Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace

Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace | Gordon MacKenzie | The little book that could

books:

Orbiting the Giant...

	Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace Gordon MacKenzie Viking Adult, 1998 - 224 pages average customer review:based on 110 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

A primer on thumbing your nose at convention ...

... and succeeding on your own terms.

Mackenzie is not an ordinary fellow. Not by a long shot. And this is no ordinary book. It is so antithetical to the straightjacketed, creativity-and-soul-squashing CorporateThink that permeats nearly every organization that it ought to come in a plain brown wrapper!

The message?

Be yourself.
Live now.
Live out loud.
Don't put it off.
Feel the fear ...
... do it anyway.

Well, I suppose there are lots of different messages, but the clarion call sounding through every page of this outrageous little book is: IT's OK to be YOU. Be YOU in outrageous colors and with an oompah band! Nobody else can do it. "It" meaning be you, live your life, do it the way YOU would do it ...

This book speaks a language that people born to a different destiny from the madding crowd will understand intuitively and instinctively. It will offend, alienate, maybe even anger people who haven't got that in their genetic blueprint. So what?

I think a second subtitle for this book could covertly be ... "SO WHAT?" It's not nearly as interesting as "orbiting the giant hairball", but in a quick, shorthand sort of way it captures the essence of Mackenzie's fabulous little book.

People will scoff.
You will get strange looks.
They'll tell you you're doing it wrong ...
To shush up.
To not wear plaid with stripes, for heaven's sake.
To speak only when you're spoken to.
To feel the sting of shame when you realize you're "out of step".

And ...

SO WHAT?

A courageous primer on being courageous. Guts in a book. "Hairball" is a wonder!

for more information click here

The little book that could

I borrowed this from a friend who had borrowed it from someone else, and so it goes with Mr. MacKenzie's huge hit in a such a small package. I'm on a mission to tell all who will listen.

We all need our own personal copy. I told friend at work about it, and he was so taken with it, that he ran out and bought two. One was for me as a gift of thanks.

Just today, a coworker said she poured over the first half and was transfixed. I glanced over and she had a smile on her face as she continued reading Gordon's wonderful words of wisdom.

Are you supervisors, managers and directors of departments listening? Give yourself a break and read this book....and dare to live, breathe and work differently and uniquely. You'll be better for it.

for more information click here

Little far out in orbit but an excellent read

An excellent read just to see what some people can get away with when they do what they love for a living.

Interesting

Had to read this book for a masters level creativity class so I didn't come in with high expectation. While the book itself goes overboard on not being mainstream (text turned all different ways, odd pictures), it does offer an interesting and valuable message:

Long and short... those people who just don't fit the corporate culture have the potential to create a ton of value for a company. You have to understand how to give them enough leash to be creative while keeping them headed in the same direction as the company.

The author's narrative brings this message to life.

for more information click here

Interesting work but...

I liked the book because it was zany and made some very useful points. But as someone pointed out earlier, part of the problem is the modern management structure that stifle creativity. Until the structure changes, problems will cotinue. I would suggest that the author reads the free manifesto 'why your boss is programmed to be a dictator' at changethis.com - the real barrier to creativity at work is revealed. Until real and deep changes are made, it's going to be like swimming against the current.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, page 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

products you might be interested in