Humilitas: A Lost Key to Life, Love, and Leadership : Book Summary - Essay Example

16 February Summary: The book I am interested in reviewing in this essay is titled “Humilitas: A Lost Key to Life, Love, and Leadership.” The thing that struck me the most about this book is that it takes readers on a journey to get familiar with humility on a whole new level. John Dickson is the author of this renowned book. Almost everybody knows that humility is a virtue which should be valued the most, but Dickson takes this basic idea and later explores it bit by bit in a very interesting manner.

One of the principal ideas promoted by John Dickson in his critically acclaimed book is that humility should be made the bedrock of life and all personal and professional relationships. According to the book, humility is seen when a person willingly holds “power in service of others” (Dickson 24). This is a very simple yet powerful definition with which everyone can easily relate. It is stressed that life, love, and leadership are three most important areas and it is impossible to accomplish anything in any of these areas if the virtue of humility is not conscientiously incorporated.

I found the book to be a really interesting read for people looking forward to expand their knowledge of leadership skills. This is because frequently examples of important historical figures are included by Dickson in the book to establish a very valuable principle which is that humility contributed a lot in advancing their success and reputation. The book claims that good-natured people more easily gain confidence of others than those who do not prioritize humility (Dickson 139). Clearly, the entire book is actually based on establishing the connection between humility and a person’s personal and professional dealings.

Dickson is also seen trying to reinforce the importance of humility by promoting this idea that there is much stress and tension witnessed in contemporary relationships because of the absence of humility which is actually a vital component of life. Focus in the book is concentrated on humility in contrast to present day dealings where focus is laid on oneself. The author works to help readers realize why genuine fulfillment is experienced very rarely in our relationships presently. This is because we do not place the virtue of humility very highly in our lives.

Despite many great points, one of the shortcomings of this book by Dickson is that it does not register this idea that the present times are marked by the factor of fierce competitiveness. I think that humility can sometimes also become an obstacle in the way of gaining a competitive edge over others. This is because in some scenarios, things can take bad turn for people if they think less of themselves. In such situations, others who think of themselves highly can easily surpass others who prize humility more.

Humility definitely helps a person gain more respect and reputation from others, but the author has not elaborated much on if it also plays a definite role in furthering one’s interests. However, this idea in the book is very precious that a culture of humility should be tried to be created in every organization because many problems can be resolved when people begin to think of others also. Work cited: Dickson, John. Humilitas: A Lost Key to Life, Love, and Leadership. Zondervan, 2011. Print.