Honest Thief

The book The Honest Thief contains what has been learnt, taken, copied … any intelligently acquired knowledge. It is not only the oldest form of theft, but also the most honest.

In order to reach our goals we should become 'thieves'. We should learn what to 'steal' and how to steal it. In this book I will provide you with insights and practical tools to enable you to better organize your daily activities and, for the master thief, to attain any goal. I will not focus on the goal itself, but on how to get there.

What I can offer you is a travel guide, one that will take you on the trip of a lifetime. It is up to you to decide what the destination will be and whether or not it will be an interesting and exciting journey. Obviously, without a destination, a map and travel information you will never arrive. You cannot leave things to chance either. For the traveler who has a destination and some idea of the kind of trip he is going to set out on, a travel guide is simply indispensable.

My management training, my work, my urge to fathom the how and why of 'reaching a goal' in a practical sense, for myself, but also for others, plus my experience of life have inspired me to write the book which is now in front of you.

A confession made by Pablo Picasso, an honest master thief and an exceptional traveler in the world of art, reveals the secret to his successful journey in only a few words: "A good artist copies…, a very good one steals." This motto says all but at the same time nothing about the honest thief. All, because it indicates that 'intelligent' imitation is a prerequisite for successfully reaching our goals. Nothing, because it does not tell you 'how'. I believe that 'smart' copying and the 'how to' can be learned.

Man was born to live, not to prepare himself for living. Boris Pasternak

In this book I present logical arguments and pieces of wisdom which are relevant to the practical traveler in such a way that you can make them yours. This is not new information, as much was honestly stolen for you, honestly copied from various guidebooks and the travel tales of previous explorers.

An ancient Chinese proverb says: 'A good traveler is someone who does not know where he is going, a perfect traveler does not know where he comes from'. This aphorism is particularly apt for the travel stories of the honest thief. It shows that the 'good' traveler is curious, or rather: inquisitive. This type of traveler should be able to imagine a world entirely different from his own. How it differs is what he should want to find out. He has some idea of it and then simply sets out. It is the wish to discover that moves him. He sets out from a specific point and with a more or less vague concept of his destination. How different that is from heading for the same vacation spot year after year! For that you no longer need a travel guide, but a cruise control!

The perfect traveler has the same qualities and the same urge as the good traveler, but he differs in that he lacks a starting point. The perfect traveler hardly ever reaches a destination nor does he live in a brick house. He is always on his way. That is why the perfect traveler does not exist. The perfect traveler cannot be the perfect traveler if he would not do anything else but travel.

If you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else. Dr. Laurence J. Peter

I suspect you are thinking: 'What does it matter whether you have acquired the designation 'good' or 'perfect?' It was and is the trip that counts'. Quite true. It is not perfection that we aim for. What's more, perfection would be extremely boring. It would boil down to a world full of little Cindy Crawfords and steak every day. However, if we want to improve on our amateur status, we need to aim for near-perfection. More attention should be paid to 'how' and less to 'how not to'.

The Honest Thief is based on (travel) anecdotes. Why? Are these stories used as metaphors, hidden messages or are they simply jokes? Perhaps they are all three!

We learn about life from stories, by telling our experiences, what we go through, what we see and hear and feel, smell, what we think, understand, imagine, dream, enjoy, detest, regret, love and take as the truth. Our emotions, values and beliefs, our being, our logic and the meaning of things are all shaped by stories. There is a story behind everything and everything is a story. All of life is based on stories. You cannot write a book without a story, you cannot get ideas across without a story. Every message comes wrapped in a story. Stories are like gifts: it is not the wrapping nor the size that counts, but the content. This is also true for the travel tales of the honest thief. Okay, but why travel stories? What has traveling got to do with it? Quite simply: everything. Achieving is about how to get there: about traveling; it is not about the starting point nor the destination, but about everything in between. Travel stories are also about the traveler, about the person who travels: you.

A good composer does not imitate, he steals. Igor Strawinsky

Many of my texts are based on management and in particular leadership. To me management is the art of achieving. The leader is the person who can inspire others to do just that. The leader therefore serves as a model for the cream of the crop among managers. The leader is not a theorist, but a pragmatist; he has the knowledge and skills to enable others to reach their goals. That is his talent.

Management is about succeeding, about getting things done, about accomplishment. To take a crack at this there is no need to wear a pinstripe suit nor a need to attend a management school. Every individual wrestles with the desire to achieve and everyone therefore is a manager in one way or another. That includes the mother who raises a baby, the soldier who defends his country, the surgeon who saves a patient's life, but also the chef who prepares a delicious meal.

Success is repeatable. Therefore it is not a question of coincidence. There is no denying that there are demonstrable reasons for success, for the way success is attained. This proves that it must be based some formula: if certain conditions are met, success will be the logical outcome. The success patterns for mothers, soldiers, surgeons and chefs are not likely to be identical. Yet with a bit of effort a few similarities can be found. The chef and the surgeon have to be good at handling knives and they both do their work standing up. At first glance, this appears to be all they have in common. In my view the parallel lies in their management capabilities. They both have things to manage and that requires certain skills.

Each individual lives and acts not only according to his own ideas, but also according to other people's. Ljev Tolstoj

Anyone who is successful one way or other has qualities that enable him or her to see things as they can be and not only as they are.

The Honest Thief is a book without beginning or end, without a plan or any other obvious checklist logic. It is a collection of stories, aphorisms, thoughts and beliefs. The texts are divided into chapters. Each chapter starts with an anecdote that sets the tone.

I wish you much reading pleasure and hope that you will also enjoy the rest of your journey!

In stating that the imitator is better than the imitated you imitate someone else. Niccolò Machiavelli