Review by CaroloftheOldOnes -- How To Be Successful
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Review by CaroloftheOldOnes -- How To Be Successful
[Following is a volunteer review of "How To Be Successful" by M. Curtis McCoy.]
How To Be Successful: Think Like a Leader by M. Curtis McCoy.
Review by Carol Kewley (CaroloftheOldOnes).
3 out of 4 stars.
Following a terminal diagnosis which gave him 90 days to live, author M. Curtis McCoy decided to devote himself to finding out what makes a person successful. Although primarily focused on success in a business context, many of the lessons contained in this book can apply to other areas of life.
Synopsis
This motivational self-help book is divided into twenty-seven chapters. The chapters alternate between advice from the author for effective professional behaviour and interviews with successful people. Each chapter is devoted to either one topic or one interview.
There is a variety of different people interviewed for the book, including a Navy SEAL sniper, and the inventor of the MP3 player. A preacher, a telecommunications business woman and a musician are also present.
Family and friends of the author who are successful business people in their own right are also included as interview subjects, and in the first interview the author passes along his own insights.
The chapters on the author's advice about professional behaviour include many relevant subjects, such as: practicing delayed gratification, rewarding yourself, how the search for success can take years, building quality friendships and networking, teaching people how to treat you, and the role of talent, attitude and habits in success. There's also a chapter about taking pride in your personal appearance and how to turn down requests politely.
After a while several common themes emerge from the interviews, but this is for the reader to find out.
Review
Overall, I found this book to be enjoyable, interesting, and useful. At 160 pages it's a fairly quick read, and is written is an easy-to-follow style, although there is some variation in the writing styles used by each different interview subject.
There's no profanity in this book at all, but interestingly there is a chapter on whether or not to use profanity in a business setting! This gives the book some nice levity, although the question is handled seriously.
The book is very well edited. In fact, I only noticed two errors -- one grammatical error on page 139 ("letting me lay around" should be "letting me lie around") and a typo on page 183 (be"normal" needs a space).
The interviewees mostly come from American Christian backgrounds. Perhaps some more diversity would have been appreciated, but I realise that it depended on who accepted the interview requests. But overall, some very solid, interesting viewpoints.
The other small problem with this book is that the font is little hard to read, if the reader is using a small screen such as a mobile phone.
I liked the fact that the life stories in the book included some struggle and adversity, which the interview subjects needed to overcome in order to achieve their definition of success. This makes the book much more relatable. The book strikes a nice balance between positivity and realism.
I think this book would be enjoyed most by readers who are interested in how to achieve success in their own lives, and readers who are also interested in the lives of successful people.
How To Be Successful: Think Like A Leader by M. Curtis McCoy.
3 out of 4 stars.
******
How To Be Successful
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
How To Be Successful: Think Like a Leader by M. Curtis McCoy.
Review by Carol Kewley (CaroloftheOldOnes).
3 out of 4 stars.
Following a terminal diagnosis which gave him 90 days to live, author M. Curtis McCoy decided to devote himself to finding out what makes a person successful. Although primarily focused on success in a business context, many of the lessons contained in this book can apply to other areas of life.
Synopsis
This motivational self-help book is divided into twenty-seven chapters. The chapters alternate between advice from the author for effective professional behaviour and interviews with successful people. Each chapter is devoted to either one topic or one interview.
There is a variety of different people interviewed for the book, including a Navy SEAL sniper, and the inventor of the MP3 player. A preacher, a telecommunications business woman and a musician are also present.
Family and friends of the author who are successful business people in their own right are also included as interview subjects, and in the first interview the author passes along his own insights.
The chapters on the author's advice about professional behaviour include many relevant subjects, such as: practicing delayed gratification, rewarding yourself, how the search for success can take years, building quality friendships and networking, teaching people how to treat you, and the role of talent, attitude and habits in success. There's also a chapter about taking pride in your personal appearance and how to turn down requests politely.
After a while several common themes emerge from the interviews, but this is for the reader to find out.
Review
Overall, I found this book to be enjoyable, interesting, and useful. At 160 pages it's a fairly quick read, and is written is an easy-to-follow style, although there is some variation in the writing styles used by each different interview subject.
There's no profanity in this book at all, but interestingly there is a chapter on whether or not to use profanity in a business setting! This gives the book some nice levity, although the question is handled seriously.
The book is very well edited. In fact, I only noticed two errors -- one grammatical error on page 139 ("letting me lay around" should be "letting me lie around") and a typo on page 183 (be"normal" needs a space).
The interviewees mostly come from American Christian backgrounds. Perhaps some more diversity would have been appreciated, but I realise that it depended on who accepted the interview requests. But overall, some very solid, interesting viewpoints.
The other small problem with this book is that the font is little hard to read, if the reader is using a small screen such as a mobile phone.
I liked the fact that the life stories in the book included some struggle and adversity, which the interview subjects needed to overcome in order to achieve their definition of success. This makes the book much more relatable. The book strikes a nice balance between positivity and realism.
I think this book would be enjoyed most by readers who are interested in how to achieve success in their own lives, and readers who are also interested in the lives of successful people.
How To Be Successful: Think Like A Leader by M. Curtis McCoy.
3 out of 4 stars.
******
How To Be Successful
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
