“Forget About Today” by Jon Friedman

 “Forget About Today” by Jon Friedman (A Perigee Book published by the Penguin Group, New York, August 2012, $15.00).  A self-help book about the music and genius of Bob Dylan.  Who would have thought that this would be the basis for a book by a business author who writes and blogs for a variety of business related publications?

I received the book in the mail from Amazon.com on Monday, August 27 and finished it Wednesday evening, August 29.  It helped that I had time because of a cross country trip by bus and plane but the book is that good.  It is worth reading.

Its subtitle is, “Bob Dylan’s genius For (Re)Invention, Shunning the Naysayers, and Crating a Personal Revolution.”  What more can I say.  That really describes the book.  In chapter after worshipful chapter Friedman praises Dylan’s ability to keep working, to rise against boredom, to ignore advice when his instincts say otherwise, to collaborate, to not look back, and to live beyond the expectations of others.

Friedman keeps going back to several Dylan decisions—to walk off the Ed Sullivan Show when asked not to do a certain song, to go electric when he saw the leveling off of folk music, to refuse to become a dissident leader, to continue the “Never Ending Tour” in venues which are much smaller than what most Rock stars desire, and to refuse dozens and dozens of interviews.  In fact, Dylan even refused to talk to Friedman as Friedman prepared this book.  However, Friedman quotes extensively from Dylan’s books, music, friends and co-workers.

I loved the book except for one chapter in which Friedman bows to our world’s insistence on throwing in some four letter words.  The quotes in that unfortunate chapter, even if they are true and accurate, would be better left unreported. They detract from the author’s point.

I suspect that famous self-help gurus will recommend this book or recommend that people spend time emulating Bob Dylan.  It couldn’t hurt!