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Thanks to Sen. Mar Roxas and his Holiday Economics, I finally finished reading Leadership by Rudolph W. Giuliani today, June 9.† Yes, the author is the same Guiliani who was the mayor of New York City during the infamous 9-11 terrorist attacks.
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I don’t know if the book sold well.† Most probably not, for I bought it for only P199 at Power Books.† I found it among a pile of bargain items.
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It is not the longest book I have read, but it is a long book by any measure.† It also earned the distinction of being my longest book to complete in terms of elapsed days.† I started the book early April, meaning to complete it during the month to fulfill my self-imposed one-book-a-month rule.† It did not only last almost three times for me to complete.† It also completely wrecked havoc to my one-book-a-month rule.
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That’s okay.† It has been a very interesting book to say the least.† Of course, Giuliani included lots of facts and anecdotes from 9-11.† It is hugely the reason why I bought the book in the first place.† A city mayor, regardless if the city is New York, isn’t exactly the author I would seek if I am seeking to learn about leadership, wouldn’t I?† And I wasn’t disappointed, for the book took off with a blow-by-blow narrative of 9-11 (from Giuliani’s eye-witness account, that is) and ended with Post-9-11 facts-of-life in New York.† Along the way there have been a generous sprinkling of 9-11 snippets as well.
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How do I find Giuliani’s leadership principles?† Quite okay.† All time-proven, can’t-go-wrong principles.† Nothing fancy or faddish.† Hey, the guy is a hard-core Republican so what do I expect?
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All throughout the book I have not lost stock of the fact that Giuliani is a politician so the book is about leadership in the realm of politics.† The book is almost autobiographical, too, and it is clearly an attempt by Giuliani, whether consciously or subconsciously, to present his two terms as NY mayor in a good light.† That’s quite understandable so I wouldn’t take it against him.
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The book could have also been an ìacknowledgmentî section in its entirety, and I am quite impressed with Giuliani’s capacity to memorize thousands of names and thousands of other details from his two mayoral terms.† Maybe the deluge of names and details is what made the book relatively difficult to read.† You wouldn’t last more than 30 minutes in a single sitting with this book.
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I have already spent so much more time on this book that I am supposed to so I’ll stop here and lay it to rest.†
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I have decided on, and actually started with, my next book:† The Greatest Adventure by Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones.† The Greatest Adventure is a rare and lucky find and I got it for only P100 at Doulos, the floating library/bookstore, during its last stop in the Philippines before it will be decommissioned in 2010 .
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So much for conceptual/instructional books for now.† The Greatest Adventure promises a lot of true-to-life pure adventure.† I promised myself that I will include non-fiction, non-instructional books such as this in my reading schedule.† It will be my second adventure book this year, the first being Ark Fever by Robert Cornuke. #
Hi Susan. Thanks for your candid comment. I guess I have to agree with you. There are enough lessons in the book to be applied not just by politicians. Thanks also for reminding me about NYC’s famous crime reduction under Giuliani. It is a remarkable achievement. I believe somebody coined a term for it — the “Broken Window principle.” The “Broken Windown principle” and NYC’s case study were heavily mentioned in Malcolm Gladwell’s “Tipping Point.” Of course if you also read “Freakonomics” (Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner) you’ll end up wondering who is right or wrong, because Levitt and Dubner claim that it is the legalization of abortion, not the “Broken Window principle” that really contributed to the sudden drop in crime (and they have the numbers to prove it).
In hindsight, my “not so kind” review of Giuliani’s Leaderhip book may have been more about my frustration for taking too long to finish the book rather than an objective commentary on its substance.
hi bong! i also read guiliani’s leadership book. what struck me when i read it was how detail-oriented he is. i think that is why he stood out during 9/11 because while everyone’s heads (including the president’s) was still in a fog, he proved himself as a man of action. i also liked the portion where he described how he was able to cut crime in NYC. it started from something as simple as stopping vandalism and repairing broken street lights. today our leaders seem to be generous with motherhood statements and not so much on specific plans of action with clear timelines and well-defined tasking/targets. i think there are enough lessons in the book to be applied not just by politicians but of all kinds of people in their daily lives as well. just thought i’d offer my two centavos worth. thanks!