It is amazing how much you can learn about a person by analyzing what they allow into their psyche. So I enjoy asking people that I am interested in getting to know better, “ what was the last book you read?” This question is very strategic for people will often start many books and never finish them. If they happen to read a book in its entirety they had to find it somewhat appealing and so I’m always curious as to why. So what have you read lately?
For me it was this book that has been hanging in the balance for quite some time - “The World is Flat” by Thomas L. Friedman. It is The New York Times columnist’s analysis of 21st-century economics and foreign policy and it has been listed on the National Best Sellers list for 36 weeks. I was first introduced to this book by my mother over a year ago, as it was a part of her course material in college, but I did not pay it much attention. Then over a month ago, my cousin, the investment banker, handed me the book and suggested that I read it, espousing that it would answer a lot of questions I asked of him the day before regarding the global economy. I personally felt he did a fair job of fielding my inquiries so I casually perused through the manuscript that night, read a few lines and then used it as decoration for the room. I like the look of books; they make me appear more intelligent. But most recently, a close friend that knew I had the book asked if I had finished reading it and I had to admit that I had not given it much thought. So in the midst of the financial meltdown on Wall Street, and the government bail out/buy in, whatever they want to call it; I felt an extreme compulsion to find out if there was something I needed to know that I did not know already. In two days I digested 473 pages of text, and much to my chagrin as a business graduate, I learned that I had fallen behind.
One of my favorite quotes by Louis Pasteur reads, “Fortune favors the prepared mind” and was appropriately included in this book. Friedman revealed a reoccurring theme that if we Americans are not reinventing ourselves and using our creative imaginations in this flattening market then we will be left behind by the Chinese and Indians who are seeking such opportunities. A test to any good form of media is my reaction, and this book made me want to change how I was living my life and to engage others in the process of preparation for a world that is flat. I have long wanted to pursue some creative talents but I must now reevaluate higher education in a science or mathematics related field to remain competitive. Why? Because I’m not quite ready for retirement (do I even have any retirement income?) and there are Chinese and Indians ready and willing to outwork and outsmart Americans, 24/7/365, for a taste of the kind of lives you and I have taken for granted. Those days of entitlement are over. Some of us did not even know we had it so good.
But we can grasp that America's place in the world is different from the way it was just 10 years ago. The playing field is being leveled and the rules are still being written. High skill/high wage and fungible jobs have already been lost to outsourcing, insourcing and offshoring within this new globalization - the players are suited up and ready to play. Yet many Americans are all too consumed with reality television with the stars, and teenagers living elitist lifestyles, while the American economy is going through a major metamorphosis. Why are we so distracted? Where is our game face? I say, if you want to escape that badly, read this book and others like it, find a way to make yourself indispensable, militate those around you and please, educate the children about the true REALITY of a new expanding world that is flat. Game on.
So again, what have you read?
For me it was this book that has been hanging in the balance for quite some time - “The World is Flat” by Thomas L. Friedman. It is The New York Times columnist’s analysis of 21st-century economics and foreign policy and it has been listed on the National Best Sellers list for 36 weeks. I was first introduced to this book by my mother over a year ago, as it was a part of her course material in college, but I did not pay it much attention. Then over a month ago, my cousin, the investment banker, handed me the book and suggested that I read it, espousing that it would answer a lot of questions I asked of him the day before regarding the global economy. I personally felt he did a fair job of fielding my inquiries so I casually perused through the manuscript that night, read a few lines and then used it as decoration for the room. I like the look of books; they make me appear more intelligent. But most recently, a close friend that knew I had the book asked if I had finished reading it and I had to admit that I had not given it much thought. So in the midst of the financial meltdown on Wall Street, and the government bail out/buy in, whatever they want to call it; I felt an extreme compulsion to find out if there was something I needed to know that I did not know already. In two days I digested 473 pages of text, and much to my chagrin as a business graduate, I learned that I had fallen behind.
One of my favorite quotes by Louis Pasteur reads, “Fortune favors the prepared mind” and was appropriately included in this book. Friedman revealed a reoccurring theme that if we Americans are not reinventing ourselves and using our creative imaginations in this flattening market then we will be left behind by the Chinese and Indians who are seeking such opportunities. A test to any good form of media is my reaction, and this book made me want to change how I was living my life and to engage others in the process of preparation for a world that is flat. I have long wanted to pursue some creative talents but I must now reevaluate higher education in a science or mathematics related field to remain competitive. Why? Because I’m not quite ready for retirement (do I even have any retirement income?) and there are Chinese and Indians ready and willing to outwork and outsmart Americans, 24/7/365, for a taste of the kind of lives you and I have taken for granted. Those days of entitlement are over. Some of us did not even know we had it so good.
But we can grasp that America's place in the world is different from the way it was just 10 years ago. The playing field is being leveled and the rules are still being written. High skill/high wage and fungible jobs have already been lost to outsourcing, insourcing and offshoring within this new globalization - the players are suited up and ready to play. Yet many Americans are all too consumed with reality television with the stars, and teenagers living elitist lifestyles, while the American economy is going through a major metamorphosis. Why are we so distracted? Where is our game face? I say, if you want to escape that badly, read this book and others like it, find a way to make yourself indispensable, militate those around you and please, educate the children about the true REALITY of a new expanding world that is flat. Game on.
So again, what have you read?
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