The Big Moo

I received my copy of The Big Moo yesterday afternoon and promptly read it last night while on my TreadClimber — yes, it can be read in as little as an hour.

The first page immediately grabs your attention:

You are not a cog.
You are not ordinary.
In fact, you are remarkable.

The Big Moo is a collection of stories and essays by 33 great businesspeople all focused around the general idea of being remarkable.  You will find pieces by Malcolm Gladwell, Tom Peters, Seth Godin, and Mark Cuban to name a few.  However, you will not necessarily know who wrote each piece because there is no indication in order to make the book flow:

You’ll notice that the individual contributions aren’t credited.  Pretty unusual, perhaps even remarkable.  We did it because it makes it easier to read the book as a whole, to avoid being interrupted by the noise your brain makes as it shifts gears from one voice to another.  That and it lets you guess who wrote what.

Quite frankly, if you frequently read the books, magazine article, and/or blogs of any of the authors, you can probably figure out who wrote what — certain pieces will jump out at you, while certain pieces you can guess at when you read it for the second time (yes, it’s that good and you should read it a second time; I did and I’m about to read it for a 3rd time).

There are some benefits beyond just the content in the book that should make you want to race out the door right and buy it:

1. All royalties from every author will go to 3 charities — The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, The Acumen Fund, and Room to Read.
2. The book is an open license.  What’s that mean?  You can photocopy out as many pages as you want and hand them to anyone you want.  Found one story that’s particular meaningful to your company?  Send copies to everyone, royalty free.

Most of all you should read the book because you want to be remarkable.  There is no magic bullet in the book.  You will not finish the book and tear out worksheets at the end that allow you to checklist your way to becoming remarkable.  You will understand what remarkable is and through the stories you will find your own way to get there.  Additionally, you will feel a great sense of urgency to be remarkable that is conveyed by every author; you will want to get out and be remarkable RIGHT NOW.

Remember, that you are not a cog.  It’s no longer ok to wait until that guy retires so that you can get his job and do something cool; you need to be remarkable right this second.  As Seth Godin says in the book:

Musical chairs takes a long time to win if you have a lot of chairs.

You’re not playing musical chairs are you?