I have never known of Tim O'Leary before. But after this book, I wished I had learnt of this wisened individual earlier. This enterprising man has been an incredibly ambitious warrior since the days of his youth, bravely moving from venture to venture. In the course of his business dealings through the years he has met a vast variety of personalities and has in time learnt to generalise them into those four types:
- Warriors - individuals possessing passion, energy, charge, motivation to drive towards.
- Workers - the main workhorse who steadily and reliably carry out the work to achieve the goals set out. (this is not group of lemmings stupidly ploughing the fields at the will of their masters; they are a crucial population of the workforce doing the good work for the benefit of all)
- Whiners - losers who blame all the failures around them on everything except themselves. And never do any real thing to improve situations.
- Weasels - scum who lie, cheat, steal, initiate harm and destruction in order to reach their goals. Have zero compassion and consideration for their neighbours.
From his expressions it seems Tim O'Leary was largely compelled to write this book due to his belief that USA as a society and nation is rotting in personal standards and quality. I do not know whether to be happy or sad, for the issues he highlights are equally applicable anywhere in the world. He dares to dive deep into the ugly and slimy pools and expose that which few people can point out accurately - the realm of dishonest weasels and irresponsible whiners. He does this with forceful condemnation and rejection of behaviour he finds negative, but his language never comes close to crude baseless insults. In fact, the style of critique is one filled with humour, and makes for a very entertaining read. This is not your doctor's psychology thesis.
While Tim's descriptions and suggestions would definitely serve as a base lesson for anybody who has whiner or weasel tendencies, I found the chapter that was entirely dedicated to lamenting the cost of "Weasel Tax" to be excessive. Yes, the point is there, but it would have better to provide more anecdotes or weasel-handling tactics, which I felt still wasn't enough.
That is not to say the book is simply full of lamentations of the sorry state of society. The first half of the book mainly discusses what makes a warrior, how different s/he is from a worker, and the types of "tools" he should have at his disposal to carry out a high standard of work and living. Tim puts forth compelling arguments based on his own life experience; numerous anecdotes of many people's past mistakes and successes, including his own. Make no mistake - this is not a man blowing his trumpet. This is a man who has gone through life learning, observing, and remembering clearly the lessons the hard way, and he wants to share it with us.
Insightful and engaging at many levels, one will be hard pressed to find this book worthless. Useful to anybody, from CEO to young children; yes, because parents are warned time and again in the book to have a firm hand in raising their kids, ensuring they grow up to be responsible adults who will hold themselves accountable for their own actions and work to benefitting society instead of waste everybody's time, energy, and money. The same lesson goes for managers and business owners in leading their staff.
I knew way before hand I was a mixture of warrior/worker/whiner (and probably a great number of people are too), so it was a good exercise to learn just what about me attributes to each category. True enough I can recognise certain descriptions that fit myself, and know my self assessment is correct. Now is the first small step of responsibility on my part to stop procrastinating and write a quick review. ;-)
Overall rating: 8/10
Engaging written style; candid; thought provoking; reality check for many
Not enough "tactics" against Weasels; whole chapter lamenting losses about them