How horrid! Recommending that someone buy one’s book/s! I avoid self-recommendation like the plague. But, alas, I’m going to make an exception.
While trapped at home during a 2-foot, 2.5-day VT snowstorm and doing an intense winter cleanup, my “brand you” book reared its dust-covered self from underneath a bed. It was part of our 1999 3-book set published under the rubric of “Re-inventing Work”:
The Project50: Fifty Ways to Transform Every “Task” into a Project That Matters!
The idea, as the Age of Outsourcing descended in the late ’90s, was that the best & sole defense against a global labor market was: Do Great Work!
That is:
(1) Turn every task into a project of distinction worth bragging about 5 years from now—if not 10. (“Wow Project” was our moniker—and Steve Jobs’ “insanely great” was the benchmark.)
(2) Turn your run-of-the-mine “department” into an indispensable, value-adding superstar professional services firm in the tradition of IDEO, Chiat Day, or McKinsey. (“Gamechanging PSF” was our shorthand here.)
(3) Turn yourself into a businesswoman sporting a project portfolio to die for. (“Brand You” was the tag line.)
Fact is, as The Deep Recession deepens by the day, these ideas are more, not less, timely than a decade ago. While nothing will make the current rocky road smooth, the fact is that Truly Inspired Work—the basics and innovation alike—is the best defense and the best offense in very tough times.
So in a departure from tradition, I recommend these three books; and in the name of modesty, I can report that each one is available used at Amazon.com for One Cent!