Alan Webber, co-founder of Fast Company magazine and author of “Rules of Thumb, 52 Truths for Winning at Business Without Losing Your Self”, says a lifetime of meeting and listening to people helped him become a successful innovator and leader.
To make sure you remember what folks tell you, in his book he suggests carrying a stack of 3x5 cards so you can write it all down and create your own 52 rules for succeeding in business and, Webber says, life.
Weber, 60, is based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and says he’s a “global detective” traveling, speaking and moderating conferences. The former editorial director of Harvard Business Review now serves on the board of several non-profits, including one helping indigenous groups in Tanzania, and is working on a new business to help solve social problems. Excerpts from the interview:
Levinson: Bookstore shelves are lined with these kinds of books. Do we really need another one?
Webber: I believe this is a different kind of book. Here’s what’s original about it. It’s a cross between a memoir and a how-to. I call it a mem-to. I didn’t set out to architect a new category. It’s kind of the way my brain works. It’s what I do, to see the cross-section of something. What this book does is to take 40 years of work experience, interesting human beings that I’ve worked for, with, 40 years of 3X5 cards that I carry with me and lessons that I’ve learned. I tell you how I learned it. It’s personal, it’s not abstract, it’s not theory, it’s grounded in real experience and from that I attempt to make the next leap which is ‘so if I were you, what would I make of it.’
