Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time

Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time | Keith Ferrazzi, Tahl Raz | never eat without getting indigestion

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Never Eat Alone: A...

	Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time Keith Ferrazzi, Tahl Raz Broadway Books, 2005 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 216 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A must have for any successful entrepreneur

Keith proposes a revolutionary new way of looking at networking and relationship management in general: giving freely, and openly, and asking for the same in return. According to the book, most people are surprisingly accommodating and receptive to this approach.

If you're looking for an overnight plan to becoming a master networker, magician manipulator, or overall hypnotist in the business world this isn't the book for you. If, however, you're interested in discovering what some of the most successful men and women in America (Keith included) have done to reach where they are today, don't pass by the opportunity to find out!

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never eat without getting indigestion

one of my friends is addicted to career self help books. i sneaked this one off her shelf last week. ferrazzi's thesis is that the key to career success is to never miss an opportunity to network, not much different from other books in that category except that the author is more explicit in how to go about it. *****five stars for spelling it out HOW to network, most books just tell you what great thing it is and then the end.

ferrazzi gives good advice on adjusting your attitudes about personal time, giving an example about how spending your birthday away from home with work 'friends' (no such thing!, ask my friend, that's why she needs so many of these books!) can be an opportunity to tighten your network and even increase it. many of his suggestions boil down to getting over you initial ick! reaction to using personal connections for business gain.
it even discusses how to be more talkative at parties.

one huge draw back is that it is aimed at people who don't have family obligations to tether them to reality. ferrazzi lives in a lala land of travel and expense accounts, from the way the book reads he isn't married or a father, so it's very easy for him to flit around meeting people and filling up address books. he has nothing better to do than to eat all his meals at restuarants with other people wh also have nothing better to do. in this way the book falls into the trap that so many other career self help books do, assuming that the intended audience has the life of leisure that the author does, assuming that the reader has the money and job that the author does. this book's advice is solid gold if you do whatever it is that ferrazzi does and have all his money. people who need to buy these books have more complicated lives than people who write them.

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An unwanted autobiography in disguise

The book starts off great by cogently convicing the reader that business is primarily about relationships. It is teamwork, not individualistic achievements, which creates and enables great things. Here is an exerpt from the first chapter:

"I came to realize that first semester at business school that Harvard's hypercompetitive, individualistic students had it all wrong. Success in any field, but especially in business, is about working with people, not against them. No tabulation of dollars and cents can account for one immutable fact: Business is a human enterprise, driven and determined by people."

OK great start.

The author, unfortunately, never stops talking about himself, his personal achievements, and his company. I would say approximately 25%-30% of the book is dedicated to the author, his life, and his company. At the end of the book, a reader could put together his resume. This would make some sense if the author was a well known public figure. But he isn't.

The author provides some good examples and knowhow on how to focus on the most important thing in business. His methods of networking and connecting with people seems to be have some validity. I think the author's emphasis on relationships and its importance, which is often neglected in business education, is probably enough to justify paying and reading this book. Too bad it could have been far better than an unwanted autobiography in disguise.

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