Myself and Other More Important Matters
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
Charles Handy is perhaps best known outside the business world as a wise and warm presenter of Radio 4's 'Thought for the Day'. Long recognised as one of the world's leading business thinkers (over a million copies of his books have been sold around the world), in Myself and Other More Important Matters he leaves the management territory he has so effectively and influentially mapped in the past to explore the wider issues and dilemmas - both moral and creative - raised by the turning points of his long and successful life.Here he investigates the big issues of how life can best be lived as they have emerged from the unfolding of his life and his unique and influential understanding of what really matters.
From supplying oil by boat to an area larger than England as a bullish young Shell executive in Borneo to realising that there was a big difference between describing the development of a 'portfolio' life (made up of a variety of activities for a range of purposes and pay) in theory and actually himself leaving behind full-time employment, from helping to start up the London and Open business schools to listening and talking to people all over the world about how they want to manage their lives, Handy's telling of his experiences proves both revealing and significant.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Management guru Handy quotes Voltaire, "How infinitesimal is the importance of anything I do, but how infinitely important it is that I do it." That combination of modesty and determination underlies this autobiography from title to final page. Born in 1932, raised in Ireland and educated at Oxford, Handy disappointed his family by entering "trade" for Shell Oil in Asia. Returning to London, he embarked on a career that included teaching, writing, broadcasting the BBC Thought for the Day and consulting and managing quasi-public entities. Because his family valued humility, he felt handicapped: "A becoming modesty was urged on us.... But if you don't shout, how do you let other people know you are there?" Handy muses about this issue amid the story of his steadily growing success, offering advice on topics from how to live one's life to how to run the economy. The book's British tone is gently quaint and introspective, unlike typical American management consulting books. M.B.A.s who were taught to be aggressive fast may either be confused or find this book to be a good antidote. It will certainly appeal most to those who want to slow down the pace of their lives, while traveling farther.
