The Winning Way 2.0 - Book Review

What exactly is winning? How do you cultivate the right mindset so that you turn out to be a champion, not merely a winner? How do you explore your potential to the fullest? If these are the questions that come to your mind, The Winning Way 2.0 by Harsha Bhogle and Anita Bhogle is a must read. The Winning Way is the name of the workshop conducted by Harsha and Anita that takes lessons from sport and applies them to organizations. The book is a written version of the same thing with this newer version 2.0 capturing more contemporary topics and stories.

The book starts with capturing the traits and the essence of winning teams. It talks about self-belief and hope as an essential ingredient for winning. It talks about the importance of consistent practice, something very similar that Malcolm Gladwell talks about in Outliers “ The 10,000 hour rule” . The book quotes an example of Dravid, who set slightly higher and challenging performance goals. Even if you may not achieve all of them , you are likely to do much better than when you set small and easily achievable goals. One of the most important parts of this book is “ The Winning Triangle -Ability, Attitude and Passion” . Ability can take you upto a certain level , but it is the attitude that matters after that. And this combined with extraordinary passion will ensure that you have a hunger , a hunger to learn , a hunger for winning constantly. But this drives us to the question , is winning that important? What if you don’t win ? What exactly is winning? Quoting from the book “ .. the overall concept of winning that it is a byproduct of the pursuit of excellence remains constant. Winning is a journey to explore your potential to the fullest , to discover how good you can be..” The book discusses the importance of having the right mindset, self- belief and calmness for winning.

The style of the book is narrative and replete with examples from the world of sport and business. As you read the book, you will also be able to relate with examples from you personal and professional life. You might be better able to analyze why you failed or succeeded at whatever you did. The book is very logically organized into chapters which can be re- read depending on the situation you are in. So if you have not done really well( for whatever reasons), you can open the chapter on “ Learning while Losing” and it will throw up some very interesting insights.

To talk about books in a similar genre to this, I find "Grit" by Angela Duckworth and "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell in similar league. These books talk about grit, passion , practice as essential to success. They are replete with examples too , but I feel they are too detailed to address core concepts of winning. Sometimes the examples are very specific that you may not be able to relate. Also outliers discusses the external factors and the timing of success to a large extent to analyse successful people . Whereas the Winning Way 2.0 focuses on making the most of your current situation and measures success as the maximisation of one's own potential. It scores above by having very practical, relevant examples. It not only talks about winning but also about dealing with losses, dealing with change and also about the influence of external factors on winning. I have read Harsha's previous books " Out of the Box" and the first version of "The Winning Way" but this is best book of all.

For some, this book might be a motivational book, it is to me as well. But most importantly, it is a practical book. It has learnings and insights that can be applied by everybody depending on the context. It is not just “gyaan”. I read some chapters twice and I feel that every time you read it, you can relate and draw newer insights. Hence " The Winning Way 2.0 " will be in my bookshelf forever.

A small poem on the book Winning Way...

Dear Mom,I want to win everyday ,
Dear Mom, please show me the Winning Way

You do not win only in the end,You win or lose everyday
With hope, self-belief and great work- ethic, everything is possible I say
Practice makes a man perfect , practice everyday
Practice makes you better , winning is not a child's play

Ability you have, it can be improved
Marry it with attitude, results will be proved
Let passion be the fuel in every single game
Champion you will emerge and receive lot of acclaim

In any game, sometimes failures happen
Let them not dampen spirits, do not get shaken
For all you know, winning is not about not failing
It is also about failing and getting up fast

Winning is a journey to be your best
It's a quest for excellence and not a comparison with the rest
The winning way is a journey , it's a test
You always win it when you are better than your best

-Dhanashree