Review of Steve Farber's Greater Than Yourself

The GTY Principles Explained in a Unique Fashion

Apr 3, 2009 Paym Bergson

"Greater Than Yourself " by Steve Farber is not your average book. It isn't a self-help book, and it isn't quite a novel, but it certainly is a novel way to explain GTY.

Steve Farber is the president of Extreme Leadership, as well as being an accomplished speaker and consultant on how to lead. This is his third foray into the publishing world. His first national best seller was The Radical Leap [Kaplan Business, 2004] and was quickly followed by The Radical Edge [Kaplan Business, 2006] Greater Than Yourself promises to be even greater than his previous works.

Novel Style

Not quite a traditional self-help book, and not quite total fiction, Farber's book joins the ranks of The Peaceful Warrior and The Zen of Motorcycle Maintenance in creating an environment that entices the reader to think, analyze, and incorporate new ideas into general practice. It's both a novel in the sense of a book, and novel in its uniqueness. Parts of the story are true, but most of the characters are fictional. This genre allows Farber to draw in the reader to understand the principles of GTY as Farber himself comes to grips with it – rather than just a traditional set of "follow these steps to get from here to there". Sometimes the journey is better than the destination.

Basic GTY Principles

GTY is composed of three principles – Expand Yourself, Give Yourself and Replicate Yourself. No, this is not a sci-fi thriller of the Body Snatchers scenario, but a well accepted practice amongst true masters to students. Guide the students to go beyond themselves – let them replicate what you can offer, and encourage/guide them to take it further.

While most teachers/facilitators can accept this principle – most business-savvy people cannot, for business has within it the competitive edge, especially within North America. If you give your secrets away, you are no longer needed. The basic fear of most managers/employees is that the up-and-coming new guy will take away their own position. Many corporations fuel this fear by dismissing employees as "too old", "not with it", or "the company needs to attract a younger target, so just hire young".

Greater Than Yourself shows the potential and growth for those who shun this business stereotype. Of even greater interest though, is at the end, where Farber shares with readers the results of his encouragement of a GTY project with staff at Up With People.* One staff member shares the challenge, experiences, success and failure of their GTY projects in the book's epilogue. And again the uniqueness of the book shines through as each step on this first journey is documented.

The book ends with a section on "a framework for action" for the GTY principles of Expand Yourself, Give Yourself and Replicate Yourself – and yes, each is explained in detail.

Using Greater Than Yourself

Farber's Greater Than Yourself takes an unusual and unique approach to explaining its basic principles of Expand Yourself, Give Yourself and Replicate Yourself. It's an enjoyable read as well as being thought provoking; the reader is drawn into the principles through fiction and fact. By giving, you get so much more in return. So give yourself something – take the journey through Greater Than Yourself – and then take on a GTY project. Visit GreaterThanYourself to get a better of idea of how people are using it now, and how to use it yourself!

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* Up With People.org

Reference:

Farber, Steve. Greater Than Yourself. New York, USA: Doubleday Books, March 2009.

Book courtesy of FSB Associates

The copyright of the article Review of Steve Farber's Greater Than Yourself in Career Advice is owned by Paym Bergson. Permission to republish Review of Steve Farber's Greater Than Yourself in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Greater Than Yourself by Steve Farber

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