I am an eternal learner - Lakshmi Narayana

There are not enough books in India that relate business management to movies. Business leader and movies enthusiast Lakshmi Narayana decided to compile his knowledge and insights into this fun, little, interesting book!

“I have two parallel lives…”

While that sounds quite normal for authors, we wanted to know the details from Lakshmi Narayana, a business leader and movie buff!

I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. - Isaac Newton

I consider myself as an eternal learner, and I thoroughly enjoy the process of it. My book ‘Directing Business’ does a decent job of giving you a glimpse about me as a person and as an author. I have two parallel lives, one in business management and the other in appreciation of movies. This book is an attempt to present the overlap, as I experience and enjoy it, to the readers, in a lucid form.

“I had a ‘Kantara’ moment and had it out in the form of this book..”

What makes an author conceive the seed for their book? Lakshmi Narayana of course answered with a reference to the movies!

There is a famous reference by a very popular Telugu poet Sri Sri — Kaadedi Kavitaku anarham – meaning, there is nothing unworthy when it comes to writing poetry on/about. I modified it slightly as — Kadedi Gyananiki anarham — meaning there is nothing unworthy when it comes to gaining knowledge. And, I applied it to movies.

What began as a passing interest grew into a systematic activity of making notes and mapping them to my professional experience. The result is this sweet and short book. 

I reached a point in my career, where I had a firsthand experience of several aspects of business/management. In addition, I figured out a way to make it interesting and unique with examples from movies. Guess, I arrived at ‘Kantara’s ‘Voooooooooooooooooo’ screaming moment in my life and had it get this out in the open. 

‘Directing Business’ – Let’s get to know more about the book

This non-fiction book is perfect for entrepreneurs, small business owners and movie enthusiasts. Lakshmi Narayana has skilfully blended important entrepreneurial insights derived from interesting movies. While this is his debut book, he shared a little about his inspirations too.

This is my first book; you can refer to my blog for more of my regular writing.
I like a variety of genres and books; top of the mind writers are Isaac Asimov, Stephen King, Chekov and Hermann Hesse.

Also read : Rammesh - I Hope To Get Young Readers Interested in Indian War Films

On the journey named ‘writing’ and its nuances…

We started with the eternal question to an author – why do you write? Lakshmi Narayana came up with quite a few interesting aspects.

I like to make sense of my learning process, capture it in some form and share with likeminded people. This works for non-fiction writing. Guess, I am not sure as to why I should write fiction someday. I am a business leader and movie enthusiast. In all likelihood, I will continue to work and write part-time, as my professional experience is a great source for my learning. At any point of time, if I decide to write fiction, I will take a break and finish it in one go. 

I devote 1-2 hours for the writing process, daily and another 1-2 hours, consuming related content—books and movies. At least twice in a week I consolidate my feedback and references, and some of these go into my blog, which I treat more like a repository. My definition of writer’s block is to decide on what should go into my writing piece, as I have a lot of material and a humongous lot to say.

I work around with a summary and add a few interesting references, and keep refining it. Breaking it into small goals --a page or a movie review or a chapter—helps.

Tips and tricks for aspiring writers

• One has to keep at it and wait for the ‘Kantara’ moment.
• Self-publishing is good if you absolutely have no idea about the publishing process. The likes of Notion Press are decent, as they give options.
• But, self-publishing or traditional publishing, the writer has to sign up for lot of work. It is like enrolling in a gym, one has to prepare for a strenuous workout.