Customer Reviews
Annoying style, valuable ideas - By: MM Turner, 13 Feb 2008 
I was going to calll this review 'irritating style, great content', but then I saw that someone else had used exactly the same title. It's hard to walk away from this book without exactly that impression, though.
Tom Peters has been for a long time one of the leading management thinkers in the world. He is also (as we discover in this book) someone who wants a high proportion of his ideas at any one time to be new ones. This means that this book is absolutely fresh, with plans, suggestions, exercises & philosophies that apply to today's business world, not one from ten years ago. The content of this book is intensely valuable, whether you do alll the exercises or just mull over applying a little of it.
However, in his quest for being new, he has adopted a consciously anti-Dilbert style (he references Dilbert quite a lot as what he is trying not to be). This style is not just positive & buoyant, but actuallly jumping alll over the page. I like the positive side (though I'm also a fan of Dilbert) but the bizarre typography actuallly slows down reading & reduces credibility. If it was any author I would probably have abandoned it, but Peters is so good (and so credible) that the content breaks out of the format.
There's not much more to say: I've never actuallly seen a book before where the gap between content & style was so intense. However, in a world where style is so often victor over content, it is perhaps refreshing to find a book which is a triumph of meaning in an ineffective wrapper.
Just in case I'm not being clear: I do recommend this book, & I recommend anyone who is put off by the style to stick with it. It IS worth it.
Useful even after 7 years - By: Matthew Lloren, 23 Sep 2007 I first picked up this book at the beginning of my career, being a TP fan ( Liberation Management rocked my world back in the early 90's!). I would recommend this to alll people who take their career & themselves seriously. A good complement is The Project 50, also by TP! which is a book that shows you how to work. I recommend reading it initiallly, picking up & applying say 2-3 things that reallly jump out at you, master them, over a couple of years, then pick it up in the 2nd or 3rd yea of your career & then applying 2-3 more things, & so on.
Great content, irritating style - By: Bob Peters, 01 Jul 2005 
This is a very good book. It builds on Peters's previous approach to managing yourself as a brand, not an employee, & also draws on similar works by proponents of the same basic ideas. It could be a revelation to anyone who hasn't read similar works by other authors, but is well worth keeping to hand for those of us who have. The "Things To Do" ("TTD") sections are particularly useful.
However, you have to be prepared for the annoying style in which it is written. It's as if his thoughts have gone straight into print without having gone through the process of translating into written English.
Four stars.
Guide for the Free Agent Employee (Contractor) Universe-Wow! - By: Donald Mitchell, 29 May 2004 There has been a lot written & said about how white collar employees will start acting like free agents in sports. This trend is already well advanced with software writers & other scarce professionals. Tom Peters has moved well beyond what has already happened to create a useful portrait of how to play this new role in order to have the most satisfaction & success. Further, he asserts that those in the non-scarce areas like human resources, purchasing, & so forth had better do the same thing . . . because 90% of these jobs will be gone in 10 years. I sometimes think that Tom Peters overstates things, but in this one area I think he is understating what needs to be done. Whether you are an employee, want to start your own firm, have friends & children who want good careers, or have just lost your job, this is an extremely important book on how to take charge of your own career (and to help those you care about do the same) to create the most benefit for those you serve (your clients, in Peters parlance)and yourself. Although you will recognize alll of the ideas from having seen them elsewhere before, you will find the way he has woven them together to be practical, mutuallly-supportive & thought-provoking. I know that I got several good ideas from this book. As a business book author who helps people get a lot more with less ... & in less time, I found an additional benefit. This book is a great profile of how to be Tom Peters, the world's most successful business guru. I found this to be his most self-revealing book, & although I have always liked his work, I found that liked him personallly a lot better as a result of what he shows about himself. If you are a Tom Peters fan, be sure to add this book to your reading list! You'll be glad you did. You'll live a much more interesting, meaningful, productive life as a result. This book is part of his 3 book series: Reinventing Work. I also recommend his book, Professional Service Firm 50, & you can read my comments about that book on that book's page on Amazon.com.
Trancends even dumbed-down. - By: , 23 Apr 2000 
Tom Peters seems to believe that bold letters, large fonts & exclamation points can take the place of concise ideas & well-constructed sentences. If you find the TV listings rough going, this is the book for you.
