Rules of Thumb: 52 Truths for Winning at Business Without Losing Your Self

Alan Webber, who co-founded a world-beating business magazine, puts his experience, and his graceful writing and story-telling skills, to great and valuable use. It was hard for me to find a paragraph or a page where I didn't learn something useful, read an account that delighted me, or picked up a piece of history that I should have known, but didn't. Luckily, Alan did. There are practical and pragmatic reasons to read this book -- whether you are trying to straighten our your business or your life -- because we're in a recession, the rules are changing, the climate is challenging, and people want to learn and grow.

There should be a special shelf (digital or otherwise) for business books that make sense, whose principles are backed up by evidence and are genuinely instructive. "Rules of Thumb" would be found there. Alan Webber bases his simple but clear guidelines on what he and colleagues have experienced first hand and what works in real life. And here's the best part -- anyone can make these rules work for him/herself. Whether you are an entrepreneur, middle manager or business function leader, you will find this crisply written book helpful and thought provoking. Even the concepts that some may find familiar are presented in a way that makes you reconsider and reapply. Tiger Woods goes back to Hank Haney for swing coaching; anyone in business can go back to Alan Webber.

I just read this book during a cross-country plane flight on Monday and I must admit that I will not be requiring any Botox injections, for my forehead wrinkles, for some weeks. As I read through the various "truths for winning at business", fellow passengers would observe me slapping my forehead and uttering either, "Yes, of course" or "Why didn't I think of that." With just the kind of chapter titles you would expect coming from one of the guys who invented Fast Company (the insanely great business mag that has never recovered the founders' absence), my favorites among Webber's various rules include: Change is a math formula; A good question beats a good answer; Learn to take no as a question; Facts are facts but stories are how we learn; If you want to change the game change the economics of how the game is played; Everything communicates; and Content isn't king, context is king. You will find that each of these 52 entries includes a short story followed by a 'So What?' explanation of how this rule has practical application for the reader. Alan, thanks for a great, thought provoking read . . . and a flat forehead.

Alan Webber has a track record unlike almost anyone else in the history of business. His passion and insight at Fast Company magazine revolutionized our world in the best possible way. This book is like a blog, but better, because you can highlight it, postit it and bring it on an airplane. If you find yourself enjoying books where you can mull over a nugget or two and suddenly find them changing your strategy, this is a great book for you.