TAKING CHANCES: Lessons in Putting Passion and Creativity Into Your Work Life

by Dale Dauten ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1986

A 162-page pep talk for those who wonder where their get-up-and-go got up and went. Dauten has the simple answer: You don't like your work. You followed the advice of the ""experts"" who told you to emulate the behavior and career paths of ""successful"" people, only to find that you were not at all happy--and not particularly successful. Now what? Again, Dauten has the answer: Follow the exercises, quizzes, fables, metaphors and puns in his book and you'll discover work that you love, work that leaves you energized, rather than exhausted and drained. Work, he argues, should not be separate from play. Dauten's enthusiasm can be overwhelming and some might be swept up in his cheerleading. He has enlisted some of the world's most intriguing people in his effort to help you find a career you can be passionate about. Sprinkled throughout the book are quotes from Oscar Wilde, Rudyard Kipling, Gore Vidal, Samuel Johnson, Freud, Nietzsche, Picasso (twice), Humphrey Bogart in The Desperate Hours, Tom Cruise in Risky Business--and Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. There are also references to Sherlock Holmes. But Dauten can be a bit smarmy and obvious. Too shy to ""network""? Why, don't you realize that ""If you know just 50 people on a first-name basis, and so do all the people you know, you have 2,500 friends of friends, and 125,000 friends of friends of friends. . . You have contacts!"" Like any pep rally, some of Dauten's cheers will inspire, some will leave you tired and hoarse, wondering what all the shouting was about.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Newmarket--dist. by Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1986

Categories: NONFICTION