Hemacharya
Editor-in-chief
Daijiworld Weekly

Mangaluru, Aug 23: Claudius Pereira, the author of the bestselling book, Echoes of Footprints – a true story of how Clarence Pereira, his dear father raised seven motherless children to levels of greatness, is at it again. This time around it’s a book, “i, CEO” a handbook for a thrilling journey in entrepreneurship, through his own narration.

The book written by Claudius and edited by Russel D’Silva, serves as an inspirational interaction that will giving a budding entrepreneur an opportunity to practically design or redesign the business outfit by learning through the process that the author himself went through. The author writes in detail of how he ventured into his business, how bad decisions brought him bad results, how he bounced back from the trials and tribulations, the lessons learnt the hard way and so on. Finally as we say, there is nothing so beautiful than success itself.

According to the author’s own admission, he came to Bangalore, the city of dreams with Rs 10 in his sweaty shirt pocket. And so many years later he finds he is far ahead in life than one would imagine. He is a self-starter, dreamer, honest and hardworking technocrat and above all he believes in himself and in the power of the Divine. That makes him a different kind of entrepreneur in this unrealistic world.

What is the objective of this book? It is for those who have started off to become ‘tomorrows’ worthy businessmen, having started some ‘start-up’ some seasons ago, but badly ‘stuck’ in dry mud, rotating furiously like a car tire in a deep ditch, desiring to take the business to the next level but don’t know how to go about it. For such people, this book can serve as a ‘mentor’ who will step out every now and then and make you question ‘yourself’, weigh your plan and sketch a new map like you have never done before. In doing so the author shares his life’s fulfilling experiences and provides a platform to give back to the society the wisdom he has gained in thirty-three years of his fascinating journey in entrepreneurship.

What makes this book so interesting and such a different read? Besides his own experience, the author shares with us some of the choicest ‘quotable quotes’ under ‘Author’s favourite quotes’, a few of them carefully derived from languages as Latin, Italian, German, Filipino, Finnish and so on.

What I like the most in this book, as a TQM consultant myself, was the ‘AHA Moments” wherein the author stretches out a few challenges in the form of a question, in order to bring out ‘self-awareness, acceptance and change’ in a willful reader or a budding entrepreneur. He gives ample chances to jot down what cooks within yourself and then in reasonable details gives out his tips to work on. In that sense this book is a ‘working manual’ for those who like to learn the first lessons in both life and business.

Further, the tables like ‘difference between Ethics and Morals’, guide on how to handle failure, how to write an effective Mission Statement, etc. that not only adds value to the book, but also gives us an insight into how a novice can learn to walk the ropes of business. In one of the chapters, ‘What are you worth?’, the author deals with how ‘negative perspectives’ can be turned into ‘positive perspectives’, by narrating his life as an example.

The 188 XII page book, priced at Rs 200, in essence is filled with exercises, quotes, evaluations, valuable resources and a special surprise – The i, CEO Bonus! i, CEO will serve as a guide for those planning to enter the exciting world of business.

The author, Claudius Pereira himself is a successful entrepreneur, business coach, motivational speaker. He has founded several successful companies and serves as a member on the board of directors of a number of companies. He lives with his family in Bangalore. This is his second book, published by ATC Publications, Bangalore.

I strongly recommend the book for all budding entrepreneurs and start-up risk takers. If you’re hungry for success and as eager to have your name whispered in the business community, then i, CEO is for you.