Review by Alec_Stamm -- Business Basics BootCamp

[Alec_Stamm]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Business Basics BootCamp" by Mitche Graf.]

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1 out of 4 stars

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There’s an old saying that, "a sucker is born every hour". Suckers aren’t born however, they’re made when they buy Mitche Graf’s Business Basics BootCamp. The fact of the matter is that this piece of work belongs in the fantasy section due to its dubious claims of magical solutions to all life's problems. Graf promotes the idea of a "24/7" work mentality, meaning he will help you get to a point in which you work only 24 hours a week, 7 months a year, enjoying all the benefits of a life of wealth and luxury. How will he make this happen? Cue crickets, followed by an unrelated anecdote of his idyllic family life. Rinse repeat, rinse repeat. He offers generic lessons which encompass virtually every aspect of business, including: marketing, management, customer relations, and much more. Like many snake oil salesmen who try to make a cheap buck off his well intentioned customers, Graf tries to lure the potential reader (and book purchaser) into a trap by using provocative and colorful language promising great things but fundamentally lacking any substance. When he isn't promising astronomical success in exchange for minimal work, he's reiterating extraordinarily basic life advice that you honestly shouldn’t need to read a book to understand. Some of the more redundant examples I found, "Write out a plan", "let the creative juices flow", and my personal favorite, "Don’t make up excuses... Just go and get it done". If you think i’m taking these out of context, I promise there’s not much context to even exclude.


He uses the tiresome fallacy of arguing from authority by parading his own -to his credit- long and varied resume in the business world. After reading the book in its entirety however, I can honestly say there is not that much of value held within its 258 pages. Don’t be mistaken, I am not biased against the genre of self-help or business books, but this one in particular is just fundamentally 85% fluff, with tidbits of common sense advice inserted at sporadic intervals. On a more positive note, the remaining 15% contains legitimate and useful advice, but in all honesty this piece of literature would be better suited to fit within either a long essay or a much shorter book. It doesn't help that many anecdotes and concepts are repeated unnecessarily and at awkward intervals. It's the literary equivalent of a Hallmark Christmas movie in a world of Citizen Kanes. If the prospective reader wants to learn something about business or self help, I suggest you look to the classics of the genre: Andrew Carnegie's, "How to Win Friends and Influence People", Jordan Peterson's, "12 Rules for Life", or Rory Sutherland's, "Alchemy". 


OK... content rant over, here are some more technical issues I found with the book. The writing style is very colloquial, which isn't unusual for this genre, however at least once every 10 pages or so I came across a sentence so grammatically confounded that I only understood what he meant through the context of the surrounding sentences. Additionally, I get that this is his style, but I found the sporadic ALL CAPS of the words he wanted to EMPHASIZE somewhat ANNOYING; italics or underlining would have given an added aura of professionalism one likes to see in a book about business. As far as his transitions go, they range from decent to nonexistent. Instead of connecting ideas in a coherent manner, he extensively relies on headlines, making for little to no logical flow or continuity (at times there will be a headline followed by only two or three sentences).


At times I wondered whether this was a book, or the product of an unfiltered branstorm of unrelated notes that has yet to be organized into a book. Furthermore, I was prepared to let one or two typos fly, but when I came across a lost "W'' all by its lonesome, I can say with relative confidence that this book has not been proofread by another human. Finally, Graf also declined to include sources for any of his statistics or claims, and while i'm sure he's a good guy, I don't trust that he didn’t misrepresent his evidence either through accident or duplicity. There were multiple moments where he made logical leaps from statistics to conclusions that I suspect lack any form of intellectual rigor if complete context were provided.


All in all, I don't like that I had to be so harsh on the book, but I have to think about my time in terms of opportunity cost. I rate this book 1 out of 4 stars. If the static of this book were cut out to reveal the most insightful anecdotes and advice in say, 150 or better yet 100 pages, I could see myself giving it a more favorable review, and save some time in the process that I could have used more productively. I'll close this review with what I believe is one of the book's best insights, "Of course, you can find hundreds of books on thousands of subjects pertaining to business at your local library or on the Internet. Many offer good information, many do not...only you can decide what information is beneficial, and what isn’t".

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Business Basics BootCamp
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[Yvonne Monique]

Wow, it's been a while since I've read such a harsh review! I have just started reading this book, so I'm curious to see if my opinion matches yours.