The Chutzpah Advantage: Go Bigger. Be Bolder. Do Better.

By Mason Harris

How would you describe chutzpah? Does it include persuasion? Leadership? Perseverance? Risk? Reward? Intestinal fortitude?

There is a skillset, a set of behaviors and characteristics fundamental to business, team, and personal success.

This skillset is called "chutzpah," and it will give you a decided advantage when used for constructive purposes.

Simply put, that is the purpose of this book, The Chutzpah Advantage.

Could chutzpah be your undeveloped hidden talent, your below-the-surface superpower? It is for many people from all walks of life! Cab drivers who deliver passengers to hospitals during COVID. Successful people whose lives changed when they stopped listening to others - even paid experts - and chose a different path. Medical researchers who defy established doctrine and scientifically demonstrate new treatment protocols, only to continue fighting an uphill battle. Authors and artists who turn every "no" into a steadfast resolve to continue knocking on different doors. And, of course, people and companies whose bold vision, ideas, and implementation lead to stratospheric success.

In The Chutzpah Advantage, Mason Harris guides you through eight key chutzpah characteristics and shows you how to apply them to live a bigger, bolder, and better life. Blending specific behaviors with existing personality traits, chutzpah is a path for superior results at home, work, teams, and companies. Filled with real-life examples, humorous anecdotes, and practical applications, this book will entertain and inspire.

And a promise from one contributor: "This book will pay for itself, if you sell it to one of your friends."

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Apr 14, 2021
• ISBN: 9781952233593

Book preview

PART I

Why Chutzpah Matters

1

YOU CAN’T DEFINE IT, BUT YOU KNOW IT WHEN YOU SEE IT

MARILYN SOKOL, PERFORMING in an off-Broadway revue, shared this classic joke:

Mrs. Shapinsky takes her eight-year-old grandson to the beach. A giant wave comes crashing in and sweeps the little boy out to sea. She looks up at the heavens. God, she says, please. He’s my only grandson. I love him more than life itself. Please, bring him back to me. She looks up. Suddenly, the waters part. A ray of light shines from the sky. She sees a golden dolphin heading toward the shore with little Sammy on his back. The dolphin gently places Sammy on the beach, then swims away toward a beautiful rainbow. Mrs. Shapinsky looks at her grandson, around the beach, up to God: He had a hat.

Chutzpah. The unknown jokester who first wrote the preceding jest understands human behavior and chutzpah.

Who pleads with God in prayer, has their prayer answered, and then is dismissive and rude afterward? Someone with chutzpah, the not-so-good kind.

What is chutzpah, and who else has it? Most people I know are familiar with the word or concept of chutzpah. However, that is understandable as I have lived most of my life on the East Coast, from Maryland to New York. It seems to me that chutzpah is as commonplace as people letting the door slam in the face of the person behind them.

I have found that chutzpah is understood worldwide, even if words other than chutzpah describe a specific act or personality characteristic.

Familiarity with chutzpah occurs regardless of your race, religion, or appreciation for the local deli.

And if you’re in Israel or other Middle Eastern countries, you’re probably stressing the pah in chutzpah, while I stress the chutz.

However, what is important is that almost everyone I’ve met, regardless of how we might pronounce chutzpah, has a sense of its meaning.

I was in Oklahoma for a presentation to salespeople in the food industry. As I frequently do, I started my presentation with a question to involve the audience and elicit their participation.

I asked, What is chutzpah? and I held my breath.

I wasn’t sure if a single hand would go up. Had I been in New York speaking to a similar group, I would’ve expected 80 percent of the hands to go up and 20 percent of the people to simply shout out their answers at me. Possibly, a few fights would break out as well.

Well, numerous hands went up. I called on each person and heard their definitions.

One of the definitions I had not heard previously reflected the central US’s geography and common language. I’ll share this with you in a moment.

Defining Chutzpah

Let’s start with some of the many descriptions of chutzpah I have heard all over the country. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, illustrative stories—we’re all over the place.

Bold. Rude. Arrogant. Gutsy. Gritty. Courageous. Selfish. Ballsy (this was from a successful female CEO at a conference in Washington, DC). Disruptive. Innovative. Intestinal fortitude. Fearless. Audacious. Passionate. Gall. Nerve. Confidence. Shocking. Effrontery. Charisma. Persistence. Brazen. Reckless. Insolence. Purposeful. Resourceful. Undignified. Impudent. Egotistical. Moxie.

I could go on, but I’d like you to continue reading this chapter. Oh, and the guy in Oklahoma I mentioned? He said, Gumption. I love this word.

It’s Just A Word. Define It, Already!

It’s not possible to provide a quick and straightforward definition. Chutzpah has multiple characteristics, different layers, and is far from objective; we’ll explore definitions throughout the book.

I might perceive an action by someone else as bold and daring, two frequently used words to describe chutzpah. And you may regard the same story as rude and arrogant, terms that are also commonly used to define chutzpah.

Even more interesting, although we may not agree on the constructive or destructive (good or bad) attributes or intentions of someone’s act of chutzpah, we might still agree that it is chutzpah.

How about this: You have chutzpah. Maybe a lot, perhaps a little. Can you think of anyone who embodies chutzpah? Someone whose picture would show up in the dictionary under chutzpah?

On a scale of 1 to 100, where 100 is that other person, what number would you give yourself?

If you lean toward the negative descriptions of chutzpah and see yourself as a considerate person, your score will be lower. If chutzpah is mostly positive in your mind, you might lean toward a higher score.

Of course, if you’re an exceptionally humble person, you might give yourself a lower score because that’s your personality. And yet, humble people are frequently admired for overcoming significant obstacles, even though chutzpah was a large part of their success.

A Supreme Court Justice And The Best Seven-Layer Dip

A good definition is necessary to understand our tendency for chutzpah and its characteristics to help us be more effective and successful in life.

The respected business consultant and author Peter Drucker has been attributed with saying, If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.¹

For example, we can’t manage and direct increased productivity if we haven’t identified where we are and set objective measurements for where we want to be.

We share this problem in trying to understand chutzpah.

As we struggle with a definition, please allow me to quote former United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart. In 1964, Justice Stewart famously stated that although he may not be able to define it precisely, I know it when I see it. (Technically, he wasn’t speaking about chutzpah but on a matter related to obscenity and pornography. That notwithstanding, work with me here.)

So, here is an excellent analogy (my daughter helped me with this) to define chutzpah. She listened carefully and then said my definition reminded her of a seven-layer dip.

Google seven-layer dip, and you will helpfully be provided with roughly 73,300,000 links. Not wanting to be overburdened with research for this analogy, I changed my search to recipe for Mexican seven-layer dip.

My extra effort was rewarded because I now had a more reasonable 3,990,000 results to explore.

It seems like a lot of people have their own proven recipes for this party favorite. And they’re all right about the final product, even as their recipes, mainly the ingredients and their portions, differ.

Fundamentally, key ingredients exist in the great majority of these dip recipes. Some may call for onions; others prefer black olives. Shredded Monterey Jack cheese and cheddar both have their passionate followers.

Chutzpah is like this dip. We may like one version over another. Some ingredients are favored by one chef and avoided by others. And a particular layer, like guacamole, has its own components and associated recipes.

As we’ll see, multiple ingredients are the characteristics, and personal likes and dislikes are perception and bias.

Some Of My Favorite Definitions And Stories

Chutzpah is that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court as an orphan.

—LEO ROSTEN

Hutzpah is calling up tech support to report a bug on pirated software.

—GUY KAWASAKI

These definitions incorporate an element, humor, that is frequently part of chutzpah. It also introduces a different spelling—hutzpah— of the word chutzpah used in this book.

These examples both focus on chutzpah in the negative. Yet productive or constructive chutzpah is very much recognized and admired.

Adding to the confusion is a belief by some that talent is associated with chutzpah. As we’ll see, many talented people do have chutzpah. But equally gifted people do not, and we don’t hear about