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Racing Towards Excellence
 
 

Racing Towards Excellence [Kindle Edition]

Muzaffar A. Khan , Jan Sramek , Sir Howard Davies , Sir Howard Davies
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (125 customer reviews)

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Product Description

Product Description

What is Racing Towards Excellence about? When looking through the book's reviews, he same two descriptions keep coming up: "Everything I wish I had known before university!" or "I wish I had read this book 10 years ago." RTE is an eclectic mix of philosophy, motivational writing, self-help, autobiographic reflection and common sense, written by two authors with completely different backgrounds, perspectives and life stories. By all means, this is an unusual book. Some say it's outright weird. But that's OK. Thousands of passionate emails, letters and reviews confirm one indisputable truth: this book has achieved what the authors set out to do: change the lives of young people around the world for the better.
Why should you read it? Firstly, people actually change after reading RTE. For some reason, this book does seem to be almost unexpectedly good in doing one critical thing really, really well -- it gets it readers to not just read it and nod their head, but get up and use the book's ideas to improve their life. Secondly, RTE is as concise as it gets, giving you everything you need -- but nothing more. This is a ruthlessly efficient book which applies the 80/20 principle to the extreme. RTE is a 17-chapter, 250-page no-nonsense overview of best practices in every area that matters. In short, the book ensures you get three good ideas and implement them, rather than give you hundreds and paralyze you with choice. When put together, these two things end up making all the difference.

About the Author

Muzaffar Khan retired from a successful career on Wall Street, having worked in trading and asset management at Citibank, Barclays Capital and Moore Capital. He went on to become the vice-chairman of ACOPS, an international environmental charity, and further study, both independently and at the London School of Economics where he completed an MSc in Development Studies.

Muzaffar later reconciled his two interests - finance and the environment - by joining Man Group Plc as a Consultant to its latest environmental venture, Man ECO. Since leaving Wall Street, he has also coached and mentored a number of people ranging from CEOs to students. Muzaffar has a BSc degree in Industrial and Business Economics from the LSE, and an MA in English Literature from King's College London.

Jan Sramek trades EM Macro at Goldman Sachs, London, having spent his childhood and university years by experimenting with the why, what and how far, and generally hacking life. In his final year at university, he wrote a book about his experience with bending rules and pushing boundaries of what's possible. Shortly thereafter, Financial Names named him the youngest ever person on the annual list of 100 Rising Stars of Financial Markets.

Before university, Jan broke the world A-level record and was named named Olympic hope in handball. He then read Mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge before transferring to the London School of Economics - in order to found 4 start-ups, a charity and work in the City. Despite working and interning in trading and research at Goldman Sachs, Marshall Wace, AKO Capital, Barclays Capital, UBS and Deutsche Bank instead of studying throughout university, Jan won almost £100,000 in scholarships, and graduated with a First in Mathematics and Economics.


Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 351 KB
  • Print Length: 291 pages
  • Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0956256600
  • Publisher: Leveraged Publishing Ltd; 1st edition (11 Jun 2009)
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language English
  • ASIN: B002G9UQ5M
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (125 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #16,024 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Great Book! 9 April 2010
Format:Paperback
Having heard about Jan and Muzaffar's remarkable achievements prior to purchasing the book I was keen to find out how they managed their time and balanced their objectives. Progressing through the book you begin to realise of how small changes to ones approach on life can lead to drastic changes in the future. The book offers core advice on how to develop the life skills and the necessary approaches needed to differentiate oneself in today's ever growing competitive environment.

As a current student, I found the study skills section very helpful, as it offers a no-nonsense approach on how to prepare best for an exam. You soon realise that Jan's approach to exams is simple yet very effective and a lot of time and effort can be channelled into the key components of the exam rather than the overall course material.

As with many students I have often found it difficult to manage my time between my studies and extra-curricular activities. The book goes into detail of how best to manage your time and offers a personal time matrix (resource) that I found very useful.

The overall structure of the book is excellent, with "key-takeaways" at the end of each section reflecting the main points and quotations at the start of each section to offer as an inspiration. Throughout the book there are many reference cites not only to Jan and Muzaffar's achievements but to various other figures that have succeeded in their field. I believe reference citing is important as it gives you the confidence in the described approaches.

I would recommend this book to anyone who his looking to develop the key life skills that are necessary to achieve your goals or to those currently preparing for exams. The book demonstrates that with the right approach and a strong mentality anything can be achieved.

Hope this book helps others as much as it helped me!

Matt Terrett
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Overall, I must say this is a great book. The one thing that really differentiates this book from other books is its relevance to young people. It is written in a very simple and understandable way. It is specifically targeted at young university students, especially business and economics students keen to get into financial services as that is the background of the authors. However the advice is quite generic and is applicable to anyone. The other very striking thing about the book is how humble the authors are. I have found some of the specific examples very useful to implement into my life.
A year after reading this book, I have successfully implemented some of the "teachings" from this book. I am now completely off caffeine, drink very little alcohol, eat plenty of fruit and vegetables and go running daily. I make a much bigger effort to network and keep in touch with people. I have also learned the benefits of being completely honest with people, and not feeling like you have to "sell" yourself at all times. It not only taught me the importance of not only working hard, but also the importance of working towards goals.
I also made many smaller changes to my life which helped me. They include spending time teaching other people how to mimic your success. Getting a soft alarm clock in order to gently wake up.
Being a perfectionist, I realised that I was focusing too much on the negatives of life, and that I need to be grateful for what I have. It also taught me about developing charisma and having to do lists, better specified goals, and identifying how much in your life has to do with habits and bringing positive habits into your life. I now read an inspiring book every day, and interact with one inspiring person every day. I also take time to sit and think for 15 mins twice a day, and spend a few minutes every 3 or 4 hours to reflect on life. I also try as hard as possible to expose yourself to as much randomness as possible. I have also joined a public speaking class in order to help myself build confidence. I am also working on improving body co-ordination, through various classes in the gym. I also now try to go to sleep early and wake up early, in order to follow the routine of the sun.

This book is definitely going to be a present to every young person that I care about, as I feel there is a lot to learn from it and most importantly it is relevant and targeted towards young people.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Olga
Format:Paperback
After reading this book, i decided to change something in my life. Starting with the least: clear my mail box, write things down, do everything in time...etc. I understood that not all successful people were born so. Most of them have the past full of hard work, failures, mistakes, ups and downs...but they BELIEVED and kept going, reaching their goals. I want to be one of those people, be strong, ambitious and never give up. And this book showed me exactly where to start and what to do first...I recommend everyone to read it!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A must read
This definately deserves to be in same group with titles as "Think and grow rich" by Napoleon Hill or Dale Carnegie books. Read more
Published 12 days ago by J.L.
Brilliant and Informative Read!
I bought this book on the recommendation of a friend who found it really useful and informative, and having read it myself I cant help but agree. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Usman
Excellent
I just finished reading this book and it was very inspirational. It touched on some of the fundamental things which cause people to perform below their potential. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Nero
A must read for all young professionals
As a 25 year old professional, I thought I would be towards the older range of this book's intended demographic, but I couldn't have been more wrong. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Jon
Simply a must read for anyone looking to make something worthy out of...
In addition to all the good words already said above, I must say that Jan, being probably the most inspirational young achiever of this generation, truly struck all the right cords... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Jomart T
dry, uninspiring, major lack of content
After having met the author himself at a meeting, who pretty much promoted his own book! I was very impressed with Muzaffar and Jan's background. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Lesson101
Great purchase
This is a self-help book which actively helps you to help yourself- most self-help books are essentially mildly entertaining bed-time reading- this is far superior. Read more
Published 10 months ago by david ahern
Excellent advice for people starting out in life.
Having read of Jan Sramek's remarkable life so far, I was compelled to read his thoughts and to find out whether any of this would be good advice for my own children. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Gooner70
A must read for anyone who wants to have a happy and successful life!
Having recently graduated from Oxford, I believe that Racing Towards Excellence is an essential reading for anyone who wants excel in university studies or his/her career! Read more
Published 10 months ago by Hyun-sung Do
Clearly an overestimated book
I give 1 star for this book just because I can't go lower.

I really believe that this book doesn't say anything special and doesn't give many incredible advices as other... Read more
Published 11 months ago by davide
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Popular Highlights

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&quote;
Enthusiasm is the almost constant, consistent state of optimism and happiness about your goal, and enjoyment during the journey to it. &quote;
Highlighted by 28 Kindle users
&quote;
A person who inspires you accepts and supports you; he or she does not attack, judge or act in a malicious way towards you. Most importantly, he or she makes you believe in yourself. &quote;
Highlighted by 24 Kindle users
&quote;
just start seeing new habits as experiments, things you would like to try, rather than permanent shifts in your life. &quote;
Highlighted by 23 Kindle users

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