Hustad, 34, culled from every inspirational book she could find, talked to all kinds of experts and then penned this amusing, enlightening and funny book.

“Start paying attention to how you treat cashiers,” she says. “If you want to be successful in the long run, you need to start worrying more about other people. You need to not just treat them well and express interest in them but make up your mind that to the extent possible, whoever you’re talking to, whether it’s your boss or cab driver, will feel better after having encountered you than they did five minutes earlier.”

Advice Hustad wishes she had gotten when she was 22?
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The “milkshake moment” comes, Little says, when individuals decide they can do the right thing and serve the interest of others—rather than follow arcane internal rules that actually prevent them from serving their customers.

Those rules and procedures stifle creative thought and lead to legions of workers who see no connection between what they do and the overall purpose of their organization, he says.

“At least 80% of the employees I encounter appear to have no idea how their job fits into a grander sense of the organization’s purpose,” says Little.
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To fix it, they’ve created a results-only work environment they call, appropriately, ROWE. “If you can get your results in 20 hours a week— fine,” says Thompson, a mother of two. “If you do your best work at the beach— fine. ROWE isn’t about face time. It’s about well-defined goals and results, results, results.”

One of the things that plagues the corporate world is “sludge,” which Ressler and Thompson define as “any negative comment we make that serves to reinforce old ideas about how work gets done.”

A few examples:
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by Jennifer Valentine

For more than a decade, I had two demanding roles: one as the primary caregiver for my aging mother, the other managing a fast-paced data processing company.

My mother was a force of nature for 86 years. It was a challenge for both of us to handle the transition from independence to the ever-increasing need for assistance. I loved my mother, and it was an honor to care for her. She always let me know that she appreciated me.

I also loved my job. I worked for the company from its beginning and felt like it was my baby. I thrived on the challenges of managing and growing a business, working weekends and evenings, whatever it took to get the job done. I had every reason to think my employer appreciated my efforts as well.
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by Lara Hall
I started my career in recreational therapy, working with seniors with depression and anxiety at a day treatment program. I led sessions that focused on improving their quality of life through cooking groups, music, art and crafts.

Recreational therapy had been my dream since I was 12, after I heard a practitioner speak at a career day in junior high school. I had my career figured out. Or so I thought.

But immediately after graduating from the University of Utah, where I had a full scholarship, I realized the field didn’t pay well. My first job offer was for $8 an hour. Welcome to the real world!

No matter. I liked my job and loved the people I worked with. But it was emotionally exhausting to see elderly people who had lived good lives and were now desperately depressed.
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