Customer Reviews

Authentic: How to Make a Living By Being Yourself

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This splendid book is exactly what is needed right now!

It's an antidote to the current corporate paradigm of greed and exploitation in which YOU, the manual worker, the office worker, the contractor, the shop assitant, whatever, are being openly exploited to line the pockets of the few? Wasn't it always so? Since the Industrial Revolution, yes. But not 'always', by any means! The way corporates over-work and under-pay their employees today, along with the way advertisers try and extract maximum cash from your pocket, and the way the banks and house developers keep property moving ever upwards, taking increasing amounts of your hard-earned on living costs, all come together to create the modern version of indentured slavery.

And it's not just you that's being exploited - it's the planet, too. Finite natural resources are being taken without any thought for future generations, and previously pristine environments are being despoiled for short-term gain. The whole house of cards is simply not sustainable.

In 'Authentic', Mr Crofts offers an alternative vision; one in which YOU follow your heart. YOU narrow the gap between who you are and what you do. YOU start to make active choices, rather than just going along with what everyone else is doing. He offers a route out of disfunctionality, out of slavery, and a way to recognise embedded patterns of out-dated behaviour and actively change them for something more useful, more heartfelt, more...Authentic!

If you think there's more to life than working 60 hours a week to pay bills and the mortgage and buy more stuff - you're right! If you want a helping hand to get out of this destructive pattern into a more peaceful, productive, happier place, 'Authentic' is it.

But be warned - reading the book is not enough! You have to put some of the ideas into practice, too, in order to set yourself truly free.

This is a fast read, but that's not a positive review for a book that is tackling a pretty heavy topic. It comes across as the writer's ramblings on his own path to starting his own business. He never actually guides you through any process that's going to lead to a greater awareness or understanding of your own at the end. He doesn't even explain his own process with enough detail to glean anything by observation. The hard part about what he describes is not going out a starting a business, but rather discovering what type of business is a good match for who you really are, what your talents are. He completely leaves that process of self-discovery a mystery, besides a passing reference to therapy. It was worth the hour I spent with it, just to get my mind thinking about some points he raises, but I would not suggest buying this book.