This book should be required reading for anyone contemplating a future in business. The table of contents reads like a cookbook for success; How to set a goal and accomplish it, how to choose your timing, when to exercise power and many others, including my favorite, choosing a team for a high stakes mission.

The blend of business wisdom and international intrigue make for a quick and enjoyable read. I simply couldn't put it down.

Ned Webber

2 of 2 found the following review helpful:

Full of case studies for business schools  Jun 21, 2006
By Mahesh Hegade
This book is certainly 5 star.

If you love intelligence agency/spy agency stories and want to benefit from the insight of the people working there and take such insight into business, this book is tailor made for you. It takes away mental work we probably would have had to do thinking how I am going to translate all this real combat wisdom to day-to-day success.

Gerald Westerby is the pseudonym of the author. For obvious reasons, he could not use his name. People, from spy agencies, who have used their real names normally leave out a lot of sensitive stuff from their books. Such books go thru strict censorship. Recent book "man in the shadows" by ex-Mossad director Halevy belongs to that category. Totally watered down and blessed by government and his former employer.

The author who is said to have gone to become a famous businessman after retiring from active mossad duty knows how to write for people looking for stuff. The way book is organized itself makes a point or two about the fact that author seems to have become reasonably successful in business. Otherwise, he could not have written so well identifying parallels between his intelligence work and business.

The book is divided into three sections. They are - patience, preparation and persistence. These 3 are certainly necessary ingredients for success. Author narrates many real life scenarios that he was part of under each category. He uses many punch lines and anecdotes to drive home his point.

For example, the author was tasked to meet late Sudanese rebel leader John Garang. Mossad told him to look for an opportunity to meet Garang when Garang came to Europe. The author knowing that Garang never set foot outside of his stronghold in southern Sudan says "given that Garang had not left the Sudan in 20 years, the thought that we should wait until he was in Europe was a bit like waiting for global warming to cook your goose." Point made. Case rested. Author went to meet Garang right in Sudan right under the nose of authorities.

Some other points that author writes with passion which have disappeared from the radar of many managers include planning, silence and concentration. Everyone can do themselves a favor by planning a bit more, shutting their mouth little more and listening more and concentrating on thing at hand than attending to their bling-blings during meetings or while talking to people.

"Silence is golden" - author proves it beyond doubt when they were confronted in Saudi Arabia by an army officer. Even if they had uttered one word, they would have rotten in Saudi jails and died under most horrible conditions. They used presence of their minds and remained silent. Silence makes people uneasy and people use anything and everything to overcome the silence. The military officer who confronted these mossad agents asked them (on his own) if they were people from "National Geographic" and even helped them to transmit secret code out to Mossad. Beautiful story.

Being able to think on your feet is a very valuable quality. This does no mean that you have rush to answer but using this critical faculty is important. Once a Mossad agent was traveling with a fake German passport. It is usual for spy agencies to produce fake passports for their agents which are hard to differentiate. Although the passport was prepared meticulously, the person developing the cover story for the agent had made blunder. Instead of using full middle name, he had used only middle initial (letter H). It is customary for Germans (as mentioned in the book) to use their full middle name in legal docs. So, when this agent landed in some country, the immigration officer was kinda surprised to find a person with German passport with one letter initial than full middle name. He inquired about this apparent inconsistency. Mossad agent thought on his feet and made up a story. His story was that his middle name was "Hitler" and his parents did not want him to be troubled by that name. So, they had chosen to use only middle initial. Delivered with full confidence and convincing body language and immigration officer totally floored. If the initial were to be something else, he would have probably made some other story. This incident is not from this book but is very relevant. I think this one is from Gordon Thomas's "Gideon spies".

Great book. Really hard to find. Out of circulation. Used sell as high as USD 60.

4 of 5 found the following review helpful:

Every Once In a Great While, A SUPERB BOOK Like This Comes Along!  Aug 01, 2005
By Nathan Koch
I was completely blown away by the content of this book.

The lessons and time-tested, proven methods contained in this book are worth more than the price of attending a business seminar!

What's more, the wisdom culled from the no-holds-barred struggle to survive which tolerates no fakery needed and applied in the survival and eventual culmination in the formation of the state of Israel and it's battle proven, unparalleled, modern fighting force which has become the standard-bearer and the finest in the world -- overt, covert, and business is absolutely invaluable.

Check the International News or Business Headlines now and then. Wether you spot it or not, these techniques and methodologies are being applied in the real world -- where the price for failure is financial ruin or loss of life. Rest assured, these lessons are used often and to great effect.

This tome inculcates in a reader with an open, ready mind, a profoundly effective methodology and WAY OF THINKING which transcends mere trends and methods which, by their very nature, are limited to certain specific situations. To the contrary, ways of viewing, thinking, and processing which will all but ensure victory as far as is humanly possible, and sometimes seemingly beyond even that -- both in the boardroom and on the battlefield await the ready and apt pupil of this book.

Prepare your mind, Get this book and test its proven knowledge for yourself. A definite ***** (Five Star) Rating!

This Book Is Out-Of-Print, So Buy It While You Still Can. Because you'll surely regret it if you don't!

1 of 1 found the following review helpful:

Entertaining Novel  Jul 04, 2010
By Ron
Very entertaining account of various missions of spies. Similar to other spy books where you wonder how one guy gets all these great missions -- except that this book has really fabulous lessons on tactical behavior. Although most of the missions he wrote about were well re-created and obscure enough to maybe have happened roughly the way he writes, one alleged Mossad mission he wrote about was actually performed by a CIA agent during the evacuation of Embassy hostages in Iran and was written about in numerous other books. Well worth reading.

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