Thinking for a Living: Creating Ideas That Revitalize Your Business, Career, and Life [Hardcover]

I simply LOVED this book! I cannot say enough about it. If I had to rate this book based on the number of stars in the sky, I'd still be about half shy.

I cannot tell you how many times I laughed out loud at the brillance of his ideas and was also touched by them. I cannot tell you how many quotes he has in the the book that have shaped me along the way, and of the people that he admires, I have also admired. This book has helped me to look at what I do and what is MY most valuable asset (my brain) in a refreshing way. AND the fact that God was the ribbon that tied it all together makes a very powerful and bold statement and it's one that I relate to very deeply.

Furthermore, this book has helped me to realize all over again something I already knew: that my ideas DO have value. It has demonstrated that ideas + determination + God = success. It has inspired me to go beyond the beyond in my thinking and get in touch with the 8 year old me (that Picasso talked about). He has put some FUN back into the art of thinking and this book has reaffirmed what I have always thought: I am on the right track with my thinking and believe in it.

I have already recommended this book to my graphic designer friends, and currently, one of my designer friends has this book on his desk and has read the first chapter. I INSISTED that he read it.

"Thinking for a Living" is extremely well researched and it comes directly from the heart. It's easy to read and just makes sense. We can all learn from this man's experience. Isn't that what it's all about anyway? Invest in yourself, invest in this book.

If you think about it, think carefully about it, this is an intriguing idea: Come up with terrific ideas and sell them for enormous sums of money. (That in itself is a terrific idea.) In reality, obviously, there are very few people who have the talent to “think for a living” as Reiman does. However, and this is the single greatest value of the book, literally everyone CAN learn from Reiman how to think more creatively in his or her career situation...and to think more creatively about how to improve that situation. Moreover, Reiman has some excellent insights into how to improve one’s mental and spiritual health. His values are unashamedly old-fashioned. He seems totally committed to his marriage and parenthood. He seems to have a deep and abiding faith in God. He clearly agrees with Joseph Campbell who once said that “The privilege of a lifetime is to be who you are.”

For the sake of discussion, let’s assume that you are unwilling and/or unable to make a total commitment to thinking as an occupation. I mean full-time occupation. Nevertheless, Reiman explains how his own experiences can help you to increase and enhance your creative (as opposed to analytical) skills, how to apply them more effectively to the responsibilities entrusted to your care. As Reiman observes, “As intellectual capital becomes of greater value to humankind than concrete capital, the world will experience dramatic changes....The measurement of success will be based on one’s ability to create from within one’s mind rather than outside. Idea rich will take the place of asset rich.” I presume to add that ideas are now (or will soon become) the most valuable of assets. That is what “I-commerce” is really all about and it has only begun to have an impact.

Here is a brief, revealing excerpt from the final chapter: “I hope this book, in some small way, plays a role in helping to create the environment in which compassion and prayer, wisdom and kindness, humility and grace become the most powerful, unstoppable big ideas for the next century. If they do, thinking for a living, in the broadest sense of thinking for a rich life, will enrich us all.”