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Work Like Your Showing Off!
A guide to creating joyful success in work and in life
What the world needs is more showoffs.
Showing off is a good thing. Showing off is a mindset. Showing off is about living life and doing work in a way that creates joy, jazz, and a kick in our lives and in the lives of those around us. This is a business book for almost everyone–from executives and managers to receptionists and sales clerks. Here’s the key: success is an inside job. After 26 years of studying and working with top performers, Joe Calloway shares the key factors in creating success–without pulling any punches. Work Like You’re Showing Off! isn’t for sissies; it’s a tough, realistic approach to getting the most out of life by giving more to others.
This book proves that not only is "working like you’re showing off" the smartest way to get ahead in a career, it’s also the most joyful and rewarding way to live.Work Like You're Showing Off! the absolute keys to personal and professional success including:
Never be as good as you're going to be What you think of me is none of my business Expect to connect Get back inside the box Grand stupidity and absurd bravery What have you done for me next?Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
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May 31, 2015Pretty quick read with some fun stories and things to think about. I ended up pulling a bunch of quotes from this one:
- You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough. –Joe E. Lewis
- The bottom line on how the world works most of the time is that the best way to get what you want is to be sure the other person is getting what they want. P5
- Some say that the advantage of experience is in knowing what works. But the great disadvantage of experience is the loss of the grand stupidity and absurd bravery that comes with not knowing what works, you’ll try anything. You’ll be to ignorant to play it safe. You’ll be ridiculous and audacious. You’ll discover all the new things that work. And you’ll have all the fun. P10
- There’s nothing wrong with making plans or having goals. They give you direction, motivation, and a sense of order, which are all good things. The potential problem with plans is that we can fall in love with the planning and never get to the doing. P10-11
- If life is good at anything, it’s good at throwing us curveballs. P11
- One of the most insidious traps we can fall into is the trap of wanting to be sure that everything’s going to work perfectly before we try it. We want to know exactly what the outcome is going to be before we make a move. That’s what freezes us. We want all the answers when the answers aren’t available. P11
- It’s not what we don’t know that hurts us. It’s what we know and don’t do that does the damage. P22
- You can change your life this moment. This very second you can say, “No more.” Take a long, hard look at what’s taking up too much space in your life. Do one significant thing about it. Do something that is so powerfully symbolic to yourself that you prove that you’re serious. Draw a line in the sand. P23
- Nothing demonstrates the essence of showing off, in the most positive sense of the phrase, than rock solid consistency. P25
- Top performers in any field or endeavor all have a strong propensity for action. It is the one essential first step. Go. Start. Do it now. Whatever it is you want to do, once you stop talking about doing it and actually start doing it, you will be amazed at what happens. You will start to experience the magic of people coming out of the woodwork to help you succeed. You will be floored at how circumstances seem to line up in your favor. P29
- With a willingness to take action comes a willingness to fail. When you take action, you’ll make mistakes. When you make mistakes, you fix them. Mistakes are seldom fatal. What is fatal is the failure to take action in a constantly moving world. Don’t avoid mistakes. Just be sure you avoid making the same mistakes twice. Learn from the mistakes. P29
- Inside every top performer is a better performer waiting to get out. The true spirit of showing off, in the best sense, is relentless improvement. P31
- If you feel absolutely comfortable with the way you do your work, then you’re probably coasting on past success and you’re not really serious about it. P33
- Dewitt Jones says, “There’s more than one right answer.” When you let go of believing that there’s only one right answers, you open the door to opportunity, innovation, solutions, and sometime even boundless joy. P35
- If you want to change the world, change your mind. P35
- In life, problems and setbacks are mandatory. Misery is optional. P36
- If you want one power mantra for your work and your life, try this one: “There is another way of looking at this.” P39
- I have a friend who believes that everyone is out to get him. Paranoia is his reality. Like most paranoid people, there’s one big weakness in his thinking. He’s really not that big a deal. People have way more important things to do than to spend their time plotting against him. P39
- Your view of the world is the only reality you have. Attitude, motivation, strategy, perception, style, personality, temperament, mood—they are literally our reality. Attitude is how you look at the world. If your attitude doesn’t work, let it go and get another one. P41
- Innovation comes from practice and the discipline of always having your mental antennae out for a new way to look at existing information. P52
- You don’t have to come up with completely new ideas to innovate. You simply learn to use an existing idea in a different context. P53
- Albert Einstein said, “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” P54
- An intersection in the Netherlands was made safer by removing all traffic signs/rules and the traffic regulated itself P54-55
- Your past success is probably the greatest enemy to your future success, because it can suck you into the black hole of thinking you know what works. P56-57
- Success is sometimes a lousy teacher. It can make you stop thinking. P57
- Perhaps my favorite pit of innovation wisdom comes from Thomas Edison, who said, “When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven’t.” To me, the message is simply to keep thinking. Keep trying Make mistakes; learn from them; and then apply what you’ve learned to the next idea. Mistakes won’t kill me. Complacently will. P58
- Buckle down and do the work you don’t want to do, especially if that work is what you’re weak in. It gets progressively easier and you get better the more you do it. P61
- Interestingly enough, the most common mistakes that I see people make is failing to improve what they’re already good at. P61
- Making meaningful connections is about doing small things with attention and intention. Attention means focusing on both the person and the task, working with care, and caring about the person who you’re doing it for. Intention means being there—really being there and not just going through the motions. P65-66
- To me, the best show-offs are people who are so smooth and understated at what they do that you hardly notice the, but you definitely notice the magic they created. Showing off is not about doing big things or being a superstar. Showing off is about small things done with attention and intention. P66
- Henry Drummond said, “Half the world is on the wrong scent in pursuit of happiness They thin it consists in having and getting, and in being served by others. On the contrary, it consists in giving, and in serving others.” P83
- Some people immediately thing that being happy must mean leaning a life of self-indulgent, meaningless, somehow destructive activity. It is odd to me that anyone would reach that conclusion. Most of the people I’ve known who lead a life of self-indulgence and shallow meaningless activity are, in face, usually not happy at all. The philosopher Wu Wei Wu said, “Why aren’t you happy? It’s because ninety-nine percent of everything you do, and think, and say, is for yourself.”
The happiest people I know are good, caring, wonderful people. The best people I know—the genuine show-offs among us, those who truly do make a contribution—are usually happy. They want goodness in life not just for themselves, but for others. They give a lot. Good people. Fulfilled. Happy. P88
- To me, a happy life mans a complete life. All of it. The painful as well as the joyful. P89
- “Life finds its purpose and fulfillment in the expansion of happiness. –Maharishi Mahesh Yogi p89
- Fundamental values don’t take up space that I need for new ideas for future success. They are the foundation on which that success will be built. P93
- I’ve spent way too much of my life trying to get other people to like me, approve of me, and accept me. It’s ludicrous. It’s a stupid waste of time. It’s even worse than a waste of time; it’s dangerously counterproductive. The Truth is that other people are too busy thinking about themselves to pay that much attention to me one way or another. The truth is that if I spend my time trying to make everybody else happy, then I’ll be emotionally empty and won’t be any fun to hang out with anyway. The truth is that if I d everything to get you to like me, then I’ll probably end up staring in the mirror and realizing that I don’t even like myself because of the whimpering wimp that I’ve become. P95
- The people that are, in fact, a pleasure to be around are the ones who have let go of what you think of them. They are likable because they like themselves. They aren’t arrogant, but they are sure of themselves. They can give love to others because they have a healthy self-love. You respect them because you know where they stand. They are the people who have given up worrying about whether or not they’re making you happy with everything they say or do. They focus on doing what makes them feel good about themselves. Not in a selfish way, but in a way that flows from values that count for much more than being popular.
It’s one of the most counterintuitive ideas around, but it’s true. The most loving people in the world don’t care what you think about them. They just care about you. There’s a difference. P96-97
- We have to learn to accept life on its own terms. Things aren’t the way they’re supposed to be. They are the way they are. The way you deal with it makes the difference. P100
- Most of the time, on this planet, bullying is a stupid and counterproductive way to go about getting what you want. It has the reverse effect. Bullying invites resistance. P103
- “The mind is its own place,
and it can make a heaven of hell,
or a hell of heaven.
-John Milton
- You don’t create stability by not changing what you’re doing. You create stability by being able to maintain your values while constantly changing to meet the needs of today, not yesterday. P110
- It’s not about knowing what’s going to happen next. It’s about being okay with knowing that whatever happens next, you can handle it. P110
- When most people say, “No way,” show-offs tend to say, “Why not?” p115
- You don’t have to choose between having strong core beliefs and being open to differing points of view. As a matter of fact, the stronger my core values and beliefs, the less threatened I am by differing points of view. I know who I am therefore I am anxious to listen to and talk with people who disagree with me. There’s no threat. And I might learn something. One of my favorite experiences is to listen to someone who has a completely different view of the world than me and have that completely energizing experience of “Wow. I never thought of it that way.” If I can let go of defending my own entrenched opinion long enough to listen to another viewpoint, I might actually learn something. P116-117
- How can you think or talk intelligently about the world if you refuse to even look at half of it? P117
- If you’ve made your life somebody else’s job, then you need to fire them from that position and take the job yourself. It’s liberation day. P125
- The very best and most effective ideas are often counterintuitive. P128
- The key is to understand the power of adaptive innovation. Great ideas seldom, if ever spring up from nothing. The best ideas usually come from seeing what works in one arena, then transferring it to a completely different arena. P129
- I think a great case can also be made that those who live their lives in alignment with their values do, in fact, achieve a greater degree of success over the long run. P138
- In business, we often make the fundamental mistake of thinking that for an idea to be professional, it’s got to be devoid of emotion. P141
- If you are grounded in what’s important, then you can act decisively. P141
- You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough. –Joe E. Lewis
- The bottom line on how the world works most of the time is that the best way to get what you want is to be sure the other person is getting what they want. P5
- Some say that the advantage of experience is in knowing what works. But the great disadvantage of experience is the loss of the grand stupidity and absurd bravery that comes with not knowing what works, you’ll try anything. You’ll be to ignorant to play it safe. You’ll be ridiculous and audacious. You’ll discover all the new things that work. And you’ll have all the fun. P10
- There’s nothing wrong with making plans or having goals. They give you direction, motivation, and a sense of order, which are all good things. The potential problem with plans is that we can fall in love with the planning and never get to the doing. P10-11
- If life is good at anything, it’s good at throwing us curveballs. P11
- One of the most insidious traps we can fall into is the trap of wanting to be sure that everything’s going to work perfectly before we try it. We want to know exactly what the outcome is going to be before we make a move. That’s what freezes us. We want all the answers when the answers aren’t available. P11
- It’s not what we don’t know that hurts us. It’s what we know and don’t do that does the damage. P22
- You can change your life this moment. This very second you can say, “No more.” Take a long, hard look at what’s taking up too much space in your life. Do one significant thing about it. Do something that is so powerfully symbolic to yourself that you prove that you’re serious. Draw a line in the sand. P23
- Nothing demonstrates the essence of showing off, in the most positive sense of the phrase, than rock solid consistency. P25
- Top performers in any field or endeavor all have a strong propensity for action. It is the one essential first step. Go. Start. Do it now. Whatever it is you want to do, once you stop talking about doing it and actually start doing it, you will be amazed at what happens. You will start to experience the magic of people coming out of the woodwork to help you succeed. You will be floored at how circumstances seem to line up in your favor. P29
- With a willingness to take action comes a willingness to fail. When you take action, you’ll make mistakes. When you make mistakes, you fix them. Mistakes are seldom fatal. What is fatal is the failure to take action in a constantly moving world. Don’t avoid mistakes. Just be sure you avoid making the same mistakes twice. Learn from the mistakes. P29
- Inside every top performer is a better performer waiting to get out. The true spirit of showing off, in the best sense, is relentless improvement. P31
- If you feel absolutely comfortable with the way you do your work, then you’re probably coasting on past success and you’re not really serious about it. P33
- Dewitt Jones says, “There’s more than one right answer.” When you let go of believing that there’s only one right answers, you open the door to opportunity, innovation, solutions, and sometime even boundless joy. P35
- If you want to change the world, change your mind. P35
- In life, problems and setbacks are mandatory. Misery is optional. P36
- If you want one power mantra for your work and your life, try this one: “There is another way of looking at this.” P39
- I have a friend who believes that everyone is out to get him. Paranoia is his reality. Like most paranoid people, there’s one big weakness in his thinking. He’s really not that big a deal. People have way more important things to do than to spend their time plotting against him. P39
- Your view of the world is the only reality you have. Attitude, motivation, strategy, perception, style, personality, temperament, mood—they are literally our reality. Attitude is how you look at the world. If your attitude doesn’t work, let it go and get another one. P41
- Innovation comes from practice and the discipline of always having your mental antennae out for a new way to look at existing information. P52
- You don’t have to come up with completely new ideas to innovate. You simply learn to use an existing idea in a different context. P53
- Albert Einstein said, “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” P54
- An intersection in the Netherlands was made safer by removing all traffic signs/rules and the traffic regulated itself P54-55
- Your past success is probably the greatest enemy to your future success, because it can suck you into the black hole of thinking you know what works. P56-57
- Success is sometimes a lousy teacher. It can make you stop thinking. P57
- Perhaps my favorite pit of innovation wisdom comes from Thomas Edison, who said, “When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven’t.” To me, the message is simply to keep thinking. Keep trying Make mistakes; learn from them; and then apply what you’ve learned to the next idea. Mistakes won’t kill me. Complacently will. P58
- Buckle down and do the work you don’t want to do, especially if that work is what you’re weak in. It gets progressively easier and you get better the more you do it. P61
- Interestingly enough, the most common mistakes that I see people make is failing to improve what they’re already good at. P61
- Making meaningful connections is about doing small things with attention and intention. Attention means focusing on both the person and the task, working with care, and caring about the person who you’re doing it for. Intention means being there—really being there and not just going through the motions. P65-66
- To me, the best show-offs are people who are so smooth and understated at what they do that you hardly notice the, but you definitely notice the magic they created. Showing off is not about doing big things or being a superstar. Showing off is about small things done with attention and intention. P66
- Henry Drummond said, “Half the world is on the wrong scent in pursuit of happiness They thin it consists in having and getting, and in being served by others. On the contrary, it consists in giving, and in serving others.” P83
- Some people immediately thing that being happy must mean leaning a life of self-indulgent, meaningless, somehow destructive activity. It is odd to me that anyone would reach that conclusion. Most of the people I’ve known who lead a life of self-indulgence and shallow meaningless activity are, in face, usually not happy at all. The philosopher Wu Wei Wu said, “Why aren’t you happy? It’s because ninety-nine percent of everything you do, and think, and say, is for yourself.”
The happiest people I know are good, caring, wonderful people. The best people I know—the genuine show-offs among us, those who truly do make a contribution—are usually happy. They want goodness in life not just for themselves, but for others. They give a lot. Good people. Fulfilled. Happy. P88
- To me, a happy life mans a complete life. All of it. The painful as well as the joyful. P89
- “Life finds its purpose and fulfillment in the expansion of happiness. –Maharishi Mahesh Yogi p89
- Fundamental values don’t take up space that I need for new ideas for future success. They are the foundation on which that success will be built. P93
- I’ve spent way too much of my life trying to get other people to like me, approve of me, and accept me. It’s ludicrous. It’s a stupid waste of time. It’s even worse than a waste of time; it’s dangerously counterproductive. The Truth is that other people are too busy thinking about themselves to pay that much attention to me one way or another. The truth is that if I spend my time trying to make everybody else happy, then I’ll be emotionally empty and won’t be any fun to hang out with anyway. The truth is that if I d everything to get you to like me, then I’ll probably end up staring in the mirror and realizing that I don’t even like myself because of the whimpering wimp that I’ve become. P95
- The people that are, in fact, a pleasure to be around are the ones who have let go of what you think of them. They are likable because they like themselves. They aren’t arrogant, but they are sure of themselves. They can give love to others because they have a healthy self-love. You respect them because you know where they stand. They are the people who have given up worrying about whether or not they’re making you happy with everything they say or do. They focus on doing what makes them feel good about themselves. Not in a selfish way, but in a way that flows from values that count for much more than being popular.
It’s one of the most counterintuitive ideas around, but it’s true. The most loving people in the world don’t care what you think about them. They just care about you. There’s a difference. P96-97
- We have to learn to accept life on its own terms. Things aren’t the way they’re supposed to be. They are the way they are. The way you deal with it makes the difference. P100
- Most of the time, on this planet, bullying is a stupid and counterproductive way to go about getting what you want. It has the reverse effect. Bullying invites resistance. P103
- “The mind is its own place,
and it can make a heaven of hell,
or a hell of heaven.
-John Milton
- You don’t create stability by not changing what you’re doing. You create stability by being able to maintain your values while constantly changing to meet the needs of today, not yesterday. P110
- It’s not about knowing what’s going to happen next. It’s about being okay with knowing that whatever happens next, you can handle it. P110
- When most people say, “No way,” show-offs tend to say, “Why not?” p115
- You don’t have to choose between having strong core beliefs and being open to differing points of view. As a matter of fact, the stronger my core values and beliefs, the less threatened I am by differing points of view. I know who I am therefore I am anxious to listen to and talk with people who disagree with me. There’s no threat. And I might learn something. One of my favorite experiences is to listen to someone who has a completely different view of the world than me and have that completely energizing experience of “Wow. I never thought of it that way.” If I can let go of defending my own entrenched opinion long enough to listen to another viewpoint, I might actually learn something. P116-117
- How can you think or talk intelligently about the world if you refuse to even look at half of it? P117
- If you’ve made your life somebody else’s job, then you need to fire them from that position and take the job yourself. It’s liberation day. P125
- The very best and most effective ideas are often counterintuitive. P128
- The key is to understand the power of adaptive innovation. Great ideas seldom, if ever spring up from nothing. The best ideas usually come from seeing what works in one arena, then transferring it to a completely different arena. P129
- I think a great case can also be made that those who live their lives in alignment with their values do, in fact, achieve a greater degree of success over the long run. P138
- In business, we often make the fundamental mistake of thinking that for an idea to be professional, it’s got to be devoid of emotion. P141
- If you are grounded in what’s important, then you can act decisively. P141
April 13, 2020
Overall it's a good one. Has some really good advices but it gets a little too repetitive at points. Definitely gonna follow these advices and I agree with Joe when he said "Let's be too much". One important idea of this book that many might get wrong is that by advising to be "show offs" Joe isn't telling us to be that in traditional way. Rather, being the best at what we do and following certain steps, we all can be show offs that others aspire.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 4, 2020
This book worth reading. I learned a few things from the book that I am going to follow the rest of my life. I would recommend it. It is very small book and can be read during 15 lunch breaks along with your lunch.
September 4, 2018
Quite enjoyed a journey of reading this book. It gave various perspective of looking at things differently. Decided to set as an one of my favorite books in my bookshelf ^^
February 25, 2014
Half stars would be helpful; I liked this book 3.5 stars much. The style is easy, conversational, almost to a fault at first if you're accustomed to meatier books in the genre, but it does exactly what it intends I think. Work Like You're Showing Off: The Joy, Jazz, and Kick of Being Better Tomorrow Than You Were Today reads like Cliff Notes for John Maxwell, Napoleon Hill, David Schwartz, Dale Carnegie, Frank Bettger, etc. I thought it only got better as it went along, and as with all good books in the genre, I was reminded of several areas I already knew I needed to work on, and one or two I'd forgotten about. It's a good refresher for motivational readers, and a good entry point for beginners.
April 27, 2009
Motivational guide to being your best
Joe Calloway encourages you to pull out all stops and become the best at what you do, a real show-off. Most of his material, which is drawn from his inspirational lectures, is amped-up common sense: Don’t promise more than you can deliver; figure out how to do what you already do better. He provides useful, though time-worn, advice. Calloway finds inspiration in the most unlikely places, such as watching a diligent barista at a mall coffee shop, and presents readers with brief, easy lessons. Each item gives you a little something to chew on and urges you toward a better self. getAbstract recommends this book for a quick shot of positive thinking, small but mighty in its inspirational punch.
Joe Calloway encourages you to pull out all stops and become the best at what you do, a real show-off. Most of his material, which is drawn from his inspirational lectures, is amped-up common sense: Don’t promise more than you can deliver; figure out how to do what you already do better. He provides useful, though time-worn, advice. Calloway finds inspiration in the most unlikely places, such as watching a diligent barista at a mall coffee shop, and presents readers with brief, easy lessons. Each item gives you a little something to chew on and urges you toward a better self. getAbstract recommends this book for a quick shot of positive thinking, small but mighty in its inspirational punch.
April 2, 2012
My first impression about the book is: ‘Wow, it has attractive title!’ As I go through the book, I realized that the meaning of ‘Showing Off’ in the title is not simply you brag about yourself, but you ‘brag’ with your skills and achievements. Nowadays, any employee at any position is required not only to fit in, but also stand out. It takes passion, enthusiasm, enjoyment, as well as continuously improving your knowledge and maintaining positive mindset. I think the points described in the book will help you to perform the most of you (means, the excellent version) in any task given, whether it big or small. And when you did, appreciation and recognition will follow. I recommend this book for any working-people out there who wants to go out of mediocrity.
January 7, 2009
It's a quick read. I didn't come away with any profound insights, but it puts a lot of good suggestions into practice. I liked the anecdotes and examples. The author has an easy writing style.
September 24, 2012
short sweet crisp and serious.
September 23, 2015
Excellent Book. Give me a motivation and energy while working during my fresh grad year.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews