It would be difficult and, in fact, unfair, for me to put my fingers on just one book that inspired me. I would rather take the liberty to talk about the books and authors that have moved me the most.

In fiction, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Herman Melville are some the authors that come to my mind right away. Anna Karenina, The Brothers Karamazov and Moby Dick transport you to a different world and seize you by heart and soul. They delve deep into the problems and mysteries of life on a scale and depth that can hardly be experienced with other authors.

In philosophy, Albert Camus, Bertrand Russel and Dr S Radhakrishnan are my favourites. They all have a different approach to existential problems, yet they provide you immense strength to live life intensely in a world beset with nihilism and cynicism.

Besides, M K Gandhi's My Experiments with Truth is perhaps the most inspiring autobiography, which shows us that an indomitable will can conquer anything. And as far as poetry goes, it's the mystical and sensuous writings of Rabindranath Tagore as well as John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley and William Wordsworth, which have touched and thrilled the very depths of my being.

Sam Walton's Made in America, which talks about the story of Wal-Mart, compensates for all the management books that I have not read. The book simplistically puts that if a person has a vision and remains focused on it, he can achieve his dreams. This vision combined with integrity will take him closer to his dreams.

The book shows how a store like Wal-Mart transformed retailing in the United States by taking the concept of regular mom-and-pop stores to a new degree. It shows that a simple business such as a corner grocery store, too, can become something that can be brought on the same platform as that of a JC Penney and so on.

This is only possible if one dares to have a vision larger than the planet, combined with integrity, and, of course, has the ability to transform a simple business model to a successful one.

G R Gopinath is the Managing Director of Air Deccan

Made In America
Author: Sam Walton
Paperback: 346 pages
Publisher: Bantam Books
ISBN: 0553562835

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