Unlocking Your Inner Zelensky: Lessons We Can All Learn from an Unexpected Leader

Kanzer’s book could perhaps be best described as blog posts collected together. While the author of Don’t Just Sit There, Do Nothing gives valuable life advice, she extrapolates it from the life and quotes of President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine (to whom she is loosely personally connected), and not always to great effect. The book’s tone frequently comes off as hero-worship, as though from a fan rather than from the perspective of a government leader, a historian, or a psychologist. Many times the examples from Zelensky seem shoehorned into the advice that Kanzer dispenses. The book does, however, help explain the current state of the war in Ukraine, along with background information from Kanzer’s and Zelensky’s families in the former Soviet Union, giving it something of a memoiristic feel. While at times amusing and encouraging, and worthwhile in small doses, the book as a whole is not terribly profound, and the gimmick wears thin.