Customer Reviews

Reinventing Work

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

There is no imitation for Tom Peters. Having someone else read his book out loud is like someone reading Maya Angelo's peotry - flat, uninspired, and ineffective.

Great books. On the audio, however, I miss"Chairman" Tom's almost manaical ranting (sometimes I listento his audiotapes wondering how close he came to cardiac arrest during recording because of passionate "overexhortion".) While I am sure the reader is an accomplished actor/narrator -- hearing the words "dude" "dudette" pronounced in a Shakespearian tone just loses something for me.

Let's unite and refuse to buy this audiobook until Tom Peters himself reads it. The content of the reinventing work series is excellent and very personal, by reading the book one can feel that the recommendations come straight from Peters' gut. Unfortunatelly, having some one else exclaiming, screaming, and crying for him sounds extremely fake. I bought this audiobook and returned it the very next day. Save yourself the hassle. Peters did an amazing job reading his older book "Wow - in the search of excellence." Where is he now???

Tom Peters' ideas are often a little strange, or arbitrary, but they can also be creative, avant garde, or edgy. Wading through his long lists of hot-off-the-press Notions of Success for whatever book he's publishing this year can be tedious, especially with his penchant for CAPITALIZATION and lots of exclamation points!!!!! Sometimes there are interesting ideas that are worth thinking about.

ReInventing Work was loaned to me by a friend, so I didn't even have to pony up my own bucks for it. However I knew halfway into the first CD that I would listen no more. Why?

Sam Tsoutsouvas is DREADFUL!!!!!! I don't even know who this guy is, but a look at IMDb shows he's a third-string actor/voice actor with a very short filmography of very minor parts. I don't hold that against him. What I do hold against him is that HE IS ACTING!!!!!! (See how annoying the CAPS and !!!! can be? Peters does that all the time. Okay, I'll stop now ... I PROMISE!!!!)

I noticed another reviewer said that he returned his immediately upon discovering that it wasn't Tom Peters narrating. Yes, Tom Peters can himself be annoying sometimes as he is so highly strung that he's practically shouting or pleading much of the time. But he can get away with it. Why? Because the material is his ... the ideas are his ... you can at least forgive him for being excited about sharing his ideas and passion.

Tsoutsouvas is an ACTOR. He was hired to voice act the narration for this. Is Peters getting lazy? Can't he spend a few days in a studio recording the thing himself? Tsoutsouvas was obviously instructed to be like Tom Peters, to key it up, to pump energy INTO EVERY SENTENCE!!! (Ooops, sorry.)

Motivational / self-improvement / personal achievement works such as this shouldn't be narrated by an actor. They should be delivered, with passion, by the author or at least by a success/motivation speaker who has closely studied the work in question and feels a passion for it. All I could hear in Tsoutsouvas false energy delivery while he's busy exhorting the listener in every sentence, was ACTING, ACTING, ACTING.

Motivational/success works don't do well as audio books unless the person delivering it is 100% genuine, speaking from the heart and the mind, and not just voice acting. Even a conventional narrator (more conservative performance) would have been a major improvement over Tsoutsouvas. And there is still NO EXCUSE that Peters couldn't just record the thing himself. At least he can get away with his hyped-up delivery since it's his content. You can't contract true passion from voice actor.

Tsoutsouvas is dreadful, absolutely dreadful. I stopped at 25 minutes. I did sample the other CDs to hear if it changed, it didn't. The same phony, pumped up, voice acted, melodramatic delivery throughout. What a complete waste of an audio book. Save your money. (If you doubt this appraisal, try to get a copy of ReInventing Work at your local library, and listen there before you bother to check it out and take it home.)

TOM PETERS IS REINVENTING WORK: HE'S DISCOVERED HOW TO PHONE IT IN. Message to Tom: try showing up next time and doing it yourself.

I honestly had some trouble with the book version of this. It read like the transcription of a speech, difficult to follow as the author tried to caputure the emotion and his "in your face" attitude.

The solution, listen to the CD. The actual speech of the text is very compelling and motivating. I had to keep a notpad and a pen handy in the car to jot down all the ideas and to do's that struck me when listening to this.

The new economy gives you the chance to rethink your approach to work, your projects and your company. This will wake you up to the new economy.

I've read the Project50 book and started to listen to the BrandYou50 material on the tape set. What can I say?
Wow! Liberating! Stretch and flex and enlarge your thinking beyond your paradigms to wonder how to avoid being boxed in by any paradigm at all. Innovate. Seek. Ask. Knock. Learn. Share. Invent. Create. Extend. Re-build. Re-define. Wow! These materials confidently assert the arrival of the reinvention of work and lead the way to establishing in it your own creative place as an independent agent of innovation and change. I wonder at times if Tom Peters doesn't recklessly recommend some bold moves that needlessly threaten whatever security you might enjoy. At the same time, I wonder if I'll regret not running faster and farther with the knowledge, insights, and ideas that Tom Peters provides and making the most of engaging the sweeping changes and opportunities that Tom describes. Follow up on the TTD's (things to do). Whether you implement these materials cautiously or agressively, it's liberating stuff. You'll find many ideas that you can apply today with good and fun results. You'll find a new way of thinking that you'll be likely to apply for the rest of your life. Consider many points of view, for sure. However, know that you'll be enriched if you hear and respond to Tom's POV. There may be no corner of the world itself that is left untouched by the creative innovation and liberation that Tom describes as it works itself out in years to come.

The tape set might have been more Wow! if Tom had been the reader himself. However Sam Tsoutsouvas is not without emotion and understanding of the material himself. A few four letter words are included which I would not recommend to my children. However, rather than being viewed as gratuitous, they can be viewed as mild and adding to the message of revolution in the way we work and its ramifications at the grass roots level.