4 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
I’m normally a fast reader, of both fiction and non-fiction works. I read 15-20 books a month most months. The Innovator’s Field Guide, however, has taken me more than a month to read, because there is so much to read and absorb it’s impossible to coast through without regular pauses to stop, think, and critique one’s approach to life.
As detailed in the book’s About The Author section, Dr. Jeff D. Standridge is impeccably credentialled to write a self-help guide, and he calls on quotations and anecdotes from brilliant leaders from the military, political life and even great artists and creators to reinforce his lessons. From the more obviously successful, like Walt Disney, Nelson Mandela and Thomas Edison, to the offbeat like Hedy Lamarr, the legendary actress who leveraged her beauty and acting ability in order to pursue her passion as an inventor (she created a frequency-hopping technology which today forms the basis for WiFi and Bluetooth), each quote or anecdote is applied to a specific life skill essential for self-improvement.
Each of the book’s 52 chapters ends with a short series of questions to ask ourselves and exercises to conduct in order to assess our personal progress. I found the best way to get the most out of the book was to read one chapter per day and take time to fully absorb its lessons, considering the questions asked and implementing changes after reflecting on what you can do better. Dr. Standridge recommends one chapter per week, possibly why there are 52 in the book, but I didn’t have a year to read it!
My favourite sections included those regarding work-life balance, and Dr. Standridge has inspired me to make a few changes to my own habits with his recommendation to spend the first few working minutes of each day doing the ‘most feared things’ first in order to inspire our brains to greater creativity. I’ll be getting to work on those tax returns first thing tomorrow!
This isn’t just a book for those who aspire to be CEO’s or multimillionaires. I’d say there is good advice here for anyone who considers that they have a career, whether they are self-employed and working from home, part of a small business team or leading a Fortune 500 company. I learned a great deal, and even those (very few) lessons I didn’t think applied to me personally, I still thought were interesting and thought-provoking. I found only a couple of minor spelling and grammar mistakes, and one incidence of tense-hopping in the middle of an anecdote, but these minor issues certainly aren’t enough to stop me rating this book four out of four stars.
******
The Innovator’s Field Guide
View: on Bookshelves
Like CaitlynLynch's review? Post a comment saying so!
