Rothacker Reviews

It's lovely to see you again

I was walking along down the road when I came upon a memory and he asked me, "Say where are you going?"

I told him, "It's lovely to see you again my friend. Walk along with me to the next bend."

We walked and spoke and reminisced. Finally he said, "David my boy, I'm out when we round that bend. Delving into yesteryear is good so long as when we emerge we are refreshed and inspired to do greater things."

I said, "I know, but it certainly was lovely to see you again my friend."

More Soul Searching with Penelope Trunk

Okay, I finished Penelope's book. Since I don't write a book review of any book that I don't like, there's one driving force behind the ones that I do write. It goes something like this:

Eleven year old, out of breath David who jumps off his bike and runs up the driveway to his buddy's front door and bangs on door until his buddy comes out: "Bobby, Bobby! Ya gotta see Timmy's new bike! It's gotta banana seat and four foot sissy bar! You're gonna want to buy one man!"

Well, that's how I am towards the books I really like.

Even though Penelope has taught me a very valuable lesson, I still have one problem with this book. I cannot recommend it. I would recommend it, if you could buy it, but you can't. Penelope printed 1,000 copies, signed, numbered and sold them out. That's it, there ain't no more and she will not print no more and there will be no more editions. Capeesh?

Now, in a way this does make me feel good. It increases the value of my book. That is, it makes me want to cherish it even more, because I'd never sell it to a soul.

Please allow me to pause for a moment and dispense with the review of this book right quick. Penelope's intent on writing this book was to help her friend Melissa, stay on track with the development of her career. Penelope dives into the forty or so years she has spent collecting material and comes up with material in which she divides into the following sections:

1. Soul
2. Path
3. Work
4. Lost
5. Found
6. Happy
7. Life

Since you can't get the book there's little use in me telling you what it's all about. I will say, if Melissa listens and follows through, she will have a most fulfilling life and career.

About that lesson from my most favorite ex-professional volleyball player on the planet. Actually, Penelope was just doing her thing. The lesson comes from the reaction of a few people who were upset with themselves for not getting the book before it sold out. I do not want to be in that position!

Moving forward, I'll make sure to pay attention to folks like Penelope and organizations like Brazen Careerist. One such organization that offers limited time availability on promotions is The Domino Project. All this really requires of me is a little more focus, and the willingness to tune into those who are providing value and to tune out those who are not (you know who is filling your inbox with gobbledy-gook).

I think I'll go cancel a couple of e-mail subscriptions right now.

Increased Security

We've had activity in and around our community pool that could benefit from increased security. Board members have worked tirelessly to make this happen. I was up at the pool today and noticed the new patrol. To our board members, especially the one who sits at the same table located by the swimming lanes, a huge thanks!

Soul Searching with Penelope Trunk

I received a copy of Penelope Trunk's latest book last week. 999 other people did as well. It's a sold-out, limited edition. I'd tell you the book's name, but from cover to cover, it's nowhere to be found*.

This isn't a formal review. It's more of a "I can hardly wait to write something about this book because I like it so much even though I've only read half way through it," kinda thing.

Quick little story first.

I ordered this book March 18. I hadn't received it by the beginning of April so I wrote a note to Penelope. She said it was one of those "order printing after all book orders came in," kinda deal. I should get the book in six weeks. A week later Penelope sent out a global e-mail to those who ordered the book. She said book to arrive in mid May, she would then sign them and ship them out. Towards the end of June Penelope sent out another e-mail letting us know the books arrived. We'd receive them as soon as they were signed.

Perhaps this process could have been handled differently, although Penelope's hands were tied because they were dealing with a printer in China. But it doesn't matter one bit to me. From the first time I read Penelope's stuff in the late 90's I've been totally smitten with her, with her learn-from-experience demeanor, with her honesty, with her passion and desire to help Gen-Y, with her tell-you-what's-real style and with her writing ability. Add in the street cred that she's developed with Brazen Careerist and it's a no-brainer. No problemo.

Conduct yourself in a manner that pleases your market, audience or reader and when that inevitable bump in the road comes, it isn't a problem.

The driving force behind the book is that Penelope wants to help her associate, Melissa, keep her career on track. So Penelope digs into her Library of Congress-sized archive of articles and finds those that will be of use to Melissa. Place those articles in a well designed book of gold-lined pages that is aesthetically appealing and pleasing to touch and you have a most excellent career / life guide.

Actually, this is total value for me. I could try to take the time to peruse Penelope's site and assemble similar articles. But by the time it would take me to do it, I still wouldn't nail down all the articles of help and I wouldn't have them all neatly assembled in a book that stands out from three hundred or so others that I keep at arm's length from my writing chair. Not to mention it's a limited edition. One that's numbered and personally signed.

One of the things I love about this book is that it has plenty of white space - plenty of room to journal and write notes.

More to come on Penelope's new book...

*Penelope explains about the book's title in this post.