Shefali Karani’s debut book inspires readers to ‘Own It!’
DUBAI: Writing a book to inspire, guide or motivate readers has always been a daunting task for any writer because it is challenging to get connected with readers; hence not many writers succeed in their endeavour. But Dubaibased Indian-american businesswoman Shefali Karani’s debut book, “Own It!: Love What You Already Have,” on leadership succeeds in its goal to inspire her readers.
It is her maiden book and she managed to strike a chord with her readers in her debut atempt. The book is the result of a personal journey of an author. It in turn travels very fast to become a hit with readers. If you look at the journey of Shefali, you will see how comfortably she embraces changes of her life, starting from a very early age.
Despite being an heiress to a strong business empire established by her family, she managed to keep herself very strong and grounded and weathered whatever challenges came her way. She never gave up, that’s why today she is leading a successful business empire. If you look at her illustrious journey, you will see that she let the United States at the age of five, grew up in Mumbai and Dubai. She became an executive at the age of 21 at her family’s corporate business in Mumbai, soon ater she graduated with a Bachelor cum laude with distinction from Drexel University. She also did the one-year MBA Programme there. She got her CIBE from Columbia Business School, in NYC.
Despite having a strong business empire, she worked very hard to be the best in academics. She did not let her affluent background affect her academic growth. She also treated her own company with great respect and carved a niche for herself in the organisation by sheer hard work. Today, she is a board director for BSE listed company and two other companies. She is also an executive business director for two BSE listed companies. She resides in Dubai with her husband.
If you read the book you will discover that Karani’s thought and experiences are very much tied to common people and that is the beauty of her writing. Her writing is so pure and smooth that it straight goes into the heart of readers. The book has a universal appeal. The book has been divided into many chapters like, “Change is good,” “Embrace your goals,” “Know when to fight,” “Keep going,” “Helping others,” “Go with the flow,” “Perfection to imperfection.” All in all, it is very inspiring.
It has a natural flow. Once you start reading the book, you won’t be able to stop — in the middle or elsewhere. At 141 pages, the book is indeed a page-turner.
The way she has turned her negative experiences into a positive is also commendable. The book shows how a litle girl transformed herself into a successful businesswoman. Talking about the book, Sheefali said, “It is all about leadership lessons which I have learnt as a businesswoman throughout of my life so far. It has universal messages that resonate with other working women or students or millennials.” When asked what made her come up with a book? She said, “It was a very random decision that happened. I thought of using my own experiences to tell the story to people, because I deal with lots of university students. I do talk shows and go as a speaker to various universities. So I thought it would be nice to share a story with them.”
She is thrilled to see the response to the book. Sharing her happiness, she said, “Lots of women related themselves with my story. It was not something that I only have gone through such experiences. Lots of women had similar experiences and they all got inspired by the book. I am happy that my book managed to create a difference in their life.”
While writing the book I learnt so many things about the self. I did not realise until I started writing, she said.
When asked to pick her favourite writers, she said, “Rhonda Byrne and Paulo Coelho are my favourite authors.”