Practical Tips on Those Business Books That Supposedly Help You Become Successful

One of the areas of work life we've explored over the years has been business books that supposedly help you become more successful. The last time we talked about this was last month when we addressed the whole "visualization" thing. We attempted to direct your mind away from the often trivial, petty bromides offered in so much of the "business leadership," or "personal development" industry towards the solid guidance we can find in Scripture and the many resources in our Catholic tradition.

Well, if you're still spending inordinate amounts of time reading business books - especially ones by so-called "successful" business people - and still believe there's "gold in them thar hills" here's a secular source that might help you screw your head on straight. This fellow, writing in the Wall Street Journal, reviewed "The Virgin Way," by Richard Branson. Branson is that Brit entrepreneur who founded Virgin records, Virgin airlines, and a host of other Virgin companies. No doubt he makes lots of money, and no doubt he's considered quite successful in business. The question with Branson and so many other successful business people is whether their advice to the rest of us contains any sort of substantive meat we can digest and turn into ideas or actions that might help us mere workers improve our business prospects. The answer, according to the author of this review, is decidedly no. And I must agree.

But the review isn't all negative. The review offers some good advice on where we might indeed find meaty sources - at least from a secular perspective - to help us in trying to improve our lot by advancing our careers.

Perhaps instead of reading books that purport to instruct on leadership—offering up more cliché than wisdom—would-be leaders would do better to delve into books about individuals who have grappled with the challenges and ordeals of guiding an army, a nation or a daring enterprise. Literature brims with such portraits. Think only of the "Odyssey" or Shakespeare's "Henry V." Tenacity is important in a leader, but what happens when tenacity becomes obsession? Herman Melville will tell you all about it in "Moby-Dick."

Pretty good resources, don't you think? And as Catholics, we've no problem with these sources. We're not restricting ourselves to Scripture and other distinctly Catholic sources.

As for real individual leaders we might learn from - again not strictly Catholic - the author provides these suggestions:

If you prefer to learn about leadership through the experiences of real people, how about Eliot Cohen's "Supreme Command" (2002), about four civilian leaders (Lincoln, Clemenceau, Churchill and Ben-Gurion) who steered their countries through wars far too important to leave to mere generals? For that matter, try any good book on Ernest Shackleton, who led his Antarctic team to rescue through almost unimaginable hardships. If you really must have the self-help version, forget business books and get yourself a copy of "The Prince." Machiavelli's advice to 16th-century Florentine heads of state may not seem suitable bedtime reading for modern "servant leaders," as exemplars of the contemporary ideal are piously known, but they ignore his cynical realpolitik at their peril.

So save yourself some time and expense and stick to these sorts of resources, in addition to Scripture and more specifically Catholic sources (like the Rule of St Benedict, to which we refer on a regular basis) to help you improve your work life.