Review by Stephanie O 2 -- How To Be Successful
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Stephanie O 2
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- Latest Review: How To Be Successful by M. Curtis McCoy
Review by Stephanie O 2 -- How To Be Successful
[Following is a volunteer review of "How To Be Successful" by M. Curtis McCoy.]
How To Be Successful by M. Curtis McCoy is a self-help book about success and some of its components. The author highlights certain key factors of success, such as relationships, faith-based values, resilience, and more. The author himself is successful, having started his own nationwide company: Best Cellular. With multiple chapters of interviews with managers, musicians, sportsmen, and even a navy SEAL, this book covers many aspects of being successful. McCoy uses his experiences and stories he heard to teach certain lessons and argue his opinions.
This book is easy to read and understand. All of the chapters flow easily and each topic is interconnected. Not only does the author use some research to back up his ideas, but he uses experiences and stories. In the chapter about making others feel appreciated, the author shares his own salesperson/customer experience. He remembers a time where one rude conversation in an otherwise friendly coffee shop resulted in that shop losing customers. These stories were interesting. They provided a backbone to the whole book.
However, the content in How To Be Successful was often repetitive. The fact that each interviewee was asked the same questions is partially to blame, as they came up with similar answers. The latter is perhaps due to the questions being too generic. For example, when asked what character traits people most value in others, the majority of answers were either honesty or loyalty. I believe making this point once is enough. Asking different interviewees more personalized questions, based specifically on their success and lives, would have brought deeper insight and more variety. As well as that, due to the sheer amount of interviews, the author's voice often gets lost. The author takes a back seat and becomes a side character. With that, his story takes a sideline, which defeats the purpose of this book. As stated earlier, an enjoyable aspect of this book was the stories the author shared. I believe that the author could use more stories, backing up his concepts of success. Hence, the book is quite generic, without details from the stories and the possible journey to success. Questions about what the author actually did to become successful were often left unanswered. The author mentions living in the back of a store and his decision to start a company, but the book shares nothing about the actual process of building his business. This book is riddled with cliches that get tiresome. Cliches such as: never give up, there’s gonna be brighter skies, etc. are the ones being used. I believe removing these cliches and replacing them with thoughtful insight would highly improve the writing.
I give this book 1 out of 4 stars. I believe that this book needs editing (cutting down on cliches and repetitive answers, and diversifying his interviews). As well as that, the author should maybe add a few chapters just about his business: Best Cellular. Poor interview structure, too many cliches, and repetitive statements led me to the conclusion that this book requires a major revision. In its genre, this book does not stand out. It is neither based on professionally conducted qualitative research nor is it narrated through the author’s unique experiences. The title of this book is ill-fitting as the book shares virtually nothing about the “how” of becoming successful, rather it loosely covers the idea of success.
The Bible is largely cited in this book and the author bases many of his recommendations on faith-based values. Hence, the audience for this book is by default narrowed to those whose interest in self-help is guided by spirituality and its related values.
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How To Be Successful
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
How To Be Successful by M. Curtis McCoy is a self-help book about success and some of its components. The author highlights certain key factors of success, such as relationships, faith-based values, resilience, and more. The author himself is successful, having started his own nationwide company: Best Cellular. With multiple chapters of interviews with managers, musicians, sportsmen, and even a navy SEAL, this book covers many aspects of being successful. McCoy uses his experiences and stories he heard to teach certain lessons and argue his opinions.
This book is easy to read and understand. All of the chapters flow easily and each topic is interconnected. Not only does the author use some research to back up his ideas, but he uses experiences and stories. In the chapter about making others feel appreciated, the author shares his own salesperson/customer experience. He remembers a time where one rude conversation in an otherwise friendly coffee shop resulted in that shop losing customers. These stories were interesting. They provided a backbone to the whole book.
However, the content in How To Be Successful was often repetitive. The fact that each interviewee was asked the same questions is partially to blame, as they came up with similar answers. The latter is perhaps due to the questions being too generic. For example, when asked what character traits people most value in others, the majority of answers were either honesty or loyalty. I believe making this point once is enough. Asking different interviewees more personalized questions, based specifically on their success and lives, would have brought deeper insight and more variety. As well as that, due to the sheer amount of interviews, the author's voice often gets lost. The author takes a back seat and becomes a side character. With that, his story takes a sideline, which defeats the purpose of this book. As stated earlier, an enjoyable aspect of this book was the stories the author shared. I believe that the author could use more stories, backing up his concepts of success. Hence, the book is quite generic, without details from the stories and the possible journey to success. Questions about what the author actually did to become successful were often left unanswered. The author mentions living in the back of a store and his decision to start a company, but the book shares nothing about the actual process of building his business. This book is riddled with cliches that get tiresome. Cliches such as: never give up, there’s gonna be brighter skies, etc. are the ones being used. I believe removing these cliches and replacing them with thoughtful insight would highly improve the writing.
I give this book 1 out of 4 stars. I believe that this book needs editing (cutting down on cliches and repetitive answers, and diversifying his interviews). As well as that, the author should maybe add a few chapters just about his business: Best Cellular. Poor interview structure, too many cliches, and repetitive statements led me to the conclusion that this book requires a major revision. In its genre, this book does not stand out. It is neither based on professionally conducted qualitative research nor is it narrated through the author’s unique experiences. The title of this book is ill-fitting as the book shares virtually nothing about the “how” of becoming successful, rather it loosely covers the idea of success.
The Bible is largely cited in this book and the author bases many of his recommendations on faith-based values. Hence, the audience for this book is by default narrowed to those whose interest in self-help is guided by spirituality and its related values.
******
How To Be Successful
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: How To Be Successful by M. Curtis McCoy
