Why did I write this book “Why I Stopped Wearing My Socks.”? What inspired me? What is it about? How has the book done?
Everything you wanted to know about the book and more1
What triggered the book?
From my early school days, I’ve been an essayist. I like to write.
When I began my fist dot-com venture, “Contests2win” and survived the horrific dot-com crash, I got an opportunity to write a column in the popular “Mid-Day” newspaper. This was the year 2001. Veteran journalist Batchi Karkira who ran the paper met me in a party and said, “Alok, write for us”. I accepted and that’s when I began writing for the public.
The thrill of having your content published and the feedback became an addiction! As the years progressed, I wrote many countless articles for the Economic Times, Wall Street Jornal and The Economist Blogs and other magazines.
In 2007, I received funding for my fourth startup “Games2win” and in the second board meeting of the Company, my lead VC (Venture Capitalist) Sumant Mandal asked me, “Alok, do you write a blog? If you don’t, start now! It will be very useful.” (Sumant has since become my Mentor and “Godfather”).
That inspiration became “Therodinhoods” – the website you are on now. All my articles and videos appear here.
Why Socks? Did I stop wearing them?
I worked for my father in his socks factory for eight long years before I started my first internet venture.
Almost ten chapters of my book Why I Stopped Wearing My Socks is centred around in the Socks Factory and the invaluable lessons I learned there. Even today, nearly twenty years after quitting, I have those lessons freshly ingrained in my mind.
This machine became my good luck charm. I went to Italy to learn how to operate it and came back with an insight that changed my life. This is captured in the chapter “My Eureka Moment” in the book.
I quit the Business and walked out. That’s the metaphor of “Why I Stopped Wearing My Socks”. And to be clear, I wear socks every day
My rebirth and Salvation (After taking off my socks!)
The book quickly leaps into a non-stop thrilling journey of my two Mobile and Internet Ventures – Contests2win-dot-com and Mobile2win.
The action takes place in Mumbai, Shanghai, in endless Corporate offices. There are intricate details of my dealings with VCs whom I fondly call Vampire Capitalists, Vapor Capitalists and Venture Capitalists (depending on how they behave!).
Contests2win teaches me all about Sales and the dogged, persistent, untiring, relentless effort to never stop selling and to get deals done. The theme of Sales constantly reverberates through the book!
What’s inside the book?
The book has thirty-eight chapters comprising two-three pages each. The text is two hundred and four pages in all and can be read in a single reading.
Every chapter describes a real-life incident with real people. There are about eight-five people whom I have mentioned in the book. Many of them are leaders in their professions today and fondly recall the days when I launched my businesses with them.
Each chapter ends with a small paragraph called “Learnings” (most of the feedback I have received is about how the learnings have helped the reader in their journey)
The book culminates with the acquisition stories of my Mobile2win Ventures by Disney in India and by Norwest Venture Partners in India. These are thrilling chapters that put a happy end to the pain and agony I describe in the prior sections!
What’s the success of “Why I Stopped Wearing My Socks”?
The book quickly scaled to the top of the Amazon India Store. It repeatedly appeared as a “Bestseller” in the store.
As of April 2020, the book has received over the 600 ratings (4.7 stars) and over 575 reviews on the Amazon Store (check here) and over 850 ratings (4.2 stars) and over 125 reviews by consumers on Goodreads (check here)
In September of 2019, Why I Stopped Wearing My Socks won the BBLF CK Prahlad “Best Business Book Award“. Mr Narayan Murthy handed over the awards to Alok Kejriwal.
Who should buy this book?
I believe that this book can serve people from many walks of life. The readers could include Business enthusiasts, Entrepreneurs, Startup Founders and their teams. I am sure this book will appeal to Venture Capitalists and help professionals who want to understand what happens on the ‘other side’ without risking their careers and jobs. From the feedback I have received, homemakers and retired folks have the loved the book too!
Read the book to:
- Understand how hard and rewarding it is to start up.
- The challenges of selling concepts that have never existed before
- The Holy Science of Sales – Secrets, insights, experiences and guidelines for successful sales.
- The extraordinary experience of getting funded by Venture Capitalists and then managing them and their expectations.
- To realise that success in general happens when you are in the right place, at the right time, with the right people who have the right intentions. It’s magical and cannot be ‘rigged’.
- I contribute a majority of my success to the grace I receive from my God and Guru. (Not something you would often hear a tech entrepreneur say 🙂 )
Get the book here and the audible version here.
Happy reading!
*****
If you have a question, ask it as a comment and I will answer it. I am happy to get on a call and do a meeting with you and help you in any way I can!
You can be connected with me here:
Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/alokkejriwal/
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/rodinhood
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/rodinhood
Twitter – https://twitter.com/rodinhood
Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/user/MrRodinhood/
Finally, here is a video that describes the Book in my own words 🙂
