Book: Myself and Other More Important Matters

by Charles Handy

Myself and Other More Important Matters is an autobiographical book by British business and management guru and author Charles Handy.

Handy's impressive CV includes co-founding and teaching at the London School of Business, a stint as Warden of St George's House, Windsor Castle, nine years working in Shell Oil Asia and many years of writing, broadcasting and speaking.

One of the things that makes this book impressive is the humility with which Handy paints the events of his life, to the point where the reader might wonder exactly how he achieved some of these accomplishments. Moreover such humility allows Handy to tell the stories of both failures and successes, times of great enjoyment and times of immense frustration, and his own path to finding enjoying, fulfillment and a sense of vocation in what he does.

In an entertaining example of failure, during his time working for Shell Oil in Borneo Handy had the great idea to install large petrol tanks at busy locations along the sides of a major river in order to reduce the inefficiencies caused by numerous small boat runs delivering small amounts of fuel. A great idea, but Handy later found he had failed to account for two things:

1. He was first investigating the river during the tropical rainy season, when levels were very high, and
2. Local suppliers would certainly not point out problems that made this a bad idea if it meant losing business.

Come dry season, the large tanks were stranded high and dry, well away from the river waters and any ability to replenish them. River commerce carried on further down the river banks, well away from the tanks, as it had for many dry seasons before and after. The tanks were a write-off.

On satisfaction and frustration in work, Handy offers valuable insight when describing several crossroads in his life: the decision to leave Shell Oil after nine years, spending time at MIT followed by the move into education and writing, and his time spent as Warden of St George's House. Frustrated and dissatisfied at Shell Oil despite excellent income, Handy instead moved into economics, then business studies at MIT, then co-founded the London School of Business upon seeing the lack of any equivalent education in Britain.

Increasingly focussed on communication and education, the move to St George's House meant minimal monetary gains but the opportunity to lead a place "where serious people - from all walks of life and holding diverse opinions - can come together to discuss serious issues seriously."

One of Handy's ideas that has become very commonplace these days is the Portfolio Lifestyle, a mixture of consulting, speaking, writing, or other such components a person might use to replace their full-time career. The autobiography is interesting in charting Handy's own road to such a lifestyle, including some of the potential pitfalls and difficulties.

Overall, Myself and Other More Important Matters an enjoyable, human and though-provoking book. Perhaps Handy's tendency to focus a lot on other more important matters at the expense of himself means this is not so much a book for anyone wanting a "how to be like x" book such that fill many a business section; rather, this is more a case of seeing the world through Handy's eyes.