Knock the Hustle: How to Save Your Job and Your Life from Corporate America [Paperback]

Hadji Jon Steven Williams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 2005

Somewhere between The Streets and The Office Suites lies THE HUSTLE. THE HUSTLE is where "victims-of" meet their circumstances and slippery slopes start descending.

THE HUSTLE is home of working weekends, business as usual, rationales affirmative action, and urban culture. It’s the home THE HUSTLE is where people become angles and opportunities. THE HUSTLE is where the mind becomes plantation and most everyone’s a fieldhand.

From street corners to corner offices, THE HUSTLE is mad seductive. It reads you, plays on your desires, your fears... Then before you know it, you’re so caught up in it that you’re at the bottom of it looking up. And it’s only then that you start seeing the constructs and agendas and realize that they’re way deeper than those who play them. It’s also where you feel the cold hearts, cold eyes, and colder shoulders.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

IT'S TIME TO GET OUT FROM UNDER.

Corporate America is being co-opted and corrupted by THE HUSTLE—the corrosive belief in profits over people. Arrogance and agendas over possibilities. Constructs and paradigms over good business sense. Under THE HUSTLE only MBAs can be CEOs and only CEOs can be leaders and all leaders should have white skin. THE HUSTLE preaches that professionalism must wear suits, clock 70-hour weeks, and love their jobs as much as their relatives. THE HUSTLE is sparing no industry, no class or gender, and taking no prisoners.

But THE HUSTLE can be knocked.

KNOCK THE HUSTLE: How to save Your Job and Your Life from Corporate America by Hadji Williams, noted 15-year vet of the straight-laced advertising industry and product of Chicago’s grimy West and South sides.

KNOCK THE HUSTLE is a Molotov cocktail of MBA-caliber case studies and inside dope on Fortune 500 power hitters including: AT&T, Cingular Wireless, Bayer, Ford Motors, Mercedes Benz, Wm. Wrigley Co., and such, mixed with raw street knowledge, cutting-edge solutions, wild industry antics and out-the-box characters. And it’s all shaken and stirred with uncommon sense and unflinching clarity. The result will leave blocks, boardrooms, cubicles, chatrooms, and campuses buzzing for decades.

From the Inside Flap

Re: Definition:

KNOCK THE HUSTLE (philosophy) 1. To put God, humanity and family, over business, money, or power. 2. To be truthful, honorable, and just in all endeavors, even at the expense of profit. (v) 1. To get out from under. 2. To break free from The Hustle.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: ProdigalPen, Inc. Publishing; 2 edition (October 31, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932523006
• ISBN-13: 978-1932523003
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,030,466 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cautionary tales, outrageous incidents, and case studies, March 17, 2006

By 

D. Donovan, Editor/Sr. Reviewer "California B... (California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Knock the Hustle: How to Save Your Job and Your Life from Corporate America (Paperback)

Hadji Williams is a 13-year veteran of the advertising and marketing industries, but don't expect your standard business approach with KNOCK THE HUSTLE: HOW TO SAVE YOUR JOB AND YOUR LIFE FROM CORPORATE AMERICA: it parallels his life on Chicago's South side with his straight-laced corporate career at major advertising and marketing forms working on Fortune 500 accounts, and provides a satisfying, diverse mix of cautionary tales, outrageous incidents, case studies, and candid insights on business 'friendships', corporate dress codes, and more. The first-person rappy/chatty tone and realistic assessments should especially appeal to x-generation up-and-coming young business participants who will here find substance and assessments of the pros and cons of the work world and how to survive in it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ill for anyone in the business world, January 17, 2006

By 

Micheal Pierre (Vancouver, BC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Knock the Hustle: How to Save Your Job and Your Life from Corporate America (Paperback)

I read this book in a matter of two days because i could not put it down. Hadji has dropped some priceless knowlege for anyone trying to make it through the hustle we call capitalism. I will be buying this book for everyone i know. Not only that Hadji Williams is also a really nice person who responded promptly to a message i sent him and we exchanged some ideas that helped me understand the book a bit more.

If you want to save your soul and survive in the corporate world get this book.

Peace and Much Respect

Micheal
dj unlearn

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply one of the best books about the ad industry ever written, November 4, 2005

By 

Dan Goldgeier (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Knock the Hustle: How to Save Your Job and Your Life from Corporate America (Paperback)

I've read a lot of books about advertising and marketing, and this is one of the most provocative, thoughtful and eye-opening books to ever come along. Sorry, Luke Sullivan. Sorry, Sally Hogshead. Sorry, Phil Dusenberry. Sorry, David Ogilvy, Jerry Della Famina and Howard Gossage. Hadji's got you folks beat by a mile.

Hadji Williams spent 13 years as a writer in various Chicago agencies, including BBDO and Uniworld (and if you're in Chicago, you HAVE to get this book, because Hadji isn't afraid to name names, or slightly disguise them and call some people out on their actions). By not being from an upper middle-class white neighborhood, the ad industry and how it operates turned out to be a revelation to him, although it was strangely familiar: pimping, whoring, hustling, drug-pushing, gambling--all thrive in corporate America, albeit in unique forms.

What's really great is that Knock The Hustle isn't just a rant about minorities in advertising or a personal memoir. It's a transparent account of how the ad business operates-from creative concepting to client billing, new business presentations to office politics. And Hadji has plenty of concrete ideas on how the ad industry could change its practices, where most people in the business just give lip service to the notion of progress. Actually, there's a good amount of wisdom that nearly any person or any business in any industry can apply. If that weren't enough, many parts of this book are funny as hell.

It's 378 pages long, and Hadji stacks it full of personal stories, business history, pop culture references and attributable quotes that range from The Bible to John F. Kennedy to Mya. But he also writes something on nearly every page that's a nugget of genius (...). My words can't do this book justice--you just have to read it and experience it. Much like Matt Beaumont's 'e' from a few years ago, everyone familiar with advertising will find something in KTH to relate to. Only here, it's all true.

It's a must-read for anyone in the advertising industry, particularly the people who want to be in the industry next week, or next year, or next decade.