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| Sunday, April 11, 2004 |
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| Sunday, April 11, 2004 |
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Look Beyond Money to Grow Rich
Basu focuses on people who want to climb the ladder of success with their own efforts. He tells you to look inwards and search for those qualities that may help you succeed in life. You should hone your skills and employ these to fetch you the cherished results. Even if the mantra appears to be too simplistic and self-centered, it is, actually, a complex process of harmonising individual aspirations with various relationships in order to get optimum results. While you alone can imbibe the traits that can make you rich and successful, you do need the involvement of others, viz., superiors, colleagues, subordinates, customers etc for the purpose. As Basu says, "Others can’t make you rich; neither can you alone!" Written in a lucid style, this book has chapters like Plan Your Life’s Aim, Real Worth, Expertise & Efficiency and Attitude, which would interest all aspiring millionaires.
The UBS Career Guide THERE was a time when, barring a lucky few, most school-going kids weren’t sure about what career to choose. Peer pressure, parental aspirations and, often, misinformation led one to plumb for the wrong one. The subsequent regret could be perpetual. However, today there’s plenty of information available that can enable you to plan your career. Ghose rightly points out at the outset that it’s not easy to choose one’s career. Says she, "Beyond gathering information on factors such as different career options, the eligibility criteria, the premier institutions from where the required qualifications for a certain career could be acquired, variables such as attitudes, abilities and inclinations also play a major role". Therefore, if you choose management as your career you must, firstly, know that there’re different streams of management, like finance, marketing, operational research etc. Your personality traits, among other things, should include natural authority without being authoritarian. Similarly, advertising involves knowledge of the working of different media. It offers prospects both to creative persons like copywriters, artists, cameramen etc and also to hard-nosed businesspersons who excel in dealing with clients. The author has meticulously listed various careers in alphabetical order. She has also given information on the qualifications required for each profession, and how and where to acquire these. Addresses of relevant institutions that impart professional training too have been provided. A valuable reference book for those who haven’t yet decided upon their vocations.
Smart Fliers
But those were the days when flying was an adventure. Now it’s a mundane activity, as safe as journey by road or sea, and much faster too. So one wouldn’t expect anyone to feel daunted by the prospect of air-travel today. This is really not so, unfortunately. Those flying for the first time can be scared enough to empathise with the American dramatist John Kerr’s sentiment, "I feel about airplanes the way I feel about diets. It seems to me that they are wonderful things for other people to go on". You really can’t blame them, for, apart from pinpricks like visa problems, security checks etc, perils of different kinds await today’s air-passengers; skyjacking and terrorist strikes are the most prominent ones of course. However, this slim handbook seeks to remove all your fears about air travel. It even gives you useful tips on how to become an adroit air traveller capable of taking security and customs rigmarole et al in your stride. You are also given tips on etiquette, and how to prepare for the journey. This is an informative, crisp guide that should be a part of your travel documents. |
IF you have been born with the proverbial silver
spoon in your mouth, or have won a lottery or fortuitously got into
money thanks to an heirless relative’s demise, this handbook is not
for you. And those who tell you, oh so philosophically, that money and
happiness don’t go hand-in-hand may well remember the words of French
existentialist writer, Albert Camus, "It is a kind of spiritual
snobbery that makes people think that they can be happy without
money."
THE late British flier Amy Johnson remarked in her
autobiography Myself When Young, "Had I been a man I might
have explored the Poles or climbed Mount Everest, but as it was my
spirit found outlet in the air..." The Irish poet W.B. Yeats, on
the other hand, gave vent to his feelings on taking to the aerial route
in these lines, "Nor law, nor duty bade me fight, /Nor public
men, nor cheering crowds, /A lonely impulse of delight /Drove to this
tumult in the clouds; /I balanced all, brought all to mind, /The years
to come seemed waste of breath, /A waste of breath the years behind /In
balance with this life, this death."