Cubicle to Corner Office
On my last business trip I had a lot of time en route to read, and I made short work of this book. "How to get from Cubicle to Corner Office" is full of plain talk and common sense, backed up the anecdotes and real world experience of Joel Weiss, author and successful executive.
The book is very well organized and gets down to brass tacks immediately. Each chapter spans just 4 to 8 pages, including a single page summary of the chapter. The end of the book summarizes the salient points from each chapter neatly over 3 pages.
An example of the summary from the chapter entitled "Be a Doer, Not a Just Talker":
"Step forward, volunteer, commit, and then do it. Many people talk and promise, but few actually deliver. If you do, you will stand out from the crowd."
I picked it up on sale at Indigo for less than $10, and although the advice may seem obvious, it called a few things out to me that I realize I could improve about myself.
For a "how to be successful" book, I was most impressed that it wasn't trying to sell any cheesy tricks or "new paradigms". It simply has good advice that is easy to understand, but takes effort and discipline to follow.
Labels: book
posted by Blight @ 11:32 AM
5 Comments:
Sometimes those books tell you exactly what you need to do to get ahead. I have a number of them. Most of them have pretty much the same theme but to have it said over and over reinforces what you need to do. Sounds like it gave you some good advice. Now what you do with it will decide if the book did it's job of motivating you to action.
The huge market that these books command points out a sorry gap in our educational system.
More of this practical information could be, and might best be, introduced at various stages in the Kto12 curriculum. Some enlightened teachers, and coaches, are incorporating these ideas into their mentoring process... but sadly they are few in number.
Sounds like you found a gem. Good on you for reading it and letting us know.
The "huge" market for these books says more about people's search for a shortcut to material success than it does about our educational system.
Let's give our children the opportunity to think rather than teaching them to be a good solider of the corporate machine. Let's try, for a moment, to remember that there are more ways to measure someone's life than by how shiny their car is or how big their office is. We can leave the preachy tips-for-life where they belong: with motivational speakers and in self-help books.
Blight, thank you for the informative review. I'll keep my eyes peeled for this book in the bargain bin.
Dalban, I think that you're right in being concerned about training our kids to be skilled in corporate ladder climbing, but the practical information in the book is also about personal values and work ethics.
I still think we have a ways to go with our educational system. We don't even discuss the criminal code at any point - think of all the laws you're breaking without knowing it. For example, I recently discovered that the making of "Crime Comics" is illegal. That would make most of those "Batman" etc comics illegal?
I've kind of got a corner office when I do my web design.
Otherwise, I should really read that book. Sounds informative.
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