A quick-reading and thought-provoking look at the new nature of succeeding.
Advani and Goldsmith offer a new conception of achievement in the modern world.
Referring to such perennial bestsellers as Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich(1937), the authors write in their debut nonfiction collaboration that “classic books on achievement define it based on linear progression to accomplish a goal,” but “modern achievement is a new way of thinking about the journey to success and fulfillment that values the process of reaching your goals and objectives as much as their attainment.” Advani (CEO of an NGO that prepares youth for employment and entrepreneurship) and Goldsmith (founder of a firm that advises CEOs and management groups) have set their book in a world very different from the one in which pursuing those old-fashioned linear achievements made sense: a more uncertain modern world in which beginning any future project requires a leap of faith. In this new context, the authors urge readers to “keep putting yourself in environments that allow you to learn about yourself and look for the possibilities for designing you.” Their guidance for navigating this new world takes the form of an approach they refer to as “Fixed-Flexible-Freestyle,” a “human-centered framework for thinking differently about achievement in a rapidly changing world.” The chapters that elaborate on “Fixed-Flexible-Freestyle” are interspersed with insets of a more personal nature with attention-grabbing headlines like “Be a good mentee” (the authors remind readers that mentorship is a two-way street), “Invest in your reputation,” and “Don’t leave them wanting less.” Much of this advice is fairly cliched stuff, but Advani and Goldsmith mostly avoid rehashing familiar business-lit talking points. They speak instead, very effectively, to a leaner and more self-aware corporate world, more decentralized and hybridized, and their “Fixed-Flexible-Freestyle” approach requires an entrepreneurial mindset: “You [must] have the ability to pivot, adjust, and adapt to take advantage of and pursue those opportunities and to recover when things do not go as intended.”
A quick-reading and thought-provoking look at the new nature of succeeding.Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9781637558256
Page Count: 424
Publisher: 100 Coaches Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 11, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
