Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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

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.

This is one of those books that I'd give to every client and every person I work with, particularly as a white guy. Coming from the tech world and dealing with a lot of straight-laced by-the-books protocol-driven people, I was amazed by the amount of insights this book gave me. I actually related to a ton of stuff in this book about the office pimps and hustlers--people who just manipulate and treat colleagues like disposable capital to be used and abused... Some of the rap lyrics were a bit much for my tastes, but I understand what he was going for, and for people who listen to that music, I'm sure that stuff resonates a little better. But his breathe of knowledge and reference points is pretty stunning, particulary given his upbringing. This would be a great book for anyone climbing the ladder in any industry, especially someone starting out in the business world right out of college. I wish i had this book 7 or 8 years ago.

Now you see it and now you don't. Can you survive in Corporate America and still keep your self-respect? Well according to KNOCK THE HUSTLE by Hadji J.S. Williams, if you know the game you can survive, however, if you're clueless then join the club, you have been played.

Now this is what you call an original analysis of the "American apple pie:" for those of us who want to make it big and become wealthy in a one package deal. Mr. Williams breaks it down very methodically that if you think you have the upper hand on your career and income, you better take the blinders off and blink again. Sassy and straight to the point, make no bones about it his comparisons of jobs, bosses, working 80 hours a week and kissing up to the bosses to get ahead is real and everyone who knows what he's talking about can relate. Don't close the book now, he's just warming up.

I was shaking, nodding my head and actually found myself talking aloud while I was reading this book. It was just plain-down-right-in-your-face-it's-about-time-you-knew- the-truth, in a style written with clarity and intellectual detail. Mr. William's quote "How to Save Your Job and Your Life from Corporate America" sums up the corporate society that many have never entered but have looked from a distance. He definitely did his homework and simply outlined many areas of the America economic society that makes this country outstanding in so many ways. He made no excuses, no justifications, just information to get you on the inside of the game.

It's up to you live or die trying to make it in corporate America, however, if you have the right tools, then you can make it a success story, otherwise, you down for the count. I applaud Mr. Williams on taking a bold step in coming clean with what we should know and shouldn't know. Read it and close the book with one word - Wow.

Reviewed by Kalaani
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

After reading Knock the Hustle: How to Save Your Job and Your Life from Corporate America you will either (1) get hyped enough to show up to work the following day two hours late, C-walk down the aisle to your cubicle, stand on your desk and announce to everyone that's pretending to work that you refuse to turn tricks for "the man" any longer or (2) get hyped enough to show up to work the following day two hours early, work harder than you've ever worked and smile doing it because you now understand just how crooked the system is and you've learned what it takes to not let it control you. Both options (though one is clearly more entertaining for everyone involved) effectively `knock the hustle.'

The publishing of Knock the Hustle (KTH) got pushed back more than album release dates (oh the joys of self-publishing), but it was well worth the wait. In his freshman release, Hadji Williams--a seasoned veteran of the killer advertising industry now living "hustle free" as a writer, poet, teacher and entrepreneur--provides a blueprint of the do's and don'ts of business to all those getting hustled in Corporate America and to those doing the hustling.

Williams, who has over 15 years of experience at some the country's top advertising and marketing firms working on blue-chip accounts such as Sprite, Cingular Wireless and SBC just to name a few, unashamedly exposes what really happens behind the closed doors of big business.

Hadji Williams fills Knock the Hustle with memorable case studies and juicy insider information, all perfectly combined in an entertaining, lyrical flow that's gritty and conversational, yet always professional. Knock the Hustle is where VIBE meets the boardroom. At 384 pages KTH seems a little thick, but Williams' style makes KTH an easy read. You'll blow through the pages because if you're caught in the hustle you'll feel everything Hadji talks about.

Maybe there have been times where you've wondered how your supervisor actually got to be your supervisor. He or she always needs your help on a project and doesn't seem to know much of anything about their job or yours. Knock the Hustle addresses this.

Maybe you've seen a commercial that's obviously meant to target the "urban demographic," but it's absolutely horrible and unrealistic (rap music + product placement does not = quality Black advertising) and you wonder who was in the meeting where this ad got approved and thought it was a great idea. Knock the Hustle addresses this as well.

Perhaps most importantly, Knock the Hustle addresses the dilemma of jumping ship and going out on your own to live a life sans hustle. Williams is proof that there is success outside of Corporate America and if you choose to follow his advice, you'll be a bona fide hustle knocker in no time. If you value your sanity as an employee and future entrepreneur, you'll order this book before you stroll (or C-walk) into work tomorrow.

Visit [...] to purchase your copy of Knock the Hustle and to read all things hustle related.

I think that this book is a definite must read for any minority venturing out into Corporate America. It prepares you for what comes with being non-white in the office and provides several encouraging ways of how you could survive.

I am about three-quarters of the way through it now. I read a few pages everyday on my train ride to work. I feel as though it gives me additional courage, since the author seems to have been through what I am now starting to experience.

It's affordable, it's entertaining and above all...it's real.

Williams sniffs the foul atmosphere of modern business and calls its bluff. Weak, mealy-mouthed people with no honour, compassion, or humanity. How can you spend your working life amongst them and still keep your dignity?

Hadji tells you how he did it--not, maybe, the way you might choose to do it, but undisputably real and true to himself. Lots of crappy self-help books talk about the work-life balance. Williams goes much further; he balances the shallow values of day-to-day work with the deeper values of your soul. You can buy into the Hustle without selling out to it.

I wish I had this book when I was starting out in the ad business. It took me a lot longer to work out how bogus the whole mess was, and how to engage with it in a way that wasn't, in the words of one of Hadji's pals, just death by paper cuts rather than a single, fatal blow.

Buy it. Not just because a smart, earnest man wrote wisdom that's worth paying for. But because he put his money where his mouth is and published this himself. A minimum of hustlers will eat off his back. That's a good thing.

great book. I'm giving this copy as a gift for christmas and plan to get another for myself. Hadji is a cool guy as well.