Hi,

I am Ouseph. I am the author of Ad Astra Per Aspera. This book was first published as a long-form article on the website Medium.com in 2017. Since then, it has undergone multiple revisions and has become much bigger. It is now 80,000 words long and is available as an e-book.

This book was in development for a couple of years. So, some data may appear old. Most such deficiencies have already been addressed, though. For example, for the list of the wealthiest people in the world, I use the Forbes ranking of 2015. But in the later revisions, I have also added biographical accounts of people from the more recent Forbes lists. For the list of politicians, I have managed to update it to the year 2020.

Despite such minor deficiencies, whichever year the book is read, the things outlined in the book remain as relevant as ever. A lot of things in this book would still be useful even if you were an ancient Egyptian reading it circa 2000 BC.

I have tried to quote directly from the source materials as much as possible, often using a word-for-word report of what was said or written. So there are a lot of quotation marks used in this book. When these direct quotes along with the quotation marks are entered in Google Search, it tells Google to search for the exact phrase. This makes it easier for you to locate the original source of the quote. In this age of misinformation, I hope it serves the readers well by making it easier to quickly verify the authenticity of the quote.

Having said that, there is also an exhaustive list of references at the end of the book. To write this book, I have used authoritative and original sources such as biographies, interviews, articles from reputed newspapers, classical texts, and books by reputed academics. Even when the source is not explicitly mentioned in the passages, it can often be found in the References section.

You may wonder why the biographical profiles of entrepreneurs and politicians are prominently featured in this book. There is a reason for that. Many believe that success in life comes primarily from street smarts, the gift of gab, or qualities like sociability and self-confidence. This is actually a misconception. In reality, qualities like introversion and shyness are extremely common in high-achieving people.

What might also be surprising, however, is the higher-than-expected incidence of autistic traits among prominent individuals.  For example, both Elon Musk and Bill Gates, who have each topped the Forbes lists more than anyone else in recent decades, are on the autism spectrum (it’s not something claimed by some journalist — they themselves have said it). This is also not a recent phenomenon. The biography of 19th-century tycoon John D. Rockefeller suggests that he, too, may have exhibited traits associated with the spectrum. 

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to give space to several important people and cultures as much as I would have liked. The lives of notable scientists like Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein are missing. So are notable past civilizations such as those of India. This book was a one-person effort. So there were time constraints, compounded by the fact that English is not my native language.

This is a self-published book. The book skips the usual format of a typical book and goes straight into the subject matter by the second page. A brief description of chapters is provided in the first few pages to make it easier for the reader to have an overview of what the book is about.

I hope this book benefits its readers immensely. I would be delighted if others found it valuable.

By the way, I need your help. Please help me spread the word. If you like this book, do not forget to recommend it to others.