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Summary: This Book changed my life!!
Review: And I never thought I would say that about any book other than the Bible. But Pink's book has become my professional Bible. I wasn't one of those wise ones who sat down, thought it all out, weighed all the plusses and minuses, and made a decision. Nope, not me. That makes way too much sense! After being left stranded high and dry after the Technology industry downturn last year, and scrambling to make it; little by little, one job here, one job there, I finally realized I was making it, and pretty well, but without the traditional J-O-B. Then I ran across Dan's book, and found myself!! It is overflowing with advice, insights, perspective, tips, you-name-it for those who love freedom and controlling their own life more than a corner office with a rubber tree plant! If you want to understand the current revolution in the workplace, read this book. If you think you might be interested in being a Free Agent, study this book! If you're trying to make it as a Free Agent, DEVOUR this book. Thanks for all your hard work, Dan! I can never thank you enough!!!
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Summary: The Key to the New Economy
Review: Daniel Pink has provided us with a glimpse of what could be as we make our way through this revolution in our economy. In his book, the author challenges the traditional definitons of work, success, and loyalty. As an free agent myself, I know Pink is on target and I recommend this book to anyone considering this lifestyle. Pink spent a year traveling the country, interviewing people from all walks of life who no longer depend on a company to take care of them. We benefit from hearing their stories and from Pink's own insights such as "Working hard for a far off reward is often a valuable exercise, but the act of work itself should produce it's own intrinsic rewards. And since no position is permanent . . .you might as well enjoy what you do." He encourages us to take responsibility for our life and work and in his new edition he even shares strategies on how to do just that.
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Summary: I just got this, and am looking forward to reading, but
Review: Daniel Pink was doing quite well as publicist and speechwriter. He'd landed a job on the staff of the Vice President of the United States, in fact. Then he had one of those "Moments of Truth we've heard about. The Moment of Truth came when the pressure of politics and long days caught up with him. He had a fainting spell. He very nearly puked on the Vice President. And he decided that maybe there was a better way to live his life. Daniel quit the organizational life to work as a freelance writer. He got work right away. Having the White House on your resume usually helps with things like that. He worked out of his home and pretty soon he noticed that lots of friends and neighbors were starting to do the same thing. "Aha!" he thought, "this could be a trend and I could write a book about it." And so Daniel set off on a year-long jaunt around the country. He interviewed lots of folks. He researched the statistics on independent workers in the US. And he wrote his book. The book is a mixed bag. On the upside, Pink has done a good job of pulling together a lot of different sources. He's interviewed a lot of people and he's the kind of writer who can make the results of those interviews sing. Those individual portraits are the strength of this book. Would that he handled the statistics as well. In the early part of the book, Pink sets his work up as a sequel to William H. Whyte's Organization Man, one written for our times. The rigor of Pink's research and his use of statistics suffer from the comparison. There's a certain amount of Statistical Voodoo here. In the quest to figure out just how many free agents there are we're presented with lots of different estimates from several different sources. Numbers are adjusted up, down and sideways. In the end, Pink tells us that there are about 33 million free agents in the US. He divides those free agents into three groups. There are soloists. He's one of those. There are microbusinesses. Those have three or four employees. And there are temps. About 3 million of the 33 million are temporary workers. That's one weakness of this book. Including temps, who have different problems, prospects and possibilities takes attention away from the other free agents that Pink gushes about. Did I say "Gushes?" Yep. Sure did. Pink thinks that being a free agent is just the neatest thing in all the world and he obviously wants you to think so, too. For Pink free agency is the wave of the future, a New Agey kind of approach to work where everyone (except temps) wins almost all the time. Nonsense. I've been one of those free agents for a long time now. Many of my friends qualify, too. We make a wonderful living at it, but we've all seen enough folks start out on the free agent journey to know that lots of them end up as road kill. To succeed as a free agent takes talent and discipline. It takes a willingness to be totally responsible for your results that not everyone is willing to shoulder. It's, very simply, not for everyone. You won't hear much of this from Pink, though. He doesn't seem to talk to many folks who've tried and failed. And he hasn't been at it long enough himself to remember the legions of folks who call and write and email because they "want to do what you do" and then dwindle down to a precious few who are still at in years later. Granted, Pink was writing while the dot-com, new economy bubble was still round and full, but that doesn't explain why he simply leaves out mention of data (decline in business startups, for example) that don't support his conclusions or people (Stanford Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer, for example) who don't agree with his assessments. I found that I loved the stories and interviews, but that I was increasingly put off by the analysis. Every time Pink moves to analyze what he found the language changes to something like a revival tent or a commercial break. That may be designed to make his concepts easy to remember, but it just made me tired and crabby. Read this book for well-written stories about people who are charting their own course as free agents. But skip the analysis until the next time you're in the mood for a theological argument.
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Summary: Empowering, well-researched and easy-to-read
Review: During the 1990's, when everyone was working outrageous hours to keep their jobs, my wife and I had numerous conversations about what we predicted would be a nationwide mutiny. We wondered how long people would go on sacrificing their families and personal lives for an ever-increasing workload as a condition of employment. Well, it looks like the mutiny might already be underway. According to Daniel Pink in his landmark book, Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working for Yourself, the defining chasm came when employees could no longer look to their employer for security. Without security, loyalty to an employer became a thing of the past - replaced by a move toward self-employment (or free agency), and fierce loyalty instead to clients and to personal values and dreams. If you're a free agent, you will find this book inspiring, empowering and enlightening. In fact, you might even find enough insight to finally explain to your friends and loved ones who "just don't quite get it" just what you do for a living. If you are considering self-employment, this book will be invaluable. Daniel Pink makes a compelling case that free agency is a giant step in the direction of a new declaration of independence - this time from "The Organization." Free Agent Nation is a well-researched and easy-to-read study of this revolution.
In an economy where good ideas can be more valuable than last-century physical assets, there is little doubt that a significant shift in attitudes has occurred. Pink backs his case with interesting statistics (that's not an oxymoron). For example: - Fewer than one in 10 people work for a Fortune 500 company
- Two out of three workers in California don't hold traditional jobs
- Most workers outlive the organizations that employ them
- Independent professionals are twice as likely as others to have personal incomes over $75,000
- Business incorporations are growing five times faster than the population
- 69% of all new businesses are located in the owner's place of residence
- The American economy has twice as many free agents as it has members of labor unions The impact of such changes will affect each of us - whether we are a free agent or a W-2 worker - and Pink outlines how 20th century institutions and policies will be affected, too.
He even takes free agency a step further and refers to Abraham Maslow's legendary hierarchy of needs: "Only when man's more basic needs are fulfilled will he be free to engage his talents toward realizing his true human potential defined as self-actualization." Has our society reached that point?
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Summary: exceeded my high expectations
Review: Free Agent Nation exceeded my expectations, which were high to begin with. This is not just a drawn-out version of Pink's classic cover story in Fast Company. It reflects extensive research and provides many surprising insights and interesting predictions. This is not a book you can polish off in an hour or two. It is difficult to convey in a brief review the depth and richness of Free Agent Nation. Pink demonstrates that free agents are a large and growing share of the work force. He describes some of the economic forces contributing to this phenomenon, but he finds that free agents themselves explain their reasons for leaving the corporate world in psychological terms: a desire for freedom, authenticity, accountability, and flexible concepts of success. Pink shows that free agents have their own unique perspectives and solutions to such challenges as security, workplace relationships, career advancement, and work-family balance. For example, he describes the way that peer networks are providing the type of career support that formerly came from within large corporations. Whether you like it or not, the gravitational forces between individuals and large corporations are weakening. In the future, how will business be re-organized? How will the economy function? Daniel Pink asks the big questions, and he comes up with a lot of fascinating answers. I expect Free Agent Nation to become the most talked-about nonfiction book of the year.
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Summary: The Other Side of the Coin
Review: Having been a member of the "free agent nation" since 1987, I read Daniel Pink's book with interest. There is no question that the American work force is undergoing what may be its most significant transformation since the migration from the farm to the factory one century ago. The author spent a year traveling the country talking with hundreds of these workers. The portrait that emerges is the death of what William H. Whyte, Jr. named "the organizational man" in his 1956 book of the same name. Replacing him or her is the free agent, the home-based business, temp, freelancer or independent contractor. The lure of freedom, authenticity, accountability and self-defined success are luring workers from their cubical farms, stock options and regular paychecks into a life, the author dubs, "of meaning." There is another side to this migration. Changes in three areas will be required before this migration becomes a powerful demographic influencing the economy and the nation: 1.Tax Changes
2.Access to Capital Markets
3.Attitudes First, amend tax codes have to give the free agent the same status as the business he or she left. Benefits need full deductibility and ease of implementation. If the country benefits from independents building businesses, the capital gains tax needs to stop being a political football. It makes no sense to sacrifice to build a business unless there is a carrot at the end of the trail. A reduced or no capital gains tax is a powerful inducement. State tax departments need to stop looking at independents as training grounds for their new agents. I have better things to do with my time than wet-nurse agents-in-training on a fishing expedition. Second, open capital markets to the free agent. Capital, if available, is expensive for the individual businessperson. Bank loan officers do not or will not understand the difference between pre-tax and after-tax income. Finders access outrageous fees for equity capital. Pink cites David Bowie's raising $55 million in 1997 collateralized by his song publishing and album royalties as an example of new financing opportunities available to free agents. For those of us who are not as successful David Bowie, this market place is closed. Democratic financial markets to finance startups, expansions and improvements are a necessity if the move to a free agent nation is to become a serious alternative to the bedrock of American work - the large corporation. Lastly, social attitudes need to change. For a free agent nation to work concepts of the workday and workweek need to change. The free agent works when there is work. Vacations represent an opportunity cost. Being a free agent is not an easy life, but one I will never leave.
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Summary: Kudos From a Free Agent
Review: I read Dan Pink's original article three years ago on free agency in Fast Company magazine. It was an integral part of why I decided to become a free agent. So, I was most anxious to read his book on the subject. I wasn't disappointed! Dan's writing style is easy and his subject is thoroughly researched. He does a good job of describing the impetus behind why folks decide to become free agents, and also the pitfalls involved in striking out on your own, i.e. high self-employment taxes and large health insurance costs to name a few. His theses presented in each chapter are thought provoking, and should create oppportunities for creative dialogue not only on the future of free agency, but the need for change in many of our ingrained institutions such as education and politics. Free Agent Nation is an interesting read. I highly recommend it to those who are thinking about becoming free agents, those who already are free agents, and anyone who is interested in how work will look in the future.
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Summary: This book gave my life new meaning
Review: I thought I was an outcast, a weirdo, the odd person who didn't fit in. I never did well with the "career path" of building a resume of employement with large corporations.
Pink gave us the term "Free Agent Nation" and over the last few years, I've used it often to describe the more alive, happy, and productive people I work with who would think that turning your life over to a company is an insane way to live.
Thank you Dan Pink. I may still be an oddball, but I've learned there are millions of people like me.
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Summary: FAN is talking about me ... and us
Review: I've worked as an employee for ten years (5 government, 5 corporate) and have had my own microbusiness for the last seventeen. This book tells it like it is. Now I know why I'm so addicted to personal technology - these are the modern-day equivalents of the tools of production that Marx wrote about. These are the tools of liberation. I'm an amateur futurist keeping up with big-picture books on social trends since starting with Alvin Toffler's Future Shock in the late sixties to The Third Wave, Free Agent Nation and the Cluetrain Manifesto and many books in between. FAN is a very good book. As a microbusiness owner, it helps me understand myself and my situation better. It gives me LOTS of ideas and inspiration to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves in this time of transition and economic challenge. I started my business 17 years ago after reading a great book called Maverick Career-styles: The Way of the Ronin. The writing was on the wall even then - in the mid-eighties. I was willing to take a chance and strike out on my own after ten years of traditional employment because that book gave me a way of seeing that I might be more secure as a wiley and agile independent professional than I would be as a corporate drone in this new world we are living in. Dan Pink speaks my language! Well-written, entertaining and valuable read.
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Summary: Free Agent Nation - Totally On Trend
Review: If you already have or are contemplating striking out on your own and looking for ways to explain your decision to your parents, your maiden aunt and most especially yourself fly, do not run, to get this book. Free Agent nation clearly and precisely identifies the most important trend in American economic life with style, wit, meticulous research and astonishing prescience. Example: the author of this review recently shed the heavy armor of a highly successful ad agency to construct a company free from financial baggage and bureaucracy - one able to totally focus on the quality of the creative product. In the course of musing about it, I stumbled on the notion of the "advertising version of a film production company." Turn to page 17 of the book and read about how "America's going Hollywood." The nub of the idea: teams of highly skilled specialists come together to produce a creative product only to disband until the next opportunity draws them again. Of course, the fact that Daniel Pink agrees with this reader is of no particular importance. What is important is that this book offers value to anyone in any field that is amenable to free agency (yep, just about everyone). In part, by the sheer eloquence of the writing. In part, by the fact that Pink talks about who's doing it, how they're doing it, why they're doing it and what challenges they're blowing past to get it done. If this book is not on every B-school list it's a travesty. If it's not on the shelf of every restless employee, it's a tragedy. Sure, there are plenty of trend-spotting books out there. But precious few rise to the high standard of being a manifesto for a new, dynamic and exhuberent way to work. Get the book for yourself. And get a copy for Auntie Em next time she plaintively asks "how could you leave a good paying job?" She'll not only get the answer but also, mercifully, shut up while she reads.
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