The Power of One: Authentic Leadership in Turbulent Times

by Sharif M. Abdullah

Breaks through the feelings of despair, frustration and alienation we all share about the state of the world and demonstrates how just you alone can transform your neighborhood, workplace or society. By subverting the dominant paradigm of power and leadership, The Power of One shows you how to create a society based on love, compassion, and authenticity.

89 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Polly Trout · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read a lot of leadership books but this is the only one I've ever read that was SEXY. In fact, at 87 pages it was less like a book then a fantasy transcript of the best date ever, the kind where you stay up all night talking philosophy and politics until you are completely intoxicated with ideas. Here are some quotes from it. If you have any single guy friends who go around saying shit like this send them my way so we can start a revolution together.

"The authentic leader operates from a basis of love and compassion. This is the essence of true leadership. If a leader is motivated by love, his actions will be correct, no matter what he does. If a leader is motivated by something, anything, other than love, his actions will be incorrect and inappropriate, no matter how well thought out, logical, or based on fact."

"The authentic leader is fearless because she is dealing with her "stuff." She has clarified her values, her principles. She believes in what she struggles for. She places her principles as a priority in her life. She lives her principles. There aren't any "hooks" for anyone to jerk the authentic leader around...she cannot be provoked or threatened or co-opted."

"The person who is living within the truth doesn't care if others follow him. He marches to the beat of the different drummer. He does what he knows in his heart is right. He practices and models his values at all times. He acts fearlessly in the world. He has no enemies. Authentic leadership comes from the moral force of character, not control."

"My attempts at living an authentic life are subversive. Not in the sense of trying to bring down "The System" (I am learning to become indifferent to it) but in the sense that my decision to live an authentic life destabilizes and unsupports the "living within the lie" order, while supporting and nurturing "living within the truth."

"Never get arrested for anything you are not proud of."

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was originally published in 1991. I just read it and felt it still has great relevance. I am going to look for other, more recently written, books by this author.

[Jane Cawthorne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was looking for a quote and thought it might be in here. I started reading and went from start to finish. Yes, it is a wee bit dated now. My copy is 1995. But the message is still clear and valid, even if we would state it a little differently today. A big issue is that he puts the “ecological” crisis on equal footing with all of the other simultaneous crises. And, of course, we also have refined our ways of expressing all of the issues he describes, which one would hope so thirty years later. The big bummer is that we haven’t really changed in the intervening decades. We’ve been beating this drum a long time. His focus on compassion is beautiful and the quote I was looking for was about this very thing.

[CatherineAda Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Abdullah's first book is packed with wisdom for all of us, in 96 short and concise pages. We are all leaders in some way, and The Power of One illuminates and strengthens our abilities to be the best we can be. I read it over 20 years ago, and it is even more relevant in this present times.

[Brian Setzler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this book when it was originally published in 1991 and it still remains one of my top 5-10 books of all time. I've probably re-read the book a dozen times. This book is less than 90 pages with large print and can easily be read in a day. It contains a terrific overview of authentic and powerful leadership.

Sharif introduces some powerful concepts along the way such as mega-crisis and our general failure to solve them through available means. Accordingly, we need leadership to move us to a new paradigm.

I recently picked it up again and Sharif's analysis of our economic mess, written in 1991, could be used by the Occupy movement today.

Buy this book, I think you'll enjoy it and come back to it again and again.