By Harvey Mackay
Published by Ballantine Book, New York
ISBN 0 345 47187 3
Hard cover, 347 pages
We Got Fired! offers encouragement and confirms that being fired is not the end of the world.
I liked Harvey Mackay's dedication...
"This book is dedicated to the millions of people who have lost their jobs, especially the vistoms of mergers, acquisitions, consolidations, downsizings, restructurings, reorganizations, and so-called right-sizings. Being fired wasn't your choice. Whether you rise up from it... is."
We Got Fired! covers people from different fields: broadcasting, football, publishing, writing, and others. Some of the people covered in this book are Larry King, Joachim de Posada, Mark Victor Hansen, Muhammed Ali, Robert Redford, with a total of 27 people featured.
A neat feature in this book is that in between the people's stories, Harvey Mackay offers practical advice, for example, there is a chapter: "Getting a Job Is A Job", where hints are offered on how to go about looking for a new job.
One of the chapters I personally enjoyed was the story of Jesse Ventura (former Governor of Minnesota), and especially his words: "You can't exceed the dream, unless you have one in the first place."
A chapter that I re-read was: "Wisdom? You Bet Your Aphorism". This is a chapter of quotes. One I really like is: "Success is doing what we like to do and making a living at it."
I found the book easy to read, and the chapters are short.
On the downside, as a non-American, I couldn't identify some people, although this didn't reduce the messages that were offered.
Harvey Mackay opens the last chapter with the words of coach Red Auerbach: "It's not those who start. It's those who finish."
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