Rothacker Reviews

The Three Signs of a Miserable Job: Synopsis

The Three Signs of a Miserable Job by Patrick Lencioni

How does one teach managers to become pied pipers?  Tell stories of course.  Stories trump bullet pointed slide shows.  Any day.  Any time.  Any how.

In classic Lencioni fashion, Patrick spins a tale involving ex CEO Brian Bailey who is trying to stay retired.  Brian doesn' t succeed.  He does succeed though, through a series of adventures, at revealing the three signs of a miserable job.  Boss.  Boss.  Boss.

Yeah, that's what I'm talkin' bout dave!

Well, not exactly.  But close.  The signs that Brian discovers do point towards the manager.  If the manager is on her game, understands these signs and works towards a positive outcome from them, it is most likely that her team will not describe their job as miserable.

Patrick builds this page turning story on one pied piper, rock-solid premise:  All managers should view their work as a ministry - a service to others.

You, and your masquerading and you,
Always contemplating what to do,
Encase happiness found you, can’t you see?
That it’s all around you,
So follow me...to Amazon and buy the book.

Sway - Synopsis

Sway by Ori and Rom Brafman

A person pays over two-hundred dollars for an everyday, run of the mill twenty dollar bill.  Think about it.  Why?  Why would a person be swayed to do such an illogical thing? 

Do you think if you understood the reason why people do illogical and irrational things, you might be able to navigate the world a bit better?

Ori and Rom, authors of the Starfish and the Spider, help us to understand why people do irrational things.  Their method and content of writing is easy on the mind, as Sean Connery is easy on the eyes of a female.

Think Tipping Point.  Think Blink.  Think the Starfish and the Spider.  But don't think about buying Sway.  Just do it!

Sway was Smoked-n-Signed.

It

When it comes, it comes like a freight train - throttle out.  It will blast through your psyche like Dirty Harry's 44 Magnum.  And with but a whisper, a glimpse of what could be, it's gone...like a butterfly with the afterburners on.

A kindly gentleman told me about it over ten years ago.  He carefully prepared me, teaching me how to deal with it.  To this day I do exactly what he told me to do.  I cannot imagine a life of writing and not dealing with it.  I am sure one's hair would fall out and their soul would dry up from the inside like a prune.

Rosemary reminded me of it today while we were watching One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest on TV.  As a matter of fact, when it hit her she scurried off, away from the movie for an hour.  It had gotten her and would not let go.  Here is what it was today for her...

In the movie Jack Nicholson had just undergone electrical shock treatment.  He came back to the group of mental patients that he was staying with and said:

"The next woman who takes me on baby, is gonna light up like a pinball machine and pay off in silver dollars."

When that line hit Rosemary she didn't just get up off the couch an scurry, no, she long jumped two rooms without hitting the floor.  She was in her writing office within three seconds.

Now, as I observed this, it hit me as well.  The result of that hit?  I am telling you about it now.

Tomorrow I will tell you how I deal with it as well as my perception of how Rosemary deals with it.  Ok, I can't wait.  Here is a snippet...

A description of Rosemary when it has control over her.  Picture a lioness that hasn't eaten for a couple of weeks.  Now picture her devouring a side of rich and juicy beef.  What do you suppose would happen if you were to interrupt her during her feeding frenzy?  Of course by now you do realize that the lioness would be kind in relation to disturbing Rosemary while in the grasps of it.

The Last Lecture - Synopsis

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

Inspired by the anonymous disappointed Google user in the comment section below, I modified this post. Go here for the update.

What wisdom would you impart upon the world if you knew your demise was to be immediate ?"  "What matters most to you?"

College professors are frequently asked to plan a lecture with these questions in mind.  The searing difference between Randy Pausch's last lecture and all of the others?  Prior to the lecture, Randy was told he really did have only a couple of months to live.

If you can read, are related to one other person on this planet and have a heart, you must pick up this book and listen to what Randy told his students and in turn told the world.

July 25, 2008 - Randy passed away.

Thanks to all of you folks who type in The Last Lecture Synopsis in Google. I am getting a million hits...in relation to my little corner of cyberspace.  I am not honestly sure that Randy isn't working through me right now, but if you are visiting Rothacker Reviews from Google, check out what I think that Randy might be saying right now...

Lead your life the right way and your dreams will come to you.

Leave your legacy for your kids while you are still alive.  Live your legacy.  Live your legacy.  Now.

Along the Yellow Brick Road

Work has really gotten the best of me over the last eight months. 

"Awww, come on dave, that's one of the wimpiest sentences you've ever written."

Work penetrated the insides of my head with an icy-cold wake up dagger, "dave, no more cruise control.  If you want to work here..."  And with one big ole commitment I fast-tracked on a laser train right out of my personal life.  No worries.  It's what I needed.  Rosemary has been cool and Carla is a teenager.

A phenomenal effort by my team at work has secured my employment with this company for a little while longer.  While I cannot let up, I need to slow the train down and get back to that comforter that wraps itself around my soul and heart, the one that on a storm-filled day warms my mind, the one that a hurricane cannot pry loose, and the one that is one with dave's dna - dave's writing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

John Maxwell says, "No dream grows out of a vacuum.  It grows out of a dream.  Whether you know it or not, your life has been preparing you for your dreams."

Those who know me know that I am a fifty-one year old bald guy who has had no idea what I want to be when I grow up.  My heart, soul and mind have been ripped from my body and beaten against the rocks of not knowing. The pain of not knowing, of thinking that my answers were out ahead on the road before me have been excruciating, mind numbing and paralyzing.  The pain has sucked oxygen from my life, leaving me most often doubled over in pain.

But for the last five or six years, I've known the answer to my question is and really always has been inside...just like John says.  Something is beginning to stir within dave's soul...  I feel like the sun is trying to penetrate the clouds that accompany my journey.  Something is happening...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While my writing has taken it in the back over the last eight months, my reading hasn't.  And lately I seem to be not only smoking books, but vaporizing them. Picture the robot from the movie Short Circuit...need input, need input.

One of the greatest feelings that I have ever experienced as a human being was a bought of heart-felt appreciation for a book review that I wrote for this one gentleman.  As he told me from six-hundred miles away via telephone what this book review did for him and his company, warms tears streamed down my face.  To know dave is to know that this moment is an anomaly.  This was about six years ago and I packed this experience up in my back pack that I carry on my life's journey.

Writing book reviews and telling folks what excites me about others and their work is a portion of my comforter's dna.  John says they've always been there.  dave says he knows.  Johns says to tune in.  dave says they've walked every foot of the Yellow Brick Road with him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Because my back log of books to write about is so long, I am going to start writing a very short synopsis about each one.  Afterwords I'll follow up with additional posts elaborating.

The mix of first and third person in this post is by design.  Put that in your pipe and smoke it oh great magazine editor!!

Good Vibrations

At some point over the last few years I lost the desire to camp out at the local post office in sweet anticipation of my next Fast Company magazine.  I cannot wax lyrical articulation as to why.  I can only say that maybe, just maybe, they lost a little bit of their soul.

A Westerly wind blew into my life a couple of years ago and gently nudged me into the prevailing trade winds of Design.  I've read many books on the subject and subscribe to at least four different design magazines.  An appreciation for design has allowed for a finer appreciation of culture and deeper tie-ins to the art of communication.  The ability to look through a different lens at one's favorite subjects is most exhilarating!

Sailing at sea with my four design magazines, I always seem to notice when other design magazines float by.  It was about a year ago when I picked up Good.  Aesthetically, it has off the chart design appeal.  I love it.  But it is Good's content that has me remembering Fast Company's good old days.  Creators say Good is for people who give a damn.  They say it's an entertaining magazine about things that matter.  I agree.  Troll through their Website a bit and you'll get a feel.

When one subscribes to Good, one-hundred percent of that payment goes to one of its twelve nonprofit partners.  My proceeds go to Room to Read. 

"Perhaps, sir, you will someday come back with books."

While visiting a remote mountainous area in Nepal, John Wood, founder of Room to Read, came upon a school in horrific condition.  It did however, have a library.  The problem - it contained fewer than twenty books. 

John did go back...with books.  Room to Read grew from the seeds of John's gestures.

We construct force fields to survive the daily onslaught of advertising overload.  (unless, like me, you crave the stuff. I'll explain this sickness in a future post).  Sometimes however, a message pierces your armor and lodges in your heart.  The second that I heard about John's mission was the second right before Room to Read's message landed in my heart.  There will most definitely be some sort of dave-involvement with this organization in the future!

Thanks for coming into my life Good!

Small Business Advertising

Do you own a small business?  Have you encountered the key to making it successful?  Be that key a person, a book, a Web site, a seminar or your spouse's brother-in-law?  Chances are you haven't had the luxury of striking it rich with one brilliant move.  You've had to build your business through hard work, grit, determination and the ability to filter every Tom, Dick and Harry's opinion as to how you should run your business.  You did say your brother-in-law's name is Dick, didn't you?

Today perhaps you might consider the opinion of David, an advertising man.  He helped a few companies sell their products and become successful.  You might be familiar with some of them; Campbell Soup Company, Rolls Royce, General Foods, Shell, IBM, Merrill Lynch, etc.  In the world of advertising, David Ogilvy was an icon.  David passed away in 1999, but his legend lives on along with his words.  You need to pick up his book Ogilvy on Advertising.  It isn't a textbook, it is a conversation.  I've read the book twice now and I feel as if David and I are sitting in a cherry wood paneled library in two big plush leather chairs looking out over a snow-filled meadow while a fire roars in the fireplace.  He talks to me about advertising and selling products while knocking the residual tobacco from his pipe.

"Wait a minute Dave, the companies that David worked with are all really big companies.  Mine isn't."

Ok, let me guess.  Your brother-in-law knows a printer.  He got you a good deal on printing out a flier.  You mailed a few out.  Or you recently bought Advertising for Dummies.  You are trying to follow it step by step.  Or you know that you should be advertising, so you ask Joe who owns the pool cleaning company.  Joe tells you.  But you're not sure if he understands the difference between pool filters and pepperoni pizza.  Or you listen blindly to the girl who sells ad space for the Neighborhood News cause you'd like to date her.  By the way, just how much business are you getting out of that ad?

The point is your advertising isn't working.  You either have to do it yourself or hire a company that works with small business.  Ultimately you should hire the company.  Either way, David will guide you through the process.  But there is a catch.  This book isn't for every small business owner.  It is only for those with an open enough mind to carry on a conversation with a dead ad guy...albeit a charming and wise dead ad guy.  You see, David isn't only going to enlighten you about advertising, if you're open enough, he'll help you build the very core of your business.

"Dave, I ran over to Amazon and ordered up a copy.  It came yesterday.  Dude, this book is written for advertising people."

Well, yes it is.  Here, grab this can of WD-40 and shoot a couple drops on the hinges of your mind.  Now, shake each leg a bit and straighten out your underwear.  Good.  Listen up.  Yes David's book was targeted for the field of advertising.  Published in 1983, he writes about getting a job in the business, running an agency, how to advertise for foreign travel and how to make TV commercials.  He also writes about how to produce advertising that sells, direct mail, how to get clients, research, competing with Proctor and Gamble, and six legends who went before him in the industry.  It is mostly in the last group where the treasure for small business owners can be found.  But you will only hear David's sage bits of wisdom if you pretend he is trying to help you run your business.

I know, I know, you're too busy trying to run your business to play pretend.  But if you made it this far into my article here, try this out...

You hire someone local to do your advertising.  It could be the girl who sells ad space for the neighborhood paper or someone who will design your ad or an agency geared for small business.  Now, listen to what David has to say about his internal operation:

I never assign a product to a writer unless I know that he is personally interested in it.

As an Advertising Director, he never assigns a product to a writer unless he knows that the writer is personally interested in the product.  Now here's where you have to pretend.  David to you:

Carol, does Bob the guy who is writing copy for your print advertisement, know anything about you or your products?  Matter of fact, does he use your products?

See what I mean?

One last suggestion.  Pick up a copy of David's book from the new and used section of Amazon.  You'll save a few bucks.