Sachin Kharate, Varad Financial Services

I read a book ‘The Magic of Thinking Big’ by David J. Schwartz. In this book, the author gives real life examples on how a person with limited skillset, intellect and talent can achieve success.

Another book I read was ‘Super forecasting: The art and science of prediction’ by Philip E. Tetlock and Dan Gardner. The book says that you need to gather evidence from a variety of sources and anticipate all possible outcomes to forecast an event. The authors underline the need to work in teams for better results. Finally, one invaluable piece of advice the book gives is that only by admitting mistakes can you improve.

This book has improved my ability to forecast short-term volatility in the market.

Vinod Jain, Jain Investments

During my initial days as an adviser, I read a book ‘Bull: A history of boom and bust’ by Maggie Mahar. The author has given an insider’s view of the two-decade long bull run in the US markets.

The author also covers a section on mutual funds, where she has discussed the role of fund managers in bull markets.  She has highlighted how fund managers bet on high beta stocks to outperform the benchmark.

After reading the book, I realized that Indian markets were seeing something similar. I learnt that we should look beyond the one or two year performance of funds and focus on consistency over the seven to ten year period.

Another book I read was ‘The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference’ by Malcolm Gladwell. The book tells us how ideas, products, and messages can spread like fire.

The author insists that as marketers we need to sell the idea and not the product. He feels by doing this we stand a better chance to expand business.

This book has helped me grow business through referrals. In my view, this book is a ‘must read’ for all advisers to increase their business through referrals.