Direct From Dell by Michael Dell

In Direct from Dell, Michael Dell shares his story of how he started Dell Computers , which began in his college dorm room with $1,000 in capital.

Michael Dell's revolutionary insight has allowed him to persevere against all odds, and do business in a different way, his own way. Dell has always given a lot of importance to his customers, in fact, the primary goal of the company is to deliver a great customer experience. He started the company with the intention of creating products & services based on a keen sense of the customers input and the customers needs.

In this book, Michael Dell has shared the strategies that he adopted over the years and the lessons that he has learnt from making mistakes while conducting regular course of business. He has always been fascinated with eliminating unnecessary steps.

For Dell Customer is the King and the ultimate. In fact their business has evolved over the years based on their customers feedback. Most companies segment by product but Dell segments also by customers. This sort of segmentation gave them a great edge over their competitors & they were able to maintain their relationship with their customers in a more refined manner. Dell's business model reflects what customers truly believe is important.

Do you want to know the ingredients of Dell's success, so, here they are-

1. They make efforts to create customer loyalty by delighting their customer not just once, but again and again.
2. Experimentation is an intrinsic part of their company culture.
3. Dell believes in developing partnerships where it makes sense rather than trying to reinvent things that have already been invented.
4. R&D is shareholder & customer focused.
5. Always looking for ways to optimize what they're doing.
6. They listen closely to their customers requirements.
7. Continuous learning is a continuous theme at Dell.
8. They make great efforts to understand & meet the needs of their people.

Suitable reading for mostly entrepreneurs and business managers, this book offers valuable lessons and insights.

In case you want to know more about the company's latest happenings, you can visit their blog- Direct2Dell.

Like The Flowing River by Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho is one of my favorite author. A master storyteller, his writings are simple but profound. I have read most of his books and my all time favorite is the 'Alchemist'.

Like The Flowing River is a brilliant masterpiece by Coelho in which he has shared his experiences, his encounters, his thoughts, ideas & opinion and his philosophy towards life.

This is a book which you can read before going to bed and get up in the morning fueled up with that vigor and enthusiasm to rock the world.

The Story of a pencil, How to Climb Mountains, Believing in the Impossible, The Way of the Bow are some of the pieces that I simply love reading again and again.

The content of the book has so much depth in it that it simply keeps lingering in your mind for a long time.

For a sneak preview, an extract from the book-
Statutes for the New Millennium

1. We are all different, and should do what we can do te remain so.
2. Each human being was given two possibilities: action and contemplation. Both lead to the same place.
3. Each human being was given two qualities: power and the gift. Power directs us towards our destiny; the gift obliges us to share with others what is best in us.
4. Each human being was given a virtue: the ability to choose. Anyone who fails to use this virtue transforms it into a curse, and others will choose for them.
5. Each human being has his or her own sexual identity and should be able to exercise that identity without guilt as long as they do not force that sexual identity on others.
6. Every human being has a personal legend to be fulfilled, and this is our reason for being in the world. This personal legend manifests itself in our enthusiasm for the task.
7. One can abandon one’s personal legend for a time, as long as one does not forget about it entirely and returns to it as soon as possible.
8. Every man has a feminine side, and every woman a masculine side. It is important to use discipline with intuition, and to use intuition with objectivity.
9. Every human being should know two languages: the language of society and the language of signs. One serves to communicate with other people, the other serves to understand God’s messages.
10. Every human being has the right to search for happiness, and by ‘happiness’ is meant something that makes other people feel content.
11. Every human being should keep alive within them the sacred flame of madness, but should behave as a normal person.
12. Only the following items should be considered to be grave faults: not respecting another’s rights: allowing oneself to be paralyzed by fear; feeling guilty; believing that one does not deserve the good or ill that happens in one’s life; being a coward. We will love our enemies, but not make alliances with them. They were placed in our path in order to test our sword, and we should, out of respect for them, struggle against them. We will choose our enemies.
13. All religions lead to the same God, and all deserve the same respect. Anyone who chooses a religion is also choosing a collective way for worshipping and sharing the mysteries. Nevertheless, that person is the only one responsible for his or her actions along the way and has no right to shift responsibility for any personal decisions on to that religion.
14. It is hereby decreed that the wall separating the sacred and the profane be toen down. From now on everything is sacred.
15. Everything that is done in the present affects the future in the form of consequence and affects the past in the form of redemption.
16. All statutes to the contrary are revoked.

Paulo Coelho's books always end up stirring something inside you, leaving you restless and give you that push to take action for improving and changing your life for better.

The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino

Written in a fable form, according to me this book is a manual of success. The story is written in a flashback mode where Hafid, the richest man of Damascus orders his chief bookkeeper Erasmus to distribute all his wealth among his managers and shares his story with him. Hafid was an ambitious camel boy who aimed to become like his master Pathros, the greatest salesman at that time when Hafid was a young boy. Hafid goes to Pathros and tells him that he wants to become like him and urges him to share his secrets of selling. Pathros assigns him a task of selling a robe in Bethlehem, a market where his other salesman avoid visiting since the people of that village are very poor. Hafid goes to Bethlehem and tries to sell the robe but he fails in doing so. While returning home, he finds a child shivering in cold, in his mothers arms and there he wraps the robe around the child's body and gives him back to his parents. He returns home feeling sad as he feels that now he won't be able to fulfill his dream of becoming rich and marrying his love Lisha, a rich merchant's daughter, for whom he wants to become rich.

While Hafid was returning home, Pathros is surprised to see a star in the sky following him and on prodding Hafid about the robe, Pathros realizes that Hafid is the one who deserves to get the 10 Ancient Scrolls which contain the secrets to successful selling.

A few snippets from the scrolls -

"Many times have you heard me say that the rewards are great if one succeeds but the rewards are great only because so few succeed. Many succumb to despair and fail without realizing that they already possess all the tools needed to acquire great wealth. Many others face each obstacle in their path with fear and doubt and consider them as enemies when, in truth, these obstructions are friends and helpers. Obstacles are necessary for success because in selling, as in all careers of importance, victory comes only after many strugglesand countless defeats. Yet each struggle, each defeat, sharpens your skills and strengths, your courage and your endurance, your ability and your confidence and thus each obstacle is a comrade-in-arms forcing you to become better.....or quit. Each rebuff is an opportunity to move forward; turn away from them, avoid them, and you throw away your future."

"Failure will never overtake you if your determination to succeed is strong enough."

"Never feel shame for trying and failing for he who has never failed is he who has never tried."

"Weak is he who permits his thoughts to control his actions; strong is he who forces his actions to control his thoughts."

"Happiness is the wine that sharpens the taste of the meal."

"Self-pity is the most terrible of diseases."

These are my favorite-

If I feel depressed I will sing.

If I feel sad I will laugh.

If I feel ill I will double my labor.

If I feel fear I will plunge ahead.

If I feel inferior I wil wear new garments.

If I feel uncertain I will raise my voice.

If I feel poverty I will think of wealth to come.

If I feel incompetent I will remember past success.

If I feel insignificant I will remember my goals.

Today I will be master of my emotions.

"I am liken to a grain of wheat which faces one of three futures. The wheat can be placed in a sack and dumped in a stall until it is fed to swine. Or it can be ground to flour and made into bread. Or it can be placed in the earth and allowed to grow until its golden head divides and produces a thousand grains from the one.

I am liken to a grain of wheat with one difference. The wheat cannot choose whether it be fed to swine, ground for bread, or planted to multiply. I have a choice and I will not let my life be fed to swine nor will I let it be ground under the rocks of failure and despair to be broken open and devoured by the will of others."

It is one of the best books that I have read and is applicable to each and everyone who wants to succeed in life and I'm sure most of us want to.

A MUST READ.

Trojan Odyssey by Clive Cussler

An exciting action paced book which will keep you hooked till you don't finish it. Cussler's hero Dirk Pitt is like the James Bond series of sea adventures. I found the book to be really interesting. Cussler has written many more books with of course Pitt being the hero in most of his novels like Iceberg, Raise the Titanic, Vixen 03, Night Probe, Pacific Vortex, Deep Six, Cyclops, Treasure, Dragon, Sahara, Inca Gold , Flood Tide, Atlantis Found, Black Wind, Treasure of Khan.
People who like sea adventure will certainly like this book. Here goes the plot of the novel - It's been two years since Dirk Pitt discovered that he had two grown fraternal twin children Dirk and Summer who he loves dearly. They, like their father, love the ocean and work for NUMA where they investigate toxic contamination that is destroying the fragile sea life in the Caribbean ecosystem. While taking samples underwater, they discover a man made palace that sunk to the bottom of the sea millennia ago. While NUMA scientists analyze the find, the twins head to an island off of Guadeloupe to see if a sailing expedition lies beneath the waters and if so is it from the same era that was found in the Caribbean. Their father is saving a floating hotel from a force five hurricane before going to Nicaragua where the toxic contamination seems to be originating from. He finds a company owned by a mysterious four hundred pound man is working with the Chinese to construct underground tunnels that will connect one ocean to another. When he learns what the tunnels will be used for, he and the U.S. government try to stop them without creating an international incident.

About the Author
Clive Cussler was born in Aurora, Illinois and grew up in Alhambra, California. He was awarded the rank of Eagle Scout when he was 14. He attended Pasadena City College for two years and then enlisted in the United States Air Force during the Korean War. During his service in the Air Force he was promoted to Sergeant and worked as an aircraft mechanic and flight engineer for the Military Air Transport Service (MATS). After his discharge from the military Cussler went to work in the advertising industry, first as a copywriter and later as a creative director for two of the nation's most successful advertising agencies.As part of his duties Cussler produced radio and television commercials, many of which won international awards including an award at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.
Following the publication in 1996 of Cussler's first nonfiction work, The Sea Hunters, he was awarded a Doctor of Letters degree in 1997 by the Board of Governors of the State University of New York Maritime College who accepted the work in lieu of a Ph.D. thesis.This was the first time in the college's 123 year history that such a degree had been awarded.
Cussler is a fellow of the Explorers Club of New York, the Royal Geographic Society in London, and the American Society of Oceanographers.

Love Story by Erich Segal

"Love means never having to say you're sorry."

Ok now first off all let me tell you that I don't really prefer romantic novels but this book is an exception.
A classic timeless story about Oliver Barrett IV, a rich jock from a stuffy WASP family on his way to a Harvard degree and a career in law and Jennifer Cavilleri, a wisecracking, working-class beauty studying music at Radcliffe. They are complete oppsites in nearly everyway but finally fall for each other. I am not going to tell you much about this story because I want you to read it for yourself and experience the after reading impact.
Some facts taken from wikipedia about this book - Love Story is a 1970 romance novel by American writer Erich Segal. The book's origins were in that of a screenplay Segal wrote and was subsequently approved for production by Paramount Pictures. Paramount requested that Segal adapt the story into novel form as a preview of sorts for the film. The novel was released on February 14, 1970, Valentine's Day.. Portions of the story originally appeared in The Ladies' Home Journal. Love Story became the top selling work of fiction for all of 1970 in the United States, and was translated into more than 20 languages. A sequel, Oliver's Story, was published in 1977. The film (Love Story) was released on December 16, 1970.
This is a story which will stay in your heart forever.