Friday, October 30, 2009

Growing @ The Speed of Change

I recently reread Growing @ the Speed of Change by a friend of mine, Jim Clemmer. When I say I recently reread it, I actually read it before it was published to give comments to the author. See my FTC Disclosure.


The subtitle is Your Inspir-actional How-To Guide for Leading Yourself and Others Through Constant Change.


One thing I love about Jim Clemmers' books (and he is a prolific author), is his liberal use of quotations, such as:


"knowing is not enough, we must apply, willing is not enough, meanwhile we must do.."Goeth 1749- 1832


The basic theme of the book is how to thrive in turbulent times. The first third of the book discusses and tries to convince you that change is actually happening at a great rate. One of the early chapters is even titled I Predict...More Unpredictability.


One concept that he uses is wallowing, this is complaining that it's not the good old days and wishing there was no change.


"Following" which is characterized by cynicism, skepticism, cautious and helplessness.


The ultimate goal which is leading, which includes optimism, positive outlook, courage, hopeful, proactive, gets results, etc.


This is interesting dichotomy the book I recently reviewed that said positive thinking was killing America.


I love the chapter on "I don't have authority". The gist of that message is even though people don't specifically have the authority, there are lots of things they can do to still bring about change.


The book could be characterized as a positive thinking book, but it acknowledges that it requires a lot of action to get things done. At the same time, he provides a lot of tools on how to think and be positive to your advantage.


It was an enjoyable read.


"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit" - Aristotle

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