Doglapan, and why a salary will never make you rich
Ashneer Grover’s book is loud, blunt and very Indian about ambition. These are the lessons I wrote down by hand while reading it: on hunger, envy, delegation, investors and the only boss who matters.
- Best for
- Anyone sitting on a safe job and an idea they keep postponing
- Big idea
- Hunger beats comfort, and the customer is the only boss who matters
The book in 60 seconds
- Ambition starts with bhookh. The more comfortable you get, the less you want.
- A job can only help you keep up with inflation. To really live it up, you give up the regular salary.
- Healthy envy is fuel. Spend time with people doing better than you and let it sting.
- No founder wins alone. Delegate, so you can stay on the bigger picture.
- The game is between you and your customer. Investors are not God.
I read Doglapan with a pen in hand. These are the notes I made, kept in the same mix of English and Hindi I wrote them in, with a little context so each one makes sense on its own. The bits in yellow are the lines I underlined twice.
The crux of the book
Fire in your belly
Everything in the book starts with hunger. Not talent, not a degree, not a plan, but the plain need to have more than you have today. And comfort is what kills it: the cosier your current life, the less reason you have to risk it.
You should have the bhookh. The burning desire.
A job cannot make you rich
A salary rises roughly as fast as prices do, so a job keeps you level with inflation and not much more. If you want a genuinely better life, the price is giving up the comfort of a regular income. Business money is lumpy. Some years you earn once, but when it comes, it is more than a naukri-wala can imagine.
The lure of a ‘regular income’ is what you will need to forgo.
Innate desire: ‘rees karo’
Envy gets a bad name, but used well it is fuel. Copy the people whose lives are better than yours. Spend time around winners, cut out the noise, and if a rich friend invites you home and you come back feeling small, good. That sting is the point.
Rees karo us aadmi ki jo tumse zyada achhi, successful life jee raha hai.
Delegate! Delegate! Delegate!
Founders love doing everything themselves, and that is exactly what keeps companies small. Hand work to good people so your own time goes to the bigger picture.
Akele koi kuch nahi ukhaad sakta.
Share your story
Tell people what you are building, as often as you can. You never know which conversation comes back around as a customer, a hire or an investor.
Duniya sach mein gol hai!
Learning from failures
It is you versus the customer
Strip away the investors, the press and the competition, and a founder’s real game has two players: you and the person paying you.
Gaanth baandh lo is baat ko!
Investor bhagwaan nahi hai
Treat your investor like a god and you start making critical mistakes. You begin to see them as someone above you, and you forget who actually keeps the company alive.
Tum real bhagwaan ko bhool jaoge. (Customer!)
Give your family a seat at the board
The board decides a founder’s fate on the worst day. Make sure someone at that table is on your side no matter what, and for Grover, that someone is family.
Sell your shares whenever you can
Paper wealth is not wealth. Every time you get a chance to sell some of your shares, take it. Money in the bank does not make you lazy. It makes you braver.
It will make you bolder only!
Beware of certain professions
Grover’s most provocative list, and he means it to sting. I copied it down exactly:
- Drug peddling
- Prostitution
- Pimping
- Banking
- Journalism
- Legal professions
Sab kuch choos lete hain ye professions.
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I ask ‘but why?’ for a living, then write down the answers.
This summary is my own reading of the book, written for education. It is not investment advice. The ideas belong to the author; buy the book to read them in full.