3 out of 4 stars
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If I Can Just Focus by Ubong “Yubi” Ekpo is a non-fiction book, which can likely be put into the sub-category of “self-help” or “motivation”. This book aims to help the reader better their life through a concise understanding of what they want, how to go about getting it, and how to stay on the path to success, despite all the distractions around us. He uses practical advice backed by real-life examples as well as a variety of powerful references to bring his points home.
Yubi takes the approach to this book that there are five keys, that he has found throughout his professional life, to maintaining/gaining sanity and achieving focus. He goes through these five keys in the different chapters of the book and has them embedded inside the word FOCUS: Find it, Own it, Channels of Focus, Unity and Openness to Change, and Systems and Habits. A chapter is dedicated to each of these five topics. In the “Find it” chapter, Yubi discusses how to figure out what you should be doing in life and how to determine in what fields you are likely to succeed. He argues that once you have found your niche, you are more likely to stay focused, motivated, and successful. In the “Own it” chapter, he discusses the importance of completely owning, taking responsibility for, and directing all aspects of your life. In the “Channels of Focus” chapter, he discusses how to set yourself and your environment up for success. In the final two chapters, he discusses how both change and systems affect our focus and how to turn them to our advantage.
I am not usually a reader of the motivational or self-help genre of literature, but I definitely found this one interesting. As I read the different chapters, I not only got the feeling that I could use some of what he was preaching in my own personal life, but also see how it would be applicable for managers and leaders of all sizes of groups/businesses. The book discusses both how to set up your own personal environment around your for concentrated focus and success, as well as how to set up an environment for your team/business/family that is conducive to success. I really liked that he formulated his chapters not only with his own philosophical perspectives and points of view, but also with concrete examples from his professional life, leaders in the field, and scientific studies. Some of the anecdotes that he added to the text really hit the nail on the head to finalize what he was trying to say. What I liked the most about this book was that it gets you thinking; after finishing the book I found myself concentrating on some of the suggestions made and on how I could better set up myself and my surroundings for success.
One of the issues I had reading this book was how the version I received was formatted. I chose to read the MOBI version offered and it was extremely erratic on my Kindle application on my phone/tablet and only marginally better on my Kindle e-reader. There were line spaces in the middle of sentences and the logical divisions in the chapters / sub-sections were not very clear. As well, the first several pages contained some sort of content, probably pictures, that only showed up as horizontal lines of varying length. I hope that this was just a situation with that file format, but it was very distracting while reading. What I liked the least about the book was, although full of very interesting information, how it came off as if the author was giving a course verbally to a classroom (which is what the author is used to doing). Whereas when listening to a talented speaker, vocalizing comments from a devil’s advocate would be a useful technique (e.g. “But Hey,” you might say, “Did you ever think about …”), in a book like this I found it distracting.
Since the book really made me begin a process of introspection and I did find many nuggets of useful information in this short book, I have no qualms giving If I Can Just Focus by Ubong Ekpo 3 out of 4 stars. Even though it made me think and maintained my interest, I don’t think that the concepts in the book were mind-altering. This, along with the formatting issues I encountered, lost this book its potential fourth star. As Yubi says himself in the book, this text is geared towards “helping seekers, leaders and teams alike” and I would tend to recommend this book to those individuals looking for some additional focus towards bettering their life. If you do not like to read motivational, self-help, or leadership type literature, this book will definitely not be for you.
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If I Can Just Focus
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