Product Description

Charles Handy is perhaps best known outside the business world as a wise and warm presenter of Radio 4's "Thought for the Day". Long recognised as one of the world's leading business thinkers (over a million copies of his books have been sold around the world), in "Myself and Other More Important Matters" he leaves the management territory he has so effectively and influentially mapped in the past to explore the wider issues and dilemmas - both moral and creative - raised by the turning points of his long and successful life. Here he investigates the big issues of how life can best be lived as they have emerged from the unfolding of his life and his unique and influential understanding of what really matters. From supplying oil by boat to an area larger than England as a bullish young Shell executive in Borneo to realising that there was a big difference between describing the development of a 'portfolio' life (made up of a variety of activities for a range of purposes and pay) in theory and actually himself leaving behind full-time employment, from helping to start up the London and Open business schools to listening and talking to people all over the world about how they want to manage their lives, Handy's telling of his experiences proves both revealing and significant.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #147699 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

From the Publisher
The bestselling author of THE EMPTY RAINCOAT and THE AGE OF UNREASON examines life's big choices - taking the format of his famous BBC 'Thought for the Day' programme to frame the key phases of our life.

From the Inside Flap
Many people who have never read his bestselling books know Charles Handy above all as the wise and warm presenter of the BBC's Thoughts of the Day. In MYSELF AND OTHER MORE IMPORTANT MATTERS, Handy gives us at last his thoughts on life's big questions and turning points, mining his own experience to tell us what he's learned along the way. He shares the lessons his father taught him at the Vicarage where he grew up in County Kildare, tells us what he learned in Borneo in his days working for Royal Dutch Shell, or later in America, where corporate scandals have shaken our understanding of what is ethical and what is acceptable in business; or in Italy, when on a whim he decided to buy and fix up an old house in Tuscanny.

Throughout the book, he asks us to look at what we value -- is it money? Family? Time? What is the role of work in our life? What do we find fulfilling? As our working lives blend ever more into the rest of who we are, Charles Handy has emerged as an invaluable social thinker. It is hard to imagine a better or wiser guide to life's big questions.

From the Back Cover
‘Charles Handy’s books have been a godsend… Britain’s leading management writer is consistently provocative, highly readable and insightful. You might not always agree with him, but he is sure to get you thinking. Myself and Other More Important Matters…uses all his varied experience…to ask further searching questions about how we live and work and where society is headed.’ Daily Telegraph

Perhaps best known outside the business world as the wise and warm presenter of Radio 4's 'Thought for the Day', Charles Handy has long been recognised as one of the world's leading business thinkers. In Myself and Other More Important Matters, he leaves the management territory he has so effectively and influentially mapped in the past to investigate the wider issues and dilemmas - both moral and creative - raised by the turning points of his long and successful life.

'[Goes] deeper into the heart of business than almost any book... It is a compelling, touching and finally inspiring journey… To paraphrase TS Eliot, his remarkable achievement is to bring us back to our starting point - but allow us to recognise the place for the first time.’ Observer

‘His writing is both spiritual…and practical: he makes you want to do something about your life, and at the same time convinces that you can… The most complete account yet of where the man and his ideas have come from. So much of it will strike home… Real inspiration...excellent advice. Times Educational Supplement

‘Highly readable… A wise work from which we will all learn.’ Sunday Times

‘Handy at his best; humane, thoughtful and serious.’ Financial Times