“Connect the Dots” is a book written by Rashmi Bansal (entrepreneur, writer, blogger all rolled into one). It tells the stories of courage, determination and inspiration of 20 people from different backgrounds who chose to become entrepreneurs without doing an MBA. This is her 2nd book. Her 1st book “Stay Hungry Stay Foolish” was a similar story of famous entrepreneurs. But the difference was that all of them had done their MBAs from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Two of my greatest learnings from the book are – 1. It isnt necessary to do an MBA to become an entrepreneur because academic qualifications shouldnt decide a person’s future and career. 2. The entrepreneurs today are in hurry to make as much money as possible as fast as they can. In any new project the first few years are really challenging and one should be ready for that.

1. A Book Review
on
Connect the Dots

2. About the Author
Rashmi Bansal
• Rashmi Bansal is a writer, entrepreneur and a youth
expert.
• She is the author of four bestselling books on
entrepreneurship – Stay Hungry Stay Foolish, I have
a dream, and Poor Little Rich slum. Her books have
sold over half a million copies and been translated
into 10 languages.
• She is co-founder at JAM(Just another magazine).
Rashmi is popular guest speaker at reputed business
schools in India and the US.
• An economics graduate from Sophia college, Mumbai
and an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, She lives in
Mumbai.
• She writes extensively on youth, careers
and entrepreneurship on her blog Youth Curry.

3. “YOU CAN’T CONNECT THE DOTS LOOKING FORWARD
YOU CAN ONLY CONNECT THEM LOOKING BACKWARDS.
SO YOU HAVE TO TRUST…IN SOMETHING
– YOUR GUT, DESTINY, LIFE, KARMA, WHATEVER.
THIS APPROACH HAS NEVER LET ME DOWN, AND
IT HAS MADE ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN MY LIFE”.
-STEVE JOBS

4. IS IT NECESSARY ????
THE INSPIRING STORIES OF 20 ENTREPRENEURS WITHOUT
AN MBA WHO DARES TO FIND THEIR OWN PATH.
Theme of the Book

5. ENTREPRENEURS
3 Types of Entrepreneurs
JUNOON JUBAAN
Some entrepreneurs are driven by a
particular idea,or passion.
Something which is different,
ahead of its time. These
ventures are about making
that dream, a living reality.
JUGAAD
These entrepreneurs have no
formal training in business.
They learnt by observation,
experimentation and
application of mind.
Because ultimately business
is not ‘Rocket Science’
Creative people need a platform to
express themselves. When that
talent is unique, the platform
must be created. And is doing
so, the artist too becomes
an ‘entrepreneur’.

6. JUGAAD
Prem Ganapathy
DOSA PLAZA
Hanmant Gaikwad
BHARATH VIKAS GROUP
Ranjiv ramchadani
TANTRA T-SHIRTS
Kunwar Sachdev
SU-KAM
Ganesh Ram
VETA
Suresh kamath
LASER SOFT
INFOSYSYTEMS
Raghu Khanna
CASHURDRIVE
Sunitha Ramnathkar
FEM CARE PHARMA
N Mahadevan
ORIENTAL CUISINES

7. Prem Ganapathy
DOSA PLAZA
Jugaad Entrepreneurs
• Came to Mumbai like million
others in search of a better
future. Inspired by McDonald’s,
Prem has risen from humble
dishwasher to the owner of the
fast food chain Dosa plaza
having 26 outlets Pan India

8. Jugaad Entrepreneurs
• He is a BSc graduate, an average
student in school. Fell in love with
physics later in life and made the
“love” profitable.
• Today SU-KAM is a 500cr company
today in the field of power
electronics.
Kunwar Sachdev
SU-KAM

9. Jugaad Entrepreneurs
• As an NSS volunteer, Ganesh Ram
discovered his strenght is
“teaching” From a single coaching
center in 1981, Vivekananda Study
circle has grown into Veta – India’s
largest spoken English school
Ganesh Ram
VETA

10. Jugaad Entrepreneurs
• She wanted to do something for
herself after the birth of her
second daughter, launched
Fem fairness bleech. Dominated
the market for more than 27 years.
• Recently It was Sold to Dabur.
Sunitha Ramnathkar
FEM CARE PHARMA

11. Jugaad Entrepreneurs
• He gave up his prestigious job of a
professor in Madras university, to
set up a Chinese restaurant. But his
knowledge of cost accounting was
equally handy in the kitchen.
• Today Oriental Cuisines is a food
empire stretching across cuisines
and continents.
N Mahadevan
ORIENTAL CUISINES

12. Jugaad Entrepreneurs
As an engineering student took
tuitions to support himself through
college. Today he runs BVG, a facilities
management firm which has
the cream of the corporate
Today,It is a A 300Cr company and its
Biggest client is Rashtrapati bhavan
Hanmant Gaikwad
BHARATH VIKAS GROUP

13. Jugaad Entrepreneurs
• A student of Microbiology, but
didn't liked it much. He
joined advertising agency like The
Edge, Triton but he didn't liked the
hierarchy. Ultimately, he decided
and started his own venture
became his own boss in Tantra.
Ranjiv ramchadani
TANTRA T-SHIRTS

14. Jugaad Entrepreneurs
• Suresh Kamath is Mtech from IIT
runs a software firm
where programming jobs are not
only for engineers but also open to
all.
• He believes that social
responsibility and sound business
can go hand in hand and his
company is living proof of it.
Suresh kamath
LASER SOFT
INFOSYSYTEMS

15. Jugaad Entrepreneurs
• He started his company at the age of
24, right out of college. Cashurdrive
based on a simple idea which
required no capital, no office, no
fancy technology. His story shows
that experience is overrated – there
is no better time to start than now.
• He says“ Give me any car anywhere
in India, I can wrap your ad on it”
Raghu Khanna
CASHURDRIVE

16. JUNOON
Chetan Maini
REVA ELECTRIC CAR
R Sriram
CROSSWORD
Saurabh Vyas
Gaurav Rathore
POLITICAL EDGE
Mahima Mehra
HAATHI CHAAP
Samar Gupta
trikaya
agriculture
Satyajit Singh
SHAKTHI SUDHA
INDUSTRIES
Sunil Bhu
FLANDERS DAIRY

17. Junoon Entrepreneurs
• He never had the burning ambition
to start a business he simply
wanted to be immersed himself in
the world of books. Yet this
college dropout went on to build
India’s largest bookstore chain, and
spread the reading virus far and
wide.
R Sriram
CROSSWORD

18. Junoon Entrepreneurs
• Hostel ki dosti and a common love for
politics gave birth to the company “
Political edge” – a new species of
corporate. These two idealistic young
men are putting their grey cells to
use, providing research and consulting
services exclusively for politicians.
• They said that“The common man feels
that 99% of politicians are frauds and
don’t know anything, but we say around
40% are good. They are trying hard to
do something, but there are constrains.”
Saurabh Vyas
Gaurav Rathore
POLITICAL EDGE

19. Junoon Entrepreneurs
• He was comfortably place in life as a
distributor of consumer durables.
Yet one fine day he stop
the business, to take on the
challenge of commercializing phool
makhana. In doing so, he has found
a mission in life and brought
benefits to thousands of
marginalized farmers.
• He has Created a 50 cr business
from Bihar.
Satyajit Singh
SHAKTHI SUDHA
INDUSTRIES

20. Junoon Entrepreneurs
• He was a city boy and wanted to
work in a farm. After his college,
hewent to Belgium and learnt all
about making cheese. That’s
what he is been doing
at Flanders Dairy for the last two
decades, and loving it.
Sunil Bhu
FLANDERS DAIRY

21. Junoon Entrepreneurs
• Chetan Maini was crazy about
electronics and cars. Its his passion
that led him to pursue the dream
of producing an electric car. Today
Reva is not only manufacturing
such vehicles but licensing its
technology to the likes of
General Motors who was an intern
in the same company to start his
career.
Chetan Maini
REVA ELECTRIC CAR

22. Junoon Entrepreneurs
• She wanted to work in recyling, but not with
an NGO. So she ended up starting a business in handmade paper.
Along the way she discovered many interesting things, including an
unexpected use of elephant dung.
Mahima Mehra
HAATHI CHAAP

23. Junoon Entrepreneurs
• Samar was a city boy with no
burning ambition in life. But when life threw up a challenge, he
decided to face it head on. Over the last decade Trikaya has matured
from a hobby into a flourishing business, ever expanding the
frontiers of “what can be grown” in India.
Samar Gupta
trikaya
agriculture

24. JUBAAN
Abhijit Bansod
STUDIO ABD
Paresh Mokashi
HARISHCHANDRANI
FACTORY
Krishna Reddy
PRINCE DANCE GROUP
Kalyan Verma
WILDLIFE
PHOTOGRAPHER

25. Jubaan Entrepreneurs
• As a young NID graduate, Abhijit
Bansod wondered why desi
designers were always inspired
by the west. he went on to
pioneer the uniquely Indian
Heritage and Raga Collections at
Titan, and now runs his own
product design company
Abhijit Bansod
STUDIO ABD

26. Jubaan Entrepreneurs
• Paresh Mokashi wanted to be an
actor,but found his niche as a
playwright and director on the
Marathi stage. A chance of reading
of Dadasaheb Phalke's biography
led him to on a new adventure and
a widely acclaimed feature film
which was India's official entry at
the Oscars in 2009
Paresh Mokashi
HARISHCHANDRANI
FACTORY

27. Jubaan Entrepreneurs
• In a small town in orissa, Krishna
Reddy assembled a group of daily
wage laborers and formed 'Prince
Dance Group'.
• This troupe won the hotly
competed 'India's Got Talent show,
enthralling the audience with its
unique brand of mythology-
Inspired Choreography.
Krishna Reddy
PRINCE DANCE GROUP

28. Jubaan Entrepreneurs
• At 22,Kalyan Varma had a Dream
Job with Yahoo.
• But one fine day he quit and
persue his passion -Wildlife
photography. Today, he is a living
example of an 'Idiot' whos living his
dream and making a living, out of
something he truly loves
Kalyan Verma
WILDLIFE
PHOTOGRAPHER

29. I think its one time reading book because I think If anyone read
the book with concentration than he/she wil know that hardwork
is the only key to success.
And after reading the 10-12 stories we can see that there is no
more difference in the stories. lives.
Most people start with a failure early in the venture but
persistence does pay. But if anyone have passion for something
than he/she becomes successful theres no dought in that…
SUMMARY