nickshanagher

Poetry grabs life by the throat, David Adams says near the start of Well Versed , his collection of interconnected essays on the things that modern businesspeople should pay attention to in order to be successful. He borrows the phrase from Robert Frost in part explanation for his journey from accountant to stockbroker to chief executive to business coach. Unlike most business books that sell a single idea or success story, the strength of Adams’ book is its refusal to tell you what to do. “Alice in Through the Looking Glass …reaches a crossroads and doesn’t know which way to go. Looking up she sees the Cheshire Cat grinning. ‘Please sir which way should I go?’ ‘Where do you want to get to?’ asks the cat. ‘I don’t really mind,’ says Alice. ‘Well then it doesn’t really matter which way you go.’ How many businesses and particularly business meetings are conducted with the same ethos?” Adams challenges. Without clear and unequivocal goals businesses will never achieve either what ...