Opportunity Screams
by Tom Asacker. I’ll admit, the title caught me.
I read the book because the last one, The Business of Belief, was excellent. Paradigm shifting. I wanted to hear more of what Asacker had to say. I wasn’t altogether disappointed. The, fluid, almost philosophical writing style that I enjoyed so much in the other book carries over, to some extent. Though alas, nothing in verse this time. And overall, it wasn’t as sticky as my first foray into his writing.
To put it succinctly, Opportunity Screams argues and insists that business people need to have a soul. The inventors, problem solvers and creatives of the world, can’t get lost in the numbers, on the beaten path, in their own routines, or in the best strategies. Every facet of a business is weaker when the person at the helm doesn’t care, when they’re just going through the motions.
In order for a business to engage powerfully with their clients, or employees, they’re clients and employees have to be real people. The business has to have a soul, so it can engage with individuals who have a soul. To do so, Asacker uses the analogy of locked doors. Information, truths, feelings, personality, trust, fear. Whatever things people lock up behind doors, so that the outside world cannot scour then. He names the doors Engagement, Interest & Belief.
Engagement – not seeking attention from someone, but seeking a common goal with them.
Interest – considering what someone else is interested in, not whether they will be interested in you.
Belief – when we’re engaged with someone, they will only believe in us if we continually show them they have a real reason to.
There were lots of insightful-ly words in there. And more than a few quotables. But, in the end, the underlying advice, the main idea, seemed to me to be kind of, well, generic.
For what it was getting at, Opportunity Screams was a bit wordy. Even for the short book that it was. It was a short book though and there were more than a few insights worth reading about in there. This one might make a good audio book for the commute.
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