‘Mind Without Fear’ by Rajat Gupta — A Book Review
I just finished reading Rajat Gupta’s newly released book ‘Mind Without Fear’, and here is what I think about the book.
As an Indian, Rajat Gupta has had held a certain stature in our minds, much like that of Indra Nooyi (CEO, Pepsi), Sundar Pichai (CEO, Alphabet) or Satya Nadella (CEO, Microsoft). They have all been India born and bred, graduated from top-notch schools, they were part of the first generation of Indians who immigrated to America, and thanks to their brilliance, professionalism and work ethics, they made it to the top of corporate America. They are what a large section of Indian MBA graduates, techies, media, or parents (of growing kids) have looked up to, idolized, and aspired to be like. Therefore, when somebody of that stature is convicted of felony and is thrown behind bars, it is shocking and naturally kindles the desire to know the story better. It was this curiosity that led me to purchase his book (at the Bangalore Literature Fest earlier this month where he came in as a keynote speaker).
First, the story of his rise to the top. A brilliant boy, unfortunately orphaned at a tender age and depsite having to take care of his younger siblings, Rajat made it to IIT Delhi (where btw he met his soulmate too!). An ensuing scholarship from Harvard Business School and he found himself in Boston in the 60's (a time when few Indians made it to Harvard). He joined McKinsey & Co fresh out of the b-school, rose through the corporate ladder, expanded their operations globally, finally found himself catapulted to the top of the firm in less than two decades of joining — arguably, the first non-American and certainly the first Asian to have been made the Managing Director and CEO. This is especially noteworthy as an Indian (or non-white) because management consulting in those days (and probably, still is, unlike tech) was still a bastion of white elitism. Incredible feat, no doubt, but an equally fascinating story rise to the top!
Second, while being at the top, Rajat was managing McKinsey, advising Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, working on global humanitarian and health initiatives to eradicate TB, AIDS, Malaria, busy setting up India’s premier Indian School of Business, liaising with Indian government to launch the Public Health Foundation of India, and serving on the boards of World Economic Forum, Proctor & Gamble, and Goldman Sachs. Phew! One wonders how many things one person can do in the same 24 hours as everyone has! His accounts of his extraordinarily busy, regimented life, incessant travel, expansion of McKinsey’s management consulting business globally, at the same time devoting his time, energy & resources to so many causes and engagements is well, inspiring, to say the least.
Third, shit happens. One-by-one, his life begins to fall apart.
A chance friendship with a crooked, billionaire hedge fund head (named Rajaratnam), making personal investments in his hedge fund (that go kaput in the wake of the subprime crisis), a faltering American economy that plunges into chaos (with Lehman crashing), Rajat scrambling to recover his lost personal fortunes from Rajaratnam’s hedge fund, getting wind of a some strategic investments at Goldman (while serving Goldman’s board), a few discreet telephonic conversations that get wiretapped, American public baying to nail that one greedy corporate figurehead (for their subprime misfortunes), and above all, a prosecutor hell-bent on implicating the first scapegoat he could lay his hands on — the sequnce of events prove the wind was certainly not in Rajat Gupta’s favor!
Disprove as he may like to do, it is also clear sensitive insider information discreetly exchanges hands and Rajaratnam makes a $800k profit overnight. So the question is what was Rajat Gupta’s motive? Was it to help Rajaratnam get richer and in-turn make money by a quid-pro-quo arrangement? Not sure. Did Rajat make any money in the process? No. Did he do it to save his personal investments in Rajaratnam’s falling hedge fund? Possibly, but thats anyone’s guess.
Quite honestly, nobody will ever know what his motive was. And maybe, it doesn’t matter anymore, because he has served his sentence anyway. However, reading the book, one cannot help but feel “kind of” sad. It seems ironical and sad to watch a man “who has got everything” and is also working that much harder “to make the world a better place”, land himself up in such shit!
I do not recommend you reading the book to know if he really was at fault (or not). Read it because it is gripping to learn about his extraordinary professional career. Read it to get a peek into what a global CEO’s life is like. Read it to learn how important it is to be more careful. Read it to witness what it means to lose everything overnight, and how he dealt with it. Read it see what prison life could possibly be like (for a person like him).
Seen differently, the book could inspire you to lead a more purposeful life (like how Rajat did prior to his downfall), but it teaches you a more important thing. That you should not become so busy with your work that you ignore other things that matter (Rajat just did not have time to pay heed even though he knew he was being “slowly” framed). The book also drives home the point that no matter how powerful or famous you are (head honcho to convicted felon), nobody’s is above the law. It also teaches you a lesson or two on resilience, and on how to accept downfall with grace and dignity (his 19 months prison term was almost meditative and he spent reading the Bhagwad Gita, Tagore, among other books).
‘Mind Without Fear’ (named after Tagore’ poen) is well-paced, easy read, is fascinating, inspirational (too), and is humbling. In the end, it left with thinking what my father always told me — “If you lose money, nothing happens. If you lose health, you lose something. But if you lose your character, you have lost everything”.
