Are You Ready to Succeed? Unconventional Strategies to Achieving Personal Mastery in Business and Life [Hardcover]

Srikumar S. Rao (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 28, 2005

The premise is simple: A person's ideal life, especially their career, can be carefully conceived and crafted. Based on Dr. Rao's popular course "Creativity and Personal Mastery" at Columbia University's Graduate School of Business, this book offers a series of readings, exercises, and lessons drawn from both spiritual and commercial situations that enable you to reconstruct and improve your professional world. This transformation will turn your life around and help you become exponentially more effective in your chosen career and thereby flourish in all aspects of your life. Whether you are questioning the value of money or the core values of your life, this book is a powerful tool that will help you to "discover the purpose that can suffuse your life and bring stars to your eyes."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Based on the course Creativity and Personal Mastery that Rao teaches at Columbia Business School and Long Island University, this Buddhism-inspired self-help book promises readers the tools to effect fundamental life changes and find inner peace. At its heart, this is a case of Eastern philosophy leading Western MBAs along the path to self-improvement and corporate enlightenment, with a kinder and more productive working world as the ultimate goal. Rao narrates with waves of parables ("When you have one eye so firmly fixed on the goal, you have but one eye left to find the way") and introspection exercises—all designed to help executives find "effervescent joy" and discover their "purpose in life." Rao's techniques require an open mind and a belief in a "benevolent Universe" and in the notion that the negative things that happen to people are more often a matter of errant mindset and misinterpretation than reality. Will any of this actually lead readers to a higher level of self-enlightenment and make them happier at work and in life? As Rao writes, regarding the possibility of a universe that looks out for the well-being of its denizens: "Maybe yes, maybe no. Who knows?" (Jan.)
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Review

"It is a forum for self-exploration, meant to help future business leaders define their personal ethics and goals." -- New York Times

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 255 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion (December 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401301932
• ISBN-13: 978-1401301934
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #93,990 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

86 of 97 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Totally Transformative, January 16, 2006

By 

Brandon Peele "Brandon Peele" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Are You Ready to Succeed? Unconventional Strategies to Achieving Personal Mastery in Business and Life (Hardcover)

It will be fairly difficult for me to give an unbiased review of Are You Ready to Succeed, as the course on which it's based set me upon a path of growth and self-discovery and allowed me for first time to know true fulfillment. For this, I feel immense gratitude, incapable of expression with words. I'll divide this review into two parts: 1. The effect the wisdom and exercises within the book had on my life and 2. My feelings about the book itself.

Prior to taking Creativity and Personal Mastery, the course upon which the book is based, I was an obnoxious, mechanistic, sociopathic prince of capitalism. I viewed wealth as a means to exert dominance over others, as well as a vehicle to procure hedonic bliss. I found a happy home for this way of thinking in the world of investment banking, venture capital and startups. I drank, drugged, womanized, broke the law; I created a world in which those without a similar plunderer-type mentality were weak and destined to be dominated. At the beginning of the course, I had been fired twice, totally four cars, been arrested in five states and inflicted emotional harm on countless females. I didn't read; I thought introspection was for meek, those incapable of enjoying the finer things in life. In short, I was miserable - a gerbil on wheel of chemical and emotional highs, a slave to the influence of my fellow "pirate" peers. You could say I was ready for a change.

The course had several effects upon me. There are too many to list, so I will detail only four.

The first is the notion that the universe is benevolent, a partner in creating not only fulfilling personal endeavors, but a brighter future. The second is that I have an opportunity to be truly happy, i.e. fulfilled, not through striving and external action, but through removing that which is unreal and not me, thereby allowing my true nature to shine. The third is that HOW is not important, rather only the WHAT and the WHY, meaning I need not obsess over how desirable things such as fulfillment and impact come into my life, only a clear conception of what it is I want to achieve and why I want to achieve it. The last insight I was blessed with was, "If you build it, they will come", meaning that attention to my own personal mastery is the most important thing I can do in terms of creating the life and manifesting the impact I desire.

Since finishing the course, I have gone on to read several of the recommended texts, traveled to India to learn meditation, attended various personal growth related retreats, consulted with non-profits, helped people start companies, become a more effective writer and public speaker, begun creating healthy platonic and authentic romantic relationships, found fulfilling employment with a renewable energy company and am currently helping launch a non-profit. In addition to taking up meditation, I have stopped drinking, eating meat, eating sweets (and in doing so, lost 60 pounds), doing drugs, watching porn and have filled this gap with yoga, reading, writing, love-making, cooking and hiking.

Certainly the wisdom and exercises from the course (and book) did not do all of this, I did, but it was the seed crystal that allowed me to embark on a path of rapid transformation and achieve an infinitely more rewarding life. I owe Prof. Rao, the course, and by extension this book a tremendous debt of gratitude for which I am only beginning to repay.

I really enjoyed the book as well. It was a beautiful encapsulation of the course, touching on the major themes. Given the limited scope of the chosen media (in this case a book, as compared to a semester-long course) it is an excellent effort and if used as stated could produce extraordinary results for those who employ it. I say employ instead of read, because to merely read this book is not sufficient. As Prof. Rao says, the book should viewed more as a workbook, a guide for exercises. Viewing this book as anything else will produce only limited results. I echo the following recommendations: 1. Buy the book, 2. Convince 5 friends to also buy the book, 3. Spend 3 months reading the book, stopping to do each exercise for a week or so, 4. Hold weekly meetings to discuss the exercises with your group, 4. Keep a journal throughout the process.

Obliviously, the wisdom and exercises in this book had a marked affect on my life. I believe that if you are serious about reaching your true potential and enjoying unbounded success and fulfillment, this is the book for you.

44 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The greatest self-help book out there, January 10, 2006

By 

Josh Klenoff (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Are You Ready to Succeed? Unconventional Strategies to Achieving Personal Mastery in Business and Life (Hardcover)

I was "ready to succeed" but didn't have the tools. My ivy league schooling and decades in the school of hard knocks failed to give me what this book did: tools that INSTANTLY took me from where I was to where I wanted to be.

I went from stress to bliss, from taking for granted to immense appreciation, from nervous to confident, from unhealthy to in shape. Most of all, I went from from total confusion to my dream job.

I always wanted to be able to give speeches in public. There was only one problem-- my greatest fear was public speaking. In the book, Rao offers an exercise called "As-If's."

Three days afer stumling upon this exercise, I had to give a speech. I felt amazing. People complimented me left and right. To make a long story short, I'm now a corporate trainer and executive coach. I'm living my dream of traveling the globe speaking on topics I'm competely passionate about.

On every level, this book can and will change your life. I'm so grateful for the author's wisdom, I'll PERSONALLY offer a money-back guarantee for anyone who doesn't love this book!

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An enlightening read, June 22, 2006

By 

Tricia Molloy "Author of Divine Wisdom at Wor... (Marietta, GA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Are You Ready to Succeed? Unconventional Strategies to Achieving Personal Mastery in Business and Life (Hardcover)

There are so many wonderful "aha's!" in this enlightening book. These profound concepts, intricate stories and thoughtful exercises will change the way you look at life. Some were new to me and others were good reminders.

Here are a few of my favorites.

You can cultivate a Witness to help you objectively observe your life and break free of bad habits, replacing them with ones that serve your highest good.

Everyone acts in their own self interest. Understanding that at a deep level is liberating.

Surrender is a good thing. Once you give up the illusion of control and detach from the outcome, remarkable things transpire.

Srikumar Rao is a wise man with a big heart. He sees us at our best and supports us on our journey to succeed.