Soloing: Realizing Your Life's Ambition

As a soloist for about 25 years, I could really relate to the ideas in this book. But beware, it's not like most business books with 10-step action plans and recipes for success. It's about the more personal insights into being a soloist and being successful at it. After reading her chapter on branding yourself, I got up in the middle of the night and wrote several inspired pages for my workshop on marketing. I think Rubin's writing is terrific. I've enjoyed reading it slowly, one page at a time to savor its insights. Did you read Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamont? It's kind of like that for business owners. I also like her quotes and comments from several modern but not so well know business and personal growth gurus like Tracy Goss, Fernando Flores and others. Worth reading and then re-reading. If there's any slight caveat, I understand Rubin has since left the solo life! Perhaps she'll write a book on that transition. I'll buy it too!

Rubin suggests that soloing means "going it alone" and "being complete in oneself." To become a soloist is to gain "the knowledge one needs to cross over into a world where work and freedom are one and the same thing. This book is about becoming a soloist." She cites several different examples of those who have done so. Peter Drucker is "a lone worker who refused for years to let his local university, Claremont College, start a business school in his honor because of his fear of becoming a person who has to take meetings." For him, a waste of time. Drucker once gave Rubin two pieces of advice: It takes three years to break even financially as a soloist, and to learn anything you have to be prepared to teach it. Rubin seems to be a natural teacher. In Soloing, she helps others to understand both the perils soloing creates, and, the rewards which await those who overcome the perils.Rubin understands full well that soloing is not for everyone. However, if you now live a life of "quiet desperation", if you feel trapped within an organizational structure which limits (if not demeans) you, then you should read Soloing. Plato once described a situation in which people sat in a cave watching shadows dance on the wall. Once in a while, someone would discover the true source of light. It was outside the cave. For a soloist, it is inside the person. One final point: The title is somewhat misleading. Although recommending "going it alone" and "being complete in oneself", Rubin duly acknowledges a number of people who encouraged her during the initial, immensely difficult phase of her own soloing process after she walked away from a lucrative but unfulfilling career situation. Soloists are not alone. Rather, as has Rubin, they tend to develop new relationships, new networks, and new friends. Also, as Rubin learned, and more importantly, the journey within (required by soloing) results in a quite different relationship with one's self. Not everyone is willing to complete such a journey. So be it.

Be sure you know what kind of book Soloing is before you read it. If you are looking for a business book with lots of how-to advice on how to go from being an employee to having your own one-person organization, you will probably be disappointed in this book. On the other hand, if you are interested in what life is like for the most successful business editor of all time as she strikes out on her own as an author, personality and consultant, you are in for a wonderful treat. Harriet Rubin has an effective, spare writing style that makes for easy reading, making the pleasure even greater. The best part of this book is when she describes the many psychological stalls that kept her from making this move sooner, and delay her progress after she makes the move. If you enjoy learning more about a person's psychology in making a change than practical advice on what you should do, this is a superb book and one you will enjoy. If you dislike psychological perspective, avoid this book at any cost. Ms. Rubin's advice is quite good on several fronts. She clearly understands the techniques of networking at a high level, and if you will be doing the same, you will find her advice to be excellent. In fact, if you are about to follow her exact career path, leaving publishing for a writing, etc. career, the book is probably a good best practice study for you. Having established my own consulting firm 22 years ago after having been a corporate executive, I was attracted to the book because Peter Drucker had recommended Ms. Rubin to me as a good thinker. I also read her book, The Princessa, and found her perspective be somewhat unusual and interesting in both cases. As her experience expands as a problem-solver and her skills grow for analysis, her future books will become even more valuable. I look forward to reading them as they are published. Finally, if you just like an entertaining story of how we can all be more than we are and achieving that can bring meaning and joy, I recommend this book as well.

Seems the reviews are love/hate for this inventive little book. I have no idea who Harriet Rubin is, nor did I read the Inc. articles this book is based on. I am contemplating a solo move though, and this slight tome is a great journey to follow. It is about much more than "how to" and much more about how soloing effects one's entire being. One message I found to be instructive was that soloing is terrifying no matter how successful the career, no matter how big the rolodex, no matter how prestigious the corporate job. It is lonely. Rubin brings us into her lonely world and shows us how she worked her way out of it. Inspiring! I've given it away numerous times to others who are contemplating going solo. In one case it actually talked someone out of taking the leap. It was reality therapy. I recommend it highly

I was inspired by Rubin's leap into the unknown as a soloist. This is a great book about finding the strength within yourself to make what you do for a living a function of your basic identity, rather than tying yourself to a job in order to support the rest of your life. Does it require a certain amount of "navel-gazing." Sure. But as one of those Greek guys said once, "The unexamined life is not worth living." Rubin just shows that, after you've done the examining, you've got to act on your findings.