If ever there were two categories of literature that need updating, they are the fable and the business advice book.
The fable
has remained pretty much the same since the time of Aesop in the 6th century BC: a short, didactic story, usually involving animals,
with a simple moral.
The business advice book typically consists of one or two ideas padded out to at least 200 pages and including
some number (5 or 7 or 12 or whatever) of arbitrary factors that the author asserts are all you need to succeed in business.
And
people buy this stuff! In bestseller quantities!
Apparently there is something in human nature that wants to believe that there
are simple instructions for success that will work every time – despite ample evidence to the contrary.
A. Hamilton Augenblecq
takes issue with this reductive impulse in his groundbreaking (and modestly titled) book 5 Fabulous Business Fables.
To purchase and download the fables, go to the
