Reinvention: How to Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life
By Brian Tracy
AMACOM, 2009
Thirteen years later, John Kotter’s assertion seems like an understatement. Change has been happening at an accelerated rate due to globalization, technology, and a worldwide recession. As a result, whole industries are being restructured and companies are downsizing or vanishing at an astonishing rate. Many people who have become inadvertent victims of change are transitioning and looking for new careers.
Author Brian Tracy stresses that change can be positive even if it is unintended; he cites a study of 300 people who transitioned into new careers in which all but one said the turning point was an unexpected job loss. Tracy even discusses his own numerous career changes; each time, he reinvented himself to succeed in new industries or businesses.
While losing a job can open one’s eyes to the need for change, Tracy repeatedly makes the point that one must have a plan in place. He uses two independent studies to drive home the point that written plans can lead to success; among MBA students at leading universities, only about 3 percent of students surveyed had written plans for what they wanted to do after graduation. In both studies, students with plans generated wealth that exceeded the other 97 percent combined.
Tracy methodically guides the reader through “Seven R’s” that he believes contribute to positive change in one’s life: reevaluating, rethinking, reorganizing, restructuring, reengineering, reinventing, and regaining control. He encourages readers to answer a series of questions that help them develop visions, goals, and action steps towards getting the lives and careers they really want.
Part motivational, part instructional, and part do-it-yourself, Reinvention promotes self reflection and thinking about what is possible. This book is a must read whether you are in transition or just want to develop a personal plan for the changing future. Take time out to absorb its message and begin discovering the paths to reinvention.
