Wisdom Of The Flying Pig – A Review
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on May 28, 2009
Back in February, I wrote here about receiving my first ever bit of "schwag", though I'd also seen it spelled as "swag"; no matter. Anyway, it was a free book and a free flying pig in a box, which was appropriate to the title, Wisdom Of The Flying Pig, by Jack Hayhow. I said I'd get around to reading the book when I had time, then review it. Well, I've finally read the book, and now it's time for the review.
Actually, I finished reading the book three weeks ago, which may be somewhat telling of how I'm going to review this book. First, a summary of the book. It's actually a pretty good book of tips on being a great and inspiring leader. It's broken into two main sections, one on leadership, the other on management, because Hayhow, like myself, believes there is a difference in the two terms, and that each carries its own type of responsibility with it. Under each category, the chapters are actually his lead-ins for what he's going to be talking about, such as 'Managers don't get paid for what they do; they get paid for what their people do' and 'The essence of leadership is relationship. The essence of relationship is emotion.'
Under each chapter, Hayhow gives his thoughts on the titles, interspersed with brief stories of others who have exhibited that particular skill in some fashion. I love that he explains it all, and put together, I didn't see anything that I didn't agree with.
So what's my problem with the book? For someone like me, it's a series of quick stops and starts. I'm a speed reader, and therefore I like books to flow. This book doesn't flow. It's not a quick, easy read, which may have been his intention. The stories in the book are all quick hitters also; one paragraph, then on to the next story or more explanation of the point. For me, if I didn't already know what he was talking about, I'd probably have gotten confused and moved on to something else.
In other words, it's more of a book written with the MTV Generation in mind than someone like me. The MTV Generation is described as people who like life moving fast, who can't sit still long enough to absorb difficult concepts without getting bored and tuning out. For someone like me, reading this book is a lot of work, kind of like when I tried reading the book Cracking The Millionaire Code; it's not a bad book, but it's not smooth, and therefore, I kind of get lost. I like my stories either longer or more personal, and they need to flow in some fashion with the material. I'm not always sure the stories in this book flow with what's being talked about all the time.
So, there are both sides to this book from my perspective. Do I recommend it? Actually, in the end I do, mainly because I think today's younger managers and potential leaders will eat it up, and that it could do them a lot of good. Sure, they're probably not going to know most of the names Hayhow puts into the book, but that won't matter as much if the readers get the point. And, of course, you're going to want to know where the title comes from; I'm not telling.
Anyway, you can buy this book on Amazon, or you can check Jack Hayhow out on his site Pig Wisdom.