The Celebrity CEO by Tomson Robert

Blurb (as on Amazon):

Just a year ago, I was on top of the world. I was the CEO of Neo, my revolutionary tech-based startup in Dubai. I was the coveted Speaker for all major corporate conferences, and a powerful member of the investor and Business communities. I could transform the fate of startups with just one tweet. But that one fateful day changed it all. .. I wake to find myself in a hospital bed in Goa, kept in Police custody. But I have no recollection of how and why I ended up here! Fired from my own company, hated by my own employees, cut-off by the Business community – I am reduced to just another meme on social media. Does life offer second chances? I am Ariyan, known as ‘The Celebrity CEO.’

Genre: Fiction/Corporate Thriller
Pages: 200
Format: Paperback/eBook
Price (as on Amazon):

• Paperback: ₹ 228/ $ 12.92
• Kindle eBook: ₹ 89/ $ 2.99

My rating: 4.4/5

Award-winning, most sough-after, a coveted speaker for all major corporate conferences and a powerful member of the investor and Business communities, Ariyan, the CEO of Neo, has everything he has always aspired for. One night, after a drunken episode in Goa, he finds himself in a hospital under police custody. Having lost everything, from his job to his reputation, who will Ariyan turn to in these dire times? Will life give him a second chance?

What I liked about the book:

• A corporate fiction that works well as it not only showcases the cutthroat competition, backstabbing tendencies, and dog eats dog philosophy of this world but is also fast paced, engaging, and has some of the most shocking twist and turns at regular intervals.
•  Ariyan’s character is crafted perfectly and his portrayal in the first half as the ruthless, selfish, toxic and ambitious person, almost makes us hate him. That’s exactly what makes him authentic as he is shown as a person with flaws, but later also as someone who realizes his mistakes and is willing to mend his ways.

What I did not like about the book:

• The talks about doing good and there being a God/Afterlife, despite the best intentions, come off as preachy and even repetitive after a while.
• The hospital sequences, especially the chase and rescue mission, seem straight out of an Indian massy entertainer movie, which tends to lend it an ‘unbelievability’ factor. For that matter even the climax felt a little too happy and convenient.

Quotable quotes:

• Showing is more powerful than telling.
• Success has many fathers. Failure is a bastard.
• Business is always done in shades of grey. There are no absolute rights or absolute wrongs.
• Sometimes one must not shy away from using the stick.
• Despite how often I had seen it, the view of Dubai from the 150th floor always mesmerizes me. On a clear day, one can easily spot the iconic landmarks of Dubai, such as The Palm, Burj Al Arab, and the Dubai Frame from the tower. The flyovers looked like Hot Wheels tracks and buildings like Lego blocks from this height.
• Nowadays, people are not just motivated by money, but also by an organization’s culture and the work-life balance it offers.
• You can’t eat your cake and have it too.
• When you love someone, you must fight for it.
• The proof of the pudding is in the taste.
• A bit of possessiveness is good, but too much is toxic.
• As we landed in Mumbai, I saw the slums of Dharavi beneath me. From the luxurious private jet, the chasm between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ was very evident.
• The real power resides within the corporates. The power to make or break governments. Apple’s market capitalisation is roughly 2.5 trillion dollars. This is greater than the GDPs of many countries like Canada, Brazil, and Italy. If Apple was a country, it would be one of the world’s most developed countries. This is the power of a global corporation in the 21st Century.
• No growing organization wants its CEO in the media for the wrong reasons.
• In a crisis, you clearly know who your friends are.
• You have a narrow view of what matters if you think the way to matter is by being the greatest CEO or creating something new and exciting. That is where you are wrong. It’s all a chase after the wind. You will never get it.
• It’s in dire moments that you realize who you truly love.
• Things have a way of working out.
• A real mother would be willing to save her child’s life, even if it meant giving up the child.
• Death is a certainty if there is a life. Wealth, fame, or the best of wisdom and knowledge cannot save anyone from death.
• Vanity is meaningless.
• There is no end to the projects and work that a man can do. When one finished, the other was right around the corner. The never-ending toil feels meaningless.
• Our eyes can never see enough to be content. Our ears can never hear enough to be pleased. Pleasure too, is meaningless.
• God created this world billions of years ago. Life has been on Earth for at least two to three billion years. Can anyone make their name immortal for a billion years? You may be remembered for a thousand years if you are genuinely great. But after that people will slowly begin forgetting your name. Then, new leaders, heroes, and celebrities would replace your name. Finally, even your family may forget that such a great ancestor existed in the bloodline.
• Whenever we create something new, it will always be replaced by something contemporary.
• Use your talents to do good. That is all man was created for.
• There is only thing certain in life- we will all die one day. We don’t think about that day too much, but it is bound to happen. When we die, God will judge us for our actions. No matter how good of a person each of us have been, we have also sinned somehow. Life is full of full of temptations, and we are always full of wants. But there is a way to get a merciful judgment from God and our sins forgiven. By using our talent to do good for others. Use your God-given talent for the good of others. It can be your parents, siblings, lovers, friends, or strangers. Doing good is all that matters. When you do this, you will accumulate a wealth of kindness. This kindness will be your saving grace on the day of judgment. Your sins will be forgiven based on how much kindness you have shown and how much you have forgiven others for their wrongdoings. In the Afterlife, God will use the same measure of grace and forgiveness that you used on others.
• Maintaining a sense of humour in challenging circumstances reflects a sorted person.
• There is no end to how much money, fame, or legacy one can try and gain.
• In my entrepreneurial journey, I have learned ‘what to do’ and ‘what not to do’ to be successful. These experiences, if given to new entrepreneurs, would help them avoid the same mistakes I have made.
• The meaning of life is to find your gift, and the purpose of life is to give it away.
• We all have gifts, and once we find them, we need to use them for the good of others.
• What our senses see, hear, taste, feel, and smell alone is not the only reality. God is one such reality. Something that our senses can’t pick up. But our experiences bring us closer to him. God is the equation that science is yet to solve.
• There is a creator and life beyond our world. The way to get there is by finding joy in helping others.
• To know a fruit’s taste, one must first taste it.
• The problem is that we only think of ourselves. Just like ancient people believed that the Earth is at the centre of the universe, we all think that we are at the centre of everyone else’s life. Our views are always from our perspective and rarely sprinkled with empathy.
• Our experiences make us who we are.
• The life you have lived, the good and evil you have done, and the imperfections and cracks you carry within have brought you to this moment. You must find how to use all this experience to help others. Everyone gets another shot. In fact, life is all about second chances.
• Every man has two lives; and the second one starts when he realizes he has just one.
• Rarely do people have the courage to accept the wrong they have done. Especially when they have no reason to do so.
• Even if you have done something wrong, the law should take its course.
• All man can do is use his talents to do good.
• No amount of justice can bring the dead back.
• There is a possibility that we perceive as reality might not be real.
• What has happened, has happened. It was meant to be.
• When a person in the family is unwell, it is not just that person alone, but the entire family who suffers.

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This post is part of the Bookish League blog hop hosted by Bohemian Bibliophile.

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