Mind Without Fear by Rajat Gupta (Book Review)

Mind Without Fear is a memoir written by an Indian-American Consultant turned philanthropist, Rajat Gupta. I listened to his memoir on Audible.

Frankly, I never knew about him and his case and conviction about him. So his elaborate justification and convincing didn’t appeal to me.

But what impressed me the most is the second part of the book – his childhood, upbringing, education and work compressed into a relatively short portion of the audiobook. I wished this section was longer, but whatever was there was better than most memoirs.

Imagine this – the son of a middle class freedom fighter and journalist, who loses his parents before he even completed his IIT college degree, not just gets into the Management Program at Harvard, but also lands the job as a McKinsky Consultant.

Wait, we are not done yet – he goes on to become the first non-white CEO of that firm, finishes three terms, and is retired – all before he was even 55! He then sits on the board of many large MNCs and NGOs, and is the primary person responsible for setting up ISB Business School in Hyderabad. Now, that’s something I call an achievement!

I loved this portion of the book. I think he could have written even more about his work as a consultant instead of trying to bash everyone involved in convicting him for insider trading. I sort of liked the chapters about his life in prison, but this too could have been shorter.

Anyways, this book is a good read.

Destination Infinity