After the ‘Wings of Fire’, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam wrote another autobiography and it starts where the previous book ends. We got various leadership insights from this book also. In his book, ‘Turning Points: A Journey Through Challenges’, Kalam gives us his perspective about why he chose to become the President of India in 2002, and the same motivation might have been kept in his mind in 2012 for his initial inclination for running for the post again.
The reason he chose to say yes when former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee asked him to become President was to his ‘India 2020’ dream a reality by putting forward his vision before the nation and Parliament by utilizing his presidential power. Vision 2020 – that grand vision for India to make it a developed nation by 2020 – which was initially a document prepared by India's Department of Science and Technology under the chairmanship of Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and a team of 500 experts helping in. The arrangement is additionally itemized in the book ‘India 2020: A Vision for the New Millennium’, which Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam coauthored with Dr. Y.S. Rajan. Kalam described the plan as follows: “Transforming the state into a developed country, five areas in combination have been identified based on India's core competence, natural resources, and talented manpower for integrated action to double the growth rate of value and understand the vision of developed Asian country”.
From 1992 to 2012, Kalam served the nation in various roles and responsibilities: he was the adviser to the defense minister, head of some defense research institutes, national scientific adviser to the Prime Minister, and then the President of India, during which he witnessed India grow from strength to strength, from almost begging money IMF in 1992 to become one of the fastest growing economies not only in Asia but also in the world 2012. He was one of the catalysts behind and acted as a launchpad behind the journey India has witnessed.
Doubtlessly, he had all the more fascinating stories to share from his own perspective, however, he deliberately abstains from sharing such occasions in this book. He likewise uncovers that he declined to be a bureau server in Vajpayee's administration in 1998, which clarifies that he had unparalleled access to vital government functionaries at the time.
He was as yet a scientist around then, and it is uncommon for prime ministers to ask somebody outside from legislative issues to end up some portion of the government.
Rather, the 'turning point' is an all the more an outline for making India a created nation by recommending measures to make the judiciary, parliament, and executive more effective in their working, and annoyingly all proposals are in 'focuses' like in course readings. For instance, there are 'ten' mainstays of advancement, 'five' reasons for postponement in conveying equity by courts and 'nine' proposals to make them proficient, 'four' points on the significance of improvement of towns, and approximately 'seventeen' points for making Parliament 'utilitarian'.
What we can infer is that A.P.J. Abdul Kalam is basically a teacher, a patriot, and a humble human being. This is reflected purely in his book. His ‘Turning Points: A Journey Through Challenges’ reads like a lecture and avoids the use of ‘I’ wherever it is possible, which shows the greatest signs of leadership.