Walden for Hire: Business Lessons from Henry David Thoreau [Paperback]

'I taught what I thought was an experimental high school in the late 1970s. I had no idea that Henry had such ideas about education so long ago. Ken Lizotte makes Henry feel so interesting that it actually made me want to go back and read Walden, the very book that my English teacher tortured me with back in high school. I have never read a business book in my life. I have always been suspicious of businesspeople. Reading Henry's thoughts and ethical views give me new faith in the successful businessperson. I was taken by Henry's thought, 'The best business relationships are those that feel like friendships.' Such a great thought!''I would hire Henry David Thoreau. He was fastidious, trustworthy. Ralph Waldo Emerson trusted him to look after his household, wife, and children while he toured Europe. Thoreau opposed a textile-based economy reliant on slavery. He was superlatively ethical and uncompromising in this regard.''Ken Lizotte's Walden for Hire is a fascinating take on Henry David Thoreau never before explored in the hundreds of books about the famed denizen of Walden Pond already published: Thoreau the businessman. Why this oversight? Perhaps it was because those writing about Thoreau before Lizotte wanted to preserve his pristine and transcendentalist image. They viewed business as too crass--grubby, even--for someone so high-minded. Walden for Hire sees no such contradiction. In true Thoreauvian fashion, Lizotte offers a simple way to view business that is in full accord with the master's life and teachings: providing goods or services that are of value to others, thereby giving meaning to work.''Ken Lizotte's surprise-filled gem Walden for Hire highlights many fascinating features of Concord's unique Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau. Lizotte makes a most compelling case for Thoreau as America's premier polymath of the 19th Century. With captivating evidence, Lizotte confirms that Thoreau mastered everything he tried, and, amazingly, Polymath Henry trilS0