Reviews for Balancing Act Mngrs Career Personal

The average rating for Balancing Act Mngrs Career Personal based on 2 reviews is 2 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-08-02 00:00:00 David Sevshek It was ok - The most helpful part was the discussion of the mastery/intimacy imbalance, which describes how we want to "achieve mastery" over everything at work (e.g., gain skills, gain control, learn how to do everything, become the best at it, and direct others to do it). At home, you want to seek an "intimacy oriented" approach, characterized by close relationships, being vulnerable, expressing and being comfortable with feelings, etc, all of which may be downplayed/suppressed at work. This was a good topic and fodder for thought, but the rest of the book was basic business/self-help, good for skimming.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-05-05 00:00:00 Anna Rudzinska EDIT: I've left my original opinion below. However, as time has passed, I don't really think I can recommend this book as anything but entertainment. Anything useful has been written elsewhere, better, and by people who aren't lying to you. ----- I hesitantly recomend this book. The reasons why are towards the end of the review. The douchebaggery and straight up disengenuity espoused almost drips off the pages: quite remarkable even in the self-help, think-outside-the-box, start-your-own-business genre. Much of what Ferris recommends just plain doesn't work (I'm talking from experience). Other things are slightly ridiculous: an entire chapter is spent discussing how one can get people to stop bugging you at your cubicle by lying to their faces about how busy you are, or using other, more passive-aggressive methods to avoid them. Yet more suggestions are even more unethical and unsound: how to get your boss to sign you up to work at home, so you can go off and get your job 'done' in an hour a day and then get on with pursuing your just rewards. Apparently, as long as no one realizes what useless timewaster you >used< to be, Ferris thinks it is perfectly acceptable to use this new found time to your own ends, as long as no one catches on. According to Ferris, we should all use methods to arbitrage the actual productivity of others - such as email friends and colleagues for information rather than finding it ourselves, despite the fact he also espouses avoiding all such requests from others, getting them to 'channel' their communications into forms that you can either ignore or answer as quickly as possible, preferably through an executive assistant. As far as that secret 'get rich quick, live on the beach' lifestyle he promises? It involves the same arbitrage, only commercially. In other words, we should all start websites that dropship stuff and by google adwords and we'll all be rich. Life doesn't work like that: someone has to make shit, and the web is already saturated with stores. Why do I recomend this book anyway? Well, despite the shitloads of pie in the sky bad advice, and the loads of leeching & douchebaggery that Ferris seems to think he is the original source for, there is a lot to be learned in regards to automating and simplifying one's life, and practicing and developing an enterpreneurial outlook to improving one's situation. So, read between the lines, recognize the Ferris is an untrustworthy weasel frat boy out to promote himself and sell books. But, take note that while the lifestyle he espouses in his book just doesn't add up, his overall philosophy has served him well, and there is definitely utility in the tactics that serve this get-someone-else-to-do-it-for-you life strategy.