Review: Drink Water Mind Your Business by Andrew Stuart

Author Andrew Stuart has created an instructive self-help manual for entrepreneurs, who may in fact be any of us, as we all strive for personal success and satisfaction, in Drink Water Mind Your Business: A Simple Way to Focus and Get Started.

Stuart begins his guidebook by examining the Caribbean island of Dominica, named “Isle of Beauty” by its time-honored national anthem. Significantly, Stuart quotes that anthem, with an emphasis on these words:

Rivers, valleys, hills and mountains
All these gifts we do extol,
Healthy lands so like all fountains,
Giving cheer that warms the soul.

In this passage, there is the mention of water – a potent motif throughout. Remarkably, the beloved vacation spot, Dominica, contains the second largest hot lake in the world, and 365 rivers – thus it provides a metaphor for the beauty that life can offer. Drinking water each day helps maintain the body’s internal system, and it is essential to preserve human life, while drinking it can help us focus on positive moments. Moments, Stuart asserts, differ from the 24-hour rounds we all experience. Remembering positive moments can lift us out of time and foster a sense of optimism.

Effective entrepreneurs, Stuart postulates, are optimistic people who control their responses to difficult situations, and remain calm even when they fail. They define themselves by concentrating on what they have and using “the negativity of others” to light their fires of intention. As such, Stuart has devised the Sweet Water Thesis, stating all adults who can make their own decisions are in fact entrepreneurs. If we focus on what we know we can change, drinking water for health and minding our business for calm consideration of our individual situations, we can achieve our goals in the business of life. We must overcome the limitations laid on us in childhood, understand the forces of love in our lives, to ultimately conquer our self-defeating fear of success.

Stuart used the barriers of the 2020 Covid restrictions as an opportunity to create this new work. With this guide, he has constructed a genuinely dynamic framework, organized in a way that catches the reader’s attention – and curiosity – immediately. The main metaphor is unique in the world of business self-help – normally a venture that can be more about fighting and clawing your way to the top. By utilizing this softer approach, it actually makes goals seem more attainable than one which emphasizes the importance of aggression in the dog-eat-dog world of competitive business, which can be daunting and offputting. “Going with the flow” is not so much about giving in as being strong when things start going in an unanticipated direction.

Stuart uses many examples to prove his thesis, drawing especially from Ted Talks, and from the odd but engaging saga of One Man Punch, a web sensation that started as a simple comic series that went viral and skyrocketed on the web. He also provides accessible, sensible rules for his readers such as his guidelines for “the entrepreneurial approach” – recognize the opportunity, conceptualize, plan, and launch – that are straightforward to implement, so the book has actionable information, rather than providing mere inspirational quotes, which is often a fallback in this genre.

What Stuart offers here, in concise but informative text, cleverly melds classic self-help concepts for older readers and short bursts of instruction to young minds able to grasp information at internet speed. All in all, this lively book merits a serious look by anyone setting up a business or seeking wisdom in the business of life.