Customer Reviews

Free to Succeed: Designing the Life You Want in the New Free Agent Economy

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

This unassuming book is the best tool I have found to identify my personal and professional priorities. "Free to Succeed" served as a launchpad for me to think creatively about how I can take control of my work life, and keep the personal and professional in balance. The profiles of real-life clients ground the text, making it easy to see myself and my situation more clearly. The activities helped me to develop and individualized short and long term career plans. This book is a career counselor between two covers.

Free to Succeed describes accurately the ever changing work force that is effecting career opportunities. It emphasizes individuals pursuing several rotating career opportunties as opposed to doing the corporate dance as layoffs are becomming more apparent in Big Blue(IBM) and other large corporations.

This book gives some good exercises to give the reader a clear idea of his or her free agent strenghts and weakenesses. Some people have strong imaginations but just lack the nerve. Others may be gamblers with the lack of a strong purpose. To sum it up, this book is a good tool for self evaluation.

The glossary is pretty good and some good resources for web surfers. Some pretty good case studies even if some of them are a bit too repetitive. Its certainly worth a read.

I love this book's format! The few longer chapters at the beginning give a lot of information, especially about the seven stages of "doing your own thing," and then each stage has its own little stories to illustrate the points. So no matter where you you are in the process of creating and running your own venture, you can turn to the places in the book where you need inspiration and practical advice. Her stories are to the point and easy to remember. She writes as if she is sitting in the room with you. A book to read, check back with, and give to friends.

This is an excellent resource for making changes in one's life and work. I found the exercises in the book especially helpful in getting me to think out of the box. The book helped to clarify my own personal working style and what type of work situation would most ensure my success. I highly recommend this book for anyone thinking of making a work change.

A rare combination of practical suggestions with out-of-the-box thinking. I particularly like her categorization of readers as
gamblers, philosophers, desperados, and more.
I also like her list of questions to ask yourself: who are the ghosts hovering over your decision? Nearly every client I work with (see my movinglady.com site) has ghosts and it's not always easy to identify them.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to kiss your boss good-bye and venture out on your own?
Dr. Reinhold, in all her wisdom and with a wonderful sense of humor, gives you the courage and shows you the way to do just that. If you can dream it, you can do it. Let Dr. Reinhold help you turn your daydreams and your passions into a profession. A must read for anyone interested in becoming an independent agent in today's economy.

I would like to thank Barbara for all her advice and wisdom.

I truly enjoyed and appreciated this book. Even though I may not ultimately become a free agent, I loved the way she talked about designing your life according to your own needs and wants. She makes soul searching a little easier with some innovative and creative questions and exercises. I've been recommending this book to many of my friends who are beginning to debate about all their choices.

I look forward to more thoughts and books from her!

Barbara Reinhold's latest books is required reading for graduate students in my Management courses. Many of my students are responsible for attracting and retaining employees to corporations and agencies. Free to Succeed provides hiring managers, leaders and organizations with Best Practices from the perspective of current and well as potential employees. It answers the question...what do we need to do to create the best possible environment in a highly competitive marketplace.

I run a mentoring services company, working with corporations to set up online mentoring programs. I recommend this book frequently to program participants. The book is designed to help people think about whether they want to leap into free agency but I think it's equally good as a career development guide for anyone who's feeling stuck or thinking about a change. There are some great exercises to help you assess your current life / career situation and figure out a next step - with free agency being one of many possibilities. I wish I had read this when I was thinking about leaving corporate life and starting a business. I wouldn't have done anything differently but it would have given me better perspective.

Thank goodness Free to Succeed came into my life at just the right time! I had been moving towards working for myself for a while but had so many questions about how to get there. This book really gave me the way in to understanding and interpreting my own style first, then it showed me how to create the work/life I truly wanted, on my terms. This book is so packed full of sound advise that you can trust and it gives you the tools for figuring out what it is that you want. But what I really liked about the book was that it helped me to see how it is possible to create work that is truly satisfying in all ways.