Main Ideas in Book by Tom Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr.

Chapter 14 in the Excellence book appears to simply discuss the idea of the growth of the individual. This chapter talks about how we as individuals must continue to learn throughout our lives and learn from our experiences. It discusses hard work and perseverance. Chapter 14 also discusses how society as a whole must come together to assist those in need. It states that we must help those who cannot achieve individualism on their own. These ideals I believe root from the perspective of the author.

Based on the quote on page 126 “It is not easy to tell young people how unpurposefully we learn,” it is safe to say that the author is an older person. This characteristic of the author allows him to write what he does about individualism. The author discusses how humans learn through their experiences and should never end their learning; he says this is what makes an individual. The author could only have this belief if he himself has lived a long life and had many personal experiences giving himself individualism. I also believe that the author is a strong believer in hard work and that he likely has experienced much hard work in his many years. This gives him the perspective to talk about how we must work hard for ourselves and for others who need our help. It is clear to me that the author is a generous and hard-working man that believes in the will of the people to work together for each other to create and individualistic society.

Chapter 17 of this reading is rather inspirational. To me the chapter read almost like a speech or a preaching in which the author’s goal was to inspire the people to support one another and believe in their country. The author does a very good job of explaining that a free society cannot survive without actively participating members, he explains that without obligations to one another free societies would crumble. Therefore we must all hold each other accountable to help one another and to help our country stay afloat. I believe that democracy will “win the day” as long as the democratic members do their duties in maintaining it. It seems that democracy is becoming more and more popular throughout the world and as long as the people support democracy it will prevail.

The most interesting part of this reading for me was the idea that citizens must support democracy for it to work. This was an idea never presented to me before and I find it to be true. If the people as a whole do not help one another or help the nation it is impossible that it will flourish or continue to grow, in fact the nation will inevitably fall. This new idea will hopefully always be present in my mind and help me to make decisions that will benefit my fellow citizens and my country.