Soundview June 10, 2008, 12:00AM EST

Free Agent Nation

Written by Daniel H. Pink. Published by Warner Business Books

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Author Daniel Pink starts Free Agent Nation by telling the story of his transition from speechwriter for the Vice President of the United States to independent businessperson. On one long, hot summer day in Washington, D.C., after a grueling day of hacking away at his computer for Al Gore, Pink writes that he found himself sitting in the lobby of the Vice Presidentís West Wing office, throwing up into a ceremonial bowl that had been a gift from the Queen of Denmark. He was overwhelmed by exhaustion in his career as a professional speechwriter on the White House payroll. Soon after, with a writing contract for the magazine Fast Company in his hand, he left his steady job to start his new life as a free agent.

While researching free agency and independent entrepreneurs, Pink discovered that very little had been written about the subjects. To fill the void, he set out to scour the country for insights and inroads into the micro-businesses, solo workers and independent professionals whose numbers continue to grow. For a year, Pink and his family traveled around the United States to learn about the work, lives, dreams, troubles and future of the free agents he met. In Free Agent Nation, he describes what he learned from these ìjob-hopping, tech-savvy, fulfillment-seeking, self-reliant, independentî workers.

Pink writes that more employees than ever are abandoning their old jobs and creating new ways to work as proprietors of home-based businesses, telecommuting freelancers, self-employed knowledge workers and independent contractors. They were fed up with bad bosses, toxic work environments and unfulfilled promises, so they ventured out on their own to start new lives and careers. The insights Pink gained from his travels fill Free Agent Nation with stories, inspiration and techniques that can help anyone make more sense of his or her own career path.

Free Agent Nation captures the shift in economic and social power from the organization to the individual. Providing a practical look at the larger implications of a new economy made up of more free agents, Pink examines the repercussions of the giant changes taking place in the U.S. workplace. The issues he addresses include health care, retirement, education, and the loyalty between businesses and their people.

While exploring how the concept of free agency became so prevalent, Pink writes that he found four essential ingredients that created the current phenomenon. First, he explains, is the crumbling of the old social contract between employers and their employees. Workers once gave their loyalty to companies in exchange for the security they offered. Since that security has dwindled, so has the loyalty. Second, the tools of wealth creation became much cheaper and easier to use. Third, long-term prosperity helped people move past making money to creating a meaningful life. And fourth, companies don't last as long as they once did. For example, Pink points out, it only took four years for Netscape to go from its glorious formation to its complete demise.

One metaphor Pink offers that can help anyone make better sense of managing a career in the 21st century is the "Lego career." Pink writes that careers are now characterized by a great variety of skills and experiences that can be assembled and reassembled "much as kids play with Legos." This kind of flexibility, Pink writes, will allow them to create "impermanent structures with infinite, idiosyncratic variations" with their customers, skills, desires and the opportunities offered by their new, enterprising ways to work.

Thanks to Pink's expert ability to sum up the new shape-shifting nature of work and life, Free Agent Nation provides a solid foundation on which anyone can begin to build a satisfying and exciting Lego castle of a career.

Review by Chris Lauer, senior editor, SEBS

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