Master of None
How a Jack-of-All-Trades Can Still Reach the Top
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
In this revelatory memoir, the former CEO of Sonic challenges established thinking, offering counterintuitive career advice essential for every professional at all levels, whether you're just starting out or in the middle of your career.
In his bestselling Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell introduced readers to the 10,000-hour rule—the foundation of success in any endeavor. But as Clifford Hudson reveals, there are serious pitfalls to this rule. What happens to those who spend years trying to achieve something that doesn’t quite pan out? Do you really have to grind down the same path for many years, sacrificing priorities to become successful?
In Master of None, Hudson turns expertise on its head and shows that by embracing variety and becoming more versatile, anyone can succeed and become more open to different opportunities in life. To do so, he provides three basic rules that will see any professional through:
Don't plan, exploreDon't specialize, generalizeDon't keep your head down, turn it up toward opportunity
In this thought-provoking memoir, Hudson asks whether or not mastery is even necessary to succeed. Most people don't need to be experts in their field. Yes, the successful know more than the average person about a particular topic, and they often possess a better-than-average ability with a particular skillset; but not everyone who is successful is an expert, he makes clear.
More importantly, in today’s technology-driven environment, change is the only constant, including the nature of work and the skills required to do it. Over-investing in expertise is often riskier than learning to be adaptive and open to new knowledge, ideas, and skills. Experience can also lead to overconfidence. And yet we continue to deeply value the expertise ideal.
Groundbreaking and thought provoking, Master of None is a new way forward to help businesses and professionals at all levels thrive.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hudson, CEO of fast food chain Sonic for 23 years, imparts life and business lessons in this boundlessly entertaining memoir. "I don't believe I've ever had the patience to master anything," Hudson begins. Instead, "I've always been a bit all over the map," and it's this to which he accredits his success. Hudson moves through life experiences, including getting in his first fistfight at age four and joining his high school's first desegregated class as a freshman in 1969, and shares, via nine "Rules of Thumb," some of the lessons he's learned, beginning with "Stability Is a Myth" and ending with "Embrace Options That Aren't of Your Own Choosing." His "rules" also include "Innovation Is Not a Luxury," illustrated by how he chose to back rather than shut down a Sonic franchisee accused by middle management of "diluting the brand" (by serving ice cream); by applying the franchisee's approach to Sonic locations as a whole, he doubled sales over four years. Hudson supplements his own life experiences with those of historic or business leaders, including Eisenhower (who favored the motto "gently in manner, strong in deed") and UNC basketball coach Dean Smith (who earned his players' respect through an ethos of "servant leadership"). Hudson's book is so enjoyable that readers may not at first realize the trove of valuable advice it contains.
