Book Review

At the beginning of this book, the author says, “We’re often pitted against one another to compete for scraps, which has us competing against the very people we should be building coalition and solidarity with.” The theme of solidarity runs throughout the book, which is central to the idea of “uncompeting”.

I’ve been following Ruchika T. Malhotra online for a few years, and I am subscribed to her newsletter, although I have not (yet) read her book “Inclusion on Purpose”. I have, however, read her article that she wrote with Jodie-Ann Burey, “Stop Telling Women They Have Imposter Syndrome” several times. Her writing empowers people, especially women, to be their best selves, whatever that might look like for us.

The book covers 8 practices of uncompeting. I connected with the idea of operating with an abundance mindset versus a scarcity mindset. There is enough of everything to go around if we can open our minds to see it. It does not have to be “winner takes all”.

I really liked Malhotra’s description of karma. Additionally, one of the important takeaways for me was we do not have to conform to one particular metric to be defined as successful. As Ruchika says, “We say competition is about standing out, but really, it’s about who conforms the best to standards that are leveled against so many in the first place.”

The book took me a little longer than I usually take for nonfiction books, but that’s because I had to stop and absorb before reading further. I think that the concepts I’ve learned from this book will sit with me over time.