Effective People

What makes a person effective? T.V. Rao opens with a few pointed questions. Is Shah Rukh Khan an effective actor? Is Naresh Trehan an effective doctor? Was A.P.J. Abdul Kalam an effective nation builder? And, by extension, is the reader an effective person?

To answer them, Rao looks closely at people across a wide range of callings: doctors, actors, civil servants, social workers, educationists, nation builders and entrepreneurs. He examines what sets them apart and finds that a few go beyond the usual measures of effectiveness. These are the people he calls Very Effective People and Super Effective People.

The cases he draws on are varied. Well-known names such as A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Devi Shetty, Anil Gupta, Kangana Ranaut, Sachin Tendulkar and Anupam Kher appear alongside ordinary people whose lives show just as much effectiveness. Rao's point is that the quality is not reserved for celebrities.

The book is written to be easy to read, and each chapter closes with self-assessment tools so readers can measure themselves against what they have just learned. The aim is practical: to help you see where you stand and push you toward the best in yourself.