The Pope and the CEO > Book Reviews
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Embracing Uniqueness
Seth Godin’s latest book, We Are All Weird, was released yesterday, and Seth introduces us to the book on his blog. The idea of the book, as Seth puts it in his blog, is that times have changed so that there really is no “normal” anymore, at least not the way we conceive of it. Normal is so ingrained in what we do every day that it’s difficult to notice that your tendency toward the normal is now obsolete. What we need to do now, is embrace what is unique about ourselves so that we can make a difference. The important thing, I believe, is to make sure that this doesn’t amount to reckless individualism and rather tends toward a fulfillment of the person that God made each of us to be. I haven’t read the book yet, but I look forward to it, and I’m sure any fans of Seth’s other books are going to be among the first as well. When you read it, give us your review and tell us what you think.
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A Cold War Spy Drama with Blessed John Paul II?
Several months ago, papal biographer George Weigel published the second part of his account of Blessed John Paul II’s life. The first part, Witness to Hope, is an incredible book that covers the late pope’s early life, priesthood, and the first 20 or so years of his papacy. Weigel has a particular gift of capturing the Holy Father as he really was. While this by no means is an excuse to get out of reading either of the two biographies, the Hoover Institution at Stanford University published this review of the second book a few months ago. Take a look at it to pique your interest – it should be pretty easy! This second book details the late Holy Father’s battle with Soviet Communism, with details that only became available in recent years once records and documents from the KGB, Stasi, and Polish Secret Police were released. Mary Eberstadt, who wrote the article, even compares the depiction of John Paul II to spies in Cold War-era novels! The communist regimes in Eastern and Central Europe recognized the threat that John Paul II posed to their ideology and their rule, and made every conceivable effort to thwart his message. The book… Read more
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The Pope & The CEO Available for Pre-Order!
Andreas’ book is already up on Amazon.com available for pre-order. The book is scheduled to be released on September 1. The book is fantastic, with wonderful lessons straight from one of the most inspiring people of the last millennium – Blessed John Paul II. Andreas describes in rich detail some amazing encounters with the Holy Father, and how they helped to shape the way that he sees business and its impact in our lives and on our world. How John Paul made it clear that we all are called to holiness and, with God’s grace, can live out such a calling – even in the business world. This book is an absolute must-read: put it first on your list to read for the fall, keep it on your nightstand, read a chapter at your desk before you start to work each morning. There are invaluable lessons that Andreas shares with us. Click the Amazon link to pre-order now! Also, make sure to visit the Facebook page for the book to like it and see added links and material!
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Do We Trust Our Entrepreneurs?
Xavier Fontanet is the president and CEO of Essilor, the French company that specializes in corrective lenses. I had the pleasure of meeting him recently at the 2011 Zermatt Summit, a conference dedicated to exploring the issues of justice, fairness, and globalization. He recently published a book called Si on faisait confiance aux entrepreneurs, about the trust that we should place in entrepreneurship, globalization, free enterprise, and competition. This review provides a synopsis, in English, of his book, and of his thought – that healthy competition improves all those who come in contact with it, and that globalization has great potential for the good. He has very clear ideas, and his encouragement for enterprise to play a role in continued economic development is very admirable. If you’re a French speaker, I encourage you to check out his blog, which he updates every couple of weeks, even answering questions from readers! What do you think about the book’s synopsis? Let us know in the comments.
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Leveling the Plowing Fields
Andreas put up a blog about the book Enough: Why The World’s Poorest Starve In An Age of Plenty a few months ago. The book, by Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman, addresses the issues underlying the food shortages that we often hear about in the news. Most recently, the United Nations declared regions in Somalia to be in a state of famine. There are countless reasons listed by Thurow and Kilman in their book, from slow adoption and funding for hybrid seeds, to agricultural subsidies given by governments of developed countries, and from underdeveloped infrastructure for bringing crops to market to a lack of crop insurance in developing countries. Unstable political situations have also contributed to the problems. Thurow and Kilman give several recommendations at the end of their book. One is, I think, aptly titled “Leveling the plowing fields.” While the authors use this to call for an end to farm subsidies in developed countries, I think it’s a useful metaphor for the whole of what the book is calling for – including the developing countries in networks of productivity, something Blessed John Paul II always called for. This means not just removing subsidies, but improving markets, and letting… Read more
