Book review: The Lazy Way to Success
The Lazy Way to Success by Fred Gratzon. Fred’s blog is over here. And a vaguely hyped-up e-book offering is over here (put together by a couple of fans).
This is a really fun book, on a lot of levels. I’ll admit to expecting it to be a bit of a “novelty book.” You know, something that you put on the coffeetable for friends to chuckle over. It’s nothing like that. It is, however, a physically beautiful book, which actually would look fine on any coffeetable (it’s a permanent fixture on mine). It’s hardcover, wider than it is tall, seems to have excellent production value and the illustrations are wonderful. But more on the illustrations later.
Earlier this year, I hosted a three-day “blog showdown” between Fred and Steve Pavlina. If you read through that, you’ll get a pretty good idea of Fred’s outlook. The book follows the same line of reasoning which, in essence, goes something like “Work is hard and it sucks, why do that to yourself? Be lazy and prosper.” The key, of course, is what’s meant by “lazy.” Fred means that when you’re being lazy, you’re doing what you love—he even goes so far to say that you’re doing what you’re created to do, whatever that might be. Your laziness may very well be another person’s work.
Probably because of my initial expectation of the book, it has surprised me in a number of ways. The two biggest surprises, though, are how spiritual it is, and how intelligent it is. The spiritual theme runs through the book and colors every chapter, though some are less veiled than others. This is likely due to Fred’s long-time practice of TM. Also, pretty much every page has little quotes from famous and not-so-famous folks and icons (in what other book would you find quotes from both Yoda and Napoleon Bonaparte?), many of which seem to point to the spiritual nature of finding one’s calling and authentically pursuing it.
The intelligent theme is equally evident. Fred pulls in evidence for his theory of laziness from such disparate disciplines as quantum physics, theology and literature. He does a masterful job of explaining difficult ideas and leading you gently, and with great humor, down the path of understanding. Frankly, this was the most surprising facet of the book for me.
There is much to enjoy about The Lazy Way to Success, but the number one fun thing is the fantastic illustrations on each page. Literally every single page of the main text has at least one illustration, hand-drawn by Fred’s old friend Lawrence Sheaff. The illustrations, amazingly, are always perfectly synchronized with the text on the page and often provide extra little nuggets of thought for the reader who takes the time to enjoy them.
I can’t imagine how anyone would be disappointed with this book. It’s beautifully produced, well written, intelligent, humourous and fun to look at. I love it, and I’m quite sure a few friends and family members will be getting copies for Christmas!
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POSTED IN: book reviews, career
4 opinions for Book review: The Lazy Way to Success
Eric Carter
Jul 8, 2005 at 6:09 pm
Interesting. Earlier this week a friend pointed me to the graduation speech Steve Jobs gave at Stanford: http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html
Although he doesn’t use the word “lazy”, he makes the same point–find what you love, do it with gusto, and “work” will seem like play for you.
ryan
Jul 9, 2005 at 9:23 am
“I can’t imagine how anyone would be disappointed with this book”
If following means religion then I would guess people could be disappointed, but it’s more spiritual than religion - right?
“The two biggest surprises, though, are how spiritual it is, and how intelligent it is. The spiritual theme runs through the book and colors every chapter, though some are less veiled than others.”
I’ve bumped into one similar book that I received for free, but was actually quite disappointed when I realized it was a book about Christianity.
Bren
Jul 9, 2005 at 11:12 am
Well, I wouldn’t mind if it *was* a book about Christianity, but it’s not. It’s a book about work, with spiritual influences from a number of places, including Christianity. If Fred’s pushing anything in this book, it’s TM.
If you’ve got an aversion to spiritual overtones in your business texts then, yeah, you might not like this one.
The Books Blog
Nov 30, 2005 at 11:23 am
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