Book Review: Deadly Viper Character Assassins

I had heard a lot about something called Deadly Viper out in the twitterverse and on several blogs. I even went to the website a few times. But I wasn't quite sure what they were getting at...

But something clicked with me about what these guys are doing and I went over to Amazon and ordered a copy of the small book.

The authors describe the book as

[A] self-defense course for protecting your most priceless possession: your character... [Deadly Viper] unmasks the identities of your opponents and equips you, your family, and your congregation with the leadership skills to beat them. If your integrity as a leader is flawless, here's how to keep it that way. If your character and reputation have taken a hit, here's a route to hope and redemption.

Deadly Viper Character Assassins will help you achieve a lifestyle of integrity and grace.

And that was what hooked me. Having held, and often screwed up, several leadership positions in the last 20 years, the curiousity of understanding what "assassins" were out there and the hope for redemption and grace were strong. So I began reading...

At first I thought I might have made a mistake and wandered into a running joke the two authors were having. There was plenty of kitschy "Kung Fu" references and stuff about being ninjas and the wisdom of Master Po (from an old, and good, TV show not the Kung Fu Panda). But after the first couple of pages, it made sense.

Foster and Wilhite were going deep with their martial arts metaphor. And it works. Your integrity and character are under assault all the time. There are the full frontal assaults that most leaders can see and deal with. The authors are more concerned here with the ninja-like assassins that use sleathy, guile, cunning, skill, and ruthlessness to score a kill on your character. So this little book is about identifying yoru enemies, knowing them and how they attack, and training yourself to fight, and defeat, these character killers.

I'll give you the quick list of the 7 character assassins but you will need to read the book for a deep understanding of your enemies and how best to fight them:

1. The Assassin of Character Creep - Character begins to die by a thousand small cuts that weaken you enough for the assassin to deliver the coup de grace...
   
2. The Assassin of Zi Qi Qi Ren - Zi Qi Qi Ren is a Chinese word that literally means "self-deception while deceiving others"...
   
3. The Assassin of Amped Emotions - In the moments of everyday life, he waits for you to blow your top, lose your cool, or go postal. Then he strikes...
   
4. The Assassin of the Headless Sprinting Chicken - If you are too busy and tired, you have little defense against the attacks...
   
5. The Assassin of Boom Chicka Wah Wah - Stupid decisions are made when thinking is done without the brain...
   
6. The Bling Bling Assassin - While you chase for "enough" this assassin can cut you down...
   
7. The High and Mighty Assassin - Over confidence and arrogance can do this assassin's job for him...
   

Each assassin gets a chapter that goes into detail about how they attack, what weaknesses they try to find or expose in your character, how to prepare for the attacks and how to recover if you have already been attacked. At the end of each chapter is a 2 page Q&A with a "master" in the assassin's area. Some of the masters include Duane Chapman (Dog the bounty hunter), Rabbi David Wolpe, Marcus Buckingham, and Joe Ritchie.

What really brings the book together and focuses the point are the first and last chapters of the book. These chapters do not deal directly with any of the assassins. Instead they deal with the real lives of the authors and the people that they know, interact with, work with, and share life with. Basically, they are showing why this is important by using themselves as examples. The last chapter also introduces an organization that caught my attention: People of the Second Chance.

1. People of the Second Chance are individuals who are fast to forgive. In a culture that believes in revenge and payback, we rebel with grace.

2. People of the Second Chance receive second chances in their own life. When we have experienced personal, professional, or relational failure, we refuse to be defined by our mistakes. We learn, we grow, and we have the courage to move on.

3. People of the Second Chance serve in places where people need second chances. We advocate for the vulnerable and fight for equality for the poor, the prisoner, and the voiceless.

These three values can be simply summed up by:

Give, Receive & Be the Second Chance.

It's the best way to fight the assasins...

If you are in a leadership position, have left a leadership position (voluntarily or otherwise), or think you will be a leader of people one day, go read this book.

(And, No, I didn't get this book free from anybody. I bought it myself. So there, FTC...)