The Art of Successful Living by Rainer Zitelmann is a wonderful and inspiring work that can be easily read and enjoyed along the way. It contains over 200 aphorisms and quotes from 2,500 years. The authors are classical philosophers as well as modern writers, successful entrepreneurs, personalities, scientists and artists. Because the author is convinced that all these people have something to teach us. The greatest philosophers and poets as well as important entrepreneurs, personalities and the well-known successful authors of the 20th century like Napoleon Hill or Dale Carnegie.
In selecting them, he paid less attention to who the aphorisms were from than to the fact that they conveyed something to us that would help us move forward. A philosophy that I also share and live by, because we can learn something from so many people and should not be stuck with just a few or even just one person. No one is perfect, but just about everyone has at least one subject area with above average knowledge, experience or passion.
"Some educated people will turn up their noses at the great philosopher Socrates standing next to a personality like Arnold Schwarzenegger. But that just shows how one-sided and narrow their idea of education and their wisdom about life are."
Rainer Zitelmann
Thematically, the book deals with both self-confidence and the ability to make decisions, to think and live healthily, and to cope with everyday problems.
Dieses Buch soll den Leserinnen und Lesern Anregungen geben, über sich selbst, ihr Leben und ihre Ziele nachzudenken. Sich schlicht zunächst bewusst zu werden, was sie sich wünschen, inwieweit sich die bisherige Situation und eingeschlagene Wege sich davon unterscheiden und welche kurz-, mittel- und langfristigen Hebel zur Verfügung stehen. Meiner Meinung nach werden die meisten Ziele im Leben schon allein deshalb nicht erreicht, weil man sich damit zu wenig auseinandersetzt und sie in einem viel zu frühen Stadium als unrealistisch einstuft oder schlicht aus den Augen verliert. Rainer Zitelmann versucht mit diesem Werk zu inspirieren, Mut und Kraft zu geben, sich auch mit schwierigen Situationen auseinanderzusetzen und nicht zu früh einzuknicken. Dabei ist es vor allem sehr praktisch aufgebaut. So endet jedes der Kapitel mit einer kurzen Zusammenfassung der wichtigsten Punkte und fügt sich am Ende zu einem 20-Wochen-Programm zusammen, dass die Leserinnen und Leser nach eigenem Ermessen nutzen können. Diese praktischen Anleitungen und Tipps sollen im alltäglichen Leben helfen, sowohl im Beruf als auch im privaten Umfeld.
So folgt es dem Ansatz von Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:
„Es ist nicht genug, zu wissen, man muss auch anwenden. Es ist nicht genug zu wollen, man muss auch tun.“
A saying that I can also only underline several times and even with the mass of over 500 devoured books do not lose sight of.
"My suggestions at the end of the chapters are not meant to be implemented by all of them. Take out what seems helpful to you for your own life. And: supplement my suggestions and questions with your own! The main thing is that they do not remain with the mere reading, but that they act." Rainer Zitelmann
The cover of the book says, quite appropriately, "He who knows all the answers has not asked all the questions." And there is a lot of wisdom in that. This is precisely what the author wants to unite in this publication: The wisdom from two millennia from Confucius to Steve Jobs. It is rounded off with the words that the meaning of life is not simply to exist or to survive. The meaning of life is also to appreciate, honor, preserve, and increase what is given, or as Rainer Zitelmann puts it, "to advance, to rise, to achieve, to conquer."
So the historian with a doctorate set out on a journey for us to find interesting sayings by well-known personalities and to analyze what we can learn from these great thinkers. Always with the focus on being able to derive something from them for our own success.
However, Rainer Zitelmann has not simply collected the quotes and aphorisms for us and carried them off. He has commented on them and always tried to derive a reference to our daily challenges and opportunities. Above all for professional life, but also for private life.
"Of course, both the selections and the comments are subjective - and intended to be. They reflect my insights and experiences gained as a historian, as a sociologist, as an entrepreneur and investor. Which is certainly a rather unusual combination. This may partly explain the unconventional compilation of personalities from whom the quotes are taken." Rainer Zitelmann
"A good aphorism is the wisdom of a whole book in one sentence," Theodor Fontane is said to have once written.
Ein sehr schön gestaltetes Werk, mit toller Message, einem sichtbaren Mehrwert und viel Know-how dahinter. Inhaltlich kann man aus dieser Publikation sehr viel mitnehmen und auch den Ansatz des 20-Wochen-Erfolgsprogramms finde ich richtig gut. Ich kann dieses Buch definitiv empfehlen und hatte große Freude beim Lesen und Durcharbeiten.