Company of One by Paul Jarvis

In the times when everyone is aiming to grow big, Paul has a unique idea of remaining small – remaining one – and yet enjoying the freedom that comes with being your own boss.

He explains how he got started and how one can run a successful one-man business and yet not be a slave to the business.

This is a novel idea that I would like to replicate.

P.S. In the book, Paul gives you his email. Try and send him and email and dont be surprised when he replies.

The 5 am Club by Robin Sharma

I am a night bird. But I was searching for ideas of being more productive and one of them was waking up early, before your household wakes up, and doing certain things in order to have the best day ahead.

This led me to Robin’s book. It’s a story of of two lost souls who attended a seminar and then was invited to spend some time with the host, learning the techniques of the 5 am club. They learn what to do in the first hour of the day. They also learn that it takes 66 days to form a habit.

What I didn’t like about this book was its long windedness. There was too much filler material that didn’t add any value to the ideas. It just dragged the story unnecessarily. But this is my view of it. Yours could be different.

Why am I putting this book here? Because I am part of the 5.30 am club now. One day I’ll make it to the 5 am club. One day…

Dancing Wuli Masters by Gary Zukav

This is a classic book for the layperson who wants to know about quantum mechanics – the physics behind incredibly small stuff that we cant see.

Quantum physics even shook Einstein as he couldnt grasp the idea of probabilities and not certainties in science formulaes.

Gary is a journalist who attends a physic’s conference and then disects it into simple English for us.

This book explores Quantum physics and how this new scientific research in the field has changed the thinking of many scientists. First off, even though the author wrote this book for non-scientists and for those not into the mathematical formulas involved in physics; nevertheless, this huge volume is not what I would call an easy recreational read. I am happy that I finally got to read this classic and for anyone who is interested in the new developments in Quantum Mechanics this is an excellent place to start.

This book was one of the first to explore the new physics for the non-scientist and even though it is somewhat dated; however, I still found it a great text to understand the important developments in physics.

Amazing book, easy to read and understand, even for someone who is poor in physics, like myself.

Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe by Simon Singh

I love this book because of the manner Simon explains complex concepts for a layperson such as myself.

He starts of by explaining how the ancient civilisations measured the distance of the earth to the moon and then to the sun and other planets. He explained Copernican and Keplarian theories and Galileo’s contribution in an easy to understand manner.

He then explains Einstein’s theories – the more famous Special Theory and the less famous General Theory of Relativy, and explains how measurements and testing are being done to confirm/refute these theories.

He ends with a short dicussion on the philosophical and religious implications of the Big Bang. Although he downplayed the belief in a God, the author admits that the scientific community has not yet “properly addressed the ultimate question of where the universe came from” and that the answer might indeed be outside the realm of science.

The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt

This was my first book on management. I put this book twice because I thought it was about manufacturing. But for some reason, the third time I started reading it, only then did I realise that this was about management as a whole.

The story is about the new plant manager, Alex Rogo. Alex is a harried plant manager working ever more desperately to try to improve performance. His factory is rapidly heading for disaster. So is his marriage. He has ninety days to save his plant – or it will be closed by corporate HQ, with hundreds of job losses.

It takes a chance meeting with a professor from student days – Jonah – to help him break out of conventional ways of thinking to see what needs to be done. The story of Alex’s fight to save his plant is more than compulsive reading. It contains a serious message for all managers in the industry and explains the ideas, which underline the Theory of Constraints (TOC), developed by Eli Goldratt.

One of Eli Goldratt s convictions was that the goal of an individual or an organization should not be defined in absolute terms. A good definition of a goal is one that sets us on a path of ongoing improvement.

Pursuing such a goal necessitates more than one breakthrough. In fact, it requires many. To be in a position to identify these breakthroughs we should have a deep understanding of the underlying rules of our environment.

How I Built This by Guy Raz

This book is based on Guy Raz’s highly acclaimed NPR podcast, How I Built This with Guy Raz. This book offers priceless insights and inspiration from the world’s top entrepreneurs on how to start, launch, and build a successful venture.

Great ideas often come from a simple spark: A soccer player on the New Zealand national team notices all the unused wool his country produces and figures out a way to turn them into shoes (Allbirds). A former Buddhist monk decides the very best way to spread his mindfulness teachings is by launching an app (Headspace). A sandwich cart vendor finds a way to reuse leftover pita bread and turns it into a multimillion-dollar business (Stacy’s Pita Chips).

Guy Raz has interviewed more than 200 highly successful entrepreneurs to uncover amazing true stories like these. In How I Built This, he shares tips for every entrepreneur’s journey: from the early days of formulating your idea to raising money and recruiting employees, to fending off competitors, to finally paying yourself a real salary.

This is a must-read for anyone who has ever dreamed of starting their own business or wondered how trailblazing entrepreneurs made their own dreams a reality.

The Origin of (almost) Everything by New Scientist

When Edwin Hubble looked into his telescope in the 1920s, he was shocked to find that nearly all of the galaxies he could see through it were flying away from one another. If these galaxies had always been travelling, he reasoned, then they must, at some point, have been on top of one another. This discovery transformed the debate about one of the most fundamental questions of human existence – how did the universe begin?

Every society has stories about the origin of the cosmos and its inhabitants, but now, with the power to peer into the early universe and deploy the knowledge gleaned from archaeology, geology, evolutionary biology and cosmology, we are closer than ever to understanding where it all came from. This book explores the modern origin stories of everything from the Big Bang, meteorites and dark energy, to dinosaurs, civilisation, timekeeping, belly-button fluff and beyond.

From how complex life evolved on Earth, to the first written language, to how humans conquered space, The Origin of (almost) Everything offers a unique history of the past, present and future of our universe.