Jako mladý podnikatel bojoval Christopher Flett tvrdě. Nyní napsal

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■ CAREERS WOMEN IN BUSINESS
ALPHA ADVICE
Jako mladý podnikatel bojoval Christopher Flett tvrdě. Nyní napsal příručku pro ženy, ve které si nebere žádné servítky. MARGARET DAVIS s ním o jeho knize hovořila.
“W
ant to move ahead, but the boss won’t
seem to let me/I swear sometimes, that
man is out to get me.” For many
women, Dolly Parton’s popular song
“Nine to Five” still rings true, 30 years after it was written. Male bosses continue to stand in the way of women
who are trying to get ahead in business. And even if
your boss isn’t “out to get you”, don’t you sometimes
feel he doesn’t understand you — and vice versa?
Now imagine that you have a brash but caring big
brother who is willing to tell you what men are saying
when you’re not around. That brother figure could be
Christopher Flett, the author of What Men Don’t Tell
Women About Business, a controversial new book of
advice for career women.
Just 34, the Canadian-born entrepreneur started his
first company when he was only 15. Since then, he has
founded seven businesses, each of them with annual
profits of over $1 million.
Flett describes himself as a “reformed alpha male”,
and this is where the trouble starts. There are lots of career books telling women how to deal with men in business, but most of these are written by women. Flett decided it was time for a man to tell women what alphamale bosses are really thinking.
Not surprisingly, the book has alienated some men,
who feel Flett has betrayed them. It has also infuriated
some women, who dislike the sometimes crude language he uses in the book. Business Week journalist
Jena McGregor described Flett in her blog as a “management shock jock” and said she couldn’t finish the
book. Flett defends himself by pointing out that women
need to know not just what men say, but how they say
CHRISTOPHER FLETT grew
up near Vancouver, British
Columbia. He started his
first successful business
while still a teenager. He
now works as a business
coach and speaker, primarily advising women (see his
website www.ghostceo.com).
What Men Don’t Tell Women
About Business is his first
book.
44 Business Spotlight
medium
it, no matter how unpleasant. Married, with a young
son, Flett says he is the son and husband of powerful
women. Despite his abrasive writing style, Flett is a quietly spoken, amusing interview partner. He spoke to
Business Spotlight from Miami, where he is working on
his next book.
What is a “reformed alpha male”?
An alpha male is the “great white hunter” of business.
He’s a person who goes out there and brings in the
deals, the one who’s excited about making money, and
is focused on showing other people what he can do. The
1980s movie Wall Street is about alpha males, guys who
are climbing over each other to get ahead. A reformed
alpha male is a man who can still be powerful in business, but who understands that he doesn’t need to destroy others in order to get ahead. About ten years ago,
I was the worst version of an alpha male. I used to
follow horrible business practices. I spent a good chunk
of my day trying to destroy competitors. I hired away
their key staff and underbid them on contracts to try to
bankrupt their companies. I did everything that you’d
see in the movies, and I learned from other aggressive
alpha males. I took a lot of pleasure in it, but then I
realized that this was not the way to do business, and
abrasive [ bresv]
alienate sb. [ eli net]
alpha male [ lf me l]
annual profit
[ nju l pr ft]
bankrupt sb.
[ b ŋkr pt]
betray sb. [b tre]
brash [br ]
business practice
[ bzn s pr kts]
chunk: a good ~ [t ŋk]
competitor [k m pett ]
contract [ k ntr kt]
crude [kru d]
entrepreneur
[ ntr pr n ]
infuriate sb. [n fjυ riet]
out to get: be ~~~ sb.
[ aυt t
et]
point sth. out [p nt aυt]
ring true [ rŋ tru ]
shock jock
[ k d k] US ifml.
underbid sb. [ nd bd]
vice versa [ vas v s ]
drsný, neomalený; zde: hrubý
znepřátelit si, ztratit něčí sympatie
„alfa samec“, dominantní muž
roční zisk
přivést někoho k bankrotu
zradit, podrazit
neomalený, troufalý
obchodní chování
většina
konkurent
smlouva
hrubý, vulgární
podnikatel
rozzuřit, naštvat
být na někoho vysazený,
zasednout si na někoho
poukázat na něco
znít věrohodně
rozhlasový moderátor, který překvapuje provokativními komentáři
nabízet méně (než konkurent)
obráceně
4/2008
44-48.qxd
18.7.2008
10:38
Str. 45
Isifa
Male bosses continue
to stand in the way
of women trying to get
ahead in business