How to Lose Friends and Infuriate People (bit of a book review!)

Catchy title of a book I've read recently. Now, I love a good "self-help" book, but sometimes you just have to stop holding on so tight and get over yourself. I've studied myriad contemporary texts on every possible aspect of leadership, management and self-development during my working and academic life, but few have struck a chord with me the way this book has. It challenged my way of thinking about traditional workplace issues, made me smile and made me sad. It made me angry in parts and I certainly did not agree with many of his contentions - but it was a hugely entertaining, and sometimes inspiring, read.

The author, Jonar Nadar, slams diplomacy as a waste of time. He blows the whistle on the corporate and political games played out in the workplace. He discredits the rules that have done nothing more than nourish the lethargic, imprison new talent and suppress freedom. He exposes protocol as a brick wall that protects the insecure and keeps at bay the bold and brave. He calls on those who are in a position of power to lift their game.

Nadar condemns the critics who intimidate others in the workplace. You know them - critics are those whose rich and condemning vocabulary largely consists of words like: never; not done: can't be achieved: unreasonable: unrealistic: will never happen. They encourage censorship and promote the banning of all sorts of things. They prize legislation and love thought-control, promoting themselves as "mind-guards". And, they hide behind words they do not understand - like morals, social standards, ethics, social behaviour, and political correctness (yet have the gall to intimidate women, communists, capitalists, gays, and those of atypical lifestyles). Inventors, pioneers, radical, and visionaries have ventured from the lonely and costly camp of 'minority' only to be obstructed by majority-rule concepts that tolerate inferiority, hinder progress, harbour injustice and pose limits within the decaying status quo.

Righteousness. It is a timeless word that belongs to everyone. Too bad it does not unite with 'tolerance, dance with 'individuality' and blend with 'acceptability' and stay away from 'justice' - an obscure word that has legitimacy to the one who applies it, and no useful function to the one to whom it is being applied.

If you acknowledge that nothing is ever final, that possibilities are endless, that life is never simple, that a rolling stone can gather moss, that a watched kettle does boil, and that those that cry last, cry the most ... then this book may be for you !