A clear-eyed and helpful look at the pros and cons of the nonprofit sector.
A guide offers advice to readers interested in joining the nonprofit world.
Drawing on her long experience reviewing tens of thousands of resumes and interviewing thousands of professionals, executive recruiter Ballinger kicks off her book with what she refers to as “the compelling question”: “I’m a corporate executive and I would like to move into the nonprofit sector. How do I make the jump?” She lays out the definition and characteristics of the nonprofit world and its allure in the increasingly profit-driven 21st century, an appeal that “resonates with a workforce that wants more than a paycheck from its investment of knowledge and skills.” And as she expands on the very different natures of the for-profit and nonprofit sectors, she cautions her readers against making impulsive changes. When people say “I want to do that!” she responds with “You better start making different choices now”—because passion alone isn’t enough. There’s a different set of expectations and limitations in the nonprofit sector. To help illustrate some of her points, she includes regular “Spotlight” features, where she interviews various people in the nonprofit world—like Don Ness, executive director of the Ordean Foundation in Minnesota. “Whether I’m working at city hall or in a nonprofit,” Ness reflects, “the community” is still the canvas. Ballinger is a clear, straightforward writer with a kind but no-nonsense approach to her subject, which is particularly refreshing when she’s dispelling persistent myths about the nonprofit sector. She’s heard it all before: that the nonprofit world is easier to impress, easier to learn, or just plain easier. “If the nonprofit sector is new to you, double the learning curve,” she writes, trying to counter these myths. “If the job is a new type of job, triple the challenge.” Her “can I talk you out of this” tone is ultimately extremely effective—both in singing the praises of the nonprofit world and gently discouraging the wannabes who may not be ideal candidates.
A clear-eyed and helpful look at the pros and cons of the nonprofit sector.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0998177991
Page Count: 198
Publisher: Artisan Digital
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.
All right, all right, all right: The affable, laconic actor delivers a combination of memoir and self-help book.
“This is an approach book,” writes McConaughey, adding that it contains “philosophies that can be objectively understood, and if you choose, subjectively adopted, by either changing your reality, or changing how you see it. This is a playbook, based on adventures in my life.” Some of those philosophies come in the form of apothegms: “When you can design your own weather, blow in the breeze”; “Simplify, focus, conserve to liberate.” Others come in the form of sometimes rambling stories that never take the shortest route from point A to point B, as when he recounts a dream-spurred, challenging visit to the Malian musician Ali Farka Touré, who offered a significant lesson in how disagreement can be expressed politely and without rancor. Fans of McConaughey will enjoy his memories—which line up squarely with other accounts in Melissa Maerz’s recent oral history, Alright, Alright, Alright—of his debut in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, to which he contributed not just that signature phrase, but also a kind of too-cool-for-school hipness that dissolves a bit upon realizing that he’s an older guy on the prowl for teenage girls. McConaughey’s prep to settle into the role of Wooderson involved inhabiting the mind of a dude who digs cars, rock ’n’ roll, and “chicks,” and he ran with it, reminding readers that the film originally had only three scripted scenes for his character. The lesson: “Do one thing well, then another. Once, then once more.” It’s clear that the author is a thoughtful man, even an intellectual of sorts, though without the earnestness of Ethan Hawke or James Franco. Though some of the sentiments are greeting card–ish, this book is entertaining and full of good lessons.
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-13913-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should...
Greene (The 33 Strategies of War, 2007, etc.) believes that genius can be learned if we pay attention and reject social conformity.
The author suggests that our emergence as a species with stereoscopic, frontal vision and sophisticated hand-eye coordination gave us an advantage over earlier humans and primates because it allowed us to contemplate a situation and ponder alternatives for action. This, along with the advantages conferred by mirror neurons, which allow us to intuit what others may be thinking, contributed to our ability to learn, pass on inventions to future generations and improve our problem-solving ability. Throughout most of human history, we were hunter-gatherers, and our brains are engineered accordingly. The author has a jaundiced view of our modern technological society, which, he writes, encourages quick, rash judgments. We fail to spend the time needed to develop thorough mastery of a subject. Greene writes that every human is “born unique,” with specific potential that we can develop if we listen to our inner voice. He offers many interesting but tendentious examples to illustrate his theory, including Einstein, Darwin, Mozart and Temple Grandin. In the case of Darwin, Greene ignores the formative intellectual influences that shaped his thought, including the discovery of geological evolution with which he was familiar before his famous voyage. The author uses Grandin's struggle to overcome autistic social handicaps as a model for the necessity for everyone to create a deceptive social mask.
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should beware of the author's quirky, sometimes misleading brush-stroke characterizations.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-670-02496-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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