Notwithstanding this, here are some of the lessons that I have learned from Malcolm X’s autobiography on a career. The messages that come through from the authors’ experience are personal to the reader, as we examine the lives of others through the optics of our own lived experiences.

I am sure if you explore his book you will find more – this is part of the joy of reading autobiographies. This is not an exhaustive list but simply the lessons that jumped out to me after reading his book. There are a few key lessons that I feel that anyone can take away from the autobiography. It is the lessons of his ‘career’ that I intend to be our focus here, not his politics. I am separating the lessons that I have taken from his life/career from the politics of his world view. This book review is not intended to discuss his politics or the morality of his arguments. This post is not designed to be polemic or to advocate for or dismiss his views. For the purposes of this review we will take the Nation of Islam as his ‘employer’ as he eventually worked for the organisation.īefore we embark on this reading review, I think it is necessary to note that I appreciate how polarising a figure Malcolm X may be to some. Thankfully, that is not the purpose of his book review. Reading his autobiography made me reflect on the lessons of his life and naturally, being in my line of profession, I wanted to take some of the lessons of his ‘career’ to see if there are any principles that can adopted. Malcolm X was a complicated man with an equally complicated life and I will not do his full life justice in this post. A far cry with from his ‘hustler days’ which led to his incarceration.

We then travel the literary journey to see the evolution of Malcolm Little to Malcolm X, after a custodial sentence, to the public figure that we know of him – an eloquent, educated and spiritual man often invited to some of the leading educational establishments to give academic lectures. It’s inception describes a complicated and very troubled start in life (not least because of the murder of his father, his mother’s battles with her mental health and his time spent in a broken childcare system) to an equally worrying and troubled adolescent – mired in a world of criminality. The book journey’s the life of Malcolm X. This book has made an indelible impression on me for many reasons which I will explore. I wanted to kick off our book reading with The Autobiography of Malcolm X. What Malcolm X can teach us about a career - The Autobiography of Malcom X

Tim winton cloud street