How to Hit a Curveball: Confront and Overcome the Unexpected in Business

By Scott R. Singer

Book Overview

Investment banker Scott R. Singer learned the hard way that the ability to confront and overcome the unexpected is the most important skill a businessperson can develop. No matter how smart or experienced they are, unanticipated changes can knock anyone off guard. So it's not enough to be a good fastball hitter - they have to get great at hitting curveballs. This fun yet practical book can help anyone avoid striking out in both their business and personal lives.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1591843103
• ISBN13: 9781591843108
• Release Date: April 2010
• Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.91 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.0" x 6.3"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

Hit it!

Instructional books on how to succeed in business and in life are often best explained with paradigms, which explain things to us in terms we can easily understand. Scott R. Singer's book, //How To Hit A Curveball//, based on the paradigm of the baseball, is no exception. It takes on the game as a way of looking, explaining, and understanding things. With this useful paradigm, he enables us to take action, as he had, on how to confront and overcome the unexpected in business, and in life--the curveball, so to speak. Singer came through this paradigm from his efforts to regain his life. He tried different things, and discovered connections and similarities underlying the currents of different paradigms flowing towards all sorts of directions, but watching a baseball game prompted him to consider a baseball related paradigm. If we are to subscribe to Singer's paradigm, we have to agree to one of his premises--that being talented makes you a star, that is, in the past. Today, it only makes you a "phenom"--someone with potential. To become a success today, a proven long-term winner, Singer says you need to confront and regularly overcome the unexpected: you need to learn how to hit a curveball. He has since recovered from his strikeouts, and has hit some curveballs. And now, in this book, Singer shares his baseball paradigm. Go read this book and hit some curveballs. Reviewed by Dominique James

Shouldn't be missed for the fast thinking businessman

Be prepared for the worst while expecting the best. "How to Hit a Curveball: Confront and Overcome the Unexpected in Business" is a guide for business leaders in dealing with the many challenges that come when life doesn't go according to plan. Scott R. Singe, investment banker, uses his own experiences to encourage business leaders to think on their feet and be prepared for the random changes life likes to throw at them. "How to Hit a Curveball" is a valuable guide that shouldn't be missed for the fast thinking businessman.

Great book for overcoming adversity

I review about 10 books a month for a column I write called "World's Best Business Books." I look for books that are substantive, relate to people on a real world basis, provide insights into new opportunities, inspire and make the reader look at things from a different perspective. What I liked about this book was that it showed how fragile even the best and brightest are, but how they overcame their fears and failures to become more successful. Unfortunately you learn more from failure than success and Scott provides great examples of people that have learned valuable lessons from small and large disasters, including his own, in order to push themselves to be better and happier. Everyone is so busy that finding a book that motivates, inspires, and teaches that can be read in a cross country flight is a great investment.

Informative, Easy to Read and Absorb, And TIMELY

I just want to thank Mr. Singer (and Mr. Levine) for writing a book that has helped ground me in these turbulent and uncertain economic times. My livelihood and professional options have been effected by the mire our economy is now in, and this book has supplied practical and invaluable advice in terms of successfully planning sound strategies to confront an uncertain future. This future will definitely supply as many "curveballs" as it has in recent years, and after reading this book I feel like I've gotten some of the best coaching out there. I would also say one does not have to be a fan of baseball to connect to the advice and strategies the authors describe. The clarity of writing and thought make it easily accessible to everyone.

Hit the Curveballs, Succeed in Business

I'm not really a baseball fan, but I love the concept of hitting curveballs in business (and life). You can be smart, knowledgeable, and experienced and still be shocked by a curveball. How we handle curveballs in business and life says a lot about character, creativity, and passion. Singer gives insightful advice and stories that both small business owners and big business executives can learn from about how to step up to the plate, stop worrying about how you got there, and start thinking about what you are going to do. Because, as Singer points out, "in the end, that's really all you can control." With a Table of Contents that leans heavily on baseball metaphors (think innings, not chapters), sports fans will be singing, "Take me out the ballgame." Even if you're not a big baseball fan, you will enjoy as you read: Spring Training: The Secret to Making the Majors The First Inning: Step Up to the Plate The Second Inning: Be the Batter, Not the Ball The Third Inning: Keep Your Eye on the Ball The Fourth Inning: Listen to Your Coach The Fifth Inning: Step Outside the Batter's Box The Sixth Inning: Wait for Your Pitch The Seventh Inning: Become a Home Run Hitter The Eighth Inning: Fill Out Your Lineup The Ninth Inning: Outside the Ballpark An Extra Inning: Yet Another Curveball And here's my confession: I have insider information. I know Scott personally and have watched him advise others on how to deal with curveballs, as well as hit his own curveballs out of the park. And he does it with insight, grace, and style to emulate.