Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam M. GrantMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Adam Grant’s first book “Give and Take” was much talked about, and “Originals” was one of the most anticipated books of the year. It has a foreword by Sheryl Sandberg abstracting reasons on why the book should be read.
Originals is an easy read and quite meaningful as well. While it is backed by decent research, it is not preachy and rather has pointers with stories.
Let us say you visit a new and exotic place where you have never been before. The trip has been so fascinating and adventurous that you decide to tell stories of the visit to others – the location, the people, the events…..Well, that is the tone Adam Grant takes through most of the book. It is liberally sprinkled with interesting stories of organizations, people, research, and never gets into being preachy. This makes it an easy read and also the fact that it does introduce substantial amount of new material some of which is quite counter intuitive to popular perception.
Originals is about some of the principles fueling innovation. There are stories around a theme discussing how others went about what they did and how they were successful.
There are a few points which are counter-intuitive and hence make for interesting reading - the aspect of procrastination being good for creativity, first movers not really having a great advantage, aspects of parenting etc.
Where the book scores is in its message that originality need not be a preserve of a few. It can be cultivated with the right approach. Overall, a good read.
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