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‘The Earnicorns*’, as authored by Prof Dhruv Nath, put simply is the story of four Indian pioneering internet companies (i.e. Naukri.com, Zerodha, Dream11 and Zoho) and of its founder’s. With a narrative, which is filled with wit, puns and punches, book does guarantee a good time and with a content which is full of insight, wisdom and life lessons, your brain cells are sure to thank you for being onboard. The book unravels each story with an incisive focus on tracing what it took, each of its founders to tread along the path which led to creation of these bellwether entities. Author parallelly outlines a set of common principles and frameworks, as well as distinctions in these venture and personalities. Here are a few interesting nuggets: A company that listens to its customers and respects its competitors' better offerings pivots to find its prime revenue churner through such feedback; A company headquartered in a small Tamil Nadu village serves tech needs of its customer across the globe and also runs an academy to bring on its payroll people from small far flung places; A guy who worked in a BPO night shift goes on to disrupt a crowded stock trading industry and creates a leading stock trading platform; A founder who cites his ability to endure rejection till it yields (giving due credit to his long time unyielding love and finally the life partner), as his key strength and mantra to success. Through these stories, the author underlines key leadership tenets, which could be equally useful whether one is leading a small group of individuals, a project, or starting a venture. From an individual’s perspective, the book highlights humility, frugality, courage, passion, vision, persistence and transparency as key traits of its resolute founders. From an organisational perspective, the author emphasizes the paramount importance of customer focus, setting up the requisite culture and a people-oriented approach. Another point which stayed with me, is that most times it may not be the entry point with which one commences the operation that accounts for lion share in one’s success, but rather it's how one visualises, deals and runs with a new tool, technology or opportunity that becomes the fulcrum for exponential growth. People, when backed with purpose and motivated to strive to reach and optimise their potential, are the ultimate value driver for any society. Moreso, in a country like ours, where there is no dearth of either people or potential, a wave of aware, empowered, compassionate and disciplined entrepreneurship and leadership could be the differentiator. Books like “Earnicorns” are effective steps in such direction. Highly recommended! #Enterprenurship #Leadership (*'Earnicorns' is a term coined by the author to mean unicorns i.e., entities with more than a billion-dollar valuation, whose growth has been achieved based on solid earning capacity, rather than just the ability to grab eyeballs or investors fancy)