Excerpt from SIX LENSES: Vignettes of Success, Career and Relationships

PLU - People Like Us

The life stories of celebrities are highly readable and inspirational. Celebrities are written about a lot, and their stories are commented about a lot; some aspects about them also suffer exaggeration and distortion. The stories of celebrities do bear interest for the reader because celebrity stories are about people who are widely accepted to be successful.

Publisher: Rupa Publication Genre:Business/Non Fiction

Their stories are presented like fairy tales which romanticise more than depict stark realities.

This book is based on PLUs or people like us. PLUs inspire as well as instruct readers in different ways compared to the stories of celebrities. It is comforting for ordinary people to know that PLUs, like themselves, struggle to think through dilemmas, do not know precisely what they want out of their lives and careers or struggle to live a life of fulfilment despite possessing all the trappings of success.

This may perhaps be one of few such books that is based on chronicling PLUs.

PLUs are unable to recall the magical moment when 'eureka' clicked in their brain. A eureka is clicking in their brain often, but it is not recognised by them as a eureka moment and there is no thunder and lightning that blinds their mind! These realities caused me to want to write a book from an experiential perspective- about the stories I have encountered and how they helped me think about things.

I did not want to be prescriptive with pat answers and solutions to the issues of success, career and relationships. The stories involve people whom I have known, from business and society. Why should the reader be interested in the lives of PLUs, ordinary characters?

As integrated human beings, like the reader, the PLUs have three life influences: first, their genetic personality; second, their inner journey of experiences (self-awareness, mental complexity, childhood character influences); third, their outer influences (education, parents, job and friends). These three merge into one track to influence how they think and act.

This integrated track defines who they are as human beings. So when you read about other people or interact with friends and work colleagues, if you wish to understand that person as an integrated human being (as you should be interested), then you need to understand that person's inner and outer life influences. The biography and experiences of Nihal Kaviratne, Geeta and Jamshed Irani are integral to elucidating the ideas in this book.

(See interview: Viewing the world through a different lens)