Surviving Your Serengeti by Stefan Swanepoel (Wiley) is a New York Times best selling book. When I first saw it, I figured it was just another business self-help book. Now, after reading it from cover to cover, I definitely do not feel this is the case.
Surviving Your Serengeti is a book that is meant to help the business person define and hone his or her skills in order to make better use of the skills necessary to successful business work. At the same time, it is an interesting fable that keeps the reader from becoming bored. In essence, this book reads like fiction while demonstrating truth and a "moral to the story."
Seven African animals (from the Serengeti) are held up as models for the business, and home, life of the individual. With a study of each animal's special skill (how it gets done what it must get done), a life lesson is brought out for the human being who is reading the book. At the end of each "animal chapter" is a summary of the skill and ways to maximize that skill in business and in personal life as well.
After studying each animal skill, I have to think that the animal to which I most closely relate is the giraffe, followed secondly by the mongoose. I am definitely NOT a crocodile.
I absolutely devoured this book - the story itself is well-written, informative, and just plain entertaining. I learned something about the Serengeti that I had previously not known. Since Mr. Swanepoel is African by birth (born in Kenya) and was brought up in Hong Kong and South Africa, he knows more than just a little about what he's teaching. He is also a successful businessman.
The lessons taught in Surviving Your Serengeti are solid and will give you food for thought, whether you are wanting guidance in your business life or whether you simply wish to manage the home in a better, more efficient way.
**I received a copy of Surviving Your Serengeti in exchange for my honest review of the book.**
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