Customer Reviews

Soloing: Realizing Your Life's Ambition

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Be sure you know what kind of book Soloing is before you read it. If you are looking for a business book with lots of how-to advice on how to go from being an employee to having your own one-person organization, you will probably be disappointed in this book. On the other hand, if you are interested in what life is like for the most successful business editor of all time as she strikes out on her own as an author, personality and consultant, you are in for a wonderful treat. Harriet Rubin has an effective, spare writing style that makes for easy reading, making the pleasure even greater. The best part of this book is when she describes the many psychological stalls that kept her from making this move sooner, and delay her progress after she makes the move. If you enjoy learning more about a person's psychology in making a change than practical advice on what you should do, this is a superb book and one you will enjoy. If you dislike psychological perspective, avoid this book at any cost. Ms. Rubin's advice is quite good on several fronts. She clearly understands the techniques of networking at a high level, and if you will be doing the same, you will find her advice to be excellent. In fact, if you are about to follow her exact career path, leaving publishing for a writing, etc. career, the book is probably a good best practice study for you. Having established my own consulting firm 22 years ago after having been a corporate executive, I was attracted to the book because Peter Drucker had recommended Ms. Rubin to me as a good thinker. I also read her book, The Princessa, and found her perspective be somewhat unusual and interesting in both cases. As her experience expands as a problem-solver and her skills grow for analysis, her future books will become even more valuable. I look forward to reading them as they are published. Finally, if you just like an entertaining story of how we can all be more than we are and achieving that can bring meaning and joy, I recommend this book as well.

For someone running a small business or thinking of starting one, emotional strength can prove as important as a business plan. Harriet Rubin is on to a great topic here, but she ruins the book by her staggering self-indulgence, name dropping and bragging about how much money she makes. Someone who wants insight into what being in business for yourself is really like would do better with Spare Room Tycoon, by James Chan. That book has the advantage of drawing on the experience of dozens of other entrepreneurs, and it's better written besides.

This book is a hodge-podge of muddled thinking with little practical application. My advice to Harriet Rubin: Editor, edit thyself -- or be quiet. I'm glad I didn't buy the book. I would have been even more annoyed than I am now.

For anyone, male or female, who wants a great read about starting a business on a shoestring: Get a copy of 'MothersWork,' by Rebecca Matthias. A truly funny, insightful, honest, inspirational, smart and, yes, useful book about entrepreneurship. I read Matthias' book once, then did something I've never done before. I turned back to the first page and reread it. It was that good!

I'm not sure who all these people are who are saying Rubins' book is so fabulous and giving it five stars (possibly people she knows who are trying to help her protect her "brand"?) But if you want to read what others think about the dreadful 'Soloing,' go to the next page on this site and read all of the reviews. You'll be amazed at the number of readers who say 'Soloing' is perfectly awful.

As a freelancer, I'm always on the look-out for books that can help me. Unfortunately, this isn't one. It's mostly the author's own self-indulgent musings, along with a few conversations she's had with others. There's no real research and the advice is mostly obvious things like saving money before you go solo. Maybe I had too high expectations given the author's background, but the book seems like a rush job. It doesn't even have an index, which made it even harder to find what little useful information the book contains. A real disappointment.

This book did offer some interesting psychological insights about breaking away from the corporation to work on your own. Unfortunately, the book was marred by repetition, uneven writing and most notably, the arrogant tone of the author. It seems as if first and foremost, the author is concerned with letting the reader know what a special human being she is. She tells us that people in the middle to upper range of experience shouldn't offer their services for less than $5,000-10,000 a day, and inserts an unnecessary chart showing us all the money she made. While she does this with an outward tone of "you can do this too," she is intelligent enough to know that most of us won't be commanding this money. I was offended by her condescention. Nonetheless, I admire her shrewd self-marketing. I just wish I hadn't bought the book.

As a soloist for about 25 years, I could really relate to the ideas in this book. But beware, it's not like most business books with 10-step action plans and recipes for success. It's about the more personal insights into being a soloist and being successful at it. After reading her chapter on branding yourself, I got up in the middle of the night and wrote several inspired pages for my workshop on marketing. I think Rubin's writing is terrific. I've enjoyed reading it slowly, one page at a time to savor its insights. Did you read Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamont? It's kind of like that for business owners. I also like her quotes and comments from several modern but not so well know business and personal growth gurus like Tracy Goss, Fernando Flores and others. Worth reading and then re-reading. If there's any slight caveat, I understand Rubin has since left the solo life! Perhaps she'll write a book on that transition. I'll buy it too!

I read the journal diaries in Inc. that make up this book. I agree with most reviewers that the book lacks substance and is sadly self-indulgent. I have nothing to add except that I couldn't help but notice that one of the Amazon reviewers actually figured prominently in the text. Avram Miller (who you will see below) is, according to the author, her significant other. It's nice that he stands by his womam but is a review by him appropriate?

What's next? Peter's Senge's mom chiming in to tell us what a nice boy he was?

Ms. Rubin's book is shamelessly self-indulgent and just plain pointless. I had hoped to get some solid ideas about working for myself and realized that this book was pretty much useless for anyone who doesn't have Ms. Rubin's golden parachute. Not all of us have the option of asking our former employer to give us a bailout. Although she repeatedly insisted that she had to start from ground zero because she was going into a new field, it was very obvious her contacts from her former career came in oh-so-handy. She couched the one or two good points she had in endless poorly-edited prose (I couldn't even make sense of some of the sentences), randonly placed quotes, and pointless "insights". Don't waste your time.

Ms. Rubin's REAL secret to soloing is convincing people to pay money to read her mediocrity.

Rubin suggests that soloing means "going it alone" and "being complete in oneself." To become a soloist is to gain "the knowledge one needs to cross over into a world where work and freedom are one and the same thing. This book is about becoming a soloist." She cites several different examples of those who have done so. Peter Drucker is "a lone worker who refused for years to let his local university, Claremont College, start a business school in his honor because of his fear of becoming a person who has to take meetings." For him, a waste of time. Drucker once gave Rubin two pieces of advice: It takes three years to break even financially as a soloist, and to learn anything you have to be prepared to teach it. Rubin seems to be a natural teacher. In Soloing, she helps others to understand both the perils soloing creates, and, the rewards which await those who overcome the perils.

Rubin understands full well that soloing is not for everyone. However, if you now live a life of "quiet desperation", if you feel trapped within an organizational structure which limits (if not demeans) you, then you should read Soloing. Plato once described a situation in which people sat in a cave watching shadows dance on the wall. Once in a while, someone would discover the true source of light. It was outside the cave. For a soloist, it is inside the person.

One final point: The title is somewhat misleading. Although recommending "going it alone" and "being complete in oneself", Rubin duly acknowledges a number of people who encouraged her during the initial, immensely difficult phase of her own soloing process after she walked away from a lucrative but unfulfilling career situation. Soloists are not alone. Rather, as has Rubin, they tend to develop new relationships, new networks, and new friends. Also, as Rubin learned, and more importantly, the journey within (required by soloing) results in a quite different relationship with one's self. Not everyone is willing to complete such a journey. So be it.

I have never before read a book that fills 340 pages (well, I sorta gave up after 200 or so) and manages to say absolutely nothing at all. Unlike some reviewers, I wasn't expecting a freelance how-to, I assumed the book would be about the emotional fallout of soloing and offer insights for handling the ups and downs of a solo life. Well, it does attempt that at some level, but falls flat time after time. Rubin just can't hide the fact that the main reason for her success is her ability to maintain her cushy, "I'll scratch your back, you scratch mine" relationships with big money movers and shakers and power brokers like Jim Moore, Nina Brink, and of course her main squeeze, Avram Miller. The message of this book is, to live a life like Harriet Rubin's, just go out and get Harriet Rubin's friends! Easy, huh? That little tidbit of info will cost you $.... But nah, you're not about to get suckered into that deal....like I was....are you?