A self-improvement manual that urges readers to access the power that’s all around them.
A debut handbook for the guiding principles of human existence.
Dzitiev describes a natural universe ordered along four major levels: Power, “the first principle and first cause of all nature” that gives origin to everything else; the laws of nature, which “are an endless number of transformations of one power” and are thus “all in harmony with each other” and can transform into the final two levels—the “thin-material” world of intangible thoughts and feelings and the “coarse-material” world of observable reality. In Dzitiev’s conception, the “laws of nature are a man’s natural subconscious” and are broken up into two parts: the code of a law and the power of a law. In his view, the “life power” of an individual manifests itself in virtually every aspect of that individual’s life—“health, intuition, willpower, power of logical thought, endurance, luck, steadfastness, attractiveness,” etc.—affecting everything from feelings of personal peace to the actions and successes of job-hunters or politicians or anyone. The various levels of nature intertwine to inform the dynamics of everyday human life: “[A] man’s vital strength or life power is the power of the laws of nature refracted by the notions in his consciousness,” Dzitiev says. If an individual has very little life power, even his or her concerted efforts won’t advance his or her goals; on the other hand, successful people “possess a stronger kinetic power.” But a person is capable of changing and improving, he says, since “an ability to uncover the power of objects by understanding them…is a natural ability of man.” This open-ended quality to the theory makes Dzitiev’s worldview one of constant change, one in which the nature of the universe and the nature of the individual are intricately connected. “All a man’s natural qualities are completely open in his subconscious,” he says, “in the form of endless satisfaction and joy.” Dzitiev centers the instructional conclusions of his book on his contention that if the subconscious is out of balance, disharmony can result in a loss of power, and he addresses the effects of this disharmony (and the ways to fix it) with a passionate but commonsense voice. That said, the strategies he offers for understanding and harnessing life power can sometimes come across as vague. For the most part, though, readers will find a great many thought-provoking concepts in the easy-to-follow flow of Dzitiev’s prose.
A self-improvement manual that urges readers to access the power that’s all around them.Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2013
ISBN: 978-1491814840
Page Count: 172
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: June 11, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
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These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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