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The Gumption of Mr. Toilet: Mobilizing the World to Effect Change
Amazing stories of gumption through the enterprising journeys of Mr Toilet
As technology rapidly replaces rote learning in education, Gumption becomes a critical skill in everyone's survival in the future.
This book demonstrates how you can use Gumption to leverage other people's assets and resources, and mobilise them into achieving common goals at exponential scale.
This story tell of how Jack Sim who was born poor and failed academically, became a successful serial entrepreneur and an ultra-successful serial social entrepreneur, changing the world by mobilising global movements. He also eventually became a professor with an Honorary Doctorate Degree.
This is a life-changing inspirational book that you will benefit abundantly while reading it.
As technology rapidly replaces rote learning in education, Gumption becomes a critical skill in everyone's survival in the future.
This book demonstrates how you can use Gumption to leverage other people's assets and resources, and mobilise them into achieving common goals at exponential scale.
This story tell of how Jack Sim who was born poor and failed academically, became a successful serial entrepreneur and an ultra-successful serial social entrepreneur, changing the world by mobilising global movements. He also eventually became a professor with an Honorary Doctorate Degree.
This is a life-changing inspirational book that you will benefit abundantly while reading it.
393 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 27, 2024
3 people are currently reading
42 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 16, 2024
This book is the autobiography of Jack Sim, a Singaporean born in 1957, who rose from being an unsuccessful student from a slum to become a successful businessperson and then made a dramatic shift to devote himself to social causes. He tried a few causes, for example, he volunteered with a suicide prevention hotline.
Then, he found his passion: clean toilets for all in Singapore and worldwide. What many people don’t know is that over a billion people still lack access to sanitation. As a result, among other unnecessary sadnesses, half a million children under age five die annually from diseases such as typhoid, diarrhea, and cholera.
The book begins with great stories of Jack’s mother’s inventive entrepreneurship, his father’s dedication to his job, even though it was low-paying and low-status, his grandmothers’ traditional Chinese stories about the triumph of those with strong values, and how Jack learned to believe in himself.
Each of the book’s many short chapters ends with one or more lessons that Jack learned from his experiences in business, in working to promote clean toilets for all, and more. His message is overwhelmingly positive, about always looking for allies, finding the good in others, establishing a reputation for honor and reliability, having the gumption to think big, and thinking long-term.
People were often surprised at how Mr Sim’s World Toilet Organization functioned with no staff. It was just Jack skillfully building partnerships. He used humor and other tools to capture media attention. In the process, he did thousands of interviews, appeared with famous people at famous events, even speaking to the UN General Assembly.
All this attention Jack received led some people to dismiss him as an ego maniac just out for personal fame. Jack sees it differently, and I agree with him. He addresses this on page 206:
My ego is a tool I must manage well and use for the greater good. The trick is to be aware of the ego and to come to terms with it as a healthy working partner. First, I had to remind myself daily, and as I matured, I was better able to manage my emotions in order to shorten the ‘ego’ enjoyment to a minimum, so that the mission remain paramount and higher than myself. I must say humility takes lots of practice, and I don’t always succeed.
On the next page, in the Lessons portion of the chapter, he summarizes, “Always remember your mission. Manage your ego.”
Here are a few more of Jack’s lessons and other ideas that I especially liked:
p. 76 – When you work in cohesive teams, you give each other courage to embark on new ideas and share risk.
p. 88 – A good way to cope with challenges is to help others who are in trouble. When you are able to give love to others, it heals you as well. When you focus on your own problems, you are miserable. When you help others, you feel useful and are full of joy.
p. ? – Every day is an opportunity to make the world a better place.
p. 290 – [We need] The ability to mobilize others into win-win alignments; the humility to let others shine.
Jack Sim is about so much more than toilets, although toilets are a huge and still unresolved problem. For example, he has also worked to enhance the financial well-being and health of migrant workers in Singapore and elsewhere.
I’m glad I read this book.
Then, he found his passion: clean toilets for all in Singapore and worldwide. What many people don’t know is that over a billion people still lack access to sanitation. As a result, among other unnecessary sadnesses, half a million children under age five die annually from diseases such as typhoid, diarrhea, and cholera.
The book begins with great stories of Jack’s mother’s inventive entrepreneurship, his father’s dedication to his job, even though it was low-paying and low-status, his grandmothers’ traditional Chinese stories about the triumph of those with strong values, and how Jack learned to believe in himself.
Each of the book’s many short chapters ends with one or more lessons that Jack learned from his experiences in business, in working to promote clean toilets for all, and more. His message is overwhelmingly positive, about always looking for allies, finding the good in others, establishing a reputation for honor and reliability, having the gumption to think big, and thinking long-term.
People were often surprised at how Mr Sim’s World Toilet Organization functioned with no staff. It was just Jack skillfully building partnerships. He used humor and other tools to capture media attention. In the process, he did thousands of interviews, appeared with famous people at famous events, even speaking to the UN General Assembly.
All this attention Jack received led some people to dismiss him as an ego maniac just out for personal fame. Jack sees it differently, and I agree with him. He addresses this on page 206:
My ego is a tool I must manage well and use for the greater good. The trick is to be aware of the ego and to come to terms with it as a healthy working partner. First, I had to remind myself daily, and as I matured, I was better able to manage my emotions in order to shorten the ‘ego’ enjoyment to a minimum, so that the mission remain paramount and higher than myself. I must say humility takes lots of practice, and I don’t always succeed.
On the next page, in the Lessons portion of the chapter, he summarizes, “Always remember your mission. Manage your ego.”
Here are a few more of Jack’s lessons and other ideas that I especially liked:
p. 76 – When you work in cohesive teams, you give each other courage to embark on new ideas and share risk.
p. 88 – A good way to cope with challenges is to help others who are in trouble. When you are able to give love to others, it heals you as well. When you focus on your own problems, you are miserable. When you help others, you feel useful and are full of joy.
p. ? – Every day is an opportunity to make the world a better place.
p. 290 – [We need] The ability to mobilize others into win-win alignments; the humility to let others shine.
Jack Sim is about so much more than toilets, although toilets are a huge and still unresolved problem. For example, he has also worked to enhance the financial well-being and health of migrant workers in Singapore and elsewhere.
I’m glad I read this book.
October 14, 2024
I learnt about the book when I listened to Jack Sim on a local podcast. While Mr Toilet was a character that I knew of, the work he’s done at WTO for toilet and sanitation everywhere, I was not familiar with the other entrepreneur works like the BoP Hub, and his contributions to so many social enterprise projects that have improved the lives of so many people.
Jack is such an under-rated character and an inspiration and his stories shared in this book is a treasure trove of wisdom and guide for lovers, learners and jokers everywhere.
Highly recommended.
Jack is such an under-rated character and an inspiration and his stories shared in this book is a treasure trove of wisdom and guide for lovers, learners and jokers everywhere.
Highly recommended.
April 24, 2025
"𝓗𝓮 𝔀𝓱𝓸 𝓬𝓸𝓷𝓺𝓾𝓮𝓻𝓼 𝓱𝓲𝓶𝓼𝓮𝓵𝓯 𝓲𝓼 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓶𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽𝓲𝓮𝓼𝓽 𝔀𝓪𝓻𝓻𝓲𝓸𝓻. "
Jack Sim simply proved we are all surrounded by resources and just need to pick our niche. The gumption of Mr. Toilet is not just his biography, but a glimpse of his life in pages with his personal pictures, he has given life to this beautiful ornament.
Inspiration is like falling snow, the moment it touches your skin, goosebumps arise, thrill runs inside your veins. The book gives us a peek at his great achievements and grounded personality. He uses humor to exemplify with certain anecdotes.
The writing is eliciting, with lessons extracted from his personal experiences. He's built an organization, World Toilet Organization(WTO), single handedly without any staff and has exemplary knowledge about zero leverage finances which he's used in his life to achieve the success he possesses.
He's a walking inspiration and a humble man who deeply loves his work passionately.He has set an example, age is just a number, you can study in 50's and try different things because we ourselves are the hindrances towards our goals.
Our self deprecating thoughts are the crocodiles waiting for you to enter the water for every fight of life. An absolutely entertaining and perspicacious read full of inspiring lessons to inculcate in life.
Jack Sim simply proved we are all surrounded by resources and just need to pick our niche. The gumption of Mr. Toilet is not just his biography, but a glimpse of his life in pages with his personal pictures, he has given life to this beautiful ornament.
Inspiration is like falling snow, the moment it touches your skin, goosebumps arise, thrill runs inside your veins. The book gives us a peek at his great achievements and grounded personality. He uses humor to exemplify with certain anecdotes.
The writing is eliciting, with lessons extracted from his personal experiences. He's built an organization, World Toilet Organization(WTO), single handedly without any staff and has exemplary knowledge about zero leverage finances which he's used in his life to achieve the success he possesses.
He's a walking inspiration and a humble man who deeply loves his work passionately.He has set an example, age is just a number, you can study in 50's and try different things because we ourselves are the hindrances towards our goals.
Our self deprecating thoughts are the crocodiles waiting for you to enter the water for every fight of life. An absolutely entertaining and perspicacious read full of inspiring lessons to inculcate in life.
February 3, 2025
Jack Sim is inspiring . This is his autobiography with cute life lessons. I think I should read his other book because I picked this wanting to read a book with more lessons on how to run a social entrepreneurship model and more detail about his brilliant sanitation work
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August 21, 2025Very intriguing and inspiring book full of tips, ideas and motivation for living a life that makes the world better for everyone.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews