Jewish Wisdom for Business Success: Lessons from the Torah and Other Ancient Texts - Levi Brackman and Sam Jaffe

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[...] If enough copies of the book are sold, the authors are certainly likely to achieve their success in business the Jewish way Works Cited Brackman, Levi. “Jewish Wisdom for Business Success: Lessons from the Torah and Other Ancient Texts.” New York: Amacom, 2008. [...]

[...] Book Review: Jewish Wisdom for Business Success: Lessons from the Torah and Other Ancient Texts The book “Jewish Wisdom for Business Success: Lessons from the Torah and Other Ancient Texts”, by Levi Brackman and Sam Jaffe, is a business book that incorporates lessons from the Torah and other Jewish texts and applies the concept to success in business. Through a series of stories related to important Jewish passages, the authors give lessons about life, business, and achieving personal happiness. The authors suggest, throughout the book, that following certain principles (derived mostly from the Torah and Talmud), a reader will be more able to will him or herself to do something by stopping procrastination, relate better to people, improve negotiation skills, and derive more pleasure from achieving business success (pleasure that involves much more than just making money). [...]

[...] It does not account for the multitude of other variables that are likely to hinder business success and personal power, regardless of which Torah principles an individual is following. Certainly, the book tends to focus more on what sort of personality and outlook on life is necessary to achieve success in business, and it does not account for the complexities and fast pace of today's business environment. I would recommend the book as a good general overview of the sort of personal characteristics a person needs to be successful as a leader in business, but I would not say that the book is all encompassing and account for most of the aspects in today's business world. [...]

[...] Many of the lessons that were picked from the Torah can really be applied to any situation—not just business—and it seems like the concepts the authors are rehashing are often very obvious and too straightforward. Suggestions about how to remain optimistic (positive thinking), conquering fear and being unafraid of risk, and the negotiation techniques described (attempt to understand the other person's motive, etc) are very obvious to anyone who has done business even for a short time. Moreover, the book takes a very personal approach and seems to suggest that the business entrepreneur has an enormous amount of control over his or her environment—almost an unrealistic amount of control. [...]