Business Related Book

¶ … Filling the Glass: The Skeptic's Guide to Positive Thinking in Business" by Barry Maher For years, the world of business and commerce have been immersed and introduced with books that deal on quality management and effectiveness as an employee or member of the business environment. These self-help books often deal with the dichotomy of 'half-full' and 'half-empty' perspective philosophy. This old tradition of dealing with managerial (business or non-business related) is broken by the book, "Filling the Glass: The Skeptic's Guide to Positive Thinking in Business" by Barry Maher.

Maher offers whole new way of looking into the problems and dilemmas that people commonly encounter in the business and management world.

One of the most important philosophies that the book subsists to is the following statement from Maher's discussion of 'filling the glass' and destroying the old dichotomy rule of "half-empty' and 'half-full' glass of water" philosophy: "the person I want to hire and the person who will ultimately be more successful and more valuable to his company, his family, his society and himself is the one who takes a look at that glass and is concerned, not with whether it's half empty or half fill, but with figuring out how to fill it up..

And that's what the strategies in this book are all about: taking that half full or half empty glass and filling it..." Maher's positivist and active stance on how people can effectively accomplish their tasks is best illustrated in the guidelines and tips that he provides for his readers in the book. The book is an easy read because of the author's conversationalist tone and realistic way in which he portrays the problems encountered by people in the business and management field.

Maher also wants to show flexibility in the 'reach,' or market that he targets for his book, that is, "Filling the Glass" is not only for business people, but for non-business people as well, who have the task of managing properly a non-business (religious) organization, such as in Norma Landy's case. Maher explores the new methods in which people can effectively become 'masters of their own' while effectively contributing to the organization's objectives and goals.

By keeping in mind the 'filling the glass' philosophy, Maher illustrates in his book how human resource development and results-oriented management are ideal concepts in order to create a favorable atmosphere within an organization and a considerable performance for the individual. Take as an example the character of Ron Campbell that he uses in the book. His dilemma of selling the company's (he works for) products and meeting the quota for a limited period of time created in him a negative perspective, making him want to quit his job.

Maher's 'filling the glass' philosophy has helped Ron realize that he must "overcome his adversity," which is his distrust and lack of belief in the company's products. After changing his perspective by looking into the beneficial and positive aspects of his product while considering its limitations as well, that is, being honest with the capabilities and limitations of the products that he sells, Ron was able.