moment, he was doggedly focussed on his target; at that second, it didn’t matter whether he would lose or win. He just had to focus all his energies into getting the most out of that second when he fired the winning shot.
*WHY HE FAILED AT THE LONDON OLYMPICS:*
a. What differentiates the winner is the person who is able to bring everything together on that particular day in that particular moment.
And that was Bindra’s failure. He couldn’t bring all his energies together at that very moment when he fired the deciding shot. He was not as frantic. Not as desperate.
b. That Bindra was under tremendous pressure would be a colossal understatement keeping in mind the expectations he was carrying with him, not only of the entire nation, but his own too.After winning a gold at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, he was expected to win it again.
c. To win, you have to have the ability to endure those difficult moments. In London, I was not scared. I was relaxed, normal, happy, calm, and composed. There were parts of me that carried insecurity.
*Advice:*
• You cannot be focussed on the outcome. When you are performing, you have to be completely immersed in that moment
• You have to have the ability to cut the thoughts of winning, achievement, medals away from you. The moment you think you can win gold, you will lose focus.
2. *Story of ANU AGA:* (Anu Aga has accomplished in a lifetime what most people can only aspire to in many. She led a near 30 billion dollar group, Thermax, from 1996 to 2004. Taking on the reins from her husband, she pushed through difficult decisions, and has been a driving force behind the turnaround of the group. A recipient of the Padma Shri for her work in the field of education, she is also the chairperson of Teach For India foundation and a member of the Rajya Sabha in the Indian Parliament.)
a. When Anu Aga, director and former chairperson of Thermax Ltd, the 32.46 billion rupee energy and enviornment efficiency business, suddenly found herself at the helm of the company after her husband’s sudden death, she went through a period of immense self-doubt.The shareholder blamed Anu Aga for her inaction. It was that letter that convinced her that the company needed an outside perspective.
b. When Aga thought of bringing in a consultant to do a stock check, she faced resistance from almost everyone in the company. Colleagues and employees questioned her and were fairly adamant in their opposition.She hired the services of Boston Consulting Group (BCG). What followed were a series of tough decisions.
*WHY SHE FAILED:*
a. She tried to be someone else.
b. She tried to capitalize on strengths she did not have and ignored what she did.
*Advice:*
• Never confuse your being with your doing
• Strengths and weakness are a part of a human being. Apply all your strengths to your work
• Rely on your intuition
• Have faith in your common sense
• Remember, you don’t have to live the way the world expects you to. Do things which give you satisfaction
3. *Story of MADHUR BHANDARKAR:* (Madhur Bhandarkar is a filmmaker with a difference. His cinema is unlike the grandeur and mush of Bollywood. With his first hit film, Chandni Bar, he told the story of the bar girls in Mumbai. What has followed since are a series of films reflecting on the different aspects of the society we live in. Films like Corporate and Page 3 were dubbed as a disturbingly accurate portrayal of our society. Known for his thorough research and eye for detail, he says, if he weren’t a director, he would have been a journalist.)
a. Failure, much like success in the entertainment universe, takes on gargantuan dimensions. You are a star one day, and a nobody the next. And there is really no one who wants to know, be around, or even be associated with a nobody..
Madhur Bhandarkar’s journey in the film world is teeming with failure, rejection, tears, and humiliation. And this cycle of rejection and failure, he says, continued for decades until he made his first hit film Chandni Bar that catapulted his status overnight from a nobody to a somebody.
b. Bhandarkar’s first film, Trishakti, took three years to make. It was a film where Bhandarkar was led more by the commercial viability of the film than his own intuition and instincts.
The film had flopped. He thought his career was over. Nobody wanted to associate with him.Whatever little brand equity Bhandarkar had built over a decade was destroyed overnight, and with that Bhandarkar lost out on all the ‘friends’ in the industry. ‘People would ignore him blatantly. They would walk away, not respond to phone calls. He was not invited anywhere. This phase was a huge learning experience. He was boycotted by almost everyone.’
c. Bhandarkar, who till then had been a flop filmmaker, a nobody, had transformed into one of the brightest directors in Bollywood. ‘In those three hours the entire equation changed. People couldn’t believe that the same Madhur Bhandarkar who had made Trishakti had also made Chandni Bar.’ ‘People who wouldn’t look at me earlier, started calling me up. I became the blue-eyed boy of the industry.’ ‘If Trishakti wouldn’t have flopped, he would have stuck to the same pattern and fizzled out very quickly. He realized that neither success nor failure is permanent. When he got the National Award, he had to pinch himself.’
*WHY HE FAILED:*
He didn’t follow my intuition.
He let people dictate what they wanted him to be.
*Advice:*
• Don’t let circumstances faze you
• Do what you love. It’s better to be the king of hell, than a slave in heaven.
4. *Story of NARAYAN VAGHUL:* (Narayanan Vaghul, banker, Padma Bhushan, one of the financial architects of India. He has been a key driving force behind the transformation of ICICI from a development financial institution to India’s second largest bank. It’s been his foresight and vision that has given wings to many dreams. A visionary, he is known to understand ideas and concepts that most don’t. Former chairman of ICICI bank, he is a visiting professor at The Stern School of Business. He also serves as director on the board of several companies.)
a. *FAILING BY DESIGN* Designing or strategizing your failure could propel you to be a catalyst in driving greater change, attaining a higher purpose, and striving for excellence.
Barring a few, almost every industry was under strict government control, including banking. And as chairman, Vaghul had a daunting job of exercising independence in decision making in a public sector bank at a time when government interference in private and public sector was rampant.
b. The bank was a government-owned entity and Vaghul’s principles did not allow him to take crucial decisions at the behest of political entities. Vaghul had the commitment, the vision, and the ideas to make the bank grow. But the political interference in the running of the bank disappointed him and he decided to quit. He failed at balancing his expectations of himself and of others. He was dispirited to the extent that he allowed his motivation and drive to be eclipsed by external influences. ‘Looking back, I don’t think I was in a position to take on the challenge of political influence over Bank of India,’ he laments..
C. In 1985, Vaghul was appointed as chairman of the then Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI), now known as ICICI Bank. Vaghul led the transformation of ICICI from a small size, long-term credit bank to India’s second largest bank.
*Knowing when to walk away is probably one of the tougher decisions in the life of a professional, a politician, or an entrepreneur. As you take that decision, you should know your reasons for doing so—whether to reinvent yourself or to fight for your principle or to find purpose. Often this is the time for introspection, self-evaluation, and great learning.*
*WHY HE FAILED:*.
1. He couldn’t balance between my expectations of him and of others.
2. I couldn’t manage the political pressures that came with the position of authority.
*Advice:*
• When in doubt, step back and reassess your priorities • Remember, you don’t have to follow others
• Make yourself of steel
• While money is important, aiming on a broader social objective will help you perform better.
• Don’t lose sight of your long-term goals
• Never compromise on ethics.
*Story of KIRAN MAZUMDAR-SHAW:* (Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, shines like an outlier in corporate India. Founder of India’s first and largest biotechnology company, Biocon Ltd, Kiran has been a trailblazer as she has gone about charting her destiny and building a billion dollar group. She is a recipient of the prestigious Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. Mazumdar-Shaw continues to inspire men and women to step out of their comfort zones and break the boundary walls.)
a. Women fail themselves when they opt for an ‘easier’ option than their passion. Or when they go out of their way to fit into the mould. The tendency to refrain or give up even before really trying reflects in the choices women make and that impacts the life they aspire for.
b. What she did not do when she failed to get a job as a brewmaster was to feel defeated. She did not question her own abilities; she instead followed her passion of working with enzymes and used her knowledge to create her own opportunity.
‘You must be able to distinguish between a real failure and a perceived one that will help you decide your strategy,’ she says. Such an insightful, analytical approach towards failure could only come from someone who has had the courage to fail, bounce back, and fail again..
*FAILURE IS NOT FINAL, GIVING UP IS:*
I failed to get financial support. I failed to recruit people I wanted to. The first fifteen years were all about survival,’ says Mazumdar-Shaw looking back at the initial years of her entrepreneurial life.
Growth was slow, as a pioneer Mazumdar-Shaw faced resistance and discrimination from all quarters—employees didn’t want to work for a woman and investors remained wary of investing in a woman-run company. But Mazumdar-Shaw persevered. The company started to make profits and almost a decade later, Auchincloss sold his stake in Biocon to Unilever.She says, ‘You must understand why you are failing. You are failing because your credibility is at stake. You have got to make credibility to ensure people trust you.’.
She sold off the enzyme business she had spent fifteen years building, and put in all her energies into the biopharmaceutical business—where the first batch of enzymes failed.
Years later, Mazumdar-Shaw failed again, this time at her dream project of building oral insulin. The drug failed to give the desired outcome in the clinical study.
Nearly a year later, in March 2012, Mazumdar-Shaw suffered another setback. Biocon’s global partner, Pfizer, and Biocon decided to part ways.
*WHY SHE FAILED:*
In my initial years, She couldn’t get others to see her vision.
She failed at getting the best talent to work for her. during her early years of entrepreneurship.
Pfizer deal fall-out was a perceived failure. We were not looking in the same direction.
*Advice*:
• Always distinguish between perceived and real failure
• Break down failure and strategize
• Don’t take failure personally
• Whenever you fail, do not have a knee-jerk reaction
• Deal with failure: There is learning in every step.
6. *Story of Captain Gopinath:* (Captain Gopinath gave the Indian middle class wings with India’s first budget airline—Air Deccan. He is known as much for his success and vision, as his failure. A retired Captain of the Indian Army, Captain Gopinath has been a serial entrepreneur, an author, and a politician. His is a story of relentless energy, passion, and adventure.)
a. Captain Gopinath’s story of embarking on entrepreneurship after retiring from the army is one such story of immense conviction, a vision, huge success and a heart-breaking failure.
b. In 1997, Gopinath co-founded Deccan Aviation, a charter helicopter service. In 2003, he went on to establish Air Deccan, a low cost airline, and in 2009, he started Deccan 360—a freight flight business.
Deccan went through a period of turbulence and uncertainty. The airline was losing money; flights were getting cancelled, delayed. Employees were quitting. An airline needs skilled people apart from high capital. There was a crisis almost at every front—financial, technical, and human resources.
*FAILURE TO CONVINCE:*
There was immense pressure from all sides on Capt. Gopinath to sell the airline. Investors, board members, and other stake holders were looking to Capt. Gopinath to get them the returns on their investment. There was a sense of impatience emanating from all sides, and Gopinath succumbed.
*Gopinath’s dream was to make an everyman’s airline, to make flying affordable for all*
*FAILED MY EMPLOYEES:*
When Captain Gopinath embarked on his next entrepreneurial venture, the logistics business, he says, he had the biggest investor. ‘Reliance was looking at getting into logistics and I was looking for a strategic partner.
‘But something went wrong in the relationship with Reliance. The other partner pulled out. In that sense I was a failure—I was not able to capture their imagination to continue the partnership which affected the rollout of the business. When Reliance came in, there was a huge noise in the market, everybody was falling over to invest; but when they (Reliance) decided to discontinue further investments, it affected the business. Employees had followed me like a messiah, and I felt I was not in position to fulfil their dreams. In that sense I was a failure. I had set out to achieve something and I had failed.’
*WHY HE FAILED:*
1. Over optimism and not looking at the shadows 2.Headlong rush in to starting ventures and finding investors
3.Could communicate the vision of the dream, but failed to keep the conviction
of all in the vision intact.
*Advice:*
• If he had gone through a logical process, he wouldn’t have done many of the things, because he would be weighing out the obstacles. He was not ready to listen to anyone. Leadership is the ability to understand what your own inadequacies are and surround yourself with people that are better than you.
*Story of SABYASACHI MUKHERJEE* (Sabyasachi Mukherjee, the young designer from Kakinara, started from nothing, went through a long period of intense self-questioning, followed by burst of fame. When his class at NIFT was designing evening gowns, he was the only one working with Indian designs. He says, he has always been the one to choose a ‘wild romance’ over a ‘tepidly happy existence’. Sabyasachi has been lauded as the fresh voice in Indian fashion.).
Afailure of the mind can be one of the most devastating, challenging experiences of a lifetime. The point when your mind stops seeing, sensing, believing. There is darkness all around and all you can see is a deep, black hole. Several situations could push one into that state of limbo where you could spend days just staring at the ceiling and not leave your confines for months. The country’s most celebrated fashion designer, whose designs have a soul and speak myriad languages, Sabyasachi Mukherjee, went through such a phase not too long ago. He felt stifled, without a voice, a thought to share. ‘I went through four years of severe depression. For eight months I wouldn’t get out of my room, I would just lay there and stare at the ceiling.’
Fashion was not considered as a career; there was no access to any fashion press, anyway very limited in those days in Kakinara. There were barely a handful of fashion designers to speak of.
Sabyasachi went through depression at a time when it was still an alien disease for middle-class Indians. Psychiatrists were consulted as Sabyasachi went on for months without meeting or talking to anyone. It was a period of agonizing loneliness. Nobody understood him, not even his parents, and he began to give up hope.
And that’s where Sabyasachi rekindled his wild romance with fashion. His father was clear that he could only afford to pay for college fee and not support the extra infrastructure costs that came with a fashion degree. The family also went through a financially tumultuous period at that time. Not only was pursuing fashion a wild gamble for him, it was during this time Sabyasachi’s entrepreneurial skills were truly tested.
*HE HAS A DREAM*
Sabyasachi did his first exhibition in partnership with a Marwari housewife in Kolkata in the early 2000s. The exhibition was a huge success, selling out in the first fifteen minutes. However, recognition of Sabyasachi’s talent upset his partner considerably. She took advantage of the fact that both parties were not bound by any contractual obligations, and refused to pay, leaving Sabyasachi literally.
November 11, 2014
A good read. But the stories are so deep that each story can be a book in itself. So, without much context and with each story being so brief, it loses its essence if you do not know the full context of that person's work.
March 3, 2024
Why I Failed: Lessons from Leaders
Part memoir and part analytical deep dive, author Sweta Punj chronicles key professional mistakes across her careers as a business journalist and digital media entrepreneur in India. With raw vulnerability, she illustrates how temperament gaps, people management blunders and bias blindspots contributed to fallibilities despite surface successes.
Some of the most poignant insights involve the reluctance to seek timely help, inability to transition leadership styles amid growth, and justifying decisions using contorted logic when underlying motives were irrational. While pertaining to her specific experiences, the examination feels universally relevant as cautions around founder hubris and early pattern pitfalls that compound.
By eschewing standard inspirational tropes, Punj puts forth an atypically transparent post-mortem encouraging readers to confront their own failures with humility and wisdom. The storytelling tone feels candid without melodrama. The format of embedding analytical reflections between career stage anecdotes serves to accentuate key takeaways. My only gripe is the concluding chapter felt a tad rushed.
Overall rating: 4/5
Why I Failed offers an incisive template for entrepreneurs to review their journeys honestly, take stock of recurring friction points, and course correct going forward. Punj’s accounting sets the foundation for enlightened self-awareness - the first step toward progress at any stage.
Part memoir and part analytical deep dive, author Sweta Punj chronicles key professional mistakes across her careers as a business journalist and digital media entrepreneur in India. With raw vulnerability, she illustrates how temperament gaps, people management blunders and bias blindspots contributed to fallibilities despite surface successes.
Some of the most poignant insights involve the reluctance to seek timely help, inability to transition leadership styles amid growth, and justifying decisions using contorted logic when underlying motives were irrational. While pertaining to her specific experiences, the examination feels universally relevant as cautions around founder hubris and early pattern pitfalls that compound.
By eschewing standard inspirational tropes, Punj puts forth an atypically transparent post-mortem encouraging readers to confront their own failures with humility and wisdom. The storytelling tone feels candid without melodrama. The format of embedding analytical reflections between career stage anecdotes serves to accentuate key takeaways. My only gripe is the concluding chapter felt a tad rushed.
Overall rating: 4/5
Why I Failed offers an incisive template for entrepreneurs to review their journeys honestly, take stock of recurring friction points, and course correct going forward. Punj’s accounting sets the foundation for enlightened self-awareness - the first step toward progress at any stage.
October 5, 2020
An Inspiring Read. 3 stars.
It is truly fascinating to read how stalwarts learnt from their setbacks and bounced back stronger than before. Stories of Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Sminu Jindal and Sabyasachi Mukerjee were truly inspiring; equally interesting were the stories of Narayana Murthy, Narayanan Vaghul and Shankar Sharma. Stories highlight how they prevented internalizing the setbacks & didn't take failures personally; instead, they dissected the setbacks, questioned their decisions, introspected & learnt from the mistakes; most importantly, they had the courage to take the plunge again & ultimately, they succeeded in their mission. Only blemish I felt was, the author should have gone more deep to understand what these stalwarts went through during those tough times & how they coped up with the situations; more information on this would have made the book more valuable. Nevertheless, an Inspiring read, 3 stars.
It is truly fascinating to read how stalwarts learnt from their setbacks and bounced back stronger than before. Stories of Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Sminu Jindal and Sabyasachi Mukerjee were truly inspiring; equally interesting were the stories of Narayana Murthy, Narayanan Vaghul and Shankar Sharma. Stories highlight how they prevented internalizing the setbacks & didn't take failures personally; instead, they dissected the setbacks, questioned their decisions, introspected & learnt from the mistakes; most importantly, they had the courage to take the plunge again & ultimately, they succeeded in their mission. Only blemish I felt was, the author should have gone more deep to understand what these stalwarts went through during those tough times & how they coped up with the situations; more information on this would have made the book more valuable. Nevertheless, an Inspiring read, 3 stars.
January 4, 2018
Failure can indeed be our best teacher. It doesn't matter if it is personal or professional!
Shweta Punj is a terrific writer when it comes to explaining the subject matter, though abridged, in a complete manner.
All the people written about in the book can be related to due to the manner in which Shweta describes their journey.
I would recommend this book to every individual who believes that he/she can make or would want to make a difference to society either through personal gains or through social work.
Shweta Punj is a terrific writer when it comes to explaining the subject matter, though abridged, in a complete manner.
All the people written about in the book can be related to due to the manner in which Shweta describes their journey.
I would recommend this book to every individual who believes that he/she can make or would want to make a difference to society either through personal gains or through social work.
March 23, 2019
Failures are not actually failures. It is foundation for come back. This book is about some peoples failures and how they come back with success. Written in simple language. Must read for everyone who want to get inspiration for their dream.
January 27, 2019
Decent writing. Nothing too great. Lucid to read.
June 6, 2020
Average book new writer write his first book. Less experience
June 7, 2020
Highlights the mistakes that lead to success.
September 1, 2013
By Shweta Punj. Grade A
Shweta Punj is a business journalist, television host, and social entrepreneur. Shweta has interviewed policy makers and thought leaders—including the then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee; Planning Commission Chief Montek Singh Ahluwalia; and former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha. This time she has come up with a unique concept of chronicling failures in ‘Why I Failed‘.
“Fail! And we are stamped for life. Don’t we try and run from failure all our lives. But, ‘spontaneous doing has to go through failures.’ Acknowledging failure is singularly the most difficult thing to do. It takes tremendous courage to come out and say, yes, I failed. Shweta Punj chronicles sixteen such leaders who have celebrated their failure as much as their success. Each story is an anatomy of failure. So whether it was the difference between ‘need’ and ‘want’ that led Abhinav Bindra to miss that winning shot, or whether it was a suicide attempt that pushed Sabyasachi Mukherjee into realizing his potential- these stories will prod you to look at failure differently.”
“Why I Failed” is a collection of instances from the lives of sixteen leaders who tell us why they failed, what they learned from it, and how they ultimately tasted success. The story told by Abhinav Bindra is truly inspiring and one can relate to it, as everybody has been through that phase in life where we come out with flying colors once and are expected to do so again. This one tells us what the mind set should and shouldn’t be when we face that moment of adrenaline rush and high expectation. The rest of the narratives are more of “we failed but later succeeded” kinds. The most inspiring is the narrative of Sminu Jindal, who despite being handicapped rose above and went against all those who opposed her to do what she believed was right.
Failure is not the curse of everyday joes like you and me. Everyone – people we’ve admired and insulted – experience it too, and this is what this book teaches us. It removes the shame from failure, and the fear, and asks us to embrace is – indeed, revel in it. Failure is not when you fall down. It is when you refuse to get up.
The moral in each story was worth a million bucks, though some of the narratives were elaborated a little less than required. The common thing in all was that they didn’t lose confidence in themselves despite what people and the society thought. They constantly believed in themselves. My only gripe would be that it was too short. The stories in itself lasted 3-4 pages, which does not let the reader fully explore the psyche of the individual failing, and thus, experience the magnitude of hopelessness and courage the failure brought on. This could also work as an advantage for some people who don’t like elaborated narratives.
More than why they failed this book tells us how they succeeded even when all hope was lost. The message is clear: Don’t lose faith. Believe in yourself. A feel good book that would put a lot of things in perspective. Don’t miss it.
Originally reviewed at Vaultofbooks.com, a close-knit community of fanatical readers. We are looking for perceptive readers who can write well, and we are eager to provide lots of free books in exchange for reviews. Shoot us a mail at contact@vaultofbooks.com
Shweta Punj is a business journalist, television host, and social entrepreneur. Shweta has interviewed policy makers and thought leaders—including the then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee; Planning Commission Chief Montek Singh Ahluwalia; and former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha. This time she has come up with a unique concept of chronicling failures in ‘Why I Failed‘.
“Fail! And we are stamped for life. Don’t we try and run from failure all our lives. But, ‘spontaneous doing has to go through failures.’ Acknowledging failure is singularly the most difficult thing to do. It takes tremendous courage to come out and say, yes, I failed. Shweta Punj chronicles sixteen such leaders who have celebrated their failure as much as their success. Each story is an anatomy of failure. So whether it was the difference between ‘need’ and ‘want’ that led Abhinav Bindra to miss that winning shot, or whether it was a suicide attempt that pushed Sabyasachi Mukherjee into realizing his potential- these stories will prod you to look at failure differently.”
“Why I Failed” is a collection of instances from the lives of sixteen leaders who tell us why they failed, what they learned from it, and how they ultimately tasted success. The story told by Abhinav Bindra is truly inspiring and one can relate to it, as everybody has been through that phase in life where we come out with flying colors once and are expected to do so again. This one tells us what the mind set should and shouldn’t be when we face that moment of adrenaline rush and high expectation. The rest of the narratives are more of “we failed but later succeeded” kinds. The most inspiring is the narrative of Sminu Jindal, who despite being handicapped rose above and went against all those who opposed her to do what she believed was right.
Failure is not the curse of everyday joes like you and me. Everyone – people we’ve admired and insulted – experience it too, and this is what this book teaches us. It removes the shame from failure, and the fear, and asks us to embrace is – indeed, revel in it. Failure is not when you fall down. It is when you refuse to get up.
The moral in each story was worth a million bucks, though some of the narratives were elaborated a little less than required. The common thing in all was that they didn’t lose confidence in themselves despite what people and the society thought. They constantly believed in themselves. My only gripe would be that it was too short. The stories in itself lasted 3-4 pages, which does not let the reader fully explore the psyche of the individual failing, and thus, experience the magnitude of hopelessness and courage the failure brought on. This could also work as an advantage for some people who don’t like elaborated narratives.
More than why they failed this book tells us how they succeeded even when all hope was lost. The message is clear: Don’t lose faith. Believe in yourself. A feel good book that would put a lot of things in perspective. Don’t miss it.
Originally reviewed at Vaultofbooks.com, a close-knit community of fanatical readers. We are looking for perceptive readers who can write well, and we are eager to provide lots of free books in exchange for reviews. Shoot us a mail at contact@vaultofbooks.com
January 26, 2015
Why i failed was a invigorating title that made me want to read the book. It has a certain amount of freshness in the concept as all that the society ever cares about records are the success and accomplishments that an individual does and only that is told to us. But no body tells the amount of hardwork willpower and never say never attitude it takes to make a person successful as ge is. Loved all the stories given in the book especially the way the author enlighten us about how a ordinary person with flesh n bones deals with things that seperates them from ordinary to extra ordinary. A encouraging read
August 4, 2013
My Review: http://wp.me/p2J8yh-2qh
This was a non-fiction book that I enjoyed. A collection of life stories of people who are known. I know I cannot live their lives, and I don’t want to, but I could take away hope and inspiration from their stories and I am glad for that. The way this book is organized makes it easier for me to refer to the takeaways from the read when I feel down or need inspiration or even to hold myself back from celebrating too much.
This was a non-fiction book that I enjoyed. A collection of life stories of people who are known. I know I cannot live their lives, and I don’t want to, but I could take away hope and inspiration from their stories and I am glad for that. The way this book is organized makes it easier for me to refer to the takeaways from the read when I feel down or need inspiration or even to hold myself back from celebrating too much.
September 18, 2013
I picked up this book to get cues from other's mistakes and realized that some of the mistakes are what I do everyday. It is difficult to learn what book teaches and at times book got more philosophical than painting real life, but it provides a broad perspective that failure/success are facets of same coin. Every bad news is a good news.. it gives you an opportunity to learn and unlearn.
June 13, 2014
Except a couple of stories, most of them are primarily stories of initial struggle followed by success. There is indeed a huge difference between struggle and failure. Managing failure is much more complex as more often than not it is sudden and unexpected. This aspect doesn't get touched in these stories that are otherwise quite inspiring.
December 7, 2013
Talking about failure is not easy. Various people from different walks of life - sport, business and film the book narrates the stories of 16 people despite the failures how they made their way back, these stories including women really are interesting.
March 31, 2018
I purchased this book by its cover.
But book slightly disappointed me. I was thinking that something about the failure will be there but in it she has written overall story, so its kind of short story you can tell anyone. No depth in stories for some serious inspiration.
But book slightly disappointed me. I was thinking that something about the failure will be there but in it she has written overall story, so its kind of short story you can tell anyone. No depth in stories for some serious inspiration.
February 11, 2016
Shweta Punj takes a complete new and refreshing view on The Failure. After reading this book you'll surely relate it to your everyday experiences and try to overcome the failures you face.
One of the best books out there which help you enormously to introspect.
One of the best books out there which help you enormously to introspect.
September 10, 2016
Detailed Review Here: http://www.anureviews.com/why-i-faile...
Read
March 15, 2014It's a short and good read. I was expecting more entrepreneur stories than businessmen stories, but the candidness of people features is simply amazing. Definitely worth a read.
June 8, 2014
good book :)
August 10, 2014
Not the best book as far as the motivational lessons are concerned but better than the rest in the genre such as "Stay Hungry Stay Foolish". The stories could have been much more in-detail.
October 21, 2015
It is a nice read. Learned a lot from it.
March 12, 2016
Really a lot to learn from failures then successes and this book is certainly a must read to get know about business people's failure moments and its totally focused on indigenous business people.
April 5, 2016
Good..some of the stories are actually good.
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