Soloing: Realizing Your Life's Ambition

Rating:
Summary: A true inspiration for the die-hard soloist
Review: As a soloist for about 25 years, I could really relate to the ideas in this book. But beware, it's not like most business books with 10-step action plans and recipes for success. It's about the more personal insights into being a soloist and being successful at it. After reading her chapter on branding yourself, I got up in the middle of the night and wrote several inspired pages for my workshop on marketing. I think Rubin's writing is terrific. I've enjoyed reading it slowly, one page at a time to savor its insights. Did you read Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamont? It's kind of like that for business owners. I also like her quotes and comments from several modern but not so well know business and personal growth gurus like Tracy Goss, Fernando Flores and others. Worth reading and then re-reading. If there's any slight caveat, I understand Rubin has since left the solo life! Perhaps she'll write a book on that transition. I'll buy it too!

Rating:
Summary: Pathetic
Review: I have never before read a book that fills 340 pages (well, I sorta gave up after 200 or so) and manages to say absolutely nothing at all. Unlike some reviewers, I wasn't expecting a freelance how-to, I assumed the book would be about the emotional fallout of soloing and offer insights for handling the ups and downs of a solo life. Well, it does attempt that at some level, but falls flat time after time. Rubin just can't hide the fact that the main reason for her success is her ability to maintain her cushy, "I'll scratch your back, you scratch mine" relationships with big money movers and shakers and power brokers like Jim Moore, Nina Brink, and of course her main squeeze, Avram Miller. The message of this book is, to live a life like Harriet Rubin's, just go out and get Harriet Rubin's friends! Easy, huh? That little tidbit of info will cost you $.... But nah, you're not about to get suckered into that deal....like I was....are you?

Rating:
Summary: headed in the right direction
Review: I loved the beginning where Rubin describes her experience and the stages necessary to leave the corporate world. Because she mentions some Buddhist principles concerning detaching from identity, I thought the whole book was going to be about how to get beyond the sense of identity that jobs provide to many of us. It didn't continue in that vein to my disappointment. I thought the practical insights at the end of the book concerning disability insurance, methods of payment, etc. were worthwhile. I don't think she had the connection with other soloists' stories as she did with her own. And when Rubin misspelled Ken Wilber's name, it made me question much of the middle section. Wilber is as big a name in his field as Peter Drucker is in his. The parts of the her journey that were personal were strongly written but the parts about others not so useful to someone making a transition from employee to self-employed. However, I've recommended it to my friends. I hope someone clues her into who Ken Wilber is!

Rating:
Summary: Loved it!
Review: Seems the reviews are love/hate for this inventive little book. I have no idea who Harriet Rubin is, nor did I read the Inc. articles this book is based on. I am contemplating a solo move though, and this slight tome is a great journey to follow. It is about much more than "how to" and much more about how soloing effects one's entire being. One message I found to be instructive was that soloing is terrifying no matter how successful the career, no matter how big the rolodex, no matter how prestigious the corporate job. It is lonely. Rubin brings us into her lonely world and shows us how she worked her way out of it. Inspiring! I've given it away numerous times to others who are contemplating going solo. In one case it actually talked someone out of taking the leap. It was reality therapy. I recommend it highly