Book review 'Dream With Your Eyes Open': Success, the Screwvala way

There is the conventional way to success and then there is Ronnie Screwvala’s way. The conventional way, written in most books and taught in many management programmes, is a three step process. Learn everything about the business before you get into it. Network enough to have good support. Stick to it if you’re invested in it. That will lead to success.

While most books will start with a chapter on How To Succeed, Ronnie Screwvala’s book, Dream With Your Eyes Open, begins by talking about failure — how it fascinates him and how he has learned from failure more than success in his life. And with every chapter, he debunks the conventional managerial process on how to triumph at business and at life: “Failure never stopped anybody who didn’t want to be stopped.”

The aim of this book then is not about giving you a tenfold action plan on how to succeed at your business. It won’t even tell you which business you should do. And it will not give you ideas about whom to network with to start your business. What it will do is encourage you to look at life differently and, hopefully, be a winner at whatever enterprise or endeavour you have chosen for yourself.

Ronnie Screwvala is a relentless nomad in pursuit of excellence. A rank outsider, he made huge strides in every form of business he ventured into — toothbrushes, cable distribution, TV production house, TV channels and films.

Ronnie’s lessons for succeeding are simple.

1. You don’t need to know about the business to get into it. You just need to see the opportunity in it. “The future belongs to those who realise that the goal is no longer teaching talented people how to get a job but how to create thriving businesses as entrepreneurs or professionals in a company.” Ronnie is a great student of life. He started UTV with Rs 37,500 and sold his stake in the company for Rs 700 crore.

Hence, lesson 2. Start somewhere. Build from it. Understand scale. As most books and schools have taught us, it is beneficial to start when you are young. It leads to many years of honing your skill. Ronnie claims, “Don’t worry about age as long as you go into any endeavour with your eyes open, a reasonable plan, your bullshit detector fine tuned and your work ethic operating at peak capacity.”

So lesson 3. Start at any age. All you need is passion. While subtly teaching these lessons, the book is filled with the essence of Ronnie’s life and his interactions with the most prominent people in the media industry. What’s very visible is his passion, focus and determination and being grounded. He makes his team members leave their phones outside a board room. He talks about small things that go a long way in making a business — common courtesies, politeness, communication, authenticity. He says, “In the creative world meetings are little more than opportunities for self-styled visionaries to talk over one another without hearing a thing anyone else says.” Hence debunking the fact that we need to let everyone know about our achievements and speak so they think we’re intelligent.

Lesson 4. Listen more. Another theory that he discredits is if something isn’t broken, you don’t need to fix it. Ronnie believes that “If It Ain’t Broke, Fix it!” He writes, “Business changes daily. No matter how focused your goals are, you’re aiming at a moving target.” He reiterates that funding and financial status should never be the goal post.

Lesson 5. While funding is important, a good business plan, high growth and forward thinking will make you develop your company better.

In each chapter he summarises his learnings, allowing the reader to come back to these teachings — how to accept failure, how to stay the course of your business, how to recognise trends, how to capture opportunities, and how to exit at the correct time. When Ronnie Screwvala left UTV Disney, I wondered how one could leave something they’ve been so passionate about. He speaks about his second innings in this book and leaves us with questions we must introspect about, “What do you want to be known for? How do you want to be remembered? What impactful enterprise do you want to champion?”

At first I wondered why I should read this book. I am not an entrepreneur or a business person. But as I began reading the book, I was so engrossed in the narrative, the layers of advice, the good humour, the down to earth manner of writing that it was like Ronnie was sitting in front of me narrating his life story and giving me advice on life. This book teaches you how to create business worth. But even if you are not an entrepreneur, this book teaches you to dream bold and big, and how to make dreams come true. It’s a guide for everyone.

Madhuri Banerjee, blogger, columnist, director and mother, is the author of My Clingy Girlfriend and five other best selling novels