Chetan Bhagat

Like Steven Dawson, Chetan Bhagat didn’t start of as an author. He worked in a bank calledĀ Goldman Sachs company in Hong Kong for 5 years. He then worked in a Bank in Singapore for another 5 years. He didn’t mind his job, but his boss wasn’t that kind to him. Chetan wanted to get his revenge on his boss by LBDN, Look Busy, Do Nothing. But he didn’t. Eventually he wrote a book called “Five Point Someone” in 2004, about misbehaving 3 college students, one of whom dated the professors daughter. This book was actually based on his life and became a best-seller. He continued to write books and quit his job in 2009 to focus on his writing. All his books are based on problems in India. However, not everyone loved his books. His response to that was “I am not the Best author, but am the Best-Selling author.” He later explains that being the Best-Selling author is better than being the Best author as his books are reaching more people about the problems in India.

Along the way to being a good author, he learnt some valuable lessons on how to get a message through, which he later shared with us.

  1. Connect through entertainment – If their’s entertainment, you’re going to pay more attention.
  2. He changes the game –
  3. He defined what “success” was to him – You have to define what “success” means for before you succeed. Real goals come from true accomplishment.

He also gave us some tips on “How To Achieve Big Things.” They were:

  1. Setting a clear goal
  2. Finding out what are the reasons behind the goal
  3. Finding the group – Having people who are going to back you up on your goal
  4. A detailed action plan
  5. Set back dealing mechanism – Get back on after your set backs. Don’t just give up.
  6. Have faith that hard work will get rewarded.

I have learnt a lot from Chetan Bhagat. I will never forget what he last said to us: “Be so busy improving yourself that you have no time to criticise others.”

– Brianna Kuo