March Read/4

Title: The Ring in the Rubble: Dig Through Change and Find Your Next Golden Opportunity

Author: Bradt, Gary

Call Number: 650.1 B812R 2007

Subjects: Success in Business; Opportunity; Diligence

Number of Pages: 193

ISBN: 9780071488518

Book Description (from front and back flap of the book):

            Change always creates hidden opportunities. A leader’s job is unearthing them. In The Ring in the Rubble, change authority Gary Bradt reveals the secrets to moving beyond the rubble of disruption, fear, and uncertainty that change often creates, to finding the golden ring of opportunity that always lies beneath.

            Each chapter of this breakthrough book delivers a powerful principle for leading change, supported by engaging real-life experiences of the author and other well-known business executives that illustrate how to put principles into action Bradt asks penetrating questions that help you “dig deeper” and pinpoint the best ways for applying these principles to your specific change effort.

            You will discover how Richard Schulze weathered a devastating event that threatened to destroy everything he’d worked so hard to build and became the founder of Best Buy in the process. You’ll see how a 65-year-old man, nearly broke after having suffered a string of disastrous setbacks, dug through the rubble to emerge as Colonel Harland Sanders, who remains the face of Kentucky Fried Chicken to this day.

            Change itself doesn’t dictate the eventual outcome of your situation; how you think about and handle change is what makes all the difference. You’ll never find the ring if you don’t start digging!

My Read:

            A good book and good read, to me, help a person think and bring about issues and questions taken place in life. The author poses some good questions and points allowing me to ponder and reconsider my position at work, at home and in various relationships. The followings are some example questions and ideas/statements.

            “Imagine that from this moment forward, you were never able to go back to your current place of employment again, not even to say good-bye. Ask yourself what you would specifically miss about the place where you work right now other than a paycheck.”-(page 43) When I finished the chapter I did ask myself the post question and pose the same question to my family. Interestingly but not surprisingly, my answer and answers from my family matched! I felt grateful that not only do my families fully support me they also understand and realize how much I love what I do at work.

            “People don’t always do what they should do, but they always do what they want to do. Motivation is a psychological process, not a logical one. It follows from the laws of human nature.”-(Page 91) “If you want to know what someone is motivated to do, watch what that person is doing. If you don’t see what you need, or can’t figure it out, then ask that person.”-(page 95) Upon reading this I felt I was with most of the frustrated executives who said “But they got paid to do the tasks.” Isn’t it obvious and straightforward that if you want to be paid you do your deeds? Chinese have a saying: When you receive monetary compensation you do what they paid for. Motivation, to me, is like morale; both of them come from within, the inside of a person.

            “Success is born of a person’s passion and patience. And what links the two is faith…After all, a life devoid of passion is hardly a life at all.”-(page 122) Do what you love. It seems so straightforward, simple and easy. Yet at work one would usually witness the opposite that people don’t like what they do yet they come in to the place of employment day in and day out. But the author also points out that for many executives work becomes less satisfying the higher up the organizational ladder they go. They are more focused on concepts like strategy, vision, and future direction. They miss doing something tangible and the direct satisfying interaction they get from tasks they used to like and people they used to work with. The feedback and reward are less direct and frequent.

            “Many of us fall into the trap of defining ourselves by external measures:  by what we have, what we do, or what others think of us.”-(page 128) Money, position, power, and prestige you name it. We have managers and coworkers who are bullies, narcissists, wimps, paranoid, and disaster hunters. What positions and ranks can’t provide or offer is the peace of mind and the sense of accomplishment. Those jerks wear external mask of importance and success yet internally they are insecure and afraid to face themselves. Anger and meanness are the makeup they have to apply before they come to the workplace. People with passion ignite enthusiasm and invite positive energy to dance with; people fraught with negative energy flick disruption, fear, frustration, and failure.

            Did you ever examine your life with scope broad and deep? How often did you reflect upon daily happenstances or over issues and people happened and around you?

I like reading because it allows me to ponder and reconsider what’s happening in my life. Reading invites me into others’ world to explore the paths they took, the experiences they have had, and the emotions and feelings ebbed and flowed in their lives. Let’s share the final point the author has in the book to take a break and allow us to peruse and ponder:

“Making change happen almost always involves incurring some level of risk. You will rarely find any rings of lasting value if you never risk anything in your pursuit of them. And it’s the very act of taking risks that can make it all worthwhile in the end, even if the risks don’t turn out as you had hoped.”-Page 162