3 out of 4 stars
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Moonshots by Naveen Jain (author), John Schroeter (contributor), and Sir Richard Branson (foreword) talks about what it takes to enable exponential technology developments that will forever change the way in which we live and work.
People have always been asking the wrong questions: they want to know how they could get rich as opposed to how they could do meaningful things. This is the focal point of the foreword of the book that has been contributed by Sir Richard Branson himself. This essentially lays the groundwork for the rest of the chapters where Naveen Jain, a business executive, entrepreneur, and the founder and former CEO of InfoSpace, starts sharing his insights into what are the things that hold us back from achieving amazing things in life. The hard truth we need to face up to today is how, in today’s global economy driven by scarcity, we have to create more of what we need rather than spend less of what we have.
The urgency is real, as we see billions of people around us without basic education, safe water, adequate nutrition, and access to healthcare. But each one of us is capable of changing these conditions by cultivating the right mind-set – pessimism and resignation about the situation will do nothing to uncover human potential. Jain – in his optimistic way – assures us that he doesn’t believe we will let the doom and gloom predictions become a reality. As an example he quotes the situation in 1825, when people didn’t know what rail travel was and strongly believed that, at 30 miles per hour, passengers would simply melt and uteruses would fly out of the female body. Yet, the Stockton-Darlington Railway made rail travel possible and people took to it like fish to water. This is an example of a “moonshot” as per Jain—a ground-breaking project undertaken without any expectation of near-term profitability, making a huge positive change to the lives of people in the process.
In addition to the foreword and the afterword, the book is divided into three major parts. Part one talks about intellectual curiosity, creating a post-scarcity world, and finding your right direction. Part two provides some good old motivation to aim higher in life and discusses the problems with health and education today, and what can be done about these issues. And part three deals with the need for perfect execution and offers some steps to success.
Overall, the book is great and I enjoyed reading it. It is inspiring, encouraging, entertaining and, at times, awe-inspiring. What is most admirable about this book is how it gets us to start thinking of our lives and how we can make a difference to the world, rather than wait for others to make a move. I also find it enlightening that as I read Jain’s thoughts and learned his perspectives on a variety of topics, I was encouraged to feel more optimistic that things could just get better from here on for our planet and its inhabitants, thanks to the work of entrepreneurs like the author himself. If you are aware of the law of attraction, I can tell you that this book’s tips and tricks sound a lot more like the teachings of that law, but even go beyond that by telling us not to just believe that things will happen—just go ahead and make them happen. Inaction is seriously not appreciated by this entrepreneur. The writing reflects the passion with which the author has written these chapters, and it feels like he is talking to us one-to-one and trying to answer all the questions we have in our mind about the future that we just cannot predict. What’s more, I have to admit that the book has been perfectly edited and I found absolutely no errors in the book including misspelled words, missing words, and typos.
However, I had a difficult time keeping my attention focused on the book at times. Not just once did I find it hard to keep myself engrossed in the book due to the sheer length of the chapters and the repetition of a single idea over and over again in the same chapter. This kills some of the enthusiasm we feel about reading the book.
I, therefore, give this book a rating of 3 out of 4 stars, and I recommend it to everyone, especially those who feel down in the dumps due to the doomsday predictions they are exposed to on a daily basis and sincerely wish to bring about a change in people’s lives.
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Moonshots
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when I get a little money I buy books; and if I have any left l buy food and clothes
Thanks!
