Book Review: 13 Steps to Bloody Good Luck

Book: 13 Steps to Bloody Good Luck

Author: Ashwin Sanghi

Publisher: Westland

Pages: 160

Price: Rs60

Having just read Ashwin Sanghi's The Krishna Key, a work of fiction, I was quite excited to read his first foray into non-fiction, 13 Steps to Bloody Good Luck.

While The Krishna Key, a furiously-paced thriller, explores the secrets of the Vedic Age and Mahabharata, 13 Steps... is loaded with wisdom, serving as a morale-booster for the reader. After reading the first 50-odd pages, I figured that Sanghi has done immense research on the topic of 'luck'.

The author explains, through examples, how people can make the best use of opportunities that come their way rather than just giving up. This is interesting because Sanghi focuses just on 'luck', often a misunderstood subject, in a logical manner.

Sanghi talks about Pandit Ravi Shankar, who was a music director with AIR from 1949 to 1956. It was also the time when the American rock band The Byrds was popular. Shankar was invited to perform in the US, and the band incorporated some of his music in their tracks when they heard him.

George Harrison of The Beatles happened to hear Shankar's music and visited India within six months to learn sitar from him. Shankar's association with The Beatles made him the most famous Indian musician by 1966. Will you call this luck?

Apart from Shankar, Sanghi narrates interesting stories of Ratan Tata, Indira Gandhi, Steve Jobs, Ardeshir Godrej, Chetan Bhagat, Azim Premji, actors like Amitabh Bachchan and sportspersons like Sachin Tendulkar and Sania Mirza, among others.

All the stories conclude one thing: that these people chose to take calculated risks, cut their losses and learnt from their mistakes. This shows that 'lucky people' are not just lucky because of their hard work. A positive attitude coupled with persistence has played an equal part in shaping their careers and life. Doesn't this apply to you and me as well?

Sanghi writes that Jamsetji Tata in 1863 tried establishing an Indian bank in England, but brought the Tata firm on the verge of bankruptcy. However, his honesty and determination won him many friends in England. They bailed him out financially and helped him survive. Luckily, there was a strong demand for Indian cotton and Jamsetji acquired a rundown mill, thus shoring up Tata's fortunes.

It's important to be positive and persistent, for which you need to have thick skin. This prevents criticism and negative feedback from pulling you down in life.

The book talks about 13 steps to good luck, with the first three being intuition, calculated risks and willing to experiment. For the remaining steps, read the book.

However, the only problem I found with 13 Steps... was too much information in one chapter — 'The Luck Harvester' (spans from page 18 to 137). Sanghi could have easily broken it into at least 12 chapters, for his readers.

Also, with the way Sanghi has narrated the stories, quoted studies, personalities and books, there's a risk that the reader may lose his way in the maze of facts.

Also by Ashwin Sanghi
His first novel Rozabal Line was self-published in 2007. The theological thriller is based on the theory that Jesus died in Kashmir.
His second novel, Chanakya's Chant, a political thriller centres on Mauryan history. It dominates the fiction charts even today.
The Krishna Key explores the ancient secrets of the Vedic age and the Mahabharata.
He has co-authored Private India with James Patterson.