Today’s Book: The Pursuit of Wow!: Every Person’s Guide to Topsy-Turvy Times by Tom Peters

Allowing yourself to be provoked is one certain way to quickly expand and grow your knowledge! Let us begin with this sentence from this book:

“As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.”

One second! This very moment you could challenge yourself, transform yourself, quit something that you wanted to leave for long or simply start something new! One second is all it takes.

This book is collection of 210 actionable ideas compiled by Tom Peters. Many of these ideas seem obvious now because this was written in 1994. Surprisingly, a lot is still relevant today. A sample:

In today’s world the premium belongs on unsystemization: i.e., providing a special face to every customer, even if you are lucky enough to have a million of them.

Another one:

“This country wasn’t founded on a polite roundtable discussion – it took a revolution. The constant hue and cry, the demonstrations, the political battles keep us honest as a nation – keep us fluid, adaptive, changing.

…

The very special bunch of people who got this country started 200 years ago have a lot to teach today’s corporate honchos. Namely, open your ears (and hearts and minds) to raucous dissent and innovative disorder.”

Last but not the least:

“Design is total consistency. (A design sense that pervades every single thing a corporation does.)”

We are not done yet! Few more points as summarized by Daniel R. Murphy:

1. On choosing a career: do what turns you on, not what statistics say will generate the most job opportunities. If you cannot be passionate about your work you will likely be bored with it or worse.

2. Design is important, in both products and services. You must learn the importance of design to expand and succeed.

3. While Peters admits he likes incrementalism, the gradual improvement of things, he argues that the world is changing too fast to rely on that entirely. Change today must be fast and must be somewhat radical to be effective in the marketplace.

Happy getting provoked!