Submitted by martinoriordan on
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To accompany me on a recent leisure trip, I picked this up as light reading, without knowing any different.
Lazing on a sunny day in a park I flew through this book. It took me about five hours to read it from cover to cover. Ease read with a vivid writing style.
For those not familiar with Charles Handy & his works, check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Handy
This is a fantastic book & I plan to read it again in more detail armed with a pen.
This book is semi-autobiographical but it covers far more then his time as a Shell exec, writer, broadcaster, economist & warden.
It really is really a platform for a broader discussion about life, work, organisations, capitalism and where it is all going.
Handy makes you pause and reflect upon what he is saying in every chapter.
For example, after reading Ch 18: “A Seventieth Birthday”, I found myself asking what is success to me… & it’s a question I am not enjoying answering.
I am young & I have a very competitive side, so I’ve always been highly motivated & generally succeed in what I have set out to do…
But is what I am setting out to do really what I want out of life.
In the book, Hardy suggests the reader takes the Aristotle deathbed test.
“[i]Image ourselves on our last day in life & to consider how we should evaluate our lives. Write a short eulogy that your best friend will read out[/i].”
What I am succeeding in now (career success) is not exactly what I want to be read out in my eulogy… I have a lot more thinking to do about this…
I recommend this book.