Fail

Failure among the ambitious, upwardly mobile, educated and intelligent of our modern, industrialized society often comes across as being more devastating, more defining, and more frightening than it actually is. What in actuality defines us is not the number of our failures, but how we deal with our failure, how we look upon it, and most importantly, how we either use our failure or allow our failures to define us.

Hyatt and Gottlieb have written an excellent text on professional/career failure. The authors start the book by imparting intrepid examples both personal and private, of the emotional processes associated with failure. They accurately describe (often in painful and excruciating detail) the feelings of fear, isolation, shame and remorse associated with losing a job, status, money or some combination of the three. One can not only relate to the loss of purpose, the punctured egos, and the declining sense of self of those who have failed professionally, but also can actually feel as if it is happening to him or her- for it at some point has happened to him or her. They emphatically stress that career failure is something that eventually touches every professional, in some cases sooner, and in others, later. In this way, they show that failure has no prejudices, and everyone is a card-carrying member of this club, whether they realize it or not. As such, in dealing with failure, it is extremely important for the individual to realize that he or she is not alone in the experience, even if our greater society compels us to put up a strong front and pretend that nothing is really wrong. In order to healthily deal with failure, the authors emphasize the importance of understanding the meaning of failure in both the personal and the societal context, and elaborate upon how the feelings associated with failure unfold in the individual. Many people define themselves based on their occupation, their professional affiliation, or their status in life, and it comes as no surprise that these are the people hardest hit by career failure. Those of us who have cultivated other sides of our personality, such as those of us who live for our weekend hobbies, or those of us that are family or community oriented, tend to handle career failure much better, and can even take it in stride. Although many readers and those who have experienced failure or are currently experiencing failure may not believe it, failure actually gives people options, which the authors not only demonstrate, but also help the reader identify and ultimately take advantage of in later chapters.

In the first part of the book, one chapter each is devoted to defining the characteristics of failure at the level of the individual and the society, dealing with the feelings, which occur in stages, associated with failure, how our career failures can affect those closest to us, and how men and women respond to career failure. The second part of the book focuses on taking failure in stride, and offers a comprehensive strategy for personal reinvention after suffering a career failure. Arguably the most important part of the book, this section devotes one comprehensive chapter to each of the following topics: discovering why one has failed, gleaning from the failure some positive knowledge by re-interpreting the events leading up to the failure, recognizing and casting off old and inappropriate labels and finding new ones, expanding one's career choices, and making the transition from the old professional to the new, centered and focused individual. The authors also include in this section of the book a bonus chapter that showcases two successfully reinvented individuals, and elaborates upon the nature of their failure, how they dealt with failure, and the process of their reinvention. Each chapter in the second part of the book provides the reader with powerful tactics to build a new, improved person from career failure, and allows one to rise triumphantly out of the ashes of failure, much like the proverbial phoenix. The third and final part of the book, entitled 'Towards Real Success', helps the reader to win the internal battle associated with failure. While the second part of the book helps to outwardly reinvent the individual for career success, the final section of the book helps the individual to cultivate a new perspective, a new outlook- on career failure. This part of the book encourages the reader to look upon failure as a learning experience, and as such, helps one to regard failure as a temporary setback that one can learn from.

The authors have written a truly empowering book, one that entrepreneurs and professionals must read and keep alongside all the other books on career and entrepreneurial success, as there inevitably will be one or more notable, spectacular and in some cases unfortunately public failures on the path to a successful career journey. In the end, I can only say that there is no shame in taking a risk, giving one's all, and failing, and I wholeheartedly believe that true shame results from failing to try, failing to risk, fearing change, and failing to grow. These, I truly believe, are the things that comprise the regrets in one's life.

I picked up this book after being let go from a F50 company late last year, and it has been a lifesaver as I've navigated unfamiliar territory. It lays out the stages most people experience when they've been fired, downsized, or eliminated -- shock, fear, anger & blame, shame, and despair. It addresses how failure changes the balance of power in a relationship, and how it affects men and women differently. It then moves to how we reinvent ourselves -- identifying the cause of failure, reinterpreting the event, relabeling yourself, and getting unstuck. There are numerous stories, including the authors' own, about failing and ultimately coming back better and stronger. One quote especially resonated with me: David Brown (he produced The Sting and Jaws, among other Hollywood blockbusters) was fired three times from top jobs. "Each time, [he] was stunned. And each time he never stopped to analyze what had caused him to be fired in the first place. Only after the third time did he begin to examine his working behavior. Why was he always running after corporate jobs...when in the end they held neither safety nor a degree of control over one's fate?" Whether you feel that corporate life is truly your calling, or you yearn for something different, this book can help you push past self-imposed limitations and re-invent your career in a unique and satisfying way.

If you are having problems confronting a business defeat (whether you were fired, lost your business, or "failed" in your career), this is the book for you.

If your setback is affecting your health, your marriage, your friendships, there is hope.

If you have been moping around the house for a year or more, read this book.

If you've tried and tried to "move past" your personal problems, buy this book now.

If you have been searching for an answer, this is it.

Read this book.

Review: THE EDUCATION MIRAGE by Prof. Emeritus,Ira Winn
ISBN 0-595-29142-2

More than a primer, Prof. Winn's analysis of educational do's and don'ts, his shattering myths about some long-gone, golden age of public educational achievement, and the dissection of "senders and receivers" in the knowledge industry will make readers question previously held educational beliefs as well as current practices. Above all, the writer connects the nation's lack of success solving our most critical social and political problems with failed educational assumptions and methodology-"stuffing turkeys" rather than "lighting lamps." Also indicted are gross materialism, mindless TV offerings, video and computer games, as well as our near-total reliance upon science-technology education, solely to prepare students for money-making jobs, the end goal. Squeezing art and humanities out of curricula has deprived students of adequate preparation to function as informed citizens in a democracy. Rarely do problem-solving and creativity enhance the learning experience because of reliance upon rote learning, worship of objective testing norms, or celebrating adolescent rites of passage. Nor does the swollen educational bureaucracy of overpaid administrators and underpaid teachers escape Winn's scrutiny, claiming our society does not value excellence in public education, now morphed into another "bottom line" commodity. Prof. Winn envisions educated adults working together to attack poverty, reduce excesses of global capitalism and dependence upon finite resources. For him, these issues are inextricably linked to values of mind and heart deriving from inspirational education.

Marian Blanton, retired community college instructor

Prof. Winn's "Education Mirage . . ." is a revelation in the compendium of educational literature. This is a writing free from cant and pedantry. It is an idealistic and inspirational vision of how to be a teacher who is motivated by the important social, ethical, and historical perspectives of the time. His use of examples and techniques is always pithy and relevant and the general reader shall grasp what excellence in teaching means. I would suggest that this is a "must" read for every aspiring student teacher who wants to teach secondary, college, and university level. This is a work which is uniquely refreshing and original.

Ideale Gambera, Emeritus
Department of English and American Studies
City College of San Francisco

I regret that Ira Winn's new book, "The Education Mirage," was not available several years ago when I first started teaching. The book is a great help to all who wish to make their teaching more effective and their workload easier. The first part of the book is a detailed manual on what the author calls "creative problem centered teaching." It includes the art of questioning and the avoidance of unconsciously motivating student apathy, and an analysis of teacher types, Winn shows us how to get more students interested in the subject matter and involved in class discussions. Above all, he shows how to encourage and develop critical thinking in our students. The book even offers planning exercises and a self-test to measure the reader's comprehension of the modern teaching concepts presented. Winn finds the current mania for state-mandated testing counterproductive, a fig leaf for politicians and a force driving creative teachers to distraction and exodus from the profession.

The second part of the book is a collection of essays, analyzing the faults and weaknesses of the American educational system and offering a variety of suggestions for improving the system. The suggestions are not the standard recommendations for change that appear periodically in political debate, however. Winn proposes a host of reforms in the system, in educational institutions including the universities, in teacher and professor training and in the curriculum that are all highly innovative, even radical. For example, he finds that the highly educated are more often a greater danger to society and democracy than the less educated, because the former sit at the seats of power and too often prove arrogant and swayed by a money ethic. The result is that the planet's environment and the world economy bear an intolerable burden. He also finds that TV and computers have made the traditional teacher role outmoded, and thus he calls for intensive retraining in problem-centered methodologies.

Professor Winn is an EDUCATOR. I recommend this book to all who have a strong interest in education in America.

As founder of "Traderscoach.com" I thought this book provided the reader with a realistic view of taking risks in life and how you should view failure as nothing more than a stepping stone to eventual success.

I saw Art Mortell speak live when I was at Prudential Securities, Inc. seminar in La Jolla, California. He was outstanding and very motivating.

Basically you are not a failure until you give up and that sums it up as far as I am concerned.

Whether you apply this approach to selling or trading the financial markets, you will learn alot about what is necessary to be a consistant winner.

Fell FREE to visit our Web-site "Traderscoach.com" which deals with Trading Psycology as well as other material realted to trading. We currently recommend his book.

Art Mortell spoke before my training class a couple of years ago...I found his motivational system, contained in his book "Courage to Fail", to be not only highly interesting and unique in his field, but also his system is extremely well described and highly useful to anyone who wishes to succeed in business. While there are many similar books offered on this subject, Art Mortell's system should be regarded the definative source for business motivation...

The kind of stories that "Art" tells about in his book, makes me remember that whenever in trouble, specially in business, there's always someone, somewhere, sometime, that has overcome much worst difficulties. There is always a solution for every / anything in life, except for death. We all choose our attitude when facing different situations.

Othón León, México City, México.

This is a great book for someone like me who wants to make nice meals but doesn't have a lot of time. Most recipes are very easy and yet very elegant in their presentation. Book includes preparation and cooking time so it's easy to make sure everything's done at the same moment! My favorites include the Scallops with Black Bean Sauce, and the Polenta Tart. Great for beginners and/or busy people!

Great recipes, focused on people who can cook, but aren't interested in producing a complex masterpiece every night of the week...Wonderful!

The ingredient lists you'll find in these recipes won't send you scurrying to the store, armed with a legal pad, in search of dozens of esoteric items missing from your cupboard or refrigerator. Nor will your kitchen be piled high with dirty pots and plans to clean after the cooking is done. But you will find yourself saying, after dinner, "how could that have been sooo good...and so easy!" The distinguishing feature of this cookbook seems to be that it achieves interesting, flavorful, "gourmet" tastes and smells with recipes that are seldom more complicated than those you'd find on the side of a can or a boxtop. That's not to suggest you'll get away from having to pick up a fresh fruit, vegetable, or herb now and then. There are no dishes here that just call for the proverbial "casserole dish, can of mushroom soup, and something to pour it over." But if you're motivated to do anything more than ordering out, you could probably put a delicious dish on the table faster than Dominoes could deliver a pizza ... even if you did have to make a quick trip to the store for that bunch of fresh cilantro! Try the Pear & Cheddar Salad. It's to die for!

Like some other reviewers, I'm not a CEO. I have often thought of starting my own business, though, and was drawn to the title of this book with that in mind. This book is written much better than most business books: it cuts to the chase, gives good examples, and doesn't go on and on about simple concepts as if you were too stupid to get it the first time. It breaks failure down to 11 mentalities that derail CEOs in their rise to (or fall from) the top. This is great advice for ANY manager or executive, and a quick read too. I take much of this advice to heart when I manage others in my current job. A must read!

A must-read for all leaders at or on their way to the top. Dotlich and Cairo help the reader to recognize the signs and symptoms of potentially derailing behaviors, and -- most importantly -- show us how to manage them before they derail us completely. The tools provided are simple, direct, and immediately applicable. After over 30 years in the workplace, I've finally found a book that has helped me understand my own behavior and that of my colleagues -- a book that challenges me to ask myself: "Have I crossed the line?"

Dotlich and Cairo have written the book that every leader should be required to read. At the top of the company, it's hard to keep yourself in check and can be even harder to get people to be straight with you about your annoying behaviors that are getting in the way. This book provides great tools to do that, and makes its point about why it is imperative that you pay attention and develop ways to manage your derailers with some very poignant stories.

This book is a "must have" for all managers: young and old, mature and just beginning.

For new managers, the book contains essential guidelines for establishing a vision, communicating the mission, and securing buy-in of your team members. It will help the new manager communicate effectively and establish confidence with the team.

For the mature manager (read "aged" manager), this book augments your "home-grown" techniques with many new ideas. I found the book re-inforced my "home-grown" style and augmented it with new ideas.

Once again Wolf Rinke provides readers with the necessary steps to succeed... this is the second book I have read of his. It is well written, easy to understand and follow... and perhaps most importantly - easy to implement so that gaining the highest performance becomes reality. Wolf Rinke's strategies for success are second to none!

Wolf Rinke's latest book is a great addition to his collection of well-received books and and personal improvement products. "Winning Management" clearly shows the reader what must be done to excel in management. This is a practical guide to success on the job and can be used easily by any supervisor at any level of an organization. My copy is well-used!

Having seen Dr. Rinke present his strategies for success as a seminar leader and author, and also having heard the outcomes of his plans of action, I know that he can positively and quickly affect your success at work.

Excellent book that I think would appeal to all readers. I in particular enjoyed the discussions on motivating employees, sales psychology, patnership compatability - Human Engineering Laboratory (wish I could find some information on this organization), and how important it is to not sit on ones knowledge. We have all gone through high's and low's and should be sharing those experiences with other's, whether in books or lectures or serving in government.

Bob Thomas has rewritten the definition of entrepreneur. He leads the reader through a very thorough process from concept to high productivity to selling the corporation. Thomas draws from over four decades of experience.

Immediately one recognizes that Mr. Thomas sees certain requirements as essential for a person who is considering an entrepreneurial venture. Personal sacrifice is critical for those wishing to follow his steps in corporate design. His expertise is in the field of chemical engineering and design. At times it was somewhat difficult sorting through the heavily detailed engineering stories. His passion for his field is obvious, but this can sometimes be confusing to the reader expecting a "how to" guide.

Thomas concludes his book with a comprehensive question and answer section. This tutorial is helpful for gaining a more complete understanding of his entrepreneurial process.

I admire Mr. Thomas for the success he has found in designing and running his own businesses. Anybody thinking about starting a business or is currently a business owner will benefit greatly from the experiences Bob Thomas shares in his book, The Fail-Proof Enterprise.

As an entrepreneur, I've had the opportunity to start three companies in the last decade. As luck would have it, I used the principles Thomas outlines here. But I wish I'd had the wisdom this book offers ten years ago; it would have made growing those companies much easier.

This is a must read for anyone who is even contemplating life as an entrepreneur. Beyond the "look in the mirror test," Thomas stresses the importance of sales and marketing as key drivers for success. The book is very well written and presented in an easy-to-read tone that moves the reader along at a good pace.

Perhaps the most significant point is the book's relevance. After the dotcom blowout, this book reminds us of what has always worked for successful businesses: the basic principles of good judgement and common sense coupled with hard work and commitment to a qualified team. In the end, there is no rush to riches that really works. Thomas reminds us of that and spins a good tale of his successes.

This is an exceptional and courageously written book. It is a'must read' for anyone involved in efforts to get groups of people to change their behavior. Limitations of public education efforts identified in this book can be applied to numerous public health endeavors. Without the insights of this author, we will continue to make attempts to apply programs that will fail because we have failed to understand the context in which the undesirable behavior patterns occur. This is a tough, sobering and realistic piece of work.
I also found it a pleasure to read, profoundly interesting, although often tragically so.

There are few books about AIDS that are worth reading, let alone reviewing. The vast majority remain constrained by the rigid confines of their conceptualisation, almost none daring to suggest that their conceptualisation might be wrong. The author of this book is one of the very few who dare do this and as a result has produced a book which is not only outstanding intellectually but should also be mandatory reading for anyone who has an interest in programmes that attempt to have an impact on any one of the multitude of epidemics of HIV infection. In fact it should be mandatory reading for anyone who has an interest in programmes that attempt to change the way people are in relation to what are called the development problems of today.

The book describes the author's experiences with a project that started out by trying to reduce the risk of infection by HIV amongst three groups in a mining town in South Africa - female sex workers, male miners, and young people. There were two approaches to doing this: peer education and the "promotion of partnerships between a diverse array of community groupings of stakeholders to coordinate and support the variety of local HIV-prevention efforts in such a way that maximized their overall cumulative effectiveness". The interventions chosen were all invested with the glowing approbation of the international 'AIDS project' community as prime examples of what should be done in such situations. In terms of having any impact on the epidemic or on the sexual culture of the area the project has so far been a failure. The author analyses the reasons for this failure in a number of analytical contexts.

The author is very well placed to analyse the history of the project. She herself as a social psychologist had been involved in the township in 1995 in trying to understand the reasons why there is such a high prevalence of HIV infection amongst the miners and sex workers despite their obvious knowledge of the existence of HIV and the ways in which it is transmitted. The studies themselves form part of the opening chapters, and provide very good insight into the conditions of these people's lives and the enormous social factors that influence their lives and decision-making. The following chapters describe the way the project grew as a result of a drive from some local people for work that would affect the growing numbers of people with AIDS and from a group of scientists and professionals (including the author) who had an interest in the area. One chapter provides the initial theoretical justification for the various actions that were taken, with heavy leaning on the writings of Paulo Freire on the conscientisation side, Pierre Bourdieu for social capital, and on the experiences of peer education with sex workers in Zimbabwe of David Wilson and others.

The book will be invaluable for the discussion of the importance of the social context for behaviour, and indeed will be read by many for that alone. It also details the very many ways in which the project's ideals fell by the wayside (the rates of sexually transmitted infection in miners actually rose during the period of the project, there were many difficulties with the peer education approach for young people in school, the stakeholders were far from unified in their vision or even interest) or were partially successful (there were several changes amongst the sex workers), and again these experiences will be as interesting as they are familiar to many who work with such projects.

However this book goes far beyond such a discussion. She points to the inadequacies of our current theoretical and modelling frameworks for such interventions; to the fact that the stakeholders who were involved did not see themselves as part of the epidemic or as people whose behaviour had to change; to the fact that the designers and researchers of the project had much discord and competition amongst themselves; to the great mistrust that developed between the researchers and much of the 'community'. In fact, although the author tries to scotch the problem with the definition of 'community' by stating that in this case the term 'community' refers to the people in a geographic area, the tension behind this definition continues throughout the book as it is acknowledged that only a few of the many individuals and groups in the area were in fact being requested to change their ways - the paternalism and continued power of the 'senior' stakeholders continuing throughout.

The value of the book is still more. The lessons drawn in the concluding chapter smack of a level of desperation in the author to find lessons, and this may perhaps be the only weakness of the book. In these lessons the author still struggles to keep the idea going that somehow in a better world the interventions could have had an impact if only people had carried them through according to the wishes of the project designers. The deep question the author raises in the mind of the reader is whether such approaches can ever work in relation to an epidemic (as opposed to being valuable for a few individuals or groups). This question is not actually present in the book (although there are numerous hints of the author's disquiet concerning the mismatch between the daily reality of people's lives and the wishes and interests of the project managers) but it hangs over ever sentence as did the sword over Damocles. As for Dionysius in relation to those who wield power, it is a question hanging over all those who praise mindlessly the black art of development.

If you are interested in how to prevent HIV, in community development work, or in what happens when academic ideals meet local community realities, then this book will stimulate, inform, surprise, and even galvanise you. This important book offers a unique view of the inside workings of an actual community HIV prevention programme as it unfolded. It details the failures of the programme, in order to insist that we must make much more effort to address the hard questions of economic and gender inequalities and political will. By making visible the everyday power dynamics among community members, stakeholders and project workers, the book makes a major contribution to understanding the problematic process of community development.

This book, which tries to be funny, falls flat on its face. It is trite and sophomoric, and offers little food for thought to anyone with a basic knowledge of the English language. It has that simplistic humor of "Dummies" books, and it just doesn't work for me.

It's one of life's little ironies that you find yourself engaging in things as you grow older that you hated when you were younger. Maybe hate is too strong a word. It wasn't that I hated grammar, but that I really didn't give it much thought, and felt that time spent in English class doing so was wasted. Since then, I've become not just a writer who wants to be read, but also a teacher of writing, who has to convince his students that grammar is important.

Having resources like this book by O'Conner certainly helps. Rather than the dry stuff foisted off on middle- and high-school students, O'Conner leads through examples. This is a nice companion to her earlier book, Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English, which covers some of the wrong-headed beliefs that most students emerge from secondary school with (such as the incorrect idea that it is wrong to end a sentence with a preposition, which I just did). It's a good writing book that gets you to thinking it's time to pick up the pen and write something, and that's how I felt several times while reading through this one. In fact, her section on point of view "cured" a bit of writer's block I was having with regard to one story that had been lingering about in my mind for the last four years and which I had been unable to start.

I'd be tempted to do away with the writer's handbook for these two books of O'Conner's, but that wouldn't be smart. These are good, but they aren't a reference so much as they are an explanation for why grammar needs to be observed.

I find "Words Fail Me" more useful than any other book about writing I've seen. The only other one that comes close is William Zinnser"s "On Writing Well," but Ms. O'Conner's book is a lot more fun to read. "Words Fail Me" also gets into areas that other books don't, such as the chapter on phoniness, "Pompous Circumstances: Hold the Baloney" and the chapter on math, "Down for the Count: When the Numbers Don't Add Up."

Such is our morbid fascination that this book is inevitably more attractive than one called "Why Buildings Stay Up". That said, I think I have not only learned more about structural engineering than I would have done from a positive counterpart, but I have also learned vastly more about the other factors, human and natural, that influence the ultimate success or failure of structures.

The book is based on the same material as the late 1990s TV series of the same name, and having watched that series many of the incidents and issues were familiar to me. The advantage of the book is the ability to digest information at your own speed and refer back to earlier pages, but it has to be said that the TV series communicated some of the issues better, helped by animated graphics and by the better mutual support of both pictures and narrative.

Each chapter takes a topic, whether a human factor like the law, a type of construction such as the dome, or a cause of failure such as metal fatigue, and then illustrates the issues by consideration of a number of case studies, frequently including some notable successes as well as dramatic failures. In the case of failures the book always attempts to assess both the practical cause, and also any human cause, impact and implications.

The book is very well written, in an accessible style supported by some useful appendixes on structural engineering principles. However, sometimes the simple line drawings and verbal descriptions of a structure don't manage to communicate a full understanding, and more sophisticated illustrations might have helped.

Mario Salvadori died in 1997 (at the good age of 90), and the surviving author, Matthys Levy updated the book in 2002. My feelings on the update are mixed: the chapter on terrorism, culminating with the collapse of the New York Trade Centre towers on September 11th 2001 is excellent; but why did the author not acknowledge the brilliant success of efforts to stabilise the Leaning Tower of Pisa in the late 1990s?

Overall I heartily recommend this book to anyone with a serious or lay interest in structural engineering, and the many complex human and natural issues which influence it.

An entertaining book for readers who know about structures, and an educational book for lay readers, WHY BUILDINGS FALL DOWN is an interesting collection of case studies concerning building failures. Never condescending, but never too technical, it's a fun way to learn about architecture or structural engineering.

a good book explaining the details og building and bridge failures. im wondering why the author didnt include the word 'bridge' in the title since this book covers a lot of them. illustrations are very helpful as well