Blogcritics Author: Adam Jusko

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

Book Review: Hate Mail From Cheerleaders by Rick Reilly

Adam Jusko — Mon, 21 May 2007 19:02:37 EDT

Rick Reilly is back with another collection of favorites from his long-running back-page column for Sports Illustrated. His Hate Mail From Cheerleaders pulls 100 columns from the past seven years, each pointing out the good guys and bad guys of sports, the inspirational and heartbreaking stories that rarely make the front sports page, the many ridiculous acts done in the name of sports, and -- my favorite -- the you-are-there columns in which Reilly takes his turn being part of the sport instead of just writing about it.Reilly is known for both his humor as well as his ability to write sports stories that make you teary. There's plenty of both here. From parents who overanalyze the sporting talent of their pint-sized offspring to a faux Jack Nicholson diary entry to NFL scab referees to Ozzy Osbourne mangling "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" to goofing on Seattle and Canada, Reilly is a master at bringing out the small details that make humor work. Same thing on the tearjerking side -- in describing a father who runs marathons and competes in triathlons with his disabled son in tow, Reilly writes:Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992 -- only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.Reilly's Enemy #1 is Barry Bonds, and while he uses plenty of ammunition on him, he also calls out others who've tainted the sports world, from disgraced sluggers Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire to athletes such as Jayson Williams and Ray Lewis, who manage to skate from the law, even when death was involved. "Out of Touch with My Feminine Side" is one of the many entertaining first person accounts, this one relating his time coaching his daughter's seventh-grade basketball team:During one game our best rebounder slammed the ball down and stomped off the court. "Everybody's yelling my name and I'm sick of it!" she said, and ran to the bathroom -- followed by the mandatory nine other girls. I looked at the little guard in the blue rectangular glasses, who popped her Dum-Dum out of her mouth and said, "Don't worry, Coach. She's having her period."Reilly follows up most of the columns collected here with commentary, whether it be the reaction a column provoked, a "where are they now?" update or a detail left out of the original column. Perhaps my favorite line from the book comes in follow-up to a piece in which Reilly reads through Derek Jeter's fan mail. After recounting that Jeter had dated a previous Miss Universe, Reilly mentions a letter to Jeter from a different Miss Universe. Jeter's reaction when Reilly brings up the letter? "Dude, I'm not going down that Miss Universe road again." As Reilly says, "Has that sentence ever been uttered before?"Hate Mail From Cheerleaders has something for any fan, and it's one of those ready-made gifts if you know a sports nut. Even if that sports nut is you.

Adam Jusko is founder and CEO of Bessed, a Web site promising "search without spam", thanks to human-edited search results and ongoing visitor feedback. Do a search, offer your comments, submit your site--help create the "bessed" search site in the world. (Also see Adam Jusko's Bessed Blog for site news and personal ramblings.) E-mail Adam @ adam@bessed.com.

Book Review: The Dip - A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick) by Seth Godin

Adam Jusko — Tue, 8 May 2007 16:50:20 EDT

There are generally three phases that go into writing a book review. In the first, I read a book. I like to read books, so it's fun. As I read I develop a few thoughts on what I might say about the book. That's fun, too.In the second phase, I write the review. That sucks. Putting the ideas in a logical order, searching for the right phrases, trying not to write too much or too little. Torture.In the third phase, the review is done. I read it and feel satisfied with the work and proud of myself for the accomplishment. Except, of course, when the writing is bad, which makes me wonder if I wasted my energy.Don't worry, this is going somewhere.In the words of Seth Godin's new book, the actual writing of this review would be The Dip - the time where the fun and excitement of a new endeavor is over and you're knee-deep in hard work, with no guarantee of a satisfying conclusion.Unless your company happens to be YouTube or you're plucked off the sidewalk to star in a new movie opposite Jude Law, you will experience The Dip. It's that time after people stop patting you on the back for starting a new company or getting accepted to medical school or deciding to run a marathon, when you actually have to do what it takes to get there. If you're strong enough, you suck it up and take the pain as your price of admission into the world of the high flyers, coming out on the other end smelling like a rose, rolling around in piles of cash.Except it doesn't always work out that way. Sometimes you put in all the effort and you get pretty much nowhere. You get enough clients to keep your business going, but not enough to make you even remotely wealthy. Or you hit Organic Chemistry and think maybe being a doctor isn't for you. Or you realize you don't have enough time to train for a marathon. And you quit. Or you don't quit because you're not a quitter. Or you go back and forth trying to decide if you should quit or not. Hey! This is not what you signed up for!The Dip is Godin's attempt to encourage you to follow through onto the worthy goals, to quit the goals that you simply can't accomplish, and to figure out which is which.If you're starting something new, here are the key questions Godin suggests you ask yourself: Can I/we be the best in the world?Do I/we have the resources to make it happen?Is the reward worth the effort?If you believe the answer is "yes" to all three, slog through The Dip, keeping your eyes on the prize. Because most of the others will quit. (Or, if they couldn't answer "yes" to the questions, they'll keep on trucking but get nowhere.)If you answer "no" to any of the questions, quitting is not just okay but smart. Quitting when you can't win frees up you or your company's resources to go after something that you can win. Godin convincingly makes the case that the axiom "quitters never win and winners never quit" is wrong, as long as quitters keep searching for the things they can win.One point that Godin makes is sure to fly over some people's heads. It's the question of whether you can be the best in the world. Godin uses the "world" to mean your world, the world you're competing in. If you run a flower shop, you don't have to be the best flower shop on Earth, but you'd better run the best flower shop in your city. To the victor go the spoils. Those in second place get the runoff. Do you want to spend your life living from the runoff?As always, Godin's writing is crisp, making The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick) a pleasure to read. And, at just 76 pages, the book quickly but successfully makes its point, leaving you plenty of time to decide if it's time to get back to work or back to the drawing board.

Book Review: Chasing Life by Sanjay Gupta

Adam Jusko — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 19:07:53 EDT

Will we someday be able to replace or regrow our major organs whenever they wear out, giving us the ticket to "practical immortality"? If so, will any of us now living be able to take advantage of such a future? In Chasing Life, CNN medical correspondent and Time columnist Sanjay Gupta, MD, offers a complete look at what we know today about extending life, and some potentially mind-blowing technologies that could completely change our perception of a normal human lifespan.While the book uses the "immortality" hook to get you interested, in truth the vast majority of its pages are dedicated to what you can do right now to maximize your years. You won't be surprised to find out that exercise and a good diet can add years, while getting fat and getting diabetes or smoking and getting cancer aren't exactly helpful. If Gupta doesn't cover a ton of new ground here, he does cover a lot of ground, offering the latest findings on combating cancer, the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of supplements, the upside of being upbeat, the wonders of wine and dark chocolate, the potential benefits of limiting calories, and the myths and realities associated with artificial sweeteners, cell phones, cooking with Teflon, and microwaving plastic. Yes, you may have already read some of this in the papers, but unless you're a real health junkie, Chasing Life is a good place to get it all straight in one appealing package. (One fact completely new to me has to do with the benefits of upper body workouts to stave off pneumonia, a common killer in our later years.) Fascinating yet too short for my tastes are the book's sections on upcoming technologies or what the fringe is already experimenting with. Gupta discusses the potential use of stem cells to slow aging and even grow new organs, research into "longevity genes," using viruses for good versus evil, and nanobots unleashed in our bloodstream to clean things up and repair DNA damage. Gupta relies quite a bit here on the vision of inventor and author Ray Kurzweil, who believes that if we can just live long enough, rapidly-advancing scientific achievements may give us the chance to live forever. Is immortality "on the horizon," as Gupta puts it? That's definitely up for debate. But, at worst, Chasing Life gives you the best information currently known on increasing your odds of living a long, vital life.

Book Review - Bill & Dave: How Hewlett and Packard Built the World's Greatest Company by Michael S. Malone

Adam Jusko — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 14:45:26 EDT

For those of us who've known Hewlett-Packard mostly for top-of-the-line computer printers and recent corporate scandals, it's somewhat mystifying to hear or read the almost religious zeal of an older generation that seems to regard the "old" HP as some sort of business utopia. It's just a company---could it really have been that great?Michael S. Malone says yes, and his new book, Bill & Dave: How Hewlett and Packard Built the World's Greatest Company, sets out to show just how groundbreaking was the company. Its founders' innovation in both new products and new ways of doing business created an environment in which customers wanted only HP products, employees reciprocated the loyalty HP showed to them, and future Silicon Valley generations tried -- and usually failed -- to follow in their footsteps.Right off the bat, what makes Hewlett-Packard so noteworthy is Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. Their skills, their personalities, and the fact that for almost 50 years they partnered at the top of the organization they founded is a rarity. One doesn't often see a business partnership last so long, and so seamlessly, especially in an era where CEOs prefer to have the spotlight shone squarely on them alone. Hewlett and Packard's skills and demeanors were perfect complements to each other, and their lack of desire to put themselves on a pedestal is what helped create the family atmosphere that came to be known as "the HP Way."Malone writes Bill & Dave as a straightforward corporate history, but at the same time he wants you to read the book as a primer on how to run a business that not only turns a profit, but also takes care of its people and cares about the communities in which it does business. To that end, throughout the book he notes particularly important lessons with an asterisk, then brings all of these lessons together at the end to create a roughly 10-page document that lays out a blueprint for entrepreneurial success. At first I thought the asterisk thing would annoy me, but once I'd finished the book I liked this short summary of how Hewlett and Packard made it all work.The book begins by tracing Hewlett and Packard's paths to their eventual meeting at Stanford, where Dave Packard was the tall, gregarious, can't-miss golden boy sports star and Bill Hewlett was a short, dyslexic, somewhat reserved sort still getting over his father's untimely death. Their shared interest in electronics would lead the two to eventually start Hewlett-Packard in the celebrated garage of Dave and Lucille Packard's home on Addison Avenue in Palo Alto, California.As with any corporate history, Bill & Dave is most interesting when tracing the early years, when Hewlett and Packard baked HP instrument panels in Packard's oven and randomly priced their first product in such a way that it was impossible to make a profit. They were quick studies, though, and it wasn't long before the company was on its way.Bill and Dave worked hard throughout HP's ascendancy to create a family atmosphere, and this is perhaps their greatest legacy and why they are still so adored. In the beginning, it was the founders handing out bonus checks to employees based on Hewlett-Packard performance and having Friday "beer busts" to let off steam. Later on it was flex time and the Hewlett-Packard policy of avoiding mass layoffs by sacrificing revenue in favor of employees keeping their jobs--whether that meant sacrificing revenue by not hiring for short-term busy times or reassigning rather than firing employees whose skills no longer matched the positions they were filling.An interesting aspect of HP's history is that on two separate occasions one of the founders left the company to the control of the other. In World War II, Bill Hewlett left to serve while Packard stayed behind to run the growing HP alone. (Hewlett-Packard equipment was being used by the U.S. military and thus the military wanted at least one founder back at HP to run the company.) During the Nixon administration, Dave Packard became Deputy Secreatary of Defense and helped revamp the United States' procurement policy, leaving Hewlett to run the show in his three-year absence. In both cases, Hewlett-Packard hummed along, showing that while the founders preferred to be together, each could handle the job alone. Had they become so similar as to be interchangeable or had "the HP Way" become so ingrained that it no longer mattered?Inevitably the book loses some steam as HP grows to be a massive international corporation, and Bill & Dave grow old and eventually retire, but it's amazing to read how they make the transition from that garage partnership to an incorporated small business to corporate behemoth so smoothly, always with an eye on profits, sentimental toward their employees but never sentimental toward products that no longer make the cut.While author Malone can be a little too fawning in romanticizing Hewlett & Packard---they can't possible have been as perfect as they are in these pages---overall Bill & Dave is a book worthy of the men whose remarkable lives it chronicles.

Book Review: Andy Warhol Portraits by Tony Shafrazi, Carter Ratcliffe, Robert Rosenblum

Adam Jusko — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 15:18:59 EDT

A book called Andy Warhol Portraits is unlikely I have any new wisdom to impart on the meaning or importance of Andy's artistic achievements. I'll simply tell you that if you're a fan, you'll find the new Andy Warhol Portraits to be a worthy collection of what most people would consider to be Warhol's most famous works of art (other than maybe those Campbell's Soup cans). Portraits brings together mainly head shots of over 250 people, famous and not, done in various styles, but most often in the overdubbed splashes of color motif that was Warhol's trademark. While some of the not-so-famous faces are people Warhol knew in New York art and social circles, many others are commissioned works. He might not have been cheap, but Warhol was for sale.It's interesting to see portraits of the Shah of Iran and casino mogul Steve Wynn done in the iconic Warhol style. It seems wrong and yet right at the same time. It was, after all, pop art, and these were people with the money and power to have their portraits done by the most famous artist of the day.A partial list of the portraits you'll find includes Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Elvis Presley, Warren Beatty, Natalie Wood, Jacqueline Kennedy, Marlon Brando, Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, Dennis Hopper, Philip Johnson, Yves Saint Laurent, Brigitte Bardot, Mick Jagger, Rudolf Nureyev, Man Ray, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Chris Evert, Jack Nicklaus, Willie Shoemaker, O.J. Simpson, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Pele, Muhammad Ali, Judy Garland, Liza Minelli, Gianni Versace, Truman Capote, Carly Simon, Debbie Harry (who graces the book's cover), Giorgio Armani, Prince Charles and Princess Diana, Jane Fonda, Alfred Hitchcock, Keith Haring, Robert Mapplethorpe, Cheryl Tiegs, Sylvester Stallone, Bill Murray, Clint Eastwood, Diane Keaton, Meryl Streep, Michael Jackson, Prince, Dolly Parton, John Lennon, Aretha Franklin, and several self-portraits Warhol produced at different stages. The book is big and heavy, as an art book should be, with pages measuring roughly 12 inches by 10 inches. You're not cheated on the pictures. Each page is a single portrait, except for those in which Warhol's original work used multiple interpretations of the same image. This is definitely a book for gift giving or, if you're like me and endlessly fascinated by faces, for treating yourself.

Book Review: You, Inc.: The Art of Selling Yourself by Harry and Christine (Clifford) Beckwith

Adam Jusko — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 09:04:21 EDT

In the introduction, authors Harry Beckwith and Christine Clifford Beckwith tell us the book actually started out as three different books: one on selling, one on career/life advice for new graduates, and one on manners. While it may seem strange to combine these three things -- when you consider they all are essentially ways of selling ourselves -- it makes sense. Despite a few clunkers here and there, You, Inc.: The Art of Selling Yourself, does a fairly good job of making it all work.The book is written in bite-sized chunks, fitting 160+ lessons on everything from personal development to too much PowerPoint in roughly 300 pages. It makes for a quick read. How much you take away from it depends on where you started out. At times the lessons are profound and at other times clichéd. Thinking of the book as something for new graduates makes it easier to forgive the clichés, but be prepared: there's plenty here of which a professional person will already be aware.A few examples will illustrate what you can expect from You, Inc. and why I felt alternately enlightened and annoyed by it.A great message comes in a series of lessons about positioning yourself, whether that means selling your company to customers or selling your worth within an organization. “What Difference Do You Make?” asks one lesson, and it's a fitting question. If you can't identify where you are better or where you contribute in a unique, skilled way, you're going to miss the sale or miss the promotion. This is a lesson that's easy to forget in the non-stop, no-time-to-talk world we are often faced with.Under the title “How to Be Fascinating,” the book offers a lesson on listening by relating a story of a man who was deemed a great conversationalist by a woman who had talked to him for 50 minutes. He barely spoke, but listened attentively. I have read this lesson, told in basically the same way, in dozens of books on selling and self-improvement. We all know we should be better listeners. It's time for the writers to come up with some new anecdotes on how to do so.You, Inc.'s thoughts on speaking and presenting are right on, including Harry Beckwith's repeated lessons on cutting out the fluff from presentations to make them snappy and his reminders to not overly rely on printed slides. His imagined example of Martin Luther King, Jr. giving a speech using a slide titled "Have A Dream" followed by a. Better Life, b. Racial Equality, c. Can See Promised Land succinctly and humorously shows how a presentation can be flattened when the passion is removed."Life is not what you make it, it's how you take it" is the closing line to one lesson, and "He and she who laughs, lasts" ends another. To finish off stories of people worth emulating, the book repeatedly offers lines like "Be a Morrie" and "Be Like Raphael." There's nothing wrong with these messages, but at times they come off, I don't know, cheesy.In the end, this book reminded me of Don't Sweat the Small Stuff, not in content, but in the style and in the love-hate relationship I feel toward them. The lessons in both are important and worth remembering, even worth re-reading on occasion. On the other hand, the writing in both tends to drive me a little batty. Just to show you of my split mind on the subject, I can almost guarantee that I will read You, Inc. again at some point, just as I have re-read Don't Sweat the Small Stuff. If you buy it, I'll bet you'll read it more than once, too.

Book Review: The Playboy Interviews - Movers and Shakers by Stephen Randall

Adam Jusko — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 12:28:50 EDT

Playboy has been packaging some of their most famous interviews together in a series of recent books, each around a central theme. The Playboy Interviews: Movers and Shakers centers around some of the most successful entrepreneurs and/or business leaders of the past 40 years, and it doesn't disappoint. While there's nothing new here, the collected interviews of major business leaders, stretching back as far as 1974 to as recent as 2004, is a treat both for its insight into what makes these people tick and the ability it gives us to see if the future played out the way the interviewees thought it might.Interviewed in Movers and Shakers are Barry Diller, Calvin Klein, Steve Jobs, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Jeff Bezos, Hugh Hefner (twice), Leona Helmsley, Donald Trump (twice), Vince McMahon, Ted Turner (twice), Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Malcolm Forbes.Most of the interviewees are larger-than-life characters, and these in-depth interviews bring that impressive aspect out. Perhaps the most entertaining of the subjects is Ted Turner, interviewed originally in 1978, fresh off of having won the America's Cup yacht race and taking over ownership of the then last-place Atlanta Braves. At the Braves' games Turner would sit behind home plate with a microphone tied directly into the stadium's public address system, offering his comments to the few thousand fans who attended Braves games at that time. Interviewer Peter Ross Range describes the constantly moving "Mouth of the South" as someone who never stops talking, continuing to yell commentary even when on the other side of a closed restroom door.Interviewed five years later, again by Ross Range, Turner's fame had grown and he comes across full of stress over competing with the broadcast networks with the recent launch of his Cable News Network (CNN). Ross Range's somewhat aggressive questioning of Turner at this time leads to Turner eventually ripping the tape recorder from his hands, destroying the tape and throwing the recorder at the cockpit door of the commercial passenger plane they are flying on at the time.The Steve Jobs interview takes place in 1985, and it is interesting to hear Jobs talk so accurately of a coming "information highway" and yet so inaccurately of the future of the computer industry - Jobs has Apple and IBM pegged as the only foreseeable players in the business; the rise of Microsoft is not yet even a blip on Jobs' radar screen.The book's centerpiece is a 1974 interview with Hugh Hefner, followed by a second interview over 25 years later, in 2000. In the first Hefner is a relatively young man, still riding high as a trailblazer with Playboy, and loving every minute of it. In the second, Hefner is a 74-year-old man fresh off a separation with his wife and reclaiming his title as life of the party, extolling the virtues of Viagra and multiple girlfriends less than half his age. As you might expect, he was still loving every minute of it. Whether you admire or abhor Hefner, it's difficult to argue that he's lived the life of many a man's fantasy.Movers and Shakers closes out with a 1979 interview with Malcolm Forbes. At first it seems out of place, coming directly on the heels of interviews with software kings Bill Gates and Larry Ellison. But in fact it's a great way to end a book such as this, with an unrepentant capitalist celebrating the wonderful life he's had the opportunity to lead and continuing to chase ever more interesting pursuits (including motorcycles and hot air ballooning). Forbes exemplifies what comes through in most all of these interview subjects - a zest for life and a desire to keep playing the game at the highest level.

Book Review: Need More Love by Aline Kominsky Crumb

Adam Jusko — Thu, 1 Mar 2007 04:18:23 EST

In what could best be described as a mixed-media autobiography, underground comic author Aline Kominsky Crumb pieces together her real-life comics, written text, interviews, paintings and photographs to capture a life less ordinary in Need More Love: A Graphic Memoir. From chronicling her warring parents and emotionally abusive father ("you can't shine shit" he says of her use of makeup as a teen) to her sexually promiscuous early adulthood (which included getting pregnant and giving up the baby for adoption) to her non-traditional 30-plus year marriage to legendary comic writer R. Crumb (Fritz the Cat, Mister Natural), Aline Kominsky Crumb has plenty of material to fill the book's 400-plus pages.Kominsky Crumb's childhood on Long Island obviously resonates deeply with her, as multiple comics discuss her father's poor treatment of her and his questionable business enterprises that seem to have included mob connections. While she continually draws herself as ugly and fat in these comics, pictures interspersed throughout show her to be a cute, normal girl quite unlike that of her imagination. Her father's death from cancer at 42 adds to the strange dynamics of her memories.An early marriage, followed by a a move to Arizona, followed by an early divorce lead to Aline Kominsky's San Francisco advenure, where she falls in with a group of women chronicling their experiences through comics. Kominsky becomes part of the scene and meets R. Crumb during this period. Her relationship with him strains her relations with the women authors, as R. Crumb (and perhaps men in general) are seen as at best misogynist and at worst the enemy. Aline's not interested in going that route.In many ways, Aline Kominsky and R. Crumb's life together from that point is traditional storybook, living out in the country, having a daughter - if it wasn't for that pesky open-marriage thing. She talks about or alludes to multiple affairs on both sides of the ledger that remind you the marriage isn't quite as traditional as it appears on its face. In fact, she describes having a "second husband" in France (where she and R. Crumb live), and tells of his dalliances when he returns to the United States for business reasons. Well, you wouldn't expect underground artists to be completely normal, would you?Need More Love is an interesting ride for any reader, but will especially appeal to fans of R. Crumb and/or Aline or graphic novel fans in general. In addition to the many photos, you'll also get plenty of Aline's solo work and many of the combination comics that the husband-wife team created together. (Aline says R. Crumb fans complained about her artwork when put up against his in these collaborations.) But don't be surprised if your own life seems a bit dull in comparison.

Book Review: What A Party! by Terry McAuliffe

Adam Jusko — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 21:12:53 EST

In 2004 I was a delegate for John Kerry and attended the Democratic National Convention. Having never been particularly active politically, it was strange to suddenly be in a big arena, sitting 20 feet away while Bill Clinton spoke, and jumping up and down waving maniacally the latest sign they'd just put in our hands, so as to look pumped up for the TV cameras. While I thought it was important, it also felt kind of silly.Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic National Committee chairman at the time, has just released a new book, What A Party!, that validates the opinion I had at that time: politics is important and silly at the same time. McAuliffe traces his political roots back to his childhood in Syracuse, where his dad was a mainstay in local Democratic circles. And once he became an adult, it wasn't long before McAuliffe got into the game, but on a national level, riding on Air Force One with President Jimmy Carter while in his early 20s. How did he rise so fast? McAuliffe knew how to bring in the bucks. His fundraising prowess put him in demand in Democratic circles. McAuliffe was willing to do what it took to get the dough, from wrestling an alligator to a quick karaoke tune.Of course after those heady days on Air Force One, it would be a while before Democrats would be in the seat of power, but McAuliffe's role in raising cash for Bill Clinton gave him a front row seat for an eventful presidency. It's clear that McAuliffe has a huge amount of affection for the Clintons, and he makes no apologies for it, so don't expect much juicy stuff there. Still, Bill Clinton holds so much fascination for so many that it's interesting to hear McAuliffe's stories about their time together.As you might imagine, McAuliffe doesn't have much bad to say about anyone on the Democratic side, but he's not shy about being the hero of the anti-Republican brigade, offering a number of stories that portray him as the fearless pit bull when other Democrats were weak. One of his few shots at the Dems comes when he expresses his dismay at the John Kerry campaign in 2004, including their refusal to attack George W. Bush at the convention and other missteps. He also portrays Kerry as being somewhat removed from what his campaign managers were even doing.What A Party! offers plenty of behind-the-scenes stuff that Democrats will enjoy, but it is marred somewhat by McAuliffe's high opinion of himself. This is not a man who has a problem with self-love, and at times it is grating to listen to him tell us of his heroism in the face of this or that calamity. On the other hand, McAuliffe's joy in doing his job, along with his oft-stated amazement at how far the Syracuse kid had come, makes it easier to not hold it against him. And it does sound like a pretty amazing life (although not exactly conducive to being an active father to his five children).If you're a diehard Dem or a Clinton fan, pick it up. If not, you can expect Terry McAuliffe at your door any day to tell you the error of your ways.

Book Review: What Got You Here Won't Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith

Adam Jusko — Thu, 8 Feb 2007 03:31:04 EST

You probably think you're pretty special, having moved up steadily in your career - unstoppable, you're going places. And maybe you're right; maybe you are special. But the specialness that has brought you so much success up until now may have blinded you to the things you're not so good at. You've succeeded on your skills, despite your shortcomings. But executive coach and author Marshall Goldsmith is here to say that if you want to keep moving up, What Got You Here Won't Get You There.So, what's wrong with you? Well, if you're like most people, you've got one, two, maybe three of Goldsmith's handy Twenty Habits That Hold You Back. Things like your uncontrollable need to always win, to always be right, to pass judgment on others, to make destructive comments, to be negative, to not control your temper - you get the picture. And if you want to take the next step up, you're going to have to work on your issues.Of course no one has all these bad habits. In fact, some of us have these habits but not to a degree that it really hurts us - our co-workers don't mind them, even if we are occasionally annoying. But, just about everyone has one or two that are serious enough to affect their success at work. Those are the ones to figure out and start working on.(Personally, I'm a little too much of a know-it-all and I have poor listening skills. My wife says I'm also negative. She doesn't know what she's talking about.)It's important that you realize your shortcomings, because those around you already know them. Saying "that's just who I am" isn't going to cut it, unless you want someone else to get the promotion.So, how do you find out your weaknesses and go about fixing them? Goldsmith has a number of ideas, none earth-shattering but all important. You have to elicit feedback, apologize for your screw-ups, commit to being better, and continually follow up to see how you're doing. It wouldn't hurt to thank people, either, Mr. or Ms. Ungrateful.What Got You Here Won't Get You There is self-help for the business class, telling you what you already know but pounding the ideas in hard enough that you might actually use them. If your career is important to you, you'll at least give them a try.