Work Like You're Showing Off!: The Joy, Jazz, and Kick of Being Better Tomorrow Than You Were Today

by Joe Calloway

Book Overview

A guide to creating joyful success in work and in life

What the world needs is more showoffs.

Showing off is a good thing. Showing off is a mindset. Showing off is about living life and doing work in a way that creates joy, jazz, and a kick in our lives and in the lives of those around us. This is a business book for almost everyone-from executives and managers to receptionists and sales clerks. Here's the key: success is an...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0470116269
• ISBN13: 9780470116265
• Release Date: June 2007
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

A really GREAT book!

As someone who reads upwards of 120 business books a year -- I will now put this book up in my top recommendations (along with Tom Peters, Peter Drucker, Jim Collins and a select few others). This is an easy to read book (I read it three times while waiting for a delayed flight -- and it was really good every time!) full of sound, straight-forward and highly useful ideas and tools. Yes, you have seen much of this before -- but that is because it is such powerful information that truly needs repetition to be burned into our brains. However, Joe covers this timeless wisdom with a new set of eyes - in an honest, frank voice that cuts through all the clutter and fluff, and delivers a fun, accessible and extremely valuable book. It is a perfect book for anyone who is struggling in their job and wants to understand what it actually takes to excel in your career -- or would be great for anyone who is just starting their work life. It is also a super book simply to remind anyone that the key to success is having fun at being really good at something of value in the marketplace. As soon as I returned from my trip I ordered 10 copies to send to friends and colleagues -- the book is that good. John Spence [..]

Maybe Mom and Dad were Wrong

Joe Callaway is a great example of Life, heart-pounding, joyous Life. In a time period in which 5 out of 8 new non-fiction book releases are all about what's wrong with the world, this entry is like a breath of fresh air. Remember how Mom and Dad used to tell you to stop showing off ? Well, forgot that, follow your instincts to do your best and then await the applause. Humility isn't a highly regarded commodity according to the author, and he makes a lot of good points. We all love attaboys, and following Joe's advice will get you a lot more of them ! This is an extremely upbeat book about how to put the joy back into your work and life, how to excel at each, and how to get the appreciation you deserve. This book is highly recommended.

Wonderfully written, and it can change your life view...

I admire people who do their jobs with flair and class, and who appear to be having a great time in the process. Joe Calloway talks about those people and the underlying traits involved in the book Work Like You're Showing Off: The Joy, Jazz, and Kick of Being Better Tomorrow Than You Were Today. It's the type of book that you should be reading a chapter from every day... Contents: Showing Off; Grand Stupidity and Absurd Bravery; All Hat and No Cattle; Let It Go; The Gold Standard; Get in the Damn Boat and Go; As Good as You're Going to Be; We See Things as We Are; Stupid Promises; Let's Be Too Much; Imagination Will Take You Everywhere; Get Back Inside the Box; Expect to Connect; Going All In; Joe and Muhammad; We Haven't Seen That; The Pursuit of Happiness; The Enemy of Future Success; What You Think of Me Is None of My Business; Whatever Happens Is Normal; Guess What I Want and Other Stupid Mind Games; I Said I Don't Know; The Golden Circle of Ignorance; What Have You Done For Me Next?; The Power Strategy; Your Next Best Idea Is Everywhere; What Matters Most At 27 small chapters, you could easily work through this book once a month, with a few days left over to plan and contemplate the upcoming month. What a deal! Much of what Calloway writes about is becoming completely sold out to whatever you're doing. Learn as much as you can, decide you're going to be good at it, and then act. Many of the people I look up to in my personal and professional life are like that. It's as if they do their work and "show off" in the process. They bring their best to the table and use every bit of it without hesitation. When you think of "showing off" in that sense, you realize that it's not the negative that everyone normally connects with the phrase. It's the type of person I want to be when I show up each day. I especially enjoyed the writing style the book. Calloway doesn't pull punches and doesn't apologize for anything. I especially liked the chapter titled Whatever Happens Is Normal. Don't be surprised when your flight is delayed by snow in Chicago in January. That's what happens in Chicago in January! Instead, take a step back and alter your expectations. Maybe you can explore some shops in the airport, get caught up on some reading, or just be amused by all the other stressed out people. Yelling and screaming at the ticket agent isn't going to change the weather or alter your situation. If you learn to accept your situation as "normal", you can get past the emotions and experience something new and different... This is one of those books that will likely contain one or more ideas that will resonate and change your way of thinking about life. It definitely did with me, and I plan on carving out the two to five minutes each day to reinforce the material here. I think I'll be a much better person for doing so.

Show Off the Right Way

Joe Calloway writes like he's showing off, and that's a good thing because he's practicing what he's preaching in his latest book. I got to read the book in advance and provided an endorsement because I like Joe's witty, snappy writing style and, more importantly, his message. If you want to go beyond the mundane and work in a way that is fun and fulfilling, this book will show you how. Nobody has to do this stuff--this is for the folks who want to put more punch and pizazz into their work.

Good Advice and an Original Slant

First let me say: There is nothing I found in the content of Joe Calloway's "Work Like You're Showing Off!" that is original. Those readers who have read as many self-help motivational books as I have over the past five decades will be familiar with the themes presented and discussed. Those who have read such iconic works as Robert Collier's "The Secret of the Ages," Napoleon Hill's "Think and Get Rich," or Norman Vincent Peale's "The Power of Positive Thinking" will recognize and be acquainted with much of what Calloway offers in his book. So, why bother with "Work Like You're Showing Off"? A number of reasons come immediately to mind. First, Calloway's approach to the subject is somewhat different. He uses as a basis for his recommendations the concept of "showing off," an idea which is not explicitly promoted in the works by Collier, Hill, and Peale, nor do I recall any other author using such a concept as the starting point for a motivational book. Oh, I imagine one could argue that books such as those by Dr. Wayne Dyer or Robert Ringer or Willard and Marguerite Beecher use some "showing off" principles as a motivational and personal-growth device, but I don't think they're even remotely similar to the suggestions put forth by Calloway. Second, Calloway is to the point. That is, in a mere 109 pages and twenty-seven brief chapters he summarizes the major principles he is promoting. His book is more like a handbook of advice via aphorisms than a long, drawn-out psychological explanation and philosophical justification for what he is suggesting the reader do in his or her life for personal betterment. In fact, this book is so small, one can carry it around to consult as the need arises. Third, Calloway offers some very interesting twists to the usual presentation of motivational principles. And he does this with prose that is both easy to read and digest and often entertaining, although he doesn't pull any punches and can be rough and tough with the reader when appropriate. But then, he has more than twenty years of field work from which to draw. Fourth and finally, we all need a "kick-start" now and then, as well as a reminder about how we might want to act in order to achieve those goals we find so desirable. Calloway provides much advice that certainly ought to be considered. We often forget those most simple principles which can contribute to enhancing our career not only in the workplace, but in ordinary life as well. "Showing off," at least in the way defined and described by Calloway, is a good and positive affair. So, if you need to put some "zing" in your life, whether at the office or elsewhere, this just might be the book you want to read to help you out.