Playing to Win

[Uhu]

I've just started reading this book by Karren Brady and I was wondering if anyone else has read it. She became the first female Managing Director of a football club (Birmingham City)at age 23. She refers to the book as the successful woman's game plan and in it she reveals how she has succeeded in an industry monopolised by men. She discusses the ten characteristics, as she views it, that are shared by all successful business women. She also uses quotes and experiences from a number of successful women whom she names in the book.

I've only started reading the book but the impression I get is that she is from the school that a woman can have it all: successful full time career, family, loving spouse etc etc. I'm interested to see if she adds the caveat that you need to have a huge salary to pay for all the nannies, cleaners, gardeners etc to make it all possible!

Cynism aside, so far I have found the book to be engaging and in between looking after my twin DSs (age 6 months), I'm hoping to finish reading it sometime this month.

Well, I finished reading this today and I have to say that towards the end, I found it a bit of a chore. It was interesting to read how the women highlighted had succeeded in their respective professions but I kept finding myself thinking "so what?". I have read numerous other accounts about how people have succeeded in business and I was hoping that this would provide me with new insights. Alas, that was not the case.

No doubt that Karren Brady and the others are remarkable in their own way but I would have been more interested to read about someone who really did start with nothing (ie. poor schooling, dysfunctional family etc) and had succeeded against all the odds to rise to the top. The only woman that I can think of like that is Oprah Winfrey. She really did start with nothing, her family was dirt poor and she is a black female (her being black is highly significant when you consider America's historical treatment of black people). I find her inspiring.